Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War A.R.R.C. group of six awarded to Sister Florence C. Puddicombe, Princess Christian’s Army Nursing Reserve, later Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve

Royal Red Cross, 2nd Class (A.R.R.C.), G.V.R., silver and enamel, on lady’s bow riband; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, no clasp (Nursing Sister F. Puddicombe.); King’s South Africa 1901-02, no clasp (Nursing Sister F. Puddicombe.); 1914 Star (Miss F. C. Puddicombe. Q.A.I.M.N.S.R.); British War and Victory Medals (Sister F. C. Puddicombe.) very fine and better (6) £600-£800

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

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A.R.R.C. London Gazette 1 January 1918.

Florence Catherine Puddicombe was born in St. Aubin, Jersey, on 10 December 1867, and qualified as a nurse at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London in 1894. A founding member of the League of Nurses at St. Bartholomew’s, she joined Princess Christian’s Army Nursing Reserve on 28 March 1900 and served as a Nursing Sister during the Boer War. The roll for the QSA Medal later notes her with the Army Nursing Service Reserve at No. 5 General Hospital in Cape Town. A former Base Hospital, this General Hospital offered 940 beds to sick and wounded servicemen making it one of the largest in operation.

Returned home to England, Puddicombe is noted in 1911 as a sick nurse at Felsted School. She later joined the Q.A.I.M.N.S.R. on 1 January 1914, her MIC noting service in France from 12 August 1914 at No. 2 General Hospital. Transferred to No. 14 Stationary Hospital, she received the A.R.R.C. from the hand of the King at an investiture held at Buckingham Palace on 11 December 1919. Released from service at around this time, the recipient’s Nursing Service Record notes her forwarding address as ‘St. Stephen’s Vicarage, Launceston, Cornwall.’

Sold with a Q.A.I.M.N.S.R. cape badge, hallmarked Birmingham 1915.