After her mother died in 1909, the teenage girl was adopted by a wealthy and respectable Christian family.
She fled to a forest and spent the night sleeping on a haystack.
I’ll see what an ordinary English girl, without credentials or money can accomplish, she thought.
Back in Paris, Dorothy met two British soldiers and coaxed them to smuggle her with a khaki uniform.
Dorothy used bandages to flatten her bosom and cotton-wool to bulk out her shoulders.
She also asked her soldier friends to teach her how to drill, march and shoot.
Dorothy Lawrence disguised as a soldier.
With her disguise perfected, Dorothy set out for the British sector of the Somme by bicycle.
Dunn found her an abandoned cottage in the forest to sleep in.
Dorothy was at once arrested on the suspicion of being a spy and thoroughly interrogated.
After spending several days as a prisoner of war, Dorothy was released.
Fearing that she might release sensitive information, a judge forbid her from selling her story to a newspaper.
The War Office censored her book and it did not sold too well.
It was later revealed that Dorothy was raped by her foster father as a teenager.
The letter mentioned a young woman who dressed in men’s clothing in hopes of becoming a war correspondent.
Kirke’s details pointed unequivocally towards Dorothy Lawrence.
Her story is now part of an exhibition at the Imperial War Museum on women at war.
