In War and Peace: The Life and Times of Daphne Pearson, GC, the First Woman to Receive the George Cross

This book captures Daphne Pearson's richly interesting life as photographer, landscape designer, market gardener and war heroine. In May 1940, during the Battle of Britain, an aircraft crashed near the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force quarters at Detling in Kent. Corporal Daphne Pearson rushed out and, though she knew there were bombs on board, roused the pilot and helped him to get clear. When they were thirty yards clear the bomb went off and she threw herself over the pilot to protect him from the blast. It was because of this heroic action that she became the first woman to receive the George Cross, given for acts of courage in circumstances of extreme danger.