Dorothie Feilding Lady Dorothie Mary Evelyn Feilding - Moore ( aka " Dot " Feilding ) , better known as Dorothie Feilding , MM , CdeG , OLII , ( 6 October 1889 – 24 October 1935 ) was a British heiress who shunned her aristocratic background to become a highly decorated volunteer nurse and ambulance driver on the Western Front during World War I . She was the first woman to be awarded the Military Medal for bravery in the field . She also received the 1914 Star , the Croix de guerre from the French and the Order of Leopold II from the Belgians for services to their wounded . Early life . Born on October 6 , 1889 to Rudolph Feilding , 9th Earl of Denbigh and the Countess of Denbigh , Cecilia Mary Feilding ( née Clifford ) , Feilding was one of ten children , three boys and seven girls . She was a distant relative of Henry Fielding , the author of " " Tom Jones " " . As a child she was educated at home at Newnham Paddox , Monks Kirby , Warwickshire , and at the Convent of the Assumption in Paris , where she became fluent in French . She made her debut in May 1908 at the age of 18 , being presented to the King and Queen of England by her mother . World War I . Like many of her siblings , Feilding felt the need to do her part when war broke out . Three of her sisters , Lady Clare , Lady Elizabeth ( " Bettie " ) , and Lady Victoria would serve , as well as three brothers : Major Rudolph , Viscount Feilding , Coldstream Guards , who survived the war ; Lieutenant - Commander the Hon . Hugh Feilding , Royal Navy , killed in action on 31 May 1916 at the Battle of Jutland ; and Captain the Hon . Henry Feilding , also Coldstream Guards , who would die on 9 October 1917 from wounds received in action in Flanders just three months after his sister had left . In September 1914 , after a short training course at Rugby Hospital , Feilding traveled to the Western Front in Belgium where she began driving ambulances for the Munro Ambulance Corps ( founded by Dr . Hector Munro ) , an all - volunteer unit which included May Sinclair , Elsie Knocker and Mairi Chisholm . This corps , comprising a convoy of motor ambulances donated by the British Red Cross , consisted of transporting wounded men from front line positions between Nieuport and Dixmude to the hospitals at Furnes . Though she was from a privileged upbringing Feilding had an easy demeanor that transcended social boundaries , one that endeared her to all that she came in to contact with whether royalty or the ordinary fighting man . It was reported that her ' five o ' clock teas ' among the ruins of Furnes gained great fame among the Belgian officers and enlisted men stationed there . Feilding ' s heroism was such that her ambulance work at Dixmude was recognized in a ' special order of the day ' issued on 31 December 1914 by French Rear - Admiral Pierre Ronarc ' h , commanding the Fusiliers Marins for which she subsequently received the French Croix de Guerre ( bronze star ) . In 1916 , Commander Henry Crosby Halahan , RN , Officer Commanding Royal Naval Siege Guns , wrote the following letter of recommendation to Prince Alexander of Teck , head of the British Military Mission in Belgium : " " I venture to submit that Lady Dorothie Feilding should in like manner be rewarded . The circumstances are peculiar in that , this being an isolated Unit , no Medical organization existed for clearing casualties other than this voluntary one and owing to indifferent means of communication etc , it was necessary for the Ambulance to be in close touch with the guns when in action . ( She ) was thus frequently exposed to risks which probably no other woman has undergone . She has always displayed a devotion to duty and contempt of danger which has been a source of admiration to all . I speak only of her work with the Naval Siege Guns , but your Serene Highness is also aware of her devoted services to the Belgian Army and to the French - notably to the Brigade des Marins . " " This citation ultimately resulted in Feilding becoming the first woman to be awarded the Military Medal for bravery on the 1 September 1916 as notified in the " London Gazette " . Five days later she was decorated with the medal by King George V himself at Windsor Castle . She was also decorated by King Albert I of Belgium with the Order of Leopold II , Knights Cross ( with palm ) for service to his country ' s wounded . In her letters , which she wrote home to Newnham Paddox almost daily , Feilding would reflect on the tragedy and horror of war and also the problems of being a woman at the front contending with gossip , shells , funding , lice ( which forced many of the nurses to cut their hair short ) , vehicle maintenance and inconvenient marriage proposal s . After two years at the front she began to look pale and tired . She served with the corps in Flanders until June 1917 when she returned home to get married . On 5 July 1917 , Feilding wed Captain Charles Joseph Henry O ' Hara Moore , MC , of Mooresfort , Tipperary . She moved to Warley , Middlesex where her husband was stationed in the 2nd battalion , Irish Guards . After a brief honeymoon period , Feilding was back behind the wheel of an ambulance , ferrying the wounded around London . Post - War years . After the war , the couple lived most of the year at his ancestral home , Mooresfort House in South Tipperary . They had four daughters ( Ruth , Celia , Edith and June ) and one son ( Arthur ) . Feilding became an active member of the British Legion as well as being President of the Tipperary Jubilee Nursing Association and the local Agricultural Show Society . She had always been a keen huntswoman and this continued in Ireland where she was a regular feature at hunt meets , especially the Scarteen Hunt . In 1935 , the " Irish Times " stated she had been " prominently associated with the Scarteen Hunt to the success of which her great organizing powers in no small degree contributed . " In no small measure , these powers had been honed during her time with the Munro Corps . Her husband had a stud at Mooresfort and the couple regularly attended race meetings in Ireland and England . Death . Feilding died of heart failure in Tipperary on 24 October 1935 at the age of 46 . She was brought back home to Warwickshire and buried on 27 October in the family plot at the Monks Kirby Roman Catholic cemetery .