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Hannah Snell: The Secret Life of a Female Marine, 1723-1792
By Matthew Stephens London: Ship Street Press, 1997. 63pp. ISBN 0-9530565-0-3

Price: US$14.95 (plus US$2 for postage & packing anywhere).

About the Book

One of the most exotic and mysterious legends of military history has finally been verified . . . Matthew Stephens has shed fresh light on the lurid accounts of Snell's life in the Royal Marines and the British Army.
The Sunday Times (London)

This ground-breaking study uncovers the remarkable life of the eighteenth-century female soldier, Hannah Snell. Generations of readers have been entertained by the story of the woman who dressed as a man, joined the Royal Marines, traveled to India and fought at the battle of Pondicherry. She returned to England in 1750 and made the most of her amazing story. She was the subject of a best-selling biography, as well as street portraits and ballads, and embarked on a sensational stage career. By the time of her death in 1792, her place as the most famous English female soldier had been established and remains unrivalled.

Some years ago Matthew Stephens made contact with Hannah's fifth-generation grand-daughter, Jean Ryles. Amazingly, Jean had been completely unaware of her relationship to Hannah and was very excited by the news. United by a common interest in the story, they agreed to combine their resources to retrace the twists and turns of this fascinating life. There was no shortage of material for them to dissect, as Hannah's biographer, Robert Walker, had left them with a detailed catalogue of the events in Hannah's life. He lists names and dates with such regularity that one almost feels that he is daring his readers to challenge his integrity.

Over the years a number of commentators have questioned the veracity of the Snell tale and Stephens also found many of the details difficult to believe. As he, Jean Ryles and her husband, Bill, began digging into Hannah's past, they soon discovered anomalies between the biography and other primary source documents. Yet for every new fact that undermined Walker's narrative, there was another that supported it. The most important question raised by this contradictory evidence was, "Did Hannah Snell really dress as a man or was it a story she concocted purely for profit"?

From the moment Hannah revealed her secret, authors and journalists have written their version of this extraordinary woman's story. While some have accused Hannah of being a charlatan, others have believed her every word. After many years of research, Stephens has written a very different account of Hannah's life - one in which he looks behind the myths and reveals an intriguing tale of bravery and deceit in which the truth is often stranger than fiction.

The Author

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Matthew Stephens is a reference librarian in Sydney, Australia. He is currently undertaking a doctoral dissertation on the early history of the Australian Museum Library. In 2004, while employed at the Australian Museum, Matthew proposed and researched John Gould Inc., an exhibition celebrating the life and works of the ornithologist and publisher, John Gould:

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