Orders, Decorations & Medals - Aust. Groups

Lot 4577    Session 16 (9:30am Friday 3rd August)    Orders, Decorations & Medals - Aust. Groups

Estimate $4,000
Bid at live.noble.com.au
SOLD $7,000

PAIR TO NURSE: Queen's South Africa Medal 1899; King's South Africa Medal 1902. Nursing Sister A.Emmins. Both medals impressed. Medals mounted in frame, very fine and scarce.

Only 24 KSAs to Australian nurses.

Together with a perspex covered frame and mounted inside with the above pair of medals is a Princess Christian's Army Nursing Service Reserve silver cape badge and a Guild of Saint Barnabas for Nurses Bronze Medal, also a miniature Queen's South Africa Medal 1899, - five clasps - Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902. There is a second perspex covered frame in which is a photo of Nursing Sister Emmins and below are brief details of her service, but with some factual errors.

Annabelle Emmins was born in Prahran, Victoria in about 1870. She trained as a nurse at Melbourne Hospital and in 1896 she moved to Western Australia to join Superintendent Reverend G.W.Rowe's 'Sisters of the People'. As a member of this group she worked in the goldfields of Coolgardie treating miners who had contracted typhoid. While in Western Australia she volunteered for service in the war in South Africa. From the 32 applications received by the committee of the Transvaal Nurses' Fund she was one of 17 selected for final examination. She and the other selected candidates attended at Dr. Jull's surgery for final examination and Nurse A.Emmins was one of 11 selected for the contingent.

The contingent was given a grand send off from Perth railway station and the Matron-in-Charge, Sister Nicolay was given a letter from the Mayor of Perth addressed to Sir Alfred Milner, Governor of Cape Colony introducing the nurses by name and requesting he provide all assistance to them. They then embarked from Albany on board SS Salamis on 21 March 1900 along with some New Zealand nurses and some independent nurses from Queensland. Unfortunately no provision was made on board for the nurses as they were not considered as Army and travelled as commercial passengers and they had a most uncomfortable trip travelling in steerage class with about eight per cabin and they were not allowed to dine in saloon class.

Upon arrival in Cape Town they were literally dumped at the wharf and no provision had been made for their accommodation or for making contact with the Governor. They had to fend for themselves for the next ten days until they were taken on the strength of the British Army as civilian employed nurses. Eventually they were classified as members of a colonial nursing service, a colonial version of Princess Christian's Army Nursing Service Reserve. Nurse Emmins, Speers and Milne were posted to Escourt about 15 miles from Mooi River, Natal.

After the war Nurse Emmins stayed in South Africa working as a nurse at the Somerset Children's Hospital in Cape Town. She returned to Australia in 1909 and married New Zealand born Thomas Gawn in Brisbane, Queensland. They then moved to Nerang where they operated a live-in general store on the corner of Price and Lavelle Streets. They sold this store in the 1930s and established another nearby in Price Street. Annabelle continued nursing in a small 4-room private hospital attached to the back of her Price Street property. She was an honorary ambulance bearer and her hospital was classified as an ambulance centre where she provided emergency care until the nearest doctor, located at Southport, could attend.

Annabelle was also a warden at St Margaret's Church of England and a Sunday school teacher and vice president of the Southport Country Women's Association. Matron Annabelle Gawn (nee Emmins) died on 11 April 1940. She was buried at Nerang Cemetery and the people of Nerang erected a grave plaque inscribed, 'She did what she could', the start of a verse in the Bible, Mark 14:8.

With research.