Real Life Characters - Part 2

Florence Simonton Farnsworth

Doktora Farnsworth is a fictitious British doctor who appears in my third novel Slogans.  She is a combination of two very strong women: Florence Farmborough, an Englishwoman who served in World War One with the Russian army, and an anonymous Russian doctor who saved two young Austrian girls from a horrible fate.

* * *

"The woman doctor stared at Kataya's comrades and saw their heads turn in shame.  In a flash, her riding crop lashed out across the tall soldier's back.  The other four tried to scramble away but the doctor was too fast.  She waded into their ranks and rained blow upon blow down on their backs as one would to a pack of dogs, and like oft beaten dogs, the men cowered and took the beating without a whimper.  Kataya's comrades had joined an ever-growing number of Russian soldiers who discovered Doctor Florence Simonton Farnsworth would not tolerate the abuse of women."

* * *

Florence Farmborough

Several generations before Helen Reddy belted out the lyrics to "I Am Woman," a young Englishwoman showed mettle few men could equal.  At the age of 21, Florence Farmsborough left her home in Buckinghamshire, England to teach English in Russia.  Six years later, in 1914, she volunteered as nurse in the Russian Army.  For the next four years she ministered to military and civilian sick and wounded.  All the while, Florence carried her notebook and camera, chronicling what she witnessed.  In 1974 she wrote and published her photos and commentaries under the title, With the Army of the Tsar: A Nurse at the Russian Front in the War and Revolution, 1914-1918.  I used her vivid descriptions of that era as the basis for many of my stories in Banners.  In my third book, Slogans, Florence became the English doctor serving along side Kataya and Doctor Zhivago.

Florence Farmsbrough

The end of World War One was not the end of the real Florence's military career.  She went on to serve with General Franco's forces during the Spanish Civil and the Women's Voluntary Service in the Battle of Britain.  For a full history of this great woman's life, Google her.  After one hell of a ride, Florence stopped roaring in 1978 at the age of 91. 

Russian nurses sleeping under a haystack on the Eastern Front
Photo by Florence Farmbrough

 Russian Medical Officer

In the spring of 1945 the Russian's counteroffensive against Germany had rolled across Eastern Europe into Austria.  Following fierce fighting, the Reds captured Vienna and its surrounding suburbs and had moved beyond.  Soon after the gunfire ceased, twenty year-old Elfriede Schonarer and her younger sister Elsie ventured from the safety of their cellar in a search for food.  Their scavenging had just begun when they heard the dreaded words, "Frau komm!"  The soldiers now surrounding the two were not from the disciplined battalions of front line troops who had continued on against the Nazi war machine, but rear echelon rabble bent on punishing Germans in the worse possible ways.

Elfriede and Elsie's fate seemed sealed as the two were herded into bombed out structure.  Elfriede halted and stepped toward her attackers determined to be the first victim, thus perhaps sparing her sister.  As Elfriede closed her eyes and rough hands pawed her, there boomed the sound of a female voice shouting, "Sobakie - Dogs," accompanied by the thud of impacted flesh.  Elfriede opened her eyes to the sight of a female Russian medical officer slashing her countrymen across their faces and backs with a horse whip.  Again the doctor shouted and again her blows fell, forcing the men to retreat.

In halting German, the officer calmed the two sisters and offered them her protection.  "You are my aides," she told them, "stay with me and you will be safe."

Russian Medical Officer - 1945

Several months later, Vienna was divided into four Allied occupation zones. The Schonarer home fell into that governed by the United States.  At a dance attended by servicemen from the various occupiers, Elfriede met an enlisted man from the United States.  Eventually, PFC John Pribish won the heart of the Austrian woman and brought her back to America as my aunt.  All this thanks to heroism of an unknown Russian medical officer.

Elfriede Schonarer Pribish

I hope my character, Doctor Florence Simonton Farnsworth, does these two women justice.