English journalist and soldier Dorothy Lawrence was BOTD in 1896. Born in London to unmarried parents, she was adopted by a teenager by wealthy churchgoers, whom she later claimed sexually abused her. Showing an early interest in journalism, she had articles published in the the Times of London while in her teens. At the outbreak of World War One, she wrote to Fleet Street newspapers offering to be a war correspondent, but was rejected. In 1915, she travelled to France and attempted to enter the war zone, but was arrested and ordered to leave. Undaunted, she persuaded two English soldiers to steal her an army uniform and teach her to drill and march. With the aid of a corset, body padding, make up and a haircut, she transformed herself into Private Denis Smith, and went to the Somme with forged identity papers. With the help of tunnel digger Tom Dunn, she found work with a mine-laying company operating at the front line. She fell ill, and after ten days of sickness, she disclosed her gender identity and was placed under military arrest. After extensive interrogation, she was declared a prisoner-of-war and made to swear she would not write about her experiences. In 1919 she attempted to publish a memoir, Sapper Dorothy Lawrence: The Only English Woman Soldier. Heavily censored by the War Office, it sold poorly. In 1925, her erratic behaviour attracted the attention of the police. After confessing to a doctor that she had been raped by her guardians as a teenager, she was declared insane and institutionalised for the rest of her life. She died in 1964, aged 68, and was buried in a pauper’s grave. In 2003, her memoir was discovered by Richard Bennett (the grandson of Richard Samson Bennett, one of the soldiers who had helped Lawrence in France) while researching his own family history. Lawrence’s story became part of an exhibition about women in war presented by the Imperial War Museum in London. Bennett and historian Simon Jones arranged for the re-publication of her memoir, which has since inspired a series of plays and documentary films.