Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A fine post-War R.R.C. group of five awarded to Temporary Principal Matron Ileene Minas, Indian Military Nursing Service

Royal Red Cross, 1st Class (R.R.C.), G.VI.R. 1st issue, silver-gilt, gold, and enamel, reverse dated ‘1947’, on lady’s bow riband and housed in a Garrard & Co. case; India General Service 1908-35, 1 clasp, North West Frontier 1930-31 (Matron I. Minas, I.M.N.S.); War Medal 1939-45; India Service Medal; Coronation 1937, unnamed as issued, very fine and better (5) £600-£800

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

View
Collection

R.R.C. London Gazette 1 January 1947:
‘A lady who has Thirty Years valuable and meritorious service to her credit, ten years of which was spent in Frontier Posts. Unusually capable - She has never spared herself in any way. She is a credit and an asset to the Indian Military Nursing Service.’

Ileene Minas was born in 1896 and served with Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service in India from 4 November 1915. Appointed to temporary service, she continued to nurse after the cessation of hostilities but was not permitted to transfer to the regular branch, despite promotion to Matron on 7 October 1925.

Transferring to the Indian Military Nursing Service in 1926, Minas served the next eight years at Bannu on the North-West Frontier. Located on the Kurram River in the southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the city provided an important hub for the trade in livestock, wool, cotton, tobacco and grain. It also offered refuge for wounded and sick British and Indian troops during the Alfridi Redshirt Rebellion of 1930-31, Minas later being awarded the IGS Medal for nursing these men. Transferred briefly to Rawalpindi, followed by Quetta in 1935 and Poona in 1938, Minas is recorded in 1946 as Senior Matron, second only to the Chief Principal Matron of India. Award the R.R.C. in the Principal role, she retired at Indian Independence in August 1947.

Sold with the recipient’s original I.M.N.S. cape badge and copied research noting Minas as one of only two members of the service to receive the 1937 Coronation Medal.