Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A fine ‘Victorian’ R.R.C. group of four awarded to Matron Lenora Maxwell St. John, Indian Army Nursing Service, later British Committee of the French Red Cross and Serbian Relief Fund

Royal Red Cross, 1st Class, V.R., silver-gilt, gold, and enamel, on lady’s bow riband; British War and Victory Medals (L. Maxwell St. John.); Serbia, Kingdom, Order of St. Sava, Fifth Class, lady’s shoulder badge, silver-gilt and enamel, Bishop in green robes, minor contact marks and edge nick to BWM, very fine and better (4) £800-£1,000

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

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R.R.C. London Gazette 25 July 1899. The Register of the Royal Red Cross, 1883-1994, notes:
‘In recognition of her special devotion and competency in the discharge of her duties and the care bestowed in training British soldiers and Army Hospital Corps attendants in nursing duties.’

Leonora Maxwell St. John (née Muller) was born in Glasgow on 3 July 1862. She was first appointed to the Temporary Army Nursing Service on 12 March 1885 as a replacement for nurses going to Egypt. Admitted to the Permanent Service on 3 July 1887, she later took appointment as Nursing Sister in the Indian Army Nursing Service on 21 February 1888. Promoted Acting Superintendent 21 August 1890, and Lady Superintendent 1 April 1893, she completed two terms of service with the I.A.N.S., ending on 16 March 1899, and was decorated by the Queen at Osborn House on 24 August 1899.

In 1903 she married Captain Arthur St. John of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and took the surname Maxwell-St. John. She then served from 1904 to 1914 as a member of the India Office Nursing Board, interviewing candidates for appointment to the I.A.N.S. in London. From 1914 to 1915 she served under the British Committee of the French Red Cross, firstly as Matron of The Auxiliary Military Hospital No. 307, better known as the Anglo-French-American Homeopathic Hospital. Established at Neuilly in a villa on the Boulevard Victor-Hugo in February 1915, it had 40-75 beds and was mostly British staffed. It closed in March, 1916.

Maxwell St. John subsequently served with the Serbian Relief Fund in Corfu from 3 June 1916 to 13 September 1916, before crossing to Serbia and witnessing a further year of nursing as Matron of the Serbian Relief Fund Hospital. This latter work was formally recognised by His Majesty The King of Serbia with the award of the Order of St. Sava 5th Class on 31 October 1917: ‘in recognition of services rendered to the Serbian people.’

Sold with extensive copied research including an interesting letter written by the recipient on 12 February 1916 to the Under Secretary of State for India, stating the loss of her R.R.C. decoration during an official hospital visit in France: ‘There was a crush, my cross was wrenched off - probably unintentionally’. She was later informed that a duplicate award could be supplied, on payment of £3. 16s. 6d. Consequently, the R.R.C. decoration in this lot may well be that official replacement.