A Fine Collection of Medals to Female Medics

A rare Great War M.M. group of three awarded to Miss Lilian A. Forse, Voluntary Aid Detachment

Military Medal, G.V.R. (Miss L. A. Forse, V.A.D.); British War and Victory Medals (L. A. Forse, V.A.D.); together with a British Red Cross Society Distinguished Service Badge, gilt and enamel, by J. Gaunt, London, reverse inscribed, ‘L. A. Forse M.M. Replacement’, this last in card box, some edge bruising and contact marks, very fine and better (4) £3,000-£4,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Fine Collection of Medals to Female Medics.

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Tony Sabell Collection, Dix Noonan Webb, September 2012.

M.M. London Gazette 4 June 1918: Mrs Lilian Audrey Forse, V.A.D., attached No. 53 General Hospital, France
‘For courage and devotion to duty displayed when during a hostile air raid a bomb fell on the hospital marquee of which she was in charge. Although great damage was done and many patients injured, she showed admirable coolness in the performance of her duties throughout, and carried on as if nothing had happened.’

Lilian Audrey Forse served with the Voluntary Aid Detachment during the Great War on the Western Front from 23 April 1917. Interestingly, the correspondence address given on her Medal Index Card is ‘c/o Scottish Women’s Hospital, Serbia.’