Stephen Barker – Warrior Women of the English Civil War, 1642-51

Our August speaker is Stephen Barker, who has spoken to our Probus group
before about the Civil War in Oxfordshire; he has also led three walking tours at
Oxford, Edgehill and Naseby. This time he will present a talk on Warrior Women of the English Civil War. 

Stephen is an independent Heritage Advisor who works with museums, universities
and other heritage organisations to design exhibitions and make funding applications.
He worked at Banbury Museum and the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum. Stephen has delivered projects for University of Oxford, Oxford Brookes University and the
Battlefields Trust, amongst many others. He is a Trustee of the Bucks Military Museum
Trust and is an Arts Council Museum Mentor. He is the author of ‘Lancashire’s
Forgotten Heroes’ –  the 8th East Lancs in the Great War and ‘The Flying Sikh: Hardit Singh Malik’.

Warrior Women of the English Civil War, 1642-51

During the English Civil War women were not meek bystanders who took no part in the conflict, but actively participated in a variety of ways, challenging the orthodoxies
of their day and perhaps our own preconceptions. This talk looks briefly at six women
who took part in the fighting, under-took spying missions and negotiated deals with politicians. It also touches briefly upon cross-dressing soldiers; widows seeking compensation from Parliament and political activists.