Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Sister Alice M. Beardsley, Territorial Force Nursing Service

1914-15 Star (S. Nurse A. M. Beardsley, T.F.N.S.); British War and Victory Medals (Sister A. M. Beardsley.); Belgium, Kingdom, Queen Elizabeth Medal, bronze, with enamelled cross; together with a ‘Pilgrimage 1934’ medal, bronze, unnamed, very fine and better (5) £200-£240

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

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Dix Noonan Webb, November 2015.

Alice Mary Beardsley was born in Newbury, Berkshire, in 1879, and took her nursing studies at the Leicester Infirmary from 1902 to 1905. A pre-War member of the T.F.N.S., she was called up for service at the 5th Northern General Hospital in Leicester on 26 August 1914 and was later posted to Egypt on 25 July 1915. Sent to Mudros and then Alexandria, she served briefly aboard the Hospital Ships Devanah and Kildonan Castle, before being transferred for duty at No. 15 Stationary Hospital.

Embarked at Suez Docks for East Africa on 21 April 1916, Beardsley spent much of the remainder of the Great War at Morogoro in Tanganyika, East Africa. Raised Sister, she returned to the UK on 4 March 1918 aboard the liner Osterley and returned to the 5th Northern General Hospital on 6 July 1918. She was later selected to receive the Reine Elizabeth Medal with red cross, the notification being published in the London Gazette of 8 March 1920.