Hannah Snell (23 April 1723 – 8 February 1792) was an English woman who disguised herself as a man to join the British military.

Snell was mentioned in James Woodforde's diary entry of 21 May 1778 selling buttons, garters, and laces.

Due to Snell's grandfather’s service in the military and the money that they inherited from him, her father and his second wife, Mary Williams,[3] were wealthy enough to live comfortably and provide adequate education for all their children.

[16] She joined the regiment of general John Guise in 1747, where she received training in military exercises and greatly excelled.

This incident was prompted due to Gray's refusal to facilitate a sexual encounter between Davis and a local woman.

In Robert Walker's biography on her life, it is mentioned that she eluded discovery due to the manner in which her arms were tied to the gate as well as the small size of her breasts.

[19] She boarded the Merlin-class sloop HMS Swallow at Portsmouth and sailed as a cabin boy under commander John Rowzier to Lisbon.

[22] To avoid revealing her sex, she either removed the bullet herself or was assisted by a local woman, instead of being tended by the regimental surgeon.

She then spent five weeks in Bombay where her crewmates noticed that she did not shave her face and nicknamed her "Miss Molly Gray".

She was honorably discharged and the Royal Hospital Chelsea officially recognized Snell's military service in November, and granted her a pension in 1750 (increased in 1785), which was rare at the time.

[citation needed] Sources claim that after receiving her pension, Snell retired to Wapping and kept a pub named either The Female Warrior or The Widow in Masquerade, but it did not last long.

[32] Hannah Snell is mentioned in the 1969 film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie as a woman who was prepared to "serve, suffer and sacrifice.

[39] Records of later 1800s publications show the reach of Snell’s narrative; articles on Snell’s in U.S. magazines and newspapers, for instance, are found in The New York Ledger (1865), Boston’s Ballou’s Dollar Monthly (1855–1865), Minnesota’s The St. Paul Globe (1890), and Utah’s The Salt Lake Herald (1893).

[33] Much of the academic work on Snell likewise uses her birth name and pronouns, although papers in transgender studies and related fields have diverged from this norm.