Christian Davies Christian Davies ( 1667 – 7 July 1739 ) , born Christian Cavanagh , was a trooper and later a sutler for the 4th Dragoons , later the 2nd Royal North British Dragoons . She was also known as Kit Cavanagh and Mother Ross . She served , in disguise , as a soldier in the British Army . First as an infantry man , from 1697 until 1701 , and then for five years as a dragoon in the Scots Greys from 1701 until discovered in 1706 while searching for her husband . Early life . Christian " Kit " Cavanagh was born in 1667 in Dublin , Ireland . Throughout her life , she would use the surnames : Welsh , Welch , Ross , Jones , and Davies . She was the daughter of a local brewer . Although her parents were Protestants , they supported King James II during his campaign in Ireland . Her father served with the Jacobite Army , dying as a result of wounds at the Battle of Aughrim . Her family ' s property was confiscated as a result of their support for the Jacobite cause . Kit Cavanagh was a bit of a wild girl . As a teenager , she became involved with a relative of her mother ' s . Unable to care for her , some accounts have her fleeing her mother , Kit Cavanaugh went to live with her aunt who ran a public house in Dublin . Soon , she met and married Richard Welsh ( some sources have him down as Richard Walsh ) , a servant of her aunt ' s . After her aunt ' s death , she inherited the pub . Despite her relative youth , she ran the pub as her own , with Richard being one of the waiters . They had two children , and she was pregnant with a third when suddenly Richard disappeared in 1691 . Searching for her lost husband . Infantryman . Under circumstances that are unclear , her husband ended up in the British Army . Some accounts have him volunteering while others have him being pressed into the army . In either event , he apparently attempted to write to her to inform her of his situation . Eventually , one of the letters made it to her , telling Cavanagh that he was in the British Army serving in Holland . Unwilling to simply lose her husband , Cavanagh placed her children in the care of her mother , cut her hair , and disguised herself as a man to join the British Army to find her lost husband . Initially , Cavanagh joined Captain Tichborne ' s company of foot under the name Christopher Welch . As an infantryman , she fought at the Battle of Landen . There she was wounded and captured by the French . In 1694 , she was exchanged and returned the British Army , who were still unaware of her true sex . After being exchanged , she continued to soldier on in the British Army , still looking for her husband . She remained a member of Tichborne ' s company until she became embroiled in a dispute with a sergeant of the company , whom she killed in a duel over a woman . Following the duel , and possibly as a result of it , Welch as allowed to be discharged from the army . Dragoon . Once discharged , she promptly re - enlisted , this time in 4th Royal North British Dragoons ( later the Scots Greys ) in 1697 . As a dragoon , she took part in the fighting until the Peace of Ryswick . Demobilized at the end of the war , she had yet to find her husband . Still looking for her husband , she would eventually re - enlist with the Scots Greys when the War of Spanish Succession began in 1701 . Somehow , she managed to conceal the fact that she was a woman . As Marian Broderick notes , " Amazingly , she managed to do this without being discovered : she ate with them , drank with them , slept with them , played cards with them , even urinated alongside them by using what she describes as a ‘ silver tube with leather straps ’ . No one was ever the wiser . " She was so successful at passing herself off as a man that a prostitute claimed she was the father of her child . Rather than give proof that this was impossible , Cavanagh paid child support to the woman . During her time as a dragoon , Cavanagh grew to enjoy the life of a soldier . She particularly seemed to enjoy the marauding and looting that followed in the wake of battles . For a woman who had been successful in business , she was alleged to be just as successful a marauder . Riding with the Scots Greys , she was wounded at the Battle of Schellenberg . Not willing to be sidelined by the musket ball that remained in her upper thigh , she was with the regiment at the Battle of Blenheim . After the battle , she was assigned to guard French prisoners . There she found , after 13 years of searching , her husband . Richard Welsh was then a private in the 1st Regiment of Foot . According to some accounts , she recognized him while he was trying to pick up a Dutch woman . Welch claimed he had sent her numerous letters , none of which ever reached her . Having found her husband with another woman , she refused to go back to him , preferring to remain a dragoon in the Scots Greys . Despite her anger at having found her husband cheating , the two remained somewhat close . The pair agreed to not reveal her identity , instead pretending to be brothers . The deception worked , with no one in the regiment suspecting her of being a woman , even though she was known as the " pretty dragoon " . Ms . Welch ' s life as trooper continued until 1706 and the Battle of Ramillies . There she was again wounded , this time fracturing her skull . When the regimental surgeon treated her , he discovered that Christopher Welsh was in fact a woman . The news of the discovery soon spread through the British cavalry brigade . Eventually Lord Hay , the Scots Greys brigade commander , intervened , having Cavanagh ' s husband brought from the 1st Regiment of Foot . After hearing the whole story from Cavanagh , he ordered that her pay be continued while she remained under the care of the army . Sutleress . Once she was well enough , Cavanagh , now back to being called Mrs . Welsh , was formally discharged from the Scots Greys . As part of her discharge , the officers of the Scots Greys paid for a new wardrobe for Mrs . Welsh . Some sources have reported that she fought openly as a woman ; however , this is unlikely . She was , apparently , carried on strength as a wife and a sutler . After the Battle of Ramillies , there is no evidence that she continued to serve as a dragoon . She was allowed to remain with the army as an official wife on strength with the 1st Foot as a sutler ess . Although accounts list her as being a faithful wife , her husband ' s reputation is the opposite . Even after being reunited with his wife , Richard Welsh continued to see other women . When Cavanagh discovered one of his mistresses was still following the regiment , Cavanagh attacked the woman , cutting off her nose . However , at the Battle of Malplaquet , her husband died . Cavanagh spent much of the day after the battle searching for her husband ' s body , turning over as many as two hundred bodies before finding him so that she could bury him . After the death of her husband , she became involved with a Captain Ross of the Scots Greys . Forever afterwards , she was known in the regiment as " Mother Ross " . She never married Captain Ross , instead marrying another dragoon of the Scots Greys , Hugh Jones , three months after the Battle of Malplaquet . Jones would die at the Siege of Saint - Venant in 1710 . Return from the continent . In 1712 , as the War of Spanish Succession was winding down , Cavanagh returned home with the troops . Because of her extraordinary tale , she was presented at court to Queen Anne . Queen Anne granted her a bounty of £50 and a shilling a day for the rest of her life as a pension . Finally returning to Dublin in 1713 , she married for the third and final time . Her third husband , like the rest , was a soldier . His name was Davies . She lived in Dublin for some years , opening a new pub . But her years in the army had left her and her husband unsuited to settled life . For many years , they moved about England and Ireland , making a living through a variety of jobs as well as her celebrity status among the military . Eventually , she was admitted to the Royal Hospital Chelsea as one of its pensioners . Mrs . Davies was buried , at her request , with full military honors with other military pensioners at Royal Hospital Chelsea .