 dorothy lawrence (4 october 1896 â october 1964) was an english reporter, who secretly posed as a man to become a soldier during world war i. ==early life== lawrence was born in hendon, middlesex, of parents unknown. probably illegitimate, she was adopted as a baby by a guardian of the church of england. there is some discrepancy in her parentage. the oxford dictionary of national biography reports that lawrence was born on 4 october 1896 in polesworth, warwickshire and was the second daughter of thomas hartshorn lawrence and mary jane beddall. ==war correspondent== wanting to be a journalist, she had success in having some articles published in the times. at the outbreak of war she wrote to a number of the fleet street newspapers in the hope of reporting the war. travelling to france in 1915, she volunteered as a civilian employee of the voluntary aid department but was rejected. deciding to enter the war zone via the french sector as a freelance war correspondent, she was arrested by french police in senlis,  short of the front line, and ordered to leave. spending the night sleeping on a haystack in a forest,
1896_births 1964_deaths British_women_in_World_War_I Corps_of_Royal_Engineers English_adoptees English_autobiographers English_expatriates_in_France English_journalists Female_wartime_cross-dressers People_from_Hendon Women_soldiers Women_war_correspondents