Nurses Awarded Military Medals

[laughton]

And there I am going through boxes of family photographs, almost all of which are now filed (Laughton Family Tree) and in my UNKNOWN pile there is a picture of Sister Dorothy Ann Laughton. I punch in the name to see what shows up and here I am back at the GWF .... amazing!

I took a brief look at the genealogy searches but decided not to get too carried away, just in case someone has already researched this nursing sister. I have no idea if it is one of "Our Laughton Clan", it was just in the packages that are arriving from around the world. I suspect it is not, as our line of Laughton's came from the Orkney Islands and her name does not show as of yet in any of my research.

However, here is the photograph:

And one that I don't think Steve has mentioned above ( )

Dorothy Ann Laughton, Territorial Force Nursing Service

[RayRob]

I would strongly suspect that what Daddy Plumer was presenting was the ribbon of the MM and not the actual item. This would almost certainly not have been available at that time or place.

Many years ago I did a complete loist of all the MMs won by the FANY and also a list of all the mostly ungazetted French and Belgian awards they received, taken from the records of the Corps. Why they persist in quoting the incorrect figures from Irene Ward's history I don't know. In all their lists they invariably miss out Christina Urquhart.

Still, you can lead a horse............... etc.

Norman

[RayRob]

I was interested to find Norman's mention (reproduced below ) of Christina Urquhart ...

As I am researching this person , I seek the citation which accompanied her Military Medal ?

I also wonder where and when the presentation took place ?

I have the bare facts , taken from the British Journal of Nursing , March 29 , 1919 :

"Brave Women Rewarded

THE MILITARY MEDAL

First Aid Nursing Yeomanry . - Driver Evelyn Cridlan , Driver Mary Marshall , and Driver Christina Urquhart."

From Norman's Post To The Classic Threads Forum -

'Many years ago I did a complete list of all the MMs won by the FANY and also a list of all the mostly ungazetted French and Belgian awards they received, taken from the records of the Corps. Why they persist in quoting the incorrect figures from Irene Ward's history I don't know. In all their lists they invariably miss out Christina Urquhart.

Still, you can lead a horse............... etc.

Norman '

[Sue Light]

It was announced in the London Gazette dated 25 November 1918, the citation reading:

For gallantry during a bombing raid by the enemy. This lady performed most efficient service in conveying the wounded to hospital during the raid. She showed complete disregard for her personal safety, and her conduct was an example to all.

Sue

[James Blonde]

Casualty Clearance

The WW1 Nurses

by Roslyn Bell

One of the least publicized of all Army services is the Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps, which has given more than 100 years of dedicated work to caring for Australian servicemen in times of war and its aftermath.

The history of the Corps dates back to 1898 when a small nursing service was formed in Sydney. It consisted of one Lady Superintendent and twenty-four nurses. The first actual service of nurses with Australian troops was during the Boer War (1898-1903).

When war broke out in 1914, the Australian Government raised the first Australian Imperial Force for overseas service. The nurses to staff the medical units, which formed an integral part of the AIF, were recruited from the Australian Army Nursing Service Reserve and from the civil nursing profession.

Sister Alice Ross-King, ARRC, MM

http://www.anzacday.org.au/history/ww1/anecdotes/casualty.html

http://www.anzacday.org.au/justsoldiers/ross-king.pdf

Connaught Stranger.

[RayRob]

On 13/09/2011 at 17:36, Sue Light said:

It was announced in the London Gazette dated 25 November 1918, the citation reading:

For gallantry during a bombing raid by the enemy. This lady performed most efficient service in conveying the wounded to hospital during the raid. She showed complete disregard for her personal safety, and her conduct was an example to all.

Sue

Here below is the message I received in my e-mail inbox , addressed correctly to me ie RayRob :-

"RayRob,

Connaught Stranger has just posted a reply to a topic that you have subscribed to titled "Nurses Awarded Military Medals".

The topic can be found here:

 

However it seems that it was the Major-General ( Sue Light ) rather than the Lieutenant Colonel ( Connaught Stranger ) who replied ?

[RayRob]

It was announced in the London Gazette dated 25 November 1918, the citation reading:

For gallantry during a bombing raid by the enemy. This lady performed most efficient service in conveying the wounded to hospital during the raid. She showed complete disregard for her personal safety, and her conduct was an example to all.

