Today a THREAD of Scottish WWII sheroes who shone in adversity. 1st resistance fighter & nurse Mary Helen Young helped prisoners escape Nazi-occuped France. Killed in Ravensbruck, novelist, Simone St Clair, incarcerated with her said 'she kept her chin up' Mary we salute you./1

Inspirational Stella Reekie worked at the Red Cross after WW2 to help Jewish kids coming from Belsen.Later she was a missionary in Pakistan & from 1968 worked with immigrant communities in Glasgow. Her home became an open house despite bricks thrown thru the window Gaun Stella /2

Selma Mann from Glasgow was convener of the Care of Children Committee which brought more than 300 kids to Scotland from Nazi-controlled Europe. Indefatiguable, she saved their lives. Kids like these Selma, we salute you. /3

Jane Haining became matron of the Jewish Mission Girls Home in Budapest. In 1939 she returned, against advice, saying that if the children needed her in days of sunshine they wd need her in dark times too. She was sent to Auschwitz in 1944 where she died. So fucking proud. /4

These women were the daughters and nieces of Scotland's WWI heroines. They walked towards danger which is a long tradition for Scottish women who see need and stand for principle. We are not short of WWI foremothers. Here's a short thread of those https://twitter.com/sarasheridan/status/1245741471996805121

Other Scottish anti-fascists of the hera include Ethel 'Camelia' McDonald who broadcast in English for Barcelona Anarchist Radio during the Spanish Civil War. She was known as the 'Scots Scarlet Pimpernel'. Well done Ethel. /6

1 of the few statues in Scotland dedicated to a named woman is of Dolores Ibarruri, the Passionara who said 'Better to die on your feet than live forever on your knees.' It is dedicated to the memory of Scots who fought the fascists in Spain & is on the riverfront in Glasgow. /7

We come from centuries of amazing women who stood up for what they believed in again & again contributing to advances in equality representation, workers rights & all kinds of democracy. We wd not be where we are without them. Please fill your boots /8 https://twitter.com/sarasheridan/status/1204306155369062400

Covid, Brexit & the swing to the right is exhausting but our grannies fought actual fascists during wartime. We mustn't forget they changed the world & so can we. These are dark times. Let's shine some light & Yes I wrote a book, of course I did /9 https://www.historicenvironment.scot/archives-and-research/publications/publication/?publicationid=55960f63-3bd9-48e7-a2c9-aa6200d4f55c

Please feel free to add more lasses, cos that's the glory of threads - everyone gets to join in .... we are definitely not short of amazing foremothers. Thanks for reading to the end of my thread of quines who believed in hope over adversity and did the right thing. /10