Beschreibung:

The highly regarded Great War 'Western Front' Military Medal "For Bravery in the Field", awarded to Miss Josephine Pennell, an ambulance driver with BRCS convoys during the bombing of St. Omer on Sunday, 14 April, 1918; Military Medal, G.V.R. (Miss J. Pennell); Miniature Trio, M.M., War and Victory medals; V.A.D. cloth badge. The M.M. extremely fine. London Gazette, Supplement, 30 July 1918: The Citation shared with three others, Miss Katherine Fabling, Miss Stella Dickson and Miss Margaret Davidson, B.R.C.S. (V.A.D.). For conspicuous devotion to duty during an hostile air raid. All these lady drivers were out with their cars during the raid, picking up and in every way assisting the wounded and injured, and showed great bravery and coolness, and were an example to all ranks. They also carried to safety and helped in every way many French civilians. In addition Commandant Winifred Eleanor Sarah Mount Batten, B.R.C.S. and five of her nurses (F.A.N.Y.) also received M.M.'s and were Gazetted at the same time, the nurses with a very similar citation. During The Great War the V.A.D. [Voluntary Aid Detachment] worked alongside military nurses. In 1980 R. Josephine Tennant (née Pennell) published Red Herrings of 1918, an account of her time in France based on letters to her parents and in which she writes, "The Military Medal was awarded to twelve members of the BRCS convoy of St Omer for their services during a night air raid on the town in May [actually Sunday April 14th 1918 - during the Battle of the Lys], when the Germans were pushing the allied armies towards the coast in an effort to separate them. St Omer, a railway junction, was crowded with refugees and British wounded, and was very heavily bombed. The convoy was called out to collect the wounded and dying, to carry them to the nearest hospitals through the blacked out town. Later General Plumer [Field Marshal Herbert Charles Onslow Plumer, 1st Viscount Plumer, GCB, GCMG, GCVO,GBE], Second Army, decorated twelve of them with the ribbon of the MM then "in the field" [3rd July] and they later received their medals from H.M. King George V at Buckingham Place" Various photocopy documents are included in the lot, including VAD Record cards, from August 1917, attached to First Aid L/88; Motor Ambulance Driver, 12 January 1918 - 12 January, 1919, Nursing Yeomanry Convoy, St. Omer, France. The Battle of the Lys (7-29 April, 1918), which was also known as the Lys Offensive, the Fourth Battle of Ypres, and the Third Battle of Flanders, was part of the 1918 German Spring Offensive planned by General Ludendorff. Rosamunde Josephine Tennant, née Pennell (1897-1986), daughter of George Herbert Pennell and Francis Lucy (née La Fone), was born in Argentina. She was married after the War to Roy Stanhope Tennant. The total number of Military Medals awarded to the Nursing Service in France is recorded as 127. From time to time during the Great War, it was suggested in the press and elsewhere that the Military Cross should be awarded to Members of the Nursing Service in place of the Military Medal, as they rank as Officers. However the Nursing Service, as a whole, considered it a great honour to be given a medal which was awarded solely for "Bravery in the Field".