Leslie Joy Whitehead (Serbian Cyrillic: Лесли Џој Вајтхед, February 26, 1895 – June 5, 1964), known as Josephine, Joy, or Jo, was a Canadian female soldier during the First World War. Whitehead was one of a number of women from the western world to enter the frontline as a combatant during World War I after she enlisted as a man in the Royal Serbian Army at the age of 22. During her time on the Balkan Front, she would go on to work as a military engineer, a guard for the Scottish Women's Hospitals, and become a prisoner of war under the Bulgarian Army following the invasion of Belgrade on October 8, 1915.

Whitehead was born to Charles Ross Whitehead [fr], a cotton manufacturer from Montmorency, Quebec, and Winifred Thomas Stevenson. She grew up with her two younger brothers, William and Pillans in the city of Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada.^[1] Though little is known of Whitehead's early years, her pursuits in adult life centred largely around what would have been deemed traditionally male activities. It has been widely reported that in her young adulthood Whitehead took a keen interest in shooting, driving, and the great outdoors. Prior to the start of the First World War, Whitehead spent a significant amount of time living alone in the Canadian wilderness. According to an article from January 8, 1916 in the Manitoba Free Press, Winnipeg, Whitehead lived an "outdoor life" for "a couple of years […] in the Laurentian Mountains at Val Morina".^[2] The Toronto Daily Star also reported that "Miss Whitehead" was "extremely fond of outdoor life, wore semi-male garb on her tramps through the woods, and could handle a canoe or shoot better than most men".^[3]

At some point during her time as a prisoner of war (c. 1916), Whitehead met and married a lieutenant of the Royal Serbian Army named Vukota Vojinović (a.k.a. Vojinovitch/Voyinovitch) from the city of Užice.^[14] The pair returned to Canada where Whitehead gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Mila, in October 1917. The couple went on to have a second daughter in 1922 named Winifred Dana, followed by a son named Miladin (later Dean) in 1923.^{[citation needed]} By this time the young family had travelled together to Naples, Italy, as well as to Patras, Greece. By the 1930s, Whitehead's marriage to Vukota had deteriorated and the pair were divorced. During this time period, she gave birth to a second son, David John Vaughan. By 1937 Whitehead had re-married a man named George Andrew Vaughan. The pair lived together in British Columbia, Canada and remained married until George's death on October 9, 1944. It is not known if the couple had children together.^[8]

Whitehead died a widow in Princeton, British Columbia on June 5, 1964, aged 69, after developing a carcinoma of the stomach.^[15]

• Milunka Savić – Serbian war heroine
• Olive Kelso King – Australian adventurer and WWI ambulance driver (1885–1958)
• Ecaterina Teodoroiu – World War I soldier and nurse
• Maria Bochkareva – Russian female soldier and counter revolutionary
• Flora Sandes – First World War soldier and nurse (1876–1956)
• Women in the military – Women participating in military activities
• Emancipation of women – Range of socio-political movements and ideologies