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Auction: 20003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 501

The mounted group of six miniature dress medals worn by Brigadier H. S. Cattanach, Director of British Army Nursing Services and Matron-in-Chief of Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath, Companion's Military Division Badge; Royal Red Cross, 1st Class Badge; Order of St John of Jerusalem, Badge; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; General Service 1918-62, 2 clasps, Palestine 1945-48, Malaya, mounted court-style as worn, very fine (6)

Helen S. Cattanach was born in 1920 at Knockando, Moray and was educated at the Elgin Academy, before starting her lifetime association with the Army Nursing Services. Having seen service during the Second World War, she became a Nursing Sister in Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps in 1946. Awarded the R.R.C. in 1963, she had just returned from active service in Malaya and became Matron at the Military Hospital, Munster in 1968. Promoted Brigadier - the highest rank available to a woman in the British Army - in 1972 and appointed Matron-in-Chief, a role she held for five years. Retiring to Surrey in 1977, she was She was appointed Colonel Commandant of Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps from June 1978. Cattanach died in 1994; sold together with her obituary and photograph.

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Sold for
£350

Starting price
£110