Marie Marvingt
Marie Marvingt was a French athlete, mountaineer, aviator and journalist. She won numerous prizes for her sporting achievements including those of swimming, cycling, mountain climbing, winter sports, ballooning, flying, riding, gymnastics, athletics, rifle shooting and fencing. She was the first woman to climb many of the peaks in the French and Swiss Alps. She was a recordbreaking balloonist, an aviator and during World War I became the first woman to fly missions during conflict as a pilot. She was also a qualified surgical nurse, was the first trained and certified Flight Nurse in the world, and worked for the establishment of air ambulance services throughout the world. According to a French source, it was M. de ChteauThierry de Beaumanoir who, in 1903, named Marie Marvingt as La fiance du danger. She herself used the epithet for an autobiographical publication in 1948. It is also included on the commemorative plaque on the faade of the house where she lived atPlace de la Ca
Marie Marvingt was born at sixthirty in the evening ofFebruary 1875 in Aurillac, the Chief Town of the Cantal dpartement of France. Her fathers full name was Flix Constant Marvingt and her mother was named Elisabeth Brusquin. They had married in Metz, Moselle, Lorraine onJuly 1861. At the date of birth they were recorded as forty eight and thirty two, respectively. Her father was Receveur principal des Postes roughly equivalent to Senior Postmaster. The full names of the subject, as recorded on the certificate, are Marie Flicie Elisabeth Marvingt.
Source: Wikipedia