Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Staff Nurse Phoebe King, Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve

1914-15 Star (S/Nurse P. King, Q.A.I.M.N.S.R.); British War and Victory Medals (Sister P. King.); together with the recipient’s Silver War Badge ‘B230888’, good very fine (3) £160-£200

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

View
Collection

Grist Collection, 1982.

Phoebe King was born in Manchester on 24 July 1874. Privately educated, she trained as a nurse at the Salford Union Infirmary from February 1896 to February 1899, remaining on the staff for a further year. She subsequently served a year at the South-East Fever Hospital and six years at the Hanover Institute, before taking appointment with the Nurse Home Hospitals Association in the summer of 1907.

Accepted for the Q.A.I.M.N.S.R. in June 1915, King embarked for France on 6 July 1915 and witnessed extensive service at eight General Hospitals and Casualty Clearing Stations between 1915 and 1918. These included postings to Boulogne, Le Treport, Hardelot, Gailly and Dannes Camiers, her final placement being at No. 81 General Hospital in Marseilles. Struck off strength on 24 February 1919 as permanently unfit for military service, she was issued a Silver War Badge on 19 December 1919, her address at this time noted as Claverly, Woodhouse Road, North Finchley.

Sold with an original card identity disc: ‘S/N. King. P., C.E. Q.A.I.M.N.S.R.’