Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War R.R.C. group of five awarded to Matron Charlotte I. K. Sumner, British Red Cross Society and Order of St John of Jerusalem, late Territorial Force Nursing Service, who helped to evacuate large numbers of sick and wounded from Antwerp in September 1914

Royal Red Cross, 1st Class (R.R.C.), G.V.R., silver-gilt, gold, and enamel, on lady’s bow riband; 1914 Star (C. I. K. Sumner. B.R.C.S. & O.St. J.J.); British War and Victory Medals (C. I. K. Sumner.); Belgium, Kingdom, Civic Decoration, Second Class, 1 clasp, 1914-1918, silver and enamel, edge bruise to BWM, otherwise good very fine (5) £1,000-£1,400

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

View
Collection

R.R.C. London Gazette 26 February 1917.

Belgium Croix Civique Second Class London Gazette 3 October 1922:
‘For distinguished service rendered during the war of 1914-19.’

Charlotte Irene King Sumner was born in Cheetham, Lancashire, in 1875. Qualifying as a nurse at the Leicester Royal Infirmary from 1900 to 1905, she joined the Territorial Force Nursing Service and was appointed Matron in the London Gazette of 9 December 1910. She enjoyed a year nursing in France, at Tourlaville, Calais and Paris, before returning to England in 1912 and taking appointment as Matron of the Princess Christian Military Hospital in Englefield Green. Enjoying the balmy summer of 1914 in Belgium, it seems that Sumner soon found herself accidentally caught up in the machinations of the Schlieffen Plan; rather than catch the next ferry home to England, she chose instead to stay in Belgium and volunteered her services to the Brussels unit of the B.R.C.S. & O.St.J.J.

The story of her life at this time was later published in The Gentlewoman magazine on 10 March 1917:
‘One of the most remarkable instances of bravery on the part of our nurses is that displayed by Miss C. I. K. Sumner who was nursing in Antwerp in August and September 1914. She stayed on during the bombardment, only leaving the town when it was taken on October 9th. The detachment to which she belonged took with them as many wounded as could be moved, and made their escape to Holland, where for some time they had merely the barest necessities, and were working under great difficulties.’

Returning to France, Sumner spent further time as a Sister with the British Committee of the French Red Cross. She was later awarded the R.R.C. whilst serving as Matron at the Princess Christian Military Hospital in Englefield Green and was further decorated by His Majesty The King of the Belgians with the uncommon award of the Belgian Croix Civique. Transferring to Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service, Sumner continued to care for others for many years before retiring to Poole in the late 1930s. She died in 1949.