Jacqueline Winspear’s The White Lady – A Heroine During Two World Wars and Beyond

Wartime tales, whether non-fiction or fiction, often focus on the men who are on the front lines fighting the enemy. It’s the women, however, invisible and dismissed as threats, who become a potent weapon in battle. One such woman is Elinor White, whose courage was on display during both world wars. Now in her forties, and living in what’s called a “grace and favor house,” given by the crown to those who have done extraordinary deeds for their country, she comes to the aid of a young family, the father trying to break away from his organized crime family.

With the Maisie Dobbs series, Winspear demonstrated her talents for bringing alive life in Britain and Europe during both world wars. The White Lady alternates between those two wars and life in post-war Britain. 

It’s August, 1914. Britain has just declared war on Germany. Elinor De Witt, 10, her older sister, Cecily, and their mother, Charlotte, are trying to leave Belgium, but are turned away when all the available trains are filled. With their father in the Belgian army, the three women are on their own. The girls attend a Catholic school run by nuns, while Charlotte stands in lines hoping to purchase food. 

One day, Charlotte is approached by Isabelle, who asks to come over for tea. She’s a member of the resistance and wants to enlist Elinor and Cecily for the cause. Their initial assignment  is safe enough, taking a picnic on a hill overlooking the rail tracks. Isabelle instructs them to bring art supplies and seem to be drawing the scenery. What they are really doing is taking note of all the German trains that pass and what they are carrying. Isabelle’s faith in the two girls, especially Elinor, is confirmed and their next task is much more dangerous, placing iron plates onto the tracks to derail the trains. Once again, the girls complete the job without being detected.

Jacqueline Winspear (Photo Credit: Holly Clark)

Going forward, Isabelle wants the girls to be better trained. That means teaching them how to shoot. Cecily balks, so Isabelle teaches her how to use a sharpened pencil. But it’s Elinor’s gun skills that will save them after their latest sabotage attempt. When one of the German soldiers they meet tries to rape Cecily, Elinor shoots him and his partner dead. Returning home, Isabelle knows the women are no longer safe in Belgium. With her contacts at the border, she’s able to get them to the Netherlands and then to Britain.

What they experienced in Belgium changed Charlotte and Cecily. Elinor is affected, too, but her reputation means she’s sought after when the unimaginable happens, Britain dragged into another war with Germany. This time around, a tragedy occurs that will haunt Elinor and lead her to step in years later to help her neighbors, Jim, Rose, and their daughter, Susie, when they become targets of the Mackie crime family.

Elinor knows how to use a gun (it comes in handy when confronting thugs sent by Mackie), and parachute out of a plane, but her physical skills are only one aspect of her talents. Her smarts win every time. She uses her non-threatening appearance as a middle-aged woman to follow suspects and gather information. She enlists help, but quickly intuits when someone cannot be trusted. Most of all she’s empathetic, not quick to judge others. A quality in short supply these days.

Has Elinor had enough of war? Will she return? We hope so.

The White Lady
Jacqueline Winspear