Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War A.R.R.C. group of three awarded to Sister Rosina E. Bowyer, Territorial Force Nursing Service, who suffered a heart attack as a consequence of spending several hours in the water following the sinking of the troopship Transylvania when that vessel was torpedoed in the Mediterranean in May 1917. Despite this she went on to become Matron at the Royal Infirmary, Bristol, serving until 1946.

Royal Red Cross, 2nd Class (A.R.R.C.), G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamel, British War and Victory Medals (Sister R. Bowyer); together with a Territorial Army Nursing Service Cape Badge, silver; and the recipient’s identity bracelet fashioned from a 50 centimes coin with the reverse erased and inscribed ‘Sister Bowyer R 49 C.E. T.F.N.S.’, good very fine or better (5) £400-£500

A.R.R.C. London Gazette 21 June 1918:
‘In recognition of valuable nursing services in connection with the War.’

Rosina Emma Bowyer was born in Highgate, Middlesex in 1876. She trained at the Royal Infirmary, Bristol and was called up for duty in the Territorial Force Nursing Service at 2nd Southern General Hospital, Bristol on 8 December 1915. She was promoted to Sister rank on 11 April 1917 and left for service overseas in Salonika on 19 April 1917. She was travelling with Nurses Lister and Campbell, aboard H.M.T. Transylvania, ultimately bound for Salonika, when that vessel was torpedoed and sank in the Gulf of Genoa, close to Cape Valdo.

The liner Transylvania, of 14,348 tons was designed to accommodate 1379 passengers but the Admiralty fixed her capacity at 200 officers and 2680 men, besides the crew. She was carrying nearly this number, including many doctors and approximately 70 nurses, when she left Marseilles for Alexandria on 3 May 1917, with an escort of two Japanese destroyers, the Matsu and the Sakaki. She was hit by a torpedo some two and half miles south of Cape Vado, Gulf of Genoa and made for the shore whilst one destroyer attempted to take off troops and the other circled the ships to ward off the German submarine. Despite this, another torpedo was fired and hit the troopship which quickly went down. Two naval officers and 10 men of the crew, plus 29 military officers and 373 other ranks were killed.

All the nurses on board the Transylvania were saved although a letter written to Miss Sidney Browne, Matron in Chief, T.F.N.S. from Principal Matron Baillie, T.F.N.S. on 25 May 1917 states the following regarding misses Bowyer, Lister and Campbell from 2nd Southern General Hospital, Bristol Royal Infirmary:
‘They all seem wonderfully bright and cheery after their trying experience, and with the exception of Sister Bowyer, I do not think they are any the worse for it. I feel a little anxious about her. I understand from one of the nurses that she had a bad heart attack, and I do not think she is really fit to go to the East again.’

Her April 1919 Territorial Force Nursing Service Annual Confidential Report from 2nd Southern General Hospital, Bristol gives the following further information:
‘In consequence of her spending several hours in the water when the Hospital Ship Transylvania on which she was sailing was torpedoed her health was not considered good enough for her to serve in the East and she returned to this unit. Her professional ability is very good, zeal tact, energy, judgement, reliability and self-esteem excellent.’

Sister Bowyer’s improving health allowed her career to progress and she was promoted to the rank of Matron on 27 May 1925, serving in this capacity until she retired in 1941. It seems that she did continue to serve again past this date, however, and was reported in the Bristol Mirror to have retired a second time in March 1946.

Sold with a quantity of copied research together with a separate file of ephemera and photos (acquired separately by the vendor) relating to the sinking of the Transylvania. This last file the former property of Nursing V.A.D. member and ‘Transylvania survivor’ Gladys F.C. Sanders (neé Arnell) containing a nurses headscarf, a history of the episode as it relates to a group of nurses on board, a letter of commendation, dated 15 June 1917, to Miss Gladys Arnell, from the Matron-in-Chief, Sidney Browne, an original, faded, photograph of the Transylvania sinking, taken from one of the lifeboats and a group photograph of nurses and soldiers.