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PoppyAppeal




Military Medal Awards To QA Nurses


The QAIMNS and QARANC nurses who have been awarded the Military Medal and other medals for bravery


Military Medal The Military Medal (MM) was first established by King George V on 25 March 1916 to award Warrant Officers and Other Ranks for bravery in battle on land. It was awarded to members of the British Army and related services such as the QAIMNS. It was also awarded to equivalent members of the Commonwealth countries. The Commander in Chief would recommend recipients for the Military Medal.


QAIMNS Medals

A collector of British military medals has purchased the above collection of QAIMNS nurses medals from the First World War and needs some help in traced their history. In the photo above the medals and ribbons are from left to right the Associate Royal Red Cross Medal (ARRC), Military Medal (MM), 1915 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal and the Service Medal to the Order of St John. The owner can be narrowed down a bit because only 122 Military Medals were awarded to female nurses of the First World War. Some recipients of the MM are described further below. The owner hopes to cross reference the recipients of the MM with ARRC recipients and then check those results with Clerkenwell for the award of the Service Medal to the Order of St John. If you can help then please contact me.

First World War Nurses Medals



QAs were given officer status since 1904 but no rank so were able to be awarded the Military Medal. In World War One the Matron In Chief of the British Expeditionary Force, Dame Maud McCarthy, would include one of her official cards with the words With Heartiest Congratulations printed above her signature.

Commissioned Officers were awarded the Military Cross (MC), which could also be awarded to Warrant Officers.

Personnel that were awarded the Military Medal could use the letters MM after their name.

MM The Military Medal was silver and had the face of the Monarch on the front of the 36mm diameter medal and the ribbon was dark blue, with three white and two red stripes at the centre. Subsequent acts of bravery would be awarded with a silver laurelled bar.

During a review in 1993 the Military Medal was discontinued and all ranks could thereafter be awarded the Military Cross.



Sisters In Arms: British Army Nurses Tell Their Story

Sisters In Arms: British Army Nurses Tell Their Story by Nicola Tyrer is an account of the QAs during the two World Wars. It includes first hand accounts of the Queen Alexandra nurses who were in the dressing stations, casualty clearing stations and field hospitals of Dunkirk, D Day, the fall of Singapore and many more locations where the QAIMNS served.

Buy Now.

Sisters In Arms: British Army Nurses Tell Their Story is also available as a talking book read by the actress Barbara Flynn and Sian Thomas. Buy Now.


View More British Army Nursing Books - with free delivery available.





Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Holders of the Military Medal


Ethel Garrett

Sister Ethel Garrett was awarded the Military Medal (MM) during the First World War for her brave actions during an enemy air raid on Number 37 General Hospital which was attached to the Serbian army. Together with QA Reserve sisters Rebecca Calhoun and Margaret Smith Dewar they tried to provide cover for their patients. Sister Dewar was struck in the chest by a piece of bomb casing that had exploded nearby as she knelt over a wounded soldier. Sister Calhoun went to her aid but she died in her arms. She herself did not escape injury during this air raid and was hit by a bomb splinster as she attended patients. Sister Garrett attended a soldier who had been wounded by a German bomb and had sustained a compound fracture of his skull. She risked her own life to administer life saving first aid. Whilst she was doing this 14 bombs fell within an 80 yard radius of their location.

Ethel Garrett was a member of the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve QAIMN(R) and served at No 37 General Hospital at Vertekop, Solonika during WWI. She was also awarded the French Croix-de-Guerre and the Serbian Military Medal For Valour from the Crown Prince of Serbia (also awarded to Sister Calhoun and was the first time it was awarded to women). She died in February 1972. She was 89 years old.


During The Great War 65 Military Medals were awarded to military nurses. Nursing Sisters of the QAIMNS had no rank structure during the Great War so were awarded the Military Medal rather than the Officer equivalent of the Military Cross (MC).


Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Medical Corps Holders of the Military Medal



In his book Wartime Nurse: One Hundred Years from the Crimea to Korea 1854-1954 Eric Taylor documents two nurses who were involved in a bombing during the First World War that killed one QA and badly injured another. They administered emergency first aid during the air raid and ensured their safe evacuation before reporting back to duty in the operating theatre. They were awarded the Military Medal for displaying the most wonderful courage. Unfortunately the names of the QAIMNS nursing sisters are not cited.


If you know of a QA who has been awarded the Military Medal then please contact me so that I can update this page with more information.




A British Army Nurse In the Korean War

A newly published book about the QARANC is A British Army Nurse In The Korean War by Elizabeth Jilly McNair A British Army Nurse In the Korean War by Elizabeth Jilly McNair. QA Sister McNair saw active service in Korea and Japan and this book is based on her letters home and photographs she took during her 18 months spent nursing at the British Commonwealth General Hospital in Kure, Japan and the British Commonwealth Zone Medical Unit in Seoul, Korea. Buy Now!


If you would like to contribute to this page, suggest changes or inclusions to this website or would like to send me a photograph then please e-mail me.

The photos and pictures on this page have been kindly sent to us for inclusion on this page. If you would like to contribute photographs then please contact us.


Findextrawork

Find Extra Work Since leaving the QA's we have done an assortment of self employed work and jobs, some which only take an hour a week, others have been full time. We have written about these at our other website Findextrawork at www.findextrawork.co.uk where we share the information for free to help others with information and resources about earning more money. Visit Findextrawork for more information.


For the official Army QARANC webpage please go to
www2.army.mod.uk/qaranc/index.html
For the QARANC Association website please go to
www2.army.mod.uk/qaranc/qaranc_assn/index.htm




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