Sapper Dorothy Lawrence, the Only English Woman Soldier. (Lane. 58.
net.)—In the old days it was not uncommon for a woman to enlist as a sailor or soldier. One woman, as a corre- spondent recently reminded us, rose to a high position in the Army Medical Service. Nowadays it would seem impossible for a woman to enter the British Army. Yet Miss Lawrence, the young journalist who has written this curious narrative, says that she contrived to roach the British front at Albert in 1915, and to serve for a week or more in the 179th Tunnelling Company, R.E., attached to the 51st Division. The story of her mad escapade is related in circumstantial detail ; the sapper who helped her attests her veracity in a prefatory letter. Probably the military authorities who arrested her and, after repeated cross-examinations, detained her for some weeks in a convent were less angry than grateful. She had shown them how German spies might penetrate into the British lines, through the care- lessness of the French local officials in issuing passes to the military zone. She was, of course, helped by a number of privates who saw only the humorous side of her adventure. They were . all most chivalrous when they understood that it was a girlish freak.
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