Hannah Snell Hannah Snell ( 1723 – 1792 ) was a British woman who disguised herself as a man and became a soldier . Biography . Hannah Snell was born in Worcester , England on 23 April 1723 . Locals claim that she played a soldier even as a child . In 1740 , she moved to London and married James Summs on 6 January 1744 . In 1746 , she gave birth to a daughter , Susannah , who died a year later . When her husband deserted her , she borrowed a male suit from her brother - in - law James Gray , assumed his name , and began to search for Summs . She later learned that her husband had been executed for murder . According to her account , she joined John Guise ' s regiment , the 6th Regiment of Foot , in the army of the Duke of Cumberland against Bonnie Prince Charlie , and deserted when her sergeant gave her 500 lashes . However , the chronology of her life makes it very unlikely that she ever served in Guise ' s regiment and this part of the story is likely to have been a fabrication . Following the death of her daughter , she moved to Portsmouth and joined the Marines . She boarded the ship " Swallow " at Portsmouth on 23 October 1747 . The ship sailed to Lisbon on 1 November . Her unit was about to invade Mauritius , but the attack was called off . Her unit then sailed to India . In August 1748 , her unit was sent to an expedition to capture the French colony of Pondicherry in India . Later , she also fought in the battle in Devicotta in June 1749 . She was wounded eleven times to the legs and once to the groin . She either managed to treat her groin wound without revealing her sex or she may have used the services of a sympathetic Indian nurse . In 1750 , her unit returned to Britain and traveled from Portsmouth to London , where she revealed her sex to her shipmates on 2 June . She petitioned the Duke of Cumberland , the head of the army , for her pension . She also sold her story to London publisher Robert Walker who published her account , " The Female Soldier , " in two different editions . She also began to appear on stage in her uniform presenting military drills and singing songs . Three painters painted her portrait in her uniform and " The Gentleman ' s Magazine " reported her claims . She was honorably discharged and the Royal Hospital , Chelsea officially recognized Snell ' s military service in the November and granted her a pension in 1750 ( increased in 1785 ) , a rare thing in those days . Hannah retired to Wapping and began to keep a pub named " The Female Warrior " ( or " The Widow in Masquerade " , accounts disagree ) but it did not last long . By the mid - 1750s , she was living in Newbury in Berkshire . In 1759 , she married Richard Eyles there , with whom she had two children . In 1772 , she married Richard Habgood of Welford , also in Berkshire , and the two moved to the Midlands . In 1785 , she was living with her son George Spence Eyles , a clerk , on Church Street , Stoke Newington . In 1791 her mental condition suddenly worsened . She was admitted to Bethlem Hospital on 20 August . She died on 8 February 1792 . Cultural references . Playwright Shirley Gee has written two fictional dramatisations of Snell ' s life : a radio play , " Against the Wind " ( 1988 ) and a stage play , " Warrior " ( 1989 ) .