BERGMANN

Typed Letter Signed ('Ruth Knowles'), a reference for her 'ship-keeper' William Stilwell. With four photographs of her barquentine 'Friendship' ('Emma Ernest'), moored at Charing Cross, and typed reports, with newspaper cuttings, by Stilwell's son.

Author: 
Ruth Mitchell [Knowles] (c.1888-1969) [Chetniks; Yugoslavia; Brigantine 'Emma Ernest'; Charing Cross Pier; World Explorers Friendship Clubs; The Yellow Rolls Royce (film, 1964); ]
Publication details: 
Letter dated 21 May 1932; on 'World Explorers' letterhead. The two reports from 1988, with one dated 'JS [James Stilwell] Oct 88'.
£220.00

An interesting collection of material relating to an extraordinary woman whose exploits deserve recognition. According to one obituary Mitchell (sister of American General 'Billy' Mitchell) was 'he only foreign woman to serve with the Chetniks', for whom she acted as a dispatch rider. Captured by the Gestapo while swimming at Dubrovnik, 'still in her bathing suit, and with papers on her that would have caused her to be executed without trial, she turned to the agents and asked: "Gentlemen, you will permit me to change my trousers?" They agreed.

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