Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Second War A.R.R.C. and Order of St. John group of seven awarded to District Superintendent Miss Hilda M. Smith, Lytham St Anne’s Nursing Division, St. John Ambulance Brigade, late Voluntary Aid Detachment, who was Mentioned in Despatches for her services in Italy during the Great War, and served as Acting Matron of a Military Hospital which was used as an overflow annexe to the Fleetwood Cottage Hospital for casualties of the Fleetwood Floods of October 1927

Royal Red Cross, 2nd Class (A.R.R.C.), G.VI.R. 1st issue, silver and enamel, reverse officially dated 1942, on lady’s bow riband; The Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Serving Sister’s shoulder badge, silver and enamel, on lady’s bow riband; British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (H. M. Smith. V.A.D.); Defence Medal; Coronation 1937, unnamed as issued; Service Medal of the Order of St John, silver, with two Additional Award Bars (13899 L/D. Supt. H. M. Smith. Lytham St Annes Nsg. Div. No. 4 Dis. S.J.A.B. 1935) all mounted together for display purposes, contact marks to Great War pair, otherwise good very fine (7) £500-£700

Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, June 1999.

A.R.R.C. London Gazette 1 January 1942.

Miss Hilda Marie Smith was born in Doncaster, Yorkshire, in 1887 and joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment as a Cook on 28 June 1916. She served during the Great War initially in a Military Hospital in Malta, before proceeding to Salonika in September 1917, and then to Italy in February 1918, where she remained for the rest of the Great War. Whilst in Italy she was ranked as Commandant, Invalided Kitchens, and worked in hospitals all over the country. For her services during the Great War in Italy she was Mentioned in Despatches (London Gazette 6 January 1919).

In 1925 Miss Smith became the founder Lady Superintendent of Lytham St. Annes No. 2 Nursing Division, St. John Ambulance Brigade, and served as acting Matron of a military hospital which was used as an overflow annexe to the Fleetwood Cottage Hospital for casualties of the Fleetwood Floods of 28-29 October 1927. In addition she established a medical comforts depot in Lytham St. Annes. The Fleetwood Floods was a major incident in the town, which severed the gas and electricity supplies, and cut all road ands rail links; around 30 people lost their lives as a result of the storm, including three bed-bound hospital patients.

During the Second World War Miss Smith served as the full-time Commandant of the Lytham St. Annes Convalescent Hospital from 1940 to 1946, for which services she was awarded the Royal Red Cross Second Class.

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