Sue

My grateful thanks for this information - it helps me with my interest in Christine Margaret Calder Urquhart ..

I have also ascertained that Christina Margaret Calder Urquhart married an Australian surgeon , Claude Witherington Stump (1891 - 1971 ) , at Edinburgh , Scotland , after the War .

It's possible that the couple, one a surgeon the other a F.A.N.Y. Driver , met in the field , during World war One. They both served in France.

Christina Margaret Calder Stump died in New South Wales , Australia , in 1965.

She was born about 1894 , possibly in Scotland.

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/stump-claude-witherington-11797

[laughton]

Take us forward to 2012 and my cousin John Ivan Laughton (Nelson B.C. Canada) sends me a box with HUNDREDS of pictures and documents. I am the current family genealogist as Uncle Paul Laughton is deceased and John Ivan is ageing - he is protecting the family treasures!

A number of WWI era pictures but this newspaper clipping caught my eye as I have covered most of the male Laughton men in the Great War but not the women. Sue and I have corresponded over the Sister Mary Paterson matter, so I remembered to check her posts.

This is the clipping from the newspaper in the box, obviously UK based looking at the advertisements on the side.

John Ivan's father and uncle both served in the Great War and this picture was in the collection of William Muir Laughton of the Ambulance Corp - so perhaps he came across this nurse and thought she might be a relative? I have no record of a Sir John Know Laughton in my search (Laughton Family Tree) so I have to assume that this was "a matter of interest". On the other hand, I can not state that she was not a family member.

I did a Google search and her medals appear to be for sale here:

http://www.dnw.co.uk/medals/auctionarchive/viewspecialcollections/itemdetail.lasso?itemid=56872

And one that I don't think Steve has mentioned above ( )

Dorothy Ann Laughton, Territorial Force Nursing Service

On the night of 19th August 1917, the Asylum at St. Venant was hit by bombs from enemy aeroplanes. The Asylum was at the time occupied partly by civilian insanes, mostly old and helpless women, and partly by No.57 British Casualty Clearing Station. A large number of insane patients were badly wounded and some killed; the buildings were ruined; all lights went out, and the lunatics scattered in their terror in all directions within the grounds. If it had not been for the good work of the civil female attendants and the Nursing Sisters of the Casualty Clearing Station, a scene of absolute chaos would have arisen. Many patients, poor helpless insane females, were buried under the ruins of the buildings and had to be dug out. All the injured were operated on and otherwise attended to in C.C.S.

The following Sisters deserve special mention for the help which they rendered: Sister D. A. Laughton, (Sister in Charge), Sister M. Pickburn and Sister M. Lambert. Miss Laughton's conduct was specially noticeable; she was herself knocked down by the blast of a bursting bomb, and yet is was mainly by her calm but firm manner that order was restored and the treatment of the injured was begun so rapidly. For her action that night she was rewarded with the Military Medal.

Sue

[Sue Light]

In her obituary in The Times in September 1954 she is said to have been 'the third and youngest daughter of the late Sir John Knox Laughton' but that's not quite true as she was the youngest daughter of his first wife Isabella Carr of Dunfermline - he later married again and had more daughters. And although Dix Noonan Webb mention her taking a post in Hampstead Hospital, she was acutally a partner/owner in a nursing home - the Hampstead Medical and Surgical Nursing Home and Dowsing Institution, where she returned to work after the war.

Sue

[Guest drsusancohen]

Would anyone be generous, willing and able to provide me with a high res image of the RRC and ARRC for submission and possible inclusion in my forthcoming book, Medical Services in the First World War (Shire 2014) ? I'd be very grateful indeed.....Thanks, Susan Cohen

[Sue Light]

Hello Susan

I didn't realise you needed the RRC/ARRC when you mentioned the MM - I've got a George V ARRC and box, but unfortunately not a RRC. I'll send an image of the former tomorrow or Monday.

Sue

[royalredcross]

If you all want to hang on for a couple of months, my next book Honours and Awards to Women - The Military Medal is currently going through the final stages before going to the printer. I'm only doing a very short run as befits a geekish book of this nature, but it should answer most questions.Norman

[Sepoyjack]

Does anyone have a photo or other information about the wartime work of Sister Lucy Maud Toller QAIMNS, RRC, MM beyond the profile in the QARANC web site?

