Talk:Elspeth Green

Military Medal

@Andrew Davidson: G'day, Andrew, interesting article -- thanks for your work on it. A quick query, though, does the cited source explicitly state that Henderson/Green was the first woman to receive the MM? If so, I think the source is incorrect. There were quite a few women who received the Military Medal much earlier, during World War I, in fact. For instance, Dorothie Feilding, Phoebe Chapple, and Violetta Thurstan (as a few examples). I would suggest potentially that Henderson may have been one of the first women to receive the medal during World War II, but not the first overall. Is there a way to clarify this in the article? Regards, AustralianRupert (talk) 04:20, 18 December 2021 (UTC)

This source from the Australian War Memorial, discusses how the award was extended to women in June 1916: [1]. It also lists the eight Australian nurses who received the MM for their actions during World War I. According to this source (although possibly not an RS), there were around 54 to 55 British nurses who received the MM during World War I: [2]. Regards, AustralianRupert (talk) 04:40, 18 December 2021 (UTC)

• @AustralianRupert: The Biggin Hill museum says "In March 1941 she went with the other two WAAFs to Buckingham Palace to receive her medal. Unfortunately, there was public criticism for the award of what was perceived as a man’s medal, to women. Yet there also much pride at RAF Biggin Hill, as they were the first three women in Britain to receive this honour." But, as you say, this claim doesn't stand up without a lot more qualification as Lady Dorothie Feilding was clearly the first overall, as confirmed by The Gazette. I have amended the article accordingly.

The article was started at a Women in Red event and I now plan to take it to DYK. Claims of firsts are often problematic at DYK as they sometimes don't stand up, as in this case. Trust, but verify!

Andrew🐉(talk) 10:48, 18 December 2021 (UTC)

G'day, Andrew, no worries -- your solution is probably the best one. Thank you for following this up; good luck with taking the article further. Interestingly enough, I had read about Mortimer before (in books about the Battle of Britain), but not the other two ladies (Henderson and Turner). All the best. Cheers, AustralianRupert (talk) 02:49, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Theleekycauldron (talk) 07:52, 26 December 2021 (UTC)

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• Comment or view
• Article history

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• ... that Elspeth Henderson stayed on the line despite a direct hit by a Luftwaffe bomb? Source: RAF heroine...
  • Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Chninkel
  • Comment: Created at a WiR event, she is now doubly a Woman in Blue.

Created by Andrew Davidson (talk). Self-nominated at 14:31, 20 December 2021 (UTC).

Length and history verified. Reference accepted on good faith. Daniel Case (talk) 19:18, 22 December 2021 (UTC)

To T:DYK/P5