A remarkable Irish woman and soldier

Anne Holland

Christian 'Kit' Cavenaugh, born in 1667 in Dublin, grew up on a Leixlip farm. A dragoon in the Marlborough Wars, Kit led an adventurous life, courting women, fighting duels and arguing a paternity suit before the truth became known: Kit was a woman. After her husband and father of her three children was press-ganged into the English army to fight in the European wars of the early eighteenth century, Kit disguised herself as a man and enlisted to find him. When she finally came face to face with him in 1704, she was enraged to find him in the arms of a Dutch woman. Kit's adventures did not end there ...