Davies, Christian (1667–1739)

Irish woman who won fame by spending some years in military service, masquerading as a man. Born in Dublin, Davies went to Flanders in search of her husband, Richard Welsh, who had been conscripted into the Duke of Marlborough's army during the War of the Spanish Succession. There she enlisted under the name of Christopher Welsh, fought in the Battle of Blenheim (1704), and was eventually reunited with her husband in 1706.

When Davies's first husband Richard was killed at the Battle of Malplaquet (1709) she married a grenadier, Hugh Jones, who was killed the following year. In England she was presented to Queen Anne, and then returned to Dublin, where she married another soldier. She died in a Chelsea Pensioners' Hospital for retired soldiers.