Aimee McHardy (1886–1981)

Before World War I, Amy McHardy lived with William "Bill" Bond in Paris, where she began spelling her name Aimée in the French manner. Both were writers and journalists who shared a love of adventure. Bill Bond enlisted in the British Army at the start of the war and served at Gallipoli and Ypres, where he won the Military Cross. He then transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in 1916. After his training in England, he and Aimée got married, and he was posted to Treziennes, near St. Omer, France. Aimée waited for him at home in England. The couple wrote to each other every day, sometimes several times a day. Capt. Bond was killed when his plane was downed by German anti-aircraft fire in July 1917. Aimée published their letters and descriptions of daily life as An Airman's Wife: A True Story of Lovers Separated by War (known in the USA as My Airman Over There) in 1918. The book was hailed as a classic, then forgotten for decades, until being rediscovered by military writer and researcher Barry M. Marsden and reprinted in 2005.