Jessica Borthwick

Her parents were General George Colville Borthwick (1839–1896), an officer in the Turkish army, and his wife Sophie (née Schylowskála), reportedly the daughter of a member of the Russian Imperial Guard.

An interview with Borthwick in The Bioscope film trade paper gives a detailed account of her experiences: During the cholera rage in Adrianople everything connected with that terrible disease was painted black.

The people in this part of the city had never seen a camera before, and when they saw me pointing my little black box at various objects they thought that I was operating some wonderful new instrument for combating the disease which was destroying them.

She captained her steam yacht Grace Darling, delivering Red Cross stores across the Channel and rescuing refugees from Ostend, a venture which had support of some kind from the Northcliffe press.

Towards the end of the war, she formed the British Empire Army of Patriots organisation with Liberal politician Havelock Wilson.

[14] Borthwick spent her latter years living with her mother in South Kensington, London, a Bohemian figure with her fondness for pipe smoking, and always hopeful of finding new adventures.

[18] At the end of the Second World War she promoted herself as a psychologist, giving lectures for the Soldiers', Sailors', and Airmen's Families Association.

[20] Borthwick's First World War adventures are referred to in the Doctor Who audio drama Brotherhood of the Daleks (2008), written by Alan Barnes.