Need inspiration? Today a THREAD of our ordinary foremothers who shone in a crisis. This lass, Jane Whyte, saved 15 ppl's lives by diving into the sea to secure a rope thrown from a steamer that was going down in 1884. She got a medal and £10 (which she spent on her 8 kids) /1

Next shero survived a shipwreck during WWII only to be imprisoned in a Japanese POW camp. Dr Margaret Thomson used her medical knowledge to keep the other inmates alive. In the 80s she advised on the TV show Tenko but it wasn't a show to her, she'd lived it. Wow. /2

Gaelic speaking Jacobite Anne MacKay, was tortured by redcoats to give up the names of her collaborators after sheltering soldiers fleeing Culloden in her house. She was finally freed when a group of more upper-class women petitioned for her release. Such. Sisters. /3

Elsie Knocker & Mairi Chisolm set up a clinic in a cellar nr the front line during WWI. They picked up injured men off the battlefield on a motorcycle while under fire. I mean, bloody hell. They were also mustard gassed. Mairi said it did her insides in for a long time. WHAT? /4

Also this WWI nuse - Evelina Haverfield set up an orphanage in Serbia with her partner Vera Home (known as Jack) after the war. Before it, she was a suffragette who assaulted a police officer who tried to remove her from a demo. Such. Bravery. /5

We're coming down with these sheroquines. This is Hebridean Helen MacDougall. She was captured with Dr Elsie Inglis when Serbia fell. The women were released in enemy territory & walked over the Alps to safety. Then went back to the front line to provide medical care. Wow. /6

Stella Reekie worked with the Red Cross to rehabilitate the kids who came out of Belsen concentration camp. She returned to Glasgow to work with immigrant communities. I can't imagine what she saw and how she coped. Amazing. /7

Catherine Watson died trying to rescue two children who were swept out by the tide at North Berwick. They were later rescued by the coastguard. This cross is a monument to her bravery. We don't have enough memorials to our brave women, obvs... /8

This lass studied in Edinburgh (I'm claiming her as ours) Kesavaloo Naidoo founded the passive resistance campaign in South Africa. She survived 17 jail terms before coming back to the UK to live in exile. Her book, Coolie Doctor is a chilling portrait of the apartheit regime. /9

Resistance fighter Mary Helen Young helped British prisoners escape Nazi-occuped France. She was killed in Ravensbruck concentration camp in the gas chambers. French novelist, Simone St Clair, incarcerated with her said 'she kept her chin up ... (we) liked the Scottish nurse'/10

I cd go on & on cos we come from screeds of amazing, brave women. This thread is dedicated to the medical staff on today's front lines, those working in the food industry, the politicians trying to make it work, ppl driving trucks & keeping the postal service going.Thank you. /11

Twitter is a great place but I'm turning off for today - the next few weeks are going to be tough. Stay safe, everybody and do your best for your family and your community. We need each other. Let's make our grannies proud of us for a change. /12