Page 42 - Greystones Archaeological Historical Society

MRS LE BLOND’S WAR

and Lizzie personally, were also instrumental in having a statue
of the French wartime leader Marshal Foch erected in Grosvenor
Gardens, near London’s Victoria Station, and she was present
when this was unveiled by the Prince of Wales, in the presence
21
th
of the Marshal’s widow and two daughters, on 6 June 1930.
Lizzie died on 17 July 1934, having worked ‘almost up to the
th
last unobtrusively and modestly for the causes which she had at
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heart’ , and the obituaries which followed recorded a life full of
adventure and achievement, among them her efforts on behalf
of Anglo-French co-operation and understanding. Only a year
before her death these services were acknowledged by the
French Government with the award of the Cross of the Legion of
23
Honour - the only one of her many distinctions to be recorded
on her tombstone in London’s Brompton Cemetery.

While commemorations of the Great War understandably
focus on the men who fought and died, it is worth recording too
the significant part played by women, both in the uniformed
services and as civilian volunteers. Lizzie’s story is a record of
one Wicklow woman’s experience of war, and the extent to which
it determined the future course of her life, but it is also a reminder
of the diversity and value of that broader contribution, and of
women’s willingness to accept the challenges, the hardships,
and the opportunities presented by war and its aftermath.

21 Western Morning News, 6 June 1930; Nottingham Evening Post, 6 June 1930;
Western Daily Press, 6 June 1930.
22 The Times, 30 July 1934.
23 On the award of the Legion d’Honneur, see The Times, 13 April 1933.
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