In War and Peace

Daphne Pearson was a truly remarkable woman, born on 26 May 1911 in Hampshire, England, she died on 25 July 2000 in Melbourne, Australia.

This book captures her richly interesting life as photographer, landscape designer, market gardener and war heroine. It was in 1940 during the Battle of Britain that she became the first woman to receive the George Cross, given for acts of courage in circumstances of extreme danger.

In May 1940 an aircraft crashed near the Women's Auxiliary Air Force quarters at Detling in Kent. Corporal Daphne Pearson rushed out and, though she knew there were bombs on board, roused the pilot and helped him to get clear. When they were thirty yards clear the bomb went off and she threw herself over the pilot to protect him from the blast.

In a touching human-interest angle, Daphne was traced by the descendents of David Bond, the man whose life she had saved and it was they who discovered that she had written this absorbing book.

Keywords: HISTORY / General HIS000000