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Dec 22, 2020 · 22 December 2020. 12 mins read. Maud couldn't resist having her portrait taken in her new soldiers uniform. Photo Courtesy: Julie Goodall. Maud Butler was 16 years old when she twice disguised herself as a soldier and attempted to stow away on a troopship bound for Egypt during the First World War.
- A Dream to Fight with The Men
- Reputation 'Spread Like Wildfire'
- Suspicion of Espionage
- Inspiration and Determination
Toward the end of 1915, with WWI taking hold, Maud wanted to get to the war's front lines. But women were not allowed to enlist — so she decided to stowaway. "She went along to have a photograph taken to test whether she would be picked up. She got by that splendidly. "[Then] she had to shimmy up an anchor rope to get into her first ship."
Maud hid in a lifeboat aboard the troopship HMAT Suevic for a couple of days with only a few lollies in her pocket. "She came out and started mingling with the men on the deck," Mr Gillam said. "But she knows that she can't go to the mess for meals because they're all eating in their units, so she can't just tag along with anybody. "She decides tha...
Just a few months later, in March 1916, Maud again stowed away, this time with the correct colour boots — and a revolver. "The guards at the gangway are getting tired of asking for papers, so they just wave them past," Mr Gillam said. Ms Fletcher said the young woman really should have had a rifle, because she was posing as a member of the infantry...
But Ms Fletcher said despite her fame, Maud rarely spoke of the story in later life, with her granddaughter only hearing of her escapades at her funeral. "Maud succeeds in life because of education; that's the one thing that gets her where she wants to be," Ms Fletcher said. "I'm sure a lot of women have heard, 'You can't do something because you'r...
- Jenny Marchant
Apr 20, 2016 · 4 mins read. In 1915 Maud Butler was a young 18 year old with a bit of an adventurous streak, who wasn’t happy with the type of contribution society decided young ladies could and should make to the war effort. She came to notoriety in the press for her attempts to disguise herself as a soldier and stowaway to Egypt.
Apr 24, 2021 · Maud Butler was 16 years old when she twice disguised herself as a soldier and attempted to stow away on a troopship bound for Egypt during World War I. Her first attempt was in December 1915, just a few days before Christmas.
Apr 16, 2019 · The main fighting Maud Butler did in World War I was with the authorities who wouldn’t let her go to the front to “do her bit”. A feisty Kurri Kurri teenager, Maud stowed away twice on troopships – having first disguised herself as a boy – and later got in trouble for collecting donations in uniform on a wartime Anzac Day.
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Sep 3, 2014 · A teenage girl from the Hunter Valley coalfields was so desperate to be a part of Australia's war effort that she cut her hair, dressed as a soldier and stowed away on a troopship. The exploits of Maud Butler, a resourceful 16-year-old waitress with a sense of adventure, are being researched by historian Professor Victoria Haskins.
In December 1915, Miss Maud Butler, a waitress working in Sydney, cut her long brown hair, donned the woollen uniform of an Australian soldier, and walked down to the transport ships moored at Woolloomooloo. Barely seventeen years of age, her slight and boyish figure easily passed for that of a soldier.
