PHOEBE HESSEL

 


Phoebe Hessel was a woman soldier in the British Army from 1728 to 1745 for 17 years disguising herself as a man. Phoebe Hessel was born as Phoebe Smith on 13.4.1713 in Stepney near London. Her soldier father took her, as a child, with him. Enlisted her in the 5th Foot Regiment to serve alongside her lover Samuel Golding. Both of them served in the West Indies and Gibraltar. They were wounded in the Fontenoy Battle in 1745. Hessel's sex was revealed when she was undressed for treatment. Through the wife of the Regiment's Colonel, she was pardoned. Both the lovers were discharged and married. After the death of Golding Phoebe married Thomas Hessel a fisherman. Prince Regent in 1808 granted her a pension of half a guinea, then British currency containing a quarter ounce of gold. Phoebe died at 108 on 12.12.1821 in Brighton near London.

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