{"id":177979,"date":"2025-05-19T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/?p=177979"},"modified":"2025-05-19T15:09:50","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T13:09:50","slug":"mysterious-miss-v-how-a-wealthy-canadian-woman-ended-up-fighting-for-serbia-in-wwi-photo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/mysterious-miss-v-how-a-wealthy-canadian-woman-ended-up-fighting-for-serbia-in-wwi-photo\/","title":{"rendered":"MYSTERIOUS MISS V: How a wealthy Canadian woman ended up fighting for Serbia in WWI! (PHOTO)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In mid-1915, British local newspapers reported that Leslie Joy (Jo) Whitehead, the daughter of a Canadian landowner, had landed in Great Britain \u2013 she wanted to volunteer in the First World War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It wasn’t unusual that the newspapers published an interview with the daughter of a wealthy cotton producer from Canada, but rather that in the interview she openly says she wants to go to the front,” says Nata\u0161a Stojsavljevi\u0107, a doctoral student at the University of Leicester in Great Britain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women who fought on the front lines in the First World War were rare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her doctoral dissertation, Stojsavljevi\u0107 studies the role of women in the First World War through the experiences of the Scottish Women’s Hospitals for Foreign Service \u2013 women from Great Britain who participated in the war by treating and caring for the wounded and sick throughout Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 1915, the first Scottish Women’s Hospital in Serbia received its first patients and wounded in Kragujevac.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Louise Corbet, a doctor in this movement, first mentions Jo Whitehead in her diary, explains Stojsavljevi\u0107.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Corbet wrote in her diary about a certain V. It said it was a girl of only about twenty, a Canadian, who was disguised as a man and serving in the Serbian army,” says Stojsavljevi\u0107.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That same girl, dressed as a man, ends up in the hands of the enemy during the occupation, and in captivity meets her future husband \u2013 Lieutenant of the Serbian Army Vukota Vojinovi\u0107.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who was Leslie Jo Whitehead?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Stojsavljevi\u0107 has been trying to answer this question for several years through her doctoral research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, she has learned the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leslie Joy (Jo) Whitehead was born on February 26, 1895, in Montmorency in the Quebec region of Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She grew up in a family of wealthy cotton producers \u2013 as a twenty-year-old, she left her comfortable life and went to Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before coming to Serbia, she spent time in Great Britain and volunteered in military administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How she came to Serbia is unclear, but she soon found herself in Kru\u0161evac, where she voluntarily collaborated with the Scottish Women’s Mission \u2013 guarding medical equipment from robbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Once it happened that the shops were robbed, and Jo alone managed to overpower three robbers,” Stojsavljevi\u0107 recounts an anecdote written in Corbet’s diary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also unclear how she joined the Veterinary Corps of the Serbian Army, but Canadian newspapers, printed during the First World War years, published an article about Joy Whitehead, which states that she served as a lieutenant in the Veterinary Corps of the Serbian Army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What role did she play in Serbia?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

“She wasn’t a doctor, she wasn’t a nurse, she wasn’t even a driver in the Scottish Women’s Hospitals. Her role was very interesting,” says Stojsavljevi\u0107.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before joining the Veterinary Corps, Jo stood guard and took care of the safety of the nurses, but also something else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“During the occupation, women were surrounded by enemy soldiers, and that also meant the threat of sexual violence,” says Stojsavljevi\u0107.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the diaries she studied, she came across entries in which the authors alluded to sexual harassment by occupying soldiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Jo, dressed as a man, would overhear from soldiers which sisters they liked and would make sure that sister was never near them,” says Stojsavljevi\u0107.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stojsavljevi\u0107 says she found evidence of her participation in the actions of the Serbian army in a copy of a letter Jo wrote after the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the letter, Jo addressed the president of the World War I Veterans Organization in Montreal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“She wanted to know if she could become a member of the organization and therefore attached evidence of her service in Serbia \u2013 including a certificate showing that she served in the Ninth Regiment,” she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stojsavljevi\u0107 does not know if Jo ever received a response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is not the only thing that has remained unclear to Stojsavljevi\u0107.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FIND OUT MORE IN SERBIAN:<\/mark><\/h4>\n\n\n\n