Laura Secord (1775 – 1868)

Laura Ingersoll Secord was a hero of the War of 1812 who walked 32 kilometres out of American-occupied territory to warn British forces of a looming attack by the Americans. Born to rebel parents in Massachusetts, Secord moved to the Niagara region of Upper Canada with her family in 1795. Soon after, she married Loyalist James Secord, who sustained a serious injury at the Battle of Queenston Heights. While he was recovering, the Americans invaded the Niagara Peninsula. Early on the morning of June 22, 1813, Secord set out on her long walk to British-controlled territory to inform Lieutenant James FitzGibbon of an impending American attack. Her intervention helped British troops and their Mohawk allies prevent an American invasion at the Battle of Beaver Dams. Secord's act of courage went unrecognized until 1860, when the visiting Edward, Prince of Wales, presented the heroine, now widowed and living in poverty, with £100 for her patriotic service.

"Mrs. Secord was a person of slight and delicate frame; and made the effort in weather excessively warm and I dreaded at the time that she must suffer in health in consequence of fatigue and anxiety, she having been exposed to danger from the enemy, through whose line of communication she had to pass.”
(Lt James FitzGibbon)