Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An Order of St. John group of four awarded to Nurse Cynthia M. Owen, Voluntary Aid Detachment and Order of St. John of Jerusalem

The Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Serving Sister’s shoulder badge, 1st type (1892-1939), silver and enamel, circular badge with white enamel cross with heraldic beasts in angles raised above the background, on lady’s bow riband; 1914-15 Star (C. M. Owen. V.A.D.); British War and Victory Medals (C. M. Owen. O. St. J.) very fine and better (4) £160-£200

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

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Cynthia M. Owen lived at 73, New Cavendish Street, Marylebone, and initially worked as a Nurse at Gifford House Auxiliary Hospital in Roehampton from 7 November 1914 to 14 July 1915. Sent to St. John’s Gate, Clerkenwell, from 6 September 1915 to 9 October 1915, she served in France at Etaples with No. 96 Division (London) S.J.A.B., from 22 October 1915 to 2 June 1918. British Red Cross records note that she returned home to London on sick leave for two months and was married soon thereafter, becoming Mrs. Morkill.

Sold with the recipient’s St John Ambulance Association re-examination cross, silvered, engraved to reverse ‘166406 Cynthia Owen’; St John Ambulance War Service Badge No. 497, with London suspension; and a fine Etaples ‘Xmas 1915’ Order of St John of Jerusalem sweetheart brooch, silver and enamel.