Women of the Legion of Honour

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 424, 4 August 1928, Page 26

Women of the Legion of Honour

■I EW honours are coveted like that attached to wearing the Cross ot the Legion of Honour. | The change in the times , is perhaps marked in one respect, and that is the number of women who now wear j the decoration. Before the war some j of the most violent social battles were fought over the question whether the 1 award should go to women who had I achieved distinction in the arts. Mme. Sarah Bernhardt’s name was proposed more than once, but Sarah was a revoltee from the Comedie Francaise, and the Government could not brook such flouting. Napoleon, it appears, did not have women much in mind when he created the honour that is now worn by many women as well as men, both inside and outside of France. The war changed that, as many other social habits, and France has been generous in bestowing her appreciative marks upon those associated with her in the struggle. In a book recently published, called “Napoleon’s Legion,” by W. Francklyn, Paris, there is an interesting chapter on woman’s old and new relation to the Legion. It will be seen that most women in early days who claimed the honour figured in the field of art and letters: Women’s Place “Napoleon’s idea of women was that which prevailed in the 18th cen- ; tury and before, and we have shown by his recommendations when mapping out the educational programme ' for the school at Ecouen that he shared Euripides’s opinion that ‘women ! should be good for everything at • home: but abroad, good for nothing.’ The talented Madame de Genlis in ; 1808 petitioned the Emperor, claim- ■ ing the Legion of Honour for herself, i Madame de Noel, Fannie de Beauharnais, Madame Campan, Madame Lebrun, Madame Dawter, Madame Lescat, and Mademoiselle Germain; but ' Napoleon repeated the appeal. Madame de Stael, after intriguing against him, sought his favour, hut was similarly repulsed. He had the opinion, shared by most men in his day, that the fields of science, art, letters, and politics were reserved exclusively for men, and he would have said with Samuel Johnson: ‘A woman preaching is like a dog’s walking on his hind legs. It is not done well, but you are surprised to find it done at all.’ “During the Direetoire, Napoleon, in his capacity of General-in-Chief of the Army in Italy, gave official recognition to the bravery of two women, campfollowers of the Army, and known as vivandieres, which means retailers of various food extras, particularly liquor —a sort of unofficial commissariat. One of these women was attached to each regiment. In 1797, Marie Royer, vivandiere of the 51st Brigade, received a gold chain, to which was attached a small medal, for having saved from drowning a wounded soldier who was trying to swim the River Piave. The same kind of chain was awarded to ‘Mother’ Sarazin, the vivandiere of the 57th Regiment, but the records do not show what feat of heroism brought her this decoration from Napoleon. In Men’s Clothing “There is also a legend, according to which a number of women fighting in Napoleonic armies in men’s clothes gained the Legion of Honour under a masculine appellation. In “Chronicles of French Bravery,” published by Mongerie in 1812, we read that in 1806 Virginie Chesquire substituted herself for her brother, who had been conscripted into the 27th Regiment of

musk from the animals themselves. This is secreted in sacs under the skin, in front of the forelegs. In skinning, this is squeezed out and preserved. Mixed with oil of anine, it is always a successful bait.

Light Infantry. This young ■woman saved the life of her captain upon the field of Wagram, and was promoted then and there to the grade of sergeant. In Portugal she duplicated the exploit by saving the life of her colonel and capturing two officers of the enemy. It was on this occasion that she was at the same time decop with the Legion of Honour, and honourably discharged from the Army, her sex having been discovered as she was recovering in the hospital from a severe wound. And, according to Captain Richard, the author of "Vivandieres Francaises,’ Josephine Trinquart, of the 63rd Infantry was decorated during the Russian campaign, for killing a Cossack who was about to dispatch her battalion chief. “There is no official record, however, of a woman receiving the Legion of Honour until 1851, when Angelique Duchemin was made Chevalier as ‘Veuve Brulon Sous-Lleutenant d’lnfanterie,’ three times wounded in seven war campaigns. On July 14, 1852, Mme. Abicot de Ragis was cited in the ‘Moniteur’ as having been visited by Napoleon 111 in the nospital where she was being treated, on which occasion the Prince-President unfastened his own Legion of Honour cross and pinned it upon her. The deed thus rewarded was the vigorous opposition offered by Madame de Ragis to an attempt made by three

burglars to set fire to tne mayor’s office in the small city of Oizon. Mad* ame de Ragis had put the burglars to flight at the point of a pistol, afte f she had been stabbed and painfull, bruised. , “The third woman to be decorated with the cross of the Legion of Honour was Sister Helene, the Superior of the Hospital at Jourarre. Sister Helene, in private life Madame D u ‘ souUier, received her decoration tor Red Cross work.” Rosa Bonheur, the painter, was me first woman awarded the honour for other than heroic reasons. This was in 1865, and in 1886 Madame Dieulafoy was decorated for her archaeological work in Egypt. Five queens, those of England, Belgium, Spain. » mania and Ethiopia, wear the Gran Cross. The first American woman to receive the Honour Cross was Mi -5 - Potter Palmer, who served as commissioner of the United States in t ® International Exposition of 1900. - o there is a long list of women nam in the book whose honour is hKcif to have been derived from some scr vice other *han their relation to 1 arts. We find Mildred Aldrich. *■’ trude Atherton, Romainc Broo» Mary Cassatt, Mary Gan: «• _ Mendl, Janet Scudder. Mrs. and Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney. _ , are a few out of a list of one huudrcu and one.