Main content

F Tennyson Jesse

Played by Fenella Woolgar

Fact title Fact data
Date of birth
1 March 1888
Place of birth
Chislehurst, Kent
Age at outbreak of WW1
26
Occupation
Writer

Born Wynifred Margaret Jesse, she wrote under the pseudonym F Tennyson Jesse. She changed her name from Wynifred to Fryniwyd, which was shortened to Fryn, and incorporated the family name Tennyson – the poet Lord Tennyson was her great-uncle.

Tennyson Jesse was one of the first female war correspondents and went on to become a prominent journalist, criminologist and author. She was commissioned by the British Government to report on the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps working abroad in an attempt dampen rumours about promiscuity.

Fryn badly damaged her hand by catching her hand in an aeroplane propeller. She wore a prosthetic and in trying to cope with the injury’s lasting pain she became addicted to morphine.

Related Links