: http://www.qaranc.co.uk/militarymedal.php

She served for 25 years, with time in Hong Kong before her BEF service, and she served in Turkey and the Rhineland afterwards.

[Sue Light]

Her service file can be downloaded from The National Archives for £3.36 - it runs to 177 pages.

Lucy Toller

Sue

[Guest]

Just reading an article on Catherine Murray Roy. C.B.E., R.R.C., M.M. The Matron-in-Chief, Q.A.I.M.N.S., died at the Western Infirmary, Glasgow, on 14th August 1976. Appointed on 3rd August 1909, she was Matron-in-Chief from 1938-1940.

Together with six other members of the Nursing Service, she was awarded the M.M. "for conspicuous gallantry displayed in the performance og her duties on the occasion of hostile raids on Casualty Clearing Stations in the Field" in the L.G. 17 October 1917. She was mentioned in despatches (L.G. 29 May 1917), awarded the R.R.C. (L.G. 1 January 1919), and received the C.B.E. in 1940. She was also the holder of the French Medaille Militaire des Epidemies.

Andy

I believe she also was awarded a 1914 star, which, I imagine is quite rare?

Mike

[Sue Light]

There were many hundreds of military nurses in France in time to receive the 1914 Star, and in addition more than 3,000 awarded to members of the British Red Cross and some miscellaneous units such as the Women's Hospital Corps and American Ambulance. Having said that, about half of the BRCS awardees were men.

Sue

[Guest]

Thanks Sue. An MM and 1914 Star to a nurse quite rare?

mike

[Sue Light]

The MM was extremely rare - (Norman will hang me for getting the number wrong) but 129-ish in total, and not all those to nurses by any means. So yes, the combination made rare by the scarcity of the MM.

Sue

[Guest]

Thanks again Sue. I think she was quite a remarkable woman.

Mike

[Sue Light]

(Jumps up on hobby horse)

Mike

There were so many remarkable nurses within the British military nursing services, including Catherine Roy, but unfortunately they are rarely written about -try asking someone to name one. Books and the media so often revolve around the few 'loose cannon'women who have become surrounded by drama and tales of derring-do. I have a feeling that the Centenary will not improve things.

Sue

[Guest]

" There were so many remarkable nurses " Of course that is true. Many of them must have suffered nightmares too. Keep up your good work Sue.

Mike

[Sepoy]

There is a nice WW1 Military Medal group to Staff Nurse Eckett TFNS, is coming up at the next Bonham's Medal Auction, which was awarded for bravery during an air raid.

http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/20810/lot/191/?page_anchor=r1%3D325%26m1%3D1

Sepoy

[Sepoyjack]

Thanks Sue

I'm intrigued about the 177 pp of her service record. I read through the hard copy at TNA and I wouldn't have guessed that there were half that number. But there was a lot relating to an accident in Belfast when she broke both bones in her lower right leg.

Frustratingly little about her time in France beyond a list of her various postings. Nothing to add insight to her RRC or MM.

And yes, she had 1914 Star with clasp. Also MID and Medaille des Epidemies en Vermeil. Quite a lady!

Richard

[Sue Light]

Richard

I think in some ways the files are often a disappointment, but I always get really excited just to find a form I've never seen before! And yes, I don't have her file here, but have looked at it in the past and made notes, and the broken leg was rather prominent.

I have all the details and images here from the Royal Red Cross Register. There are almost no meaningful citations for the award during the Great War, and nearly all were given on the recommendation of the Matron-in-Chief for cumulative good work and loyal service. Lucy Toller is among quite a long list dated 1/1/17, under the heading:

'The undermentioned Ladies are awarded the decoration of the Royal Red Cross in recognition of their valuable services with the Armies in the Field.'

Norman Gooding (royalredcross on the Forum) is in the process of publishing a book on Military Medal awards to women, so maybe there will be further information forthcoming.

Sue

[Sepoyjack]

Thanks Sue

Nice to have the definitive words about Lucy and her RRC - even if somewhat short.

Disappointment, yes; but it is fun when something unexpected crawls out of the file's woodwork. I wish I could find out something about her life after QAIMNS. She lived for another 30 years or so.

Someone booked the Royal Red Cross Register ahead of me when I was last at Kew. I will try again.

Richard