Brains, Beauty & Breeches – World Tour Offer For Lucky Young Woman…. Wanted to join an expedition… Asia, Africa…
This ad appeared in a Nice (France) newspaper, in 1922.
Idris Galcia Hall – born in Canada in 1906 – was at the time a not-too-enthusiastic guest in a local convent. Her father, an English reserve officer, had died in Ypres, in 1917, and her mother was surviving on a small pension. Idris saw the advertisement as a good way to escape the convent, and make some money to support her mother.
So she skipped church, and went and met Captain Wanderwell, the guy that had posted the ad.
I end up repeating the usual story – history is usually a lot weirder than fiction, and it’s peopled by characters that would be considered impossible if presented in a novel.
For instance…
Karavansara 