Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Driver Celia Meade, First Aid Nursing Yeomanry Corps, late No. 24 (Cornwall) Voluntary Aid Detachment

British War and Victory Medals (C. Meade F.A.N.Y.C.); France, Third Republic, Croix de Guerre, bronze, the reverse dated 1914-1917; Belgium, Kingdom, Medaille de la Reine Elisabeth, bronze and red enamel; together with the recipient’s First Aid Nursing Yeomanry Medal, bronze, unnamed as issued, nearly extremely fine (5) £400-£500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Norman Gooding Collection.

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Celia Meade was born in St. Ives, Cornwall, on 24 November 1892, the daughter of artist Arthur Meade. A keen performer, she played a musician in the town’s performance of Aladdin and is noted in the St. Ives Weekly Summary of 2 January 1909 as one of the lead characters in the annual pantomine, Cinderella.

Meade attested for her local V.A.D. detachment on 29 November 1915 and was soon employed as a chauffeuse. Transferred with permission to the F.A.N.Y. on 24 January 1916, she crossed the Channel and served in France with the Calais Convoy from February 1916 to May 1917. For her services as a motor ambulance driver, she was awarded the French Croix de Guerre on 16 September 1918 under General Order No. 336. Her citation states: ‘During the War operations from 10 August to 10 September 1918, she drove by medical car day and night, to the most perilous posts to ensure the transport of the wounded.’
Further recognised with the award of the Medaille de la Reine Elisabeth on 22 April 1919, Meade resigned from the F.A.N.Y. in 1919 and likely returned home to ‘Godrevy’, St. Ives.

Sold with copied research including V.A.D. service record, a fine French identity card portrait, and two others of the recipient alongside her ambulance, and photocopies of the certificates relating to both foreign decorations.