Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Miss Edith J. Harley, British Red Cross Society and Order of St. John of Jerusalem, and Scottish Women’s Hospital, niece of Field Marshal Sir John French

British War and Victory Medals (E. J. Harley, B.R.C. & St. J.J.); Serbia, Order of St. Sava, 2nd type, 5th Class breast badge, silver and enamel, enamel damage to obverse central surround; Serbia, Red Cross Decoration, silver and enamel, good very fine and better except where stated (4) £500-600

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Julian Johnson Collection.

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Provenance: Tony Sabell Collection, D.N.W., December 2012.

Edith Joyce Harley was born on 2 September 1890, the daughter of Colonel George Ernest Harley and Katherine Mary Harley, née French (sister of Field Marshal Sir John French). During the war she served as an Orderly with the Scottish Women’s Hospital at Royaumont, France, where her mother also served as an Administrator. Both mother and daughter left for England in May 1916. In August 1917 Mrs Harley led a unit into Salonika - a unit noted for its indiscipline, it being noted that ‘some are even, out of mere bravado, smoking cigars (!)’. By January 1917 both mother and daughter were based at Monastir, Serbia, where Mrs Harley led the Scottish Women’s Hospital Transport Column, attached to the Serbian Army. Edith was present with her mother when she was killed there by shrapnel during an enemy bombardment on 7 March 1917. Mrs Katherine Harley was buried in the Allied War Cemetery, Monastir, the only woman among thousands of fallen soldiers.

With a quantity of copied research on Miss Edith Harley and her mother. Serbian decorations not confirmed.