Florentia Sale

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Florentia Sale, born Florentia Wynch on 13 August 1790 in Madras, India, was an Englishwoman who traveled the world with her husband, Sir Robert Henry Sale, a British army officer. She earned the nickname “the Grenadier in Petticoats” for his many campaigns with the army, visiting Mauritius, Burma, Afghanistan, India, and other parts of the British Empire. The Sales had three sons and seven daughters.

In 1842, during the First Anglo-Afghan War, Florentia and other women and children were taken prisoner after the British retreat from Kabul. They were held for nine months by Akbar Khan. Her youngest daughter Alexandrina and her husband, Lieutenant John Sturt, were with them; Sturt was fatally wounded in an attack in which Florentia herself was wounded in the wrist. The captives were released and rescued by Sir Richmond Shakespear on 17 September 1842. Florentia kept a diary of the experiences, which her husband sent to England; it was published the following year as A Journal of the Disasters in Afghanistan, 1841–42 and received wide attention. During her time in Afghanistan she collected ancient coins and donated 20 of them to the British Museum; one coin is still on display today.

Sir Robert Sale was killed in 1845 during the First Anglo-Sikh War, leaving Florentia a widow. She lived at Hampton Court Palace from 1846 to 1848 and spent much of the rest of her life in India. For her role as a prisoner and her husband’s service, she received a pension of £500 per year.

In 1853, Florentia traveled to the Cape of Good Hope for her health but died soon after arriving in Cape Town on 6 July 1853. She was buried in Somerset Road Cemetery, but after the cemetery was leveled, her remains were moved to Maitland Cemetery, where a marker marks her grave. Her tombstone reads: “underneath this stone reposes all that could die of Lady Sale.”