Queer
Places:
5 Elm Rd, Winchester SO22 5ER, UK
60 Cambridge Terrace, London NW1 4JL, UK
Norah Desmond Hackett (1886–1940) had joined the Women's Emergency Corps
(WEC) probably in early 1915. She served in Compiègne as the "Diréctrice" of
the local Canteen for Soldiers until sometime in 1917 when there seems to have
been a major administrative reorganisation. Earlier in the war, the five staff
members of the WEC canteen in Compiègne, as a group, were awarded the Croix de
Guerre, which, as the then Diréctrice, Hackett had been choosen to receive and
wear. The award is mentioned in a reference from The British Journal of
Nursing 1916 but unfortunately describes no date.
In London, Toupie Lowther and
Norah Desmond Hackett, from Liverpool, assembled a number of cars to serve as
ambulances. These were donated by a Miss Mary Dexter, the Misses Hancock, and
a Miss Rachel Ripton. among others. They then collected a multinational team
of women drivers via newspaper advertisements. From Britain there was Miss
Francis Demisthorpe, Miss K. Hodges, Miss
Enid Elliot,
Miss B. Sterling. Miss Murphy, Miss G. Stuart Richardson. Miss Gartland, Miss
Plimsoll, Miss Chappel Hodge, Miss C. Meade, Mrs A. Cox, Mrs Hanna, Miss G.
Bailey, Miss Salvage, Case de Bellenoche, Miss Rachel Ripton and Miss Harvey.
From Ireland there was the Hon.
Eileen Plunket, from France there was Mlle de Montgeen, and from America
there was Miss M. Dexter, Miss Moore, Miss Fitch, Miss Clarfts, Miss Smith,
Miss Reid, and Miss Hawthorne.
Accounts suggest that several members of the unit had relationships with other women. It is believed that this ambulance unit, and in particular the experiences of Toupie Lowther, inspired
Radcylffe Hall to write her lesbian novel 'The Well of Loneliness'.
Norah Desmond Hackett never married. In the 1920s she was living at 5, Elm-road, Winchester, and carrying on business
at 36, Upper Baker-street, in
the county of London. Previously she had lived at 60, Cambridge terrace, in the county of London.
5 Elm Rd, Winchester
My published books:
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- Toupie Lowther: Her life
Val Brown
Troubador Publishing Ltd, Sep 26, 2017
- Britannia's Glory: A History of Twentieth Century Lesbians
Emily Hamer
Bloomsbury Publishing, Oct 6, 2016