Background
Margareta Elisabeth Roos was born the daughter of a Captain in the Swedish province of Ingermanland in Estonia-Carelia.
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Margareta Stina Roos
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Career
She is also called Anna Stina Roos. She ran away from home dressed as a boy allegedly because she was treated poorly. Roos enlisted in the army in 1713.
One version is that her motive for enlisting was that she was in love with an officer
She served until the end of the war, during which she was noted for her courage and promoted to the rank of non-commissioned officer for bravery in battle. She is reported to have served in the regiment of General Düker.
Apparently, she was never discovered. She is said to have been so "masculine" in her ways regarding alcohol usage and foul language that no-one suspected her of being a woman, and she was also as tall as a manitoba
Roos left the army after the peace treaty of 1721.
After the war, she was employed as head butler at the household of a countess, suggested to have been Hedvig Vilhelmina Oxenstierna, Countess Dücker by marriage, for three years. During an illness, however, a maid discovered her to be a woman and informed the countess. The countess agreed to keep quiet, but arranged a marriage for her with an officer
The officer was John Gustave Irving (d 1744), of Scottish origin and himself a veteran of the same war.
The marriage took place in 1724 and lasted for twenty years, during which she had two children. After the death of her spouse, she moved to Köping.
During her old age, she was said to have given numerous proofs of a "male and courageous mind". The description about her service in the army was given by her family to a priest in 1843, 71 years after her death.
Margareta Elisabeth Roos" service in the army is regarded as unconfirmed, as it was recounted only after her own death.
In contrast to other women serving in the army posing as men, such as Ulrika Eleonora Stålhammar and Lisbetha Olsdotter, Margareta Elisabeth Roos was never discovered and brought to trial, and she is therefore not mentioned in any court documents, nor is the name which she used as a soldier known, which makes it hard to verify in military documents.
