Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A post-war B.E.M. group of four awarded to Private L. Sage, Women’s Royal Army Corps and Auxiliary Territorial Service

British Empire Medal, (Military) G.VI.R., 2nd issue (W/1775 Pte. Lilian Sage, W.R.A.C.); Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Efficiency Medal, G.VI.R., 1st issue, Territorial (W. 1775 Pte. L. Sage, A.T.S.), generally good very fine (4) £200-250

B.E.M. London Gazette 9 June 1949. The original recommendation states:

‘This auxiliary is due to leave the service in about four months after having completed approximately 10 years in the A.T.S.

She has been employed for approximately the last three years at the Home Counties B.T.S., which runs four cookhouses and has a strength of some 1600 to 2000 O.Rs (male), and which is largely concerned with drafting. This, of course, means hard work in cookhouses and exceptionally irregular hours. Private Sage, despite her age, has always been the most hardworking, cheerful and selfless of the auxiliaries employed in the cookhouse. For long hours both late at night and early in the morning, she has worked more than her fair share of hours in getting food ready for men going on and coming off drafts. She has established a reputation for being the person to call upon should a job in the messing line come up out of hours.

She has by her exceptionally hard work and devotion to duty made herself an example to the younger girls in the cookhouses, such as has caused the moral and discipline of the younger girls to be kept at a good standard.’