Marie Marvingt

Marie Félicie Elisabeth Marvingt
Marie Marvingt in her Deperdussin aeroplane, 1912
Born	(1875-02-20)20 February 1875 Aurillac, in Cantal, France
Died	14 December 1963(1963-12-14) (aged 88) Laxou, in Meurthe-et-Moselle, France
Occupation	Athlete, mountaineer, aviator, nurse, journalist
Parent(s)	Mother, Elisabeth née Brusquin, (died 1889); Father, Felix Marvingt, died 1916.

Marie Marvingt (20 February 1875 – 14 December 1963) was a French athlete, mountaineer, aviator and journalist. She won numerous prizes for her sporting achievements including those of swimming, cycling, mountain climbing, winter sports, ballooning, flying, riding, gymnastics, athletics, rifle shooting and fencing. She was the first woman to climb many of the peaks in the French and Swiss Alps. She was a record-breaking balloonist, an aviator and during World War I became the first woman to fly missions during conflict as a pilot. She was also a qualified surgical nurse, was the first trained and certified Flight Nurse in the world, and worked for the establishment of air ambulance services throughout the world. According to a French source, it was M. de Château-Thierry de Beaumanoir who, in 1903, named Marie Marvingt as "La fiancée du danger." She herself used the epithet for an autobiographical publication in 1948. It is also included on the commemorative plaque on the façade of the house where she lived at 8 Place de la Carrière, Nancy.

Marie Marvingt was born at six-thirty in the evening of 20 February 1875 in Aurillac, the Chief Town of the Cantal département of France. Her father's full name was Félix Constant Marvingt and her mother was named Elisabeth Brusquin. They had married in Metz, Moselle, Lorraine on 16 July 1861. At the date of birth they were recorded as forty eight and thirty two, respectively. Her father was "Receveur principal des Postes" – roughly equivalent to Senior Postmaster. The full names of the subject, as recorded on the certificate, are:- Marie Félicie Elisabeth Marvingt.

Later, her family moved to Metz, at that time part of Germany, where they lived from 1880 to 1889. When Marie Marvingt's mother died in 1889, the girl found herself, at 14, in charge of a household of her father and her brother, whom she cared for while devouring books by explorers and scientists. After her mother's death, she moved with her father and brother to Nancy in the Meurthe-et-Moselle département, where she remained for the rest of her life.