Christian Davies (1667 – 7 July 1739), born Christian Cavanagh, also known as Kit Cavanagh or Mother Ross, was an Irishwoman who joined the British Army in 1693 disguised as a man. She fought with the infantry in Flanders during the Nine Years War until 1697, then with the 4th Dragoons, later the 2nd Royal North British Dragoons and finally with the Scots Greys in the War of the Spanish Succession from 1701 to 1706. The author Daniel Defoe met her in old age when she was a Chelsea Pensioner and turned her story into a book entitled The Life and Adventures of Mrs. Christian Davies. Early life Christian "Kit" Cavanagh was born in 1667 in Dublin, Ireland. Throughout her life, she would use the surnames: Welsh, Welch, Ross, Jones, and Davies. She was the daughter of a local brewer. Although her parents were Protestants, they supported King James II during his campaign in Ireland. Her father served with the Jacobite Army, dying as a result of wounds at the Battle of Aughrim. Her family's property was confiscated as a result of their support for the Jacobite cause. As a teenager, she became involved with a relative of her mother's. Unable to care for her - some accounts have her fleeing her mother - Kit Cavanagh went to live with her aunt who ran a public house in Dublin. Soon, she met and married Richard Welsh (some sources have him down as Richard Walsh), a servant of her aunt's. After her aunt's death, she inherited the pub. Despite her relative youth, she ran the pub as her own, with Richard being one of the waiters. They had two children, and she was pregnant with a third when suddenly Richard disappeared in 1691. Searching for her lost husband Infantryman Under circumstances that are unclear, her husband ended up in the British Army. Some accounts have him volunteering while others have him being pressed into the army. In either event, he apparently attempted to write to her to inform her of his situation. Eventually, one of the letters made it to her, telling Cavanagh that he was in the British Army serving in Holland. Unwilling to simply lose her husband, Cavanagh placed her children in the care of her mother, cut her hair, and disguised herself as a man to join the British Army to find her lost husband. Initially, Cavanagh joined