The war correspondent and writer Martha Gellhorn (1908-1998), who reported on conflicts from the Spanish Civil War to the Vietnam War, has been commemorated with an English Heritage blue plaque. 

The blue plaque marks the distinctive Victorian red brick building on Cadogan Square in south west London where the journalist spent the last 28 years of her life. It was here that she entertained friends and admirers from the worlds of literature and journalism.

With this 'sparsely furnished' top floor flat as her base, Gellhorn continued writing and reporting into the 1990s, consolidating her reputation as a pioneering war correspondent and paving the way for future female journalists.

It was here she 'dispensed wisdom...and whisky'

Journalist and broadcaster John Simpson, said: 

'Martha Gellhorn would probably have said she didn't want a blue plaque outside her flat, but in fact I think she'd have been really pleased.  

'This place is important because it's where she dispensed wisdom, sharpness of understanding – and Famous Grouse whisky – to generations of writers and journalists who came here to learn from one of the most perceptive observers of her time.' 

Author Victoria Glendinning, said: 

'It is wonderful to be associated with the unveiling of a blue plaque for Martha Gellhorn, a woman who was afraid of nothing and nobody. Though she held her convictions with passion, she had no self-conceit and would I think be amazed by today's celebration.'

From the front line

Though her glamour and her stormy marriage to Ernest Hemingway undoubtedly contributed to her fame, Martha Gellhorn made her name writing about ordinary people living under the adversity of war.

Born in Saint Louis, Missouri, her career took off in 1934 when she covered the effects of the American Depression and, in a clear and simple style, expressed her fury at the treatment of the poor, weak and dispossessed.

Three years later, Gellhorn reported on the Spanish Civil War and as a partisan journalist – she always expressed disdain for objectivity – firmly supported the Republican cause.  

Gellhorn fought for her place in the male bastion of war reporting in the early 20th century, and is remembered as an indomitable correspondent. During the Second World War, circumventing the American military’s restrictions on female war correspondents, she stowed away on a hospital ship - an act that allowed her to report first-hand on the Allied invasion of France in 1944.

Gellhorn spent the rest of the war ducking and dodging from front to front, filing articles as she could. Among her works of fiction is The Wine of Astonishment (1948), her response to Dachau and her visit to the concentration camp shortly after its liberation. 

Later life in London

In 1996, 20 years after covering her last conflict, Gellhorn’s vehement opposition to the Vietnam War saw her return to the theatre of war and she penned a number of articles about the devastating effects on civilians.

Extremely fit and active for almost all of her life, Gellhorn was latterly incapacitated by cancer and near blindness, and in February 1998 she committed suicide at her London home.

Today, at this same flat, English Heritage will remember and celebrate this remarkable woman. 

Nominate someone for a blue plaque today.

Discover more about Martha Gellhorn on our blue plaques webpage.

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