Pair: Miss Irene S. Bald, Voluntary Aid Detachment

British War Medal 1914-20 (I. S. Bald. V.A.D.); Voluntary Medical Service Medal, with Second Award Bar (Irene S. Bald.) edge bruise to latter, very fine (2) £60-£80

Irene Stephanie Bald was born in Brentwood, Essex, on 26 December 1880, the daughter of Captain R. B. Bald, 44th Foot, and joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment following the outbreak of the Great War, receiving her basic nurse training ‘Under Sisters in Wards’ at the London Hospital from 8 September to 8 December 1914. She then served at the Camberley Military Hospital until April 1915 when she embarked for Malta, serving at the Hamrun School Military Hospital from 8 May 1915 to 9 November 1915.

Hamrun School Military Hospital, the first hospital of its type in Malta, was equipped with 106 beds, and received its first patients on 10 June 1915, every bed being filled in less than an hour. Hamrun Hospital was run at first under the aegis of the British Red Cross Society, which defrayed the maintenance charges, providing also drugs and dressings. The nursing duties were performed by the No. 1 Mediterranean Nursing Unit - a voluntary body of ladies organised by Lady Ian Hamilton, with an officer of the R.A.M.C. in overall charge. The hospital was a success from the very beginning, and later in November, 1915, was entirely converted into an officers’ hospital with 80 beds, for which it was eminently suitable. In the same month Hamrun came entirely under the military authorities.

Miss Bald returned to England to serve once more at the Camberley Military Hospital in November 1915, and was subsequently employed at Hill Street Hospital and Garland Home Hospital until 30 March 1918. She is recorded in the 1939 Register, residing at ‘Fircroft, Crawley Hill,’ Stockwood, where she is described as ‘Commander VAD Surrey 12, BRCS’. She died at Donnington House Nursing Home, Camberley, on 2 June 1951.

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