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Auction: 16002 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals and Militaria
Lot: 10

A Good Second War 1940 'London Blitz' G.M. Group of Three to Miss Patricia Marmion, Later Mrs. Thorpe, Who, 'Although Cut About the Face and Bleeding Profusely', Showed 'Particular Courage and Coolness' Whilst Serving as a Staff Nurse at the Royal Chest Hospital, Islington During an Enemy Air-Raid, 11.9.1940, in which the Hospital Received a Direct Hit, and She Rescued a Number of Injured Patients
a) George Medal, G.VI.R. (Miss Patricia Marmion), on lady's bow riband
b) Defence and War Medals, two edge bruises to first, otherwise extremely fine, with the following related items:
- Named card box of issue for the Defence and War Medals, addressed to Mrs. P.M. Thorpe, 154 East Acton Lane, London, W3, together with Army Council enclosure
- Central Chancery Investiture letter for the George Medal, named to Miss Patricia Marmion, G.M., and dated 10.5.1941, housed in a glazed display frame
- The recipient's 'St. George for England' society badge, and four Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve badges
- Various newspapers regarding the award of the George Medal (3)

G.M. London Gazette 17.1.1941 Miss Patricia Marmion, Staff Nurse, Royal Chest Hospital, London
'During an enemy air raid a bomb was dropped on the Royal Chest Hospital which largely demolished the In-Patient Block. It covered the patients and staff with debris, burst the water and gas mains, and fractured electric light mains. Blast had filled every part of the building with thick dust so that it was difficult to breathe. At the time of the explosion Staff Nurse Marmion was in charge of the Men's Ward which was within 20 feet of the position where the heavy bomb struck the Hospital. She immediately took steps to pacify her patients, working her way through the debris to get to them. While doing this a patient, who was an air raid casualty admitted the previous night and who had lost five members of his family, attempted, in the mental strain of the explosion, to throw himself into the street below from the tottering ward floor, from which the walls had been blasted.
Nurse Marmion rescued him and took him to safety. When the Stretcher Parties arrived she assisted them in rescuing the patients, although she herself was cut about the face and bleeding profusely. She then rescued an injured patient from a bed over which a heavy window frame and debris had fallen and, balancing him around her shoulders, carried him down the stairs over masses of debris. She acted with particular courage and coolness in most difficult circumstances and having effectually dealt with her patients she then took steps personally to collect up dangerous drugs which had become dislodged from their protected cupboards in the various Wards and put them in a safe place. Her condition then was such that she had to be taken to hospital.
A few days afterwards she was moved to Grovelands Hospital. The same night that hospital was heavily bombed with high explosives and incendiaries which blew in windows and window frames and started a fire in a Ward. Although the floor of the Ward in which she was then a patient was strewn with broken glass she unhesitatingly jumped out of bed and, in her bare feet, she assisted in rescuing other patients and taking them to safety.'

Three George Medals were awarded for gallantry during the bombing of the Royal Chest Hospital, Islington, London, on the 11th September, 1940, the other two awards being to Resident Medical Officer Dr. Andre Bathfield, and Acting Matron Miss Catherine McGovern, A.R.R.C. 'Dr. Bathfield, although badly cut in many places about the face and neck and bleeding profusely, assisted in the rescue, treatment and dressing of patients and staff, and did not leave the Hospital for the treatment of his own wounds until every injured person had been removed. He worked untiringly for the patients and nurses.
Miss McGovern, although badly cut about the head, face and body, and bleeding profusely, refused to be taken immediately to another Hospital for treatment and instead continued to help in the removal of injured patients and staff. Finally, when it was thought that everybody had been accounted for, and when she herself was unable to walk unassisted, she went through the ruins to each part of the Hospital, supported by a Police Constable, to ensure that there was no possibility of anybody being left behind.' (ibid)

Miss Patricia Marmion, G.M., later Mrs. Patricia Thorpe, was born in Skibbereen, Co. Cork, in 1916, and served during the Second World War as a staff nurse at the Royal Chest Hospital, London. Invested with her George Medal by H.M. The King at Buckingham Palace on the 27th May, 1941, she was subsequently commissioned into Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve at the end of May 1941, and posted to India. Promoted Lieutenant, Q.A.I.M.N.S.R., in February 1951, she relinquished her Commission in May 1954, and died in November 2001, aged 85.

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