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Auction: 22001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 337

The exceptional R.R.C. awarded to Team Nurse E.M.R. Currie, South African Nursing Service who worked as Team Sister to a Surgical Team on the front, most notably during the Battle of Champagne from May-June 1918

Royal Red Cross, 2nd Class, (A.R.R.C.), G.V.R., silver and enamel, with bow riband, in Garrard&Co. case of issue; with her South African Trained Nurses Association badge, the reverse officially number 399 and engraved (E.M.R. Currie.), silver and enamel, hallmarked for Cape Town, good very fine (2)

A.R.R.C. London Gazette 1 January 1919

Emily Marion Rosetta Currie was born in April 1880 at Laughame, Carmarthenshire, the daughter of George and Mary Currie of Graseland, Laugharne. While her early years were spent in Wales by 1901 Currie had moved to London where she was living at 41 England Lane, Hampstead and working as a bookkeeper in the same establishment. How she came to be here is unknown but a possible clue is that the wife of the establishment’s owner was also from Carmarthenshire. By 1911 she had found her path in the medical field, working at the Homeopathic Hospital, Birmingham.

Perhaps looking to for adventure or seeking to help those who need it more she joined the Colonial Nursing Association on 31 January 1914 and moved to the Masina Hospital Bombay. With the outbreak of war she joined the South African Medical Nursing Service and was soon nominated Team Sister to a Surgical Team from the South African General Hospital for work at front areas. She was performing this role during the Battle of Champagne and worked with the French IX Corps throughout this period. Currie died at 4 Westbourne Road, Penarth in September 1962; sold together with copied research including London Gazette entries, census data and a typed biographical note.


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Sold for
£230

Starting price
£180