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Auction: 26001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 137

(x) Three: Staff Nurse P. J. 'Lily' Selfe, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Medical Nursing Service Reserve, who - having served in H.M. Hospital Ship Salta - was 'mentioned' for the Mesopotamian campaign

1914-15 Star (S./Nurse P. J. Selfe, Q.A.I.M.N.S.R.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (S./Nurse P. J. Selfe), good very fine (3)

M.I.D. London Gazette 12 March 1918.

Priscilla Jane Selfe was born in Melksham, Wiltshire, on 28 November 1888, one of seven children - and the only daughter - of George Selfe and Elizabeth Webb.

In July 1915, while working as a Nurse at the London Hospital in Whitechapel, she attested for active service and joined Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve. And later in the same month, she departed for Egypt.

Her photograph subsequently appeared in The Bath Chronicle on 18 September 1915, the caption stating that she was then serving in H.M.H.S. Salta, in which capacity she was employed in nursing casualties from Gallipoli campaign, as they were conveyed to hospitals in Mudros, Alexandria, Malta and Marseilles.

Whether she was still employed in the Salta at the time of the ship's loss to a mine off Le Havre in April 1917 remains unknown, but if so, she was lucky to survive; nine nurses, 42 members of the R.A.M.C. and 70 crew didn't.

Selfe's next known theatre of war was Mesopotamia, for she appears in Lieutenant-General Sir Stanley Maude's despatch dated 2 November 1917, 'for distinguished and gallant services, and devotion to duty'.

And during her final posting to Karachi, where she was employed at the Station Hospital, she met Temporary Lieutenant Edgar W. Moulton, Royal Indian Marine, and they were married there on 22 February 1919.

Selfe - now Mrs. Moulton - was demobilised in May 1919 and her husband, a master mariner, resumed his duties in the Merchant Navy. Tragically, however, having risen to senior rank with command of the S.S. Arandora Star, he was among those lost when she was torpedoed in July 1940.

His widow settled in Cornwall, where she died at Carbis Bay in November 1969.

For her husband's awards, please see Lot 219.

Subject to 5% tax on Hammer Price in addition to 20% VAT on Buyer’s Premium.

Estimate
£300 to £500

Starting price
£240