Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A fine Great War R.R.C. group of five awarded to Matron Dora Westbrook, Imperial Yeomanry Hospital Staff, later British Red Cross Society

Royal Red Cross, 1st Class (R.R.C.), G.V.R., silver-gilt, gold, and enamel, on lady’s bow riband; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, no clasp (Nursing Sister D. Westbrook. I.Y. Hp. Staff); King’s South Africa 1901-02, no clasp (Nursing Sister D. Westbrook.); Voluntary Medical Service Medal, with Second Award Bar (Dora King.); British Red Cross Society Medal for War Service 1914-18, bronze, with integral top riband bar, very fine and better (5) £600-£800

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

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R.R.C. London Gazette 24 October 1917.

Dora Westbrook trained in nursing at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. She joined Princess Christian’s Army Nursing Service Reserve on 15 May 1900 and served during the Boer War as a Nursing Sister at the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital in Dreelfontein.

According to The Yeomen of the Karoo, The Story of the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital at Dreelfontein, this military hospital was created by the charitable efforts of Lady Georgina Curzon, daughter of the Duke of Marlborough, and Lady Beatrice Grosvenor, daughter of the Duke of Westminster. Tasked initially with providing the highest quality medical care for the Imperial Yeomanry, the hospital was staffed by 706 medical professionals and offered 1960 beds to sick and injured soldiers. The Chairman’s report of 1902 notes that for its short period of existence, the hospital treated over 20,000 patients and developed a reputation as the best equipped, most sophisticated medical, surgical and convalescent hospital of the war, borne heavily of the untiring efforts of its aristocratic figureheads and their successful fundraising efforts.

Westbrook later served during the Great War as Matron of Highfield Hall Hospital in Southampton, and was awarded the R.R.C. under her married name of Dora King. She received the decoration from the hand of the King at an investiture held at Buckingham Palace on 12 December 1917.