*** Welcome to piglix ***

Christian Davies


Christian Davies (1667 – 7 July 1739), born Christian Cavanagh, was a female soldier (disguised as a man) and later a sutler for the 4th Dragoons, later the 2nd Royal North British Dragoons. She was also known as Kit Cavanagh and Mother Ross. She served, in disguise, as a trooper in the British Army—first as an infantry man, from 1697 until 1701, and then for five years as a dragoon in the Scots Greys from 1701 until discovered in 1706 while searching for her husband.

Christian "Kit" Cavanagh was born in 1667 in Dublin, Ireland. Throughout her life, she would use the surnames: Welsh, Welch, Ross, Jones, and Davies. She was the daughter of a local brewer. Although her parents were Protestants, they supported King James II during his campaign in Ireland. Her father served with the Jacobite Army, dying as a result of wounds at the Battle of Aughrim. Her family's property was confiscated as a result of their support for the Jacobite cause.

As a teenager, she became involved with a relative of her mother's. Unable to care for her, some accounts have her fleeing her mother, Kit Cavanaugh went to live with her aunt who ran a public house in Dublin. Soon, she met and married Richard Welsh (some sources have him down as Richard Walsh), a servant of her aunt's. After her aunt's death, she inherited the pub. Despite her relative youth, she ran the pub as her own, with Richard being one of the waiters. They had two children, and she was pregnant with a third when suddenly Richard disappeared in 1691.

Under circumstances that are unclear, her husband ended up in the British Army. Some accounts have him volunteering while others have him being pressed into the army. In either event, he apparently attempted to write to her to inform her of his situation. Eventually, one of the letters made it to her, telling Cavanagh that he was in the British Army serving in Holland. Unwilling to simply lose her husband, Cavanagh placed her children in the care of her mother, cut her hair, and disguised herself as a man to join the British Army to find her lost husband.

Initially, Cavanagh joined Captain Tichborne's company of foot under the name Christopher Welch. As an infantryman, she fought at the Battle of Landen. There she was wounded and captured by the French. In 1694, she was exchanged and returned to the British Army, who were still unaware of her true sex.


...
Wikipedia

...