Pair: Miss Rose Norton-Harper, who served as an ambulance driver on the Western Front with the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry Corps

Victory Medal 1914-19 (R. N. Harper. F.A.N.Y.C.); First Aid Nursing Yeomanry Service Medal 1914-18, ribands somewhat frayed, generally very fine (2) £140-£180

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the Rob Campbell Collection relating to Clevedon, Somerset.

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Rose Mary Norton-Harper was the daughter of Richard Norton-Harper, a chartered accountant, and was born in Richmond before moving with her family to Clevedon. She served as a civilian nurse at Oaklands Auxiliary Hospital, Clevedon, 1914-1917, before serving as a Driver with the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry Corps on the Western Front from April 1918 (entitled to British War Medal). She is noted as being ‘Mentioned’ for her services, but this is unconfirmed. Miss Norton-Harper subsequently returned to Oaklands, and was the local ambulance driver (the ambulance being called ‘Jacko’) until 1921. A letter from her that was published in the Clevedon Mercury and Courier gives the following:

‘As late honorary driver of the above ambulance, I feel compelled to write and protest against the general opinion that this ambulance was, and still is, an encumbrance to the town. The car did a great deal of good work at the local Red Cross Hospital during the war and after my return home in 1919 I took entire charge of it until April of last year when I felt compelled to resign on account of various remarks I heard.

During that time I drove it 76 times to Bristol and various other places, including Woolwich, travelling over 2,000 miles. Two or three times I have been called out late at night and on Sundays as well. Upon several occasions the causes taken in needed no delay, and in an hour were at the BRI or BGH, which could not have been done had a Bristol ambulance been phoned for as suggested. All my journeys have been at the request of the MO’s of the town, and the cases could not have been transported by ordinary vehicle.

The ambulance failed me only once, and that was a temporary trouble upon a return journey to Clevedon. I venture to think I have had a little more experience of ambulance driving than most people living here, and I realised the need of such a car, if only to take cases to the Cottage Hospital.’

Both Miss Norton-Harper’s brother and her brother-in-law were killed during the Great War, and in later life she moved to live with her sister in Teignmouth, Devon. She died there in August 1953.

Sold with a bound copy of The Safety Pin, 1917-18, being all the magazine editions of the Red Cross Hospitals of the Long Ashton District; with extensive copied research, including a photographic image of recipient in uniform.