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Auction: 20001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - conducted behind closed doors
Lot: 697

Sold by Order of a Direct Descendent

A fascinating Great War 'Red Cross Decoration' group of seven to Nurse L. P. Leatham, Voluntary Aid Detachment, who was decorated and mentioned in dispatches for outstanding nursing services on the Western Front and in the Italian theatre

Leatham's O.B.E. stemmed from her work as a trailblazing humanitarian campaigner; during the Second World War she worked alongside her husband, an influential diplomat, to evacuate European Jews via the port of Tangier

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, 1st type, Civil Division, Officer's (O.B.E.) breast Badge, silver-gilt, the reverse bearing hallmarks for Sebastian Garrard, London 1930, fitted with lady's bow riband; Royal Red Cross Decoration, G.V.R., 2nd Class, silver and enamel, fitted with lady's bow riband; 1914-15 Star (L. P. Leatham. V.A.D.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaf (L. P. Leatham. V.A.D.); Coronation 1952, unnamed as issued, fitted with lady's bow riband; France, Third Republic, Reconnaissance Medal, 3rd Class, bronze, mounted as worn in ordinary style by Spink & Son, and housed in a glazed, velvet-backed, hinged wooden frame, 165mm x 215mm, nearly extremely fine (7)

O.B.E. London Gazette 1 June 1934.

Royal Red Cross Edinburgh Gazette 2 January 1918.

Lorna Priscilla Leatham was born at Wentbridge House near Pontefract on 27 November 1887, the only daughter of the prominent Yorkshire landowner and huntsman Edmund Ernest Leatham (1847-1890). Her brother Hubert was killed on active service in November 1914, the Observer of 8 November reporting: 'he was not injured, but blown to pieces by a German shell whilst riding to the succour of a wounded man.' She thus had personal reasons for joining the Voluntary Aid Detachment, as did countless other upper-class ladies. Her mother Jeanette also became a V.A.D., and together they sailed from Dover to Dunkirk on 30 January 1915. She kept a diary throughout 1915/16, when she worked in a hospital at Malo-les-Baines. This site was frequently attacked by German Taube monoplanes, and all patients had to be evacuated on 1 May 1915. Leatham described chaotic scenes as a German bomb just missed an ambulance laden with patients. She served with distinction and great coolness, earning two Scarlet Efficiency Stripes and a mention in dispatches (London Gazette, 4 January 1917). She transferred to the Italian theatre on 15 November 1917, her service recognised by the award of the Royal Red Cross Decoration, 2nd Class. She was discharged on 12 December 1918.

Leatham received an O.B.E in 1934, in recognition of her work as Honorary Treasurer of the Yorkshire Voluntary Migration Committee. In 1935 she married Sir Alvary Douglas Frederick Trench-Gascoigne, G.B.E., K.C.M.G., First Secretary of the Foreign Office, a prominent diplomat who had served as a Lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards. She lived with him at Lotherton Hall near Leeds, the ancestral home of the Gascoigne baronets. Sir Alvary was named Consul-General for the Tangier Zone and the Spanish Zone of the Protectorate of Morocco, residing at Tangier with Lorna. During the Second World War, Lorna and Sir Alvary managed to rescue hundreds of European Jews via Tangier. Sir Alvary was 'Political Representative' in Japan from 1946 to 1951. He was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary at Moscow on 18 October 1951. Lorna accompanied him on all these foreign postings, gaining a unique insight into early Cold War politics. Sir Alvary died in 1970, and Lorna died on 19 June 1979, aged 91.



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Sold for
£5,200

Starting price
£420