WW1 1914-15 Star (single medal only) – awarded to Nurse GLADYS VARLEY FRASER, a British Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment (V.A.D.) member – Served for over four years in military hospitals in France, Salonica and England

Stock Reference – MM-MED-0075

WW1 1914-15 Star (single medal only) – awarded to Nurse GLADYS VARLEY FRASER, a British Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment (V.A.D.) member – Served for over four years in military hospitals in France, Salonica and England

You are looking at single 1914-15 Star medal, unfortunately missing the British War Medal and Victory Medal, awarded to Nurse GLADYS VARLEY FRASER of the British Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment, who, in WW1, served at military hospitals alongside members of the Queen Alexander’s Imperial Military Nursing Service (Q.A.I.M.N.S.).

The medal is inscribed ‘G.V.FRASER. V.A.D.’

GLADYS was a V.A.D. (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nurse and according to her medal record, she first entered France on the 11^th of May 1915, and according to the medal roll for the award of the British War and Victory Medals, she served in France until the 11^th of December 1915, then returned to France from the 1^st of June 1918 to the 11^th of March 1919.

GLADYS is listed on 2 x occasions within the V.A.D. historical records of the British Red Cross, and from the original service documents that are available, we know she was living at Tickford Park in Newport Pagnell when she enrolled into the 146^th County of London Detachment of the Voluntary Aid Detachment (V.A.D.) on the 14^th of April 1915, and in the ‘Particulars of Duties’ section of one record, she was a ‘nurse’ at the No 10 General Hospital at Rouen in France, and this appears to have been her last duty location because the record that contains this information is dated the 7^th of February 1919.........However, in the section titled ‘Previous engagements under Joint War Committee’, on both of the original service records, GLADYS’S war service and work locations are provided in more detail, as follows:

11.5.15 – 11.12.15 – No 16 General Hospital France - No. 16 General Hospital was a large military hospital located at the French coastal town of Le Treport.

9.4.16 – December 1916 – Paddington V.A.D. Hospital London – Located at 37 Porchester Terrace in the Bayswater area of London, and affiliated to the Queen Alexandra’s Military Hospital, this smaller military hospital was opened on the 15^th of April 1916, which very closely coincides with GLADYS’S service there, in fact it appears that she may have been one of the small number of V.A.D. nurses who were employed at the hospital from the very start of its service.

January 1917 – March 1918 – Welsh Hospital Netley – Funded by Welsh public donations, this hospital was built in the grounds of the Royal Victoria Hospital near Southampton, and it received wounded service personnel arriving by ambulance train from the channel ports.

8.3.18 – Military Hospital Salonica – It is likely GLADYS was deployed, rather than to Salonica itself, to one of the hospital camps, tents and huts rather than bricks and mortar buildings, at Lembet, Hortajkoi or Kalamaria, that were, at the time, overwhelmed by a severe increase in diseases such as malaria that were affecting British and Commonwealth troops serving in the Salonica Campaign. She was likely deployed due to the shortages caused by those already serving medical staff falling ill themselves.

20.5.18 – Awarded 1 x Scarlet Stripe – The scarlet efficiency stripe worn on the right arm of nursing uniform, just below the shoulder, was awarded to V.A.D. nurses who had completed at least 13 x months of continual service within military hospitals or establishments controlled by the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service (Q.A.I.M.N.S) on behalf of the War Office, and were certified as an ‘efficient’ member of the medical staff.

31.5.1918 – January 1919 – No 7 Stationary Hospital France – Located at Boulogne-sur-Mer, this smaller hospital was in a converted hotel near the coast, and GLADYS’S deployment there may have been in response to a rise in casualties during the German Spring Offensive that started on the 21^st of March.

January 1919 – 21.3.19 – No 10 General Hospital Rouen France – Located at Rouen, No 10 General Hospital was one of a number of hospitals within what was the largest military medical complex in France, and it handled some of the backlog in medical care provided to service personnel, and this may have also involved the treatment of Spanish Flu that had broken out

The dates provided for each of the postings listed above have been taken, as best as they can be, from the British Red Cross records, and these also tell us GLADYS left the V.A.D. on the 21^st of March 1919, having served with the organisation for just over four years.

The role of V.A.D. nurses during WW1

The introduction of Voluntary Aid Detachment nurses into military hospitals was not without controversy. At the outbreak of WW1, the established military nursing services were cautious about employing civilian volunteers, who were considered to have had just basic nursing and first-aid training, were not professionally qualified nurses, and lacked the experience and knowledge to work in a military hospital environment, however, as the war progressed and the numbers of wounded and sick servicemen increased, V.A.D. personnel became increasingly important, they were given additional responsibilities and they became an integral part of the military hospital system at home and overseas.

Another reason why qualified and experienced nurses initially disliked the V.A.D. being employed, was that they considered some of the volunteers to have come from privileged middle to upper-class backgrounds, and were being recognised as nurses without having undertaken the years of formal medical training that was normally required and the qualified nurses had gone through, and GLADYS VARLEY FRASER would have fallen into this category of V.A.D. member, however, her Red Cross records described a commitment to V.A.D. service lasting for more than four years, with postings not only on home soil, but overseas in the difficult medical environments of France and Salonica.

Family history

GLADYS VARLEY FRASER, the daughter of DONALD and LEILA MARION FRASER (formerly VARLEY), was born on the 2^nd of December 1886 at Grundisburgh in Suffolk.

Her father DONALD FRASER (1851-1939) made his money in the 1870s-1880s, through diamond mining in South Africa, but started transferring his life back to England in the 1880s. He married LEILA MARION VARLEY in 1882, and they acquired Tickford Park in the village of Moulsoe near Newport Pagnell, where the couple become wealthy country squires. DONALD set up and managed the Tickford Park Stud, and he was a very well-known figure within the horseracing world, especially for breeding and training racehorses, with a number of notable winners at major events, and he also held the Tickford Park Horse Show from at least 1892......DONALD continued to build up his stud business, but he was also a member of the ‘Oakley & Whaddon Chase Hunt’, was involved in the local military, he was a local commissioner for Income Tax as well as serving as a Justice of the Peace (J.P.).

Following her service in WW1, GLADYS VARLEY FRASER served her local community in many ways. She was a key member of the Conservative Association, locally and in London, a member of the Women’s Voluntary Service (W.V.S.), she was involved in local Civil Defence, and during WW2, she organised salvage collection in the town and neighbouring district.......She had assisted her father with the stud, and following his death in 1939, she and her sister PHYLLIS took over the Tickford Park and the stud business.

GLADYS was still living at Tickford Park in 1952, but died on the 31^st of May that year, in a clinic in London, following an 8 x week illness.

SELLER NOTE = Supporting documentation obtained and / or created during this research will be provided.