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Auction: 11011 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals & Militaria
Lot: 131

Three: Quarter Master Sergeant T.W. Smith, Royal Army Medical Corps British War and Victory Medals (234 T.W.O.Cl.1. T.W. Smith. R.A.M.C.), second initial officially corrected on VM; Territorial Force Efficiency Medal, G.V.R. (234 S.Sjt: T.W. Smith. E.M.B. F.A. R.A.M.C.), nearly extremely fine Pair: Lieutenant-Colonel F.D. Saner, Royal Army Medical Corps British War and Victory Medals (Capt. F.D. Saner.), good very fine Pair: Surgeon J. Hardy War Medal; Service Medal of the Order of St. John (Cor. Surg. J. Hardy), extremely fine, latter in card box of issue (7) Estimate £ 70-90 234 Quarter Master Sergeant Thomas W. Smith, served with the Eastern Mounted Brigade Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps during the Great War in the Balkan theatre from 23.9.1915. Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Donaldson Saner, born Hull, Yorkshire, August 1883; educated at Bedford Grammar School, Christ´s College, Cambridge, and Guy´s Hospital, London; Commissioned Lieutenant, Royal Army Medical Corps, 18.6.1916, and served with the Medical Corps during the Great War on the Western Front from that date; promoted Captain, 17.6.1917; on one occasion during the War his operating tent caught fire: ´the operation was continued but he only just managed to get his patient and assistant out before the tent was destroyed. Though the assistant was awarded the Albert Medal, the Surgeon was reprimanded for taking undue risk!´ (Royal College of Surgeons, Lives of Fellows refers). Appointed Consultant Surgeon, Army of the Rhine, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, 1919. It is probable that the Albert Medal action referred to was the following: A.M. London Gazette 25.4.1919 Miss Alice Batt, Voluntary Aid Detachment ´On the 1st October, 1918, a fire broke out at No. 36, Casualty Clearing Station at Rousbrugge, Belgium, and quickly reached the operating theatre, where the surgeon was performing an abdominal operation. The light went out, and the theatre was quickly filled with smoke and flames, but the operation was continued by the light of an electric torch, Miss Batt continuing her work of handing instruments and threading needles with steadfast calmness, thereby enabling the surgeon to complete the operation. Miss Batt afterwards did splendid work in helping to carry men from the burning wards to places of safety.´

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