Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Sister Georgina B. Oddy, British Red Cross Society and Order of St. John of Jerusalem, later Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve

1914 Star (G. B. Oddy. B.R.C.S. & O.St.J.J.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Sister G. B. Oddy.) polishing to first, otherwise very fine (3) £400-£500

Miss Georgina Bertha Oddy was born in Bolton, Lancashire, on 18 September 1875, the third child of master grocer William Oddy. Educated in her home town, she trained as a nurse at the Lewisham Infirmary in London from June 1900 to July 1903, and then served as Staff Nurse, Ward Sister and Night Superintendent at the West Ham Infirmary until the outbreak of hostilities.

Sent to France in October 1914, Miss Oddy witnessed her first posting as Nursing Sister at Calais Unit No. 1, and was likely heavily engaged in caring for vast numbers of Regular Army soldiers wounded during the First Battle of the Marne and subsequent race to the sea. Transferred to the Q.A.I.M.N.S.R. as Staff Nurse, and later Sister, she joined No. 14 General Hospital at Wimereux on 13 December 1915, and served aboard the Hospital Ship Copenhagen from 1 January 1916 to 8 March 1916. A former passenger vessel, the newly converted Copenhagen was crewed by 42 medical staff and catered to the needs of up to 254 sick and wounded service personnel.

In the spring of 1916, the strain of work began to impact upon Miss Oddy’s own health, and she was admitted to Vincent Square Hospital in central London suffering from pulmonary catarrh. Suffering from pain and extreme discomfort, she made a temporary recovery and returned to France at the end of April 1916, but her Service Record makes clear that her health never fully recovered. Serving in various hospital wards, she thus survived the loss of the Copenhagen which was torpedoed in the North Sea in 1917, and was finally struck off strength in June 1919, her superiors noting, ‘very capable, most reliable and hard working nurse, and very patient and sympathetic with her patients... maintains very good discipline in her ward.’ Given such high regard, Miss Oddy was unsurprisingly Mentioned in Despatches on 10 July 1919.

Sold with an excellent and most comprehensive archive of original nursing artefacts, including the recipient’s Q.A.I.M.N.S.R. cape badge, silver, hallmarked Birmingham 1915, by Carrington & Co., London; a contemporary nursing arm band, white linen with felt red cross and white buttons, with hand-written ink date ‘5.7.16’.; an original card dog tag, impressed ‘G. B. Oddy, C.E. S.N. Q.A.I.M.N.S.R.’; two original white metal identity bracelets, named to the recipient; a particularly fine General Nursing Council for England and Wales Nursing Badge by Fattorini of Birmingham, silver and blue enamel, privately engraved to reverse, ‘G. B. Oddy. S.R.N. 177, 30.9.21.’; a heavy white metal Cross of St. John on a similar chain; together with three small framed family portrait photographs and sundry badges and titles.