Mrs Duberly's War: Journal and Letters from the Crimea, 1854-6

"It’s the letters home and journal of one lady, Fanny Duberly, who was a glorified tourist, really. She went out as the wife of a regimental paymaster and used to ride around on her horse in a sky blue riding habit and gold jewellery, honey blonde hair, being admired. This was while this awful conflict was going on. There were other women like her, soldiers’ wives who were out there, as well as nurses. It was not a completely male environment, even though it was a theatre of war. That’s something that Fanny Duberly brings out because she offers rather catty and bitchy comments about other women who were there with her. It’s important to realise the social history of military history. Reading women’s accounts, whether they’re Mary Seacole’s or Florence Nightingale’s or Fanny Duberly’s, gives us an idea of what was going on behind the scenes. Yes, I think she is. Even though she may be disingenuous about it she was, I’m sure, writing for a wider audience. Mary very consciously wrote for publication as well. Fanny Duberly’s letters home and journal were published even sooner than Mary’s account—they were in print before Fanny herself got back from the Crimea. Fanny was a self-publicist, but then so was Mary. It was fashionable to write an account of an adventure, so why wouldn’t they both do it? She gives a sense that people are enjoying her presence. If you read accounts by soldiers who were there, the ladies were fine if they were well in the background. That’s why Mary Seacole got quite a lot of flak afterwards from people who weren’t actually there, because they said that she must have been distracting and interfering, getting in the way of the British Army. In fact, on the ground, they were so grateful to have her because she was going out and treating soldiers on the battlefield, under fire, with skill, and with love, and with cake and sherry."