Orders, Decorations and Medals

Miss Emma Maria Pearson and Miss Louise E. MacLaughlin, National Aid Society
An original photograph of each of the ladies mounted on card, each in uniform, wearing medals from the Franco-Prussian War 1870-71 and the Turko-Serbian War 1876, that of Pearson, incribed in a shaky hand, ‘Emma M. Pearson 1877’; that of MacLoughlin, inscribed in the same hand, ‘Louise E. McLaughlin taken in 1877’; on the back of both cards is a hand-written list of the medals and insignia they are wearing, good condition; with short lengths of ribbon representing the ladies’ medals: Prussia, War Medal 1870-71, non-combatants; Hesse-Darmstadt, Military Sanitary Cross 1870-71; France, Cross of Honour of the Red Cross Society of France; Serbia, Order of Takova; together with two old multi-coloured ribbon strips, these a little frayed and worn (lot) £40-60

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Ribbons from the Collection of the late Judge Henry Pownall.

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Emma M. Pearson and Louise E. MacLaughlin were two of the earliest Red Cross Volunteers to work amongst the battle casualties of Europe. Emma Pearson’s first experience of war wounded was when she and two other ladies and a maid visited the battlefield of Mentana, near Rome in 1867. Both Emma Pearson and Louise MacLoughlin were amongst the first to volunteer for the National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded in War (soon abbreviated to the National Aid Society) - an organisation that eventually became the British Red Cross Society. The two women were detailed to the ‘English Column’ which comprised 1 surgeon, 4 ladies, 1 paid nurse and 1 male secretary, who were detailed to serve in Sedan, August-October 1870.

They then returned to England to plead for money and stores for the unit and whilst there were each presented with a gold and enamel locket presented on behalf of the National Society. They then returned to France, joining the Anglo-American Ambulance which was relocated, by a circuitous route, Sedan to Versailles to Orleans, where it remained until the Spring of 1871 when peace was declared. The two ladies were decorated by both sides, receiving the War Medal 1870-71 for non-combatants from Prussia; the Military Sanitary Cross 1870-71 from Hesse-Darmstadt and the Cross of Honour of the Red Cross Society from France. Both ladies again served with the British Red Cross Society during the Turco-Serbian War 1876, based at the Red Cross Hospital in Belgrade. For their work, often in appalling conditions, both women were awarded the Serbian Order of Takova Gold Cross.

The two photographs are featured in Honours and Awards to Women to 1914 by Norman Gooding. With copied research and letters to Henry Pownall relating to the two women.