Flora Sandes Flora Sandes ( 22 January 1876 – 24 November 1956 ) was the only British woman officially to serve as a soldier in World War I . Initially a St . John Ambulance volunteer , she travelled to Serbia , where , in the confusion of war , she was formally enrolled in the Serbian army . She was subsequently promoted to the rank of Sergeant major , and , after the war , to Captain . Biography . Early life . Flora Sandes was born on 22 January 1876 in Nether Poppleton , Yorkshire , the youngest daughter of an Irish family . Her father was Samuel Dickson Sandes ( 1822 – 1914 ) , the former rector of Whitchurch , County Cork , and her mother was Sophia Julia ( née Besnard ) . When she was nine years old , the family moved to Marlesford , Suffolk ; and later to Thornton Heath , near Croydon , Surrey . As a child she was educated by governesses . She enjoyed riding and shooting and said that she wished she had been born a boy . She learned to drive , and drove an old French racing car . She took a job as a secretary . In her spare time Sandes trained with the Ladies ' Nursing Yeomanry , learning first aid . At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 she volunteered to become a nurse , but was rejected due to a lack of qualifications . Military career . Sandes nonetheless joined a St . John Ambulance unit raised by American nurse Mabel Grouitch , and on 12 August 1914 left England for Serbia with a group of 36 women to try and aid the humanitarian crises there . They arrived at the town of Kragujevac which was the base for the Serbian forces fighting against the Austro - Hungarian offensive . Sandes joined the Serbian Red Cross and worked in an ambulance for the Second Infantry Regiment of the Serbian Army . During the retreat into Albania , Sandes was separated from her unit and , for her own safety , enrolled as a soldier with a Serbian regiment . Following the Balkan tradition of " sworn virgins " , it was not unknown for women to serve in the Serbian army , but Sandes was the only British woman to do so . She quickly advanced to the rank of Corporal . In 1916 , during the Serbian advance on Bitola ( Monastir ) , Sandes was seriously wounded by a grenade in hand to hand combat . She subsequently received the highest decoration of the Serbian Military , the Order of the Karađorđe ' s Star . At the same time , she was promoted to the rank of Sergeant major . Also in 1916 , Sandes published her autobiography , " An English Woman - Sergeant in the Serbian Army " , based on her letters and diaries . She used this account to help her raise funds for the Serbian Army . With Evelina Haverfield she founded the Hon . Evelina Haverfield ' s and Sergt - Major Flora Sandes ' Fund for Promoting Comforts for Serbian Soldiers and Prisoners . Unable to continue fighting due to her injury , she spent the remainder of the war running a hospital . At the end of the war she was commissioned as an officer ( the first woman to be commissioned ) , and was finally demobilized in October 1922 . Later life . In May 1927 , Sandes married Yuri Yudenitch , a fellow officer and former White Army general . The couple lived for a time in France , but afterwards returned to Serbia ( which by this date had become part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia ) , and settled in Belgrade . Among other jobs , Sandes drove Belgrade ' s first taxicab . Also in 1927 , she published a second autobiography . She lectured extensively on her wartime experiences in the United Kingdom , Australia , New Zealand , France , Canada and the United States . She wore her military uniform while delivering her lectures . When Germany launched its attack on Yugoslavia in April 1941 , Sandes and Yudenitch were recalled to military service , but the invasion was over before they could take up any military duties . They were briefly interned by the Germans , before being released on parole . Yudenitch fell ill , was removed to hospital , and died there in September 1941 . Sandes subsequently returned to England . She spent the last years of her life in Suffolk , where she died in November 1956 .