Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A 1935 ‘Quetta Earthquake’ Albert Medal for Land awarded to Nurse Florence Allen, Royal Air Force Hospital, Quetta, for gallantry during the terrible earthquake that killed 35,000 people on 31 May 1935. Buried for two days beneath the rubble, with a broken arm and legs, she eventually recovered and was Invested with her Albert Medal by H.M. King Edward VIII in the only investiture of his reign- she later exchanged her Albert Medal for the George Cross in 1972

Albert Medal, 2nd Class, for Gallantry in Saving Life on Land, bronze and enamel, the reverse officially engraved ‘Presented by His Majesty to Nurse Florence Alice Allen for Gallantry in saving life at Quetta on the 31st May 1935’, in case of issue, good very fine £6,000-£8,000

Provenance: Sotheby’s, November 1984.

A.M. London Gazette 19 November 1935, For services rendered in connection with the recent earthquake in Baluchistan:
‘At the risk of her life, and at the cost of terrible injuries to her leg, Miss Allen saved the life of the child in her charge by throwing herself across the cot. She has displayed the highest courage ever since.’

Florence Alice Allen was born on 26 September 1906 and spent her early years on Ascension Island where her father was serving with the Royal Marines. As she recounted: ‘I come from a very military background and both my father and brother lost their lives in the last two wars.’ She was educated privately on Ascension Island and then in England at the Royal Marine School in Chatham, Kent, before training as a nurse in Halifax, Yorkshire: ‘I was very interested in children and used to take children of military families to see their parents overseas.’

In 1935, at the time of the disastrous earthquake in Baluchistan, Miss Allen was nurse to Christopher, the son of Flight Lieutenant C. H. Turner, Royal Air Force, who was serving with No. 5 (AC) Squadron, at R.A.F. Quetta. On the night of 30-31 May 1935 she was asleep in bed when she heard the rumblings of an earthquake and falling masonry. Rushing to the child’s cot she was unable to lift him out because a mosquito net was in the way, and as the house collapsed around her she threw herself on top of the child. The child escaped with just a small scratch but Nurse Allen was buried beneath the rubble for two days before being rescued. Speaking nearly 50 years later she recalled: ‘Bones were broken in my arm and legs and so they had a job to get me out. When you think that 35,000 people were killed by that earthquake it takes some thinking about. It’s not something you forget. When I lay buried I remember calling out for water and saying “quickly”. A black hand appeared through the rubble with a cigarette case full of water. I never got to meet that man.’

Both hospitals had been destroyed by the earthquake and so for several days Florence Allen remained in an emergency tent before being taken to Karachi to a military hospital, where she spent the next six months recovering from her injuries. Back in England she was invested with her Albert Medal by H.M. King Edward VIII at Buckingham Palace on 18 February 1936, in the only Investiture to be held during his brief reign.

Florence Allen married a man with the same surname in 1946, but sadly he died of pneumonia shortly after their wedding, and after the death of her husband Mrs. Allen took up children’s nursing again with families. On 21 October 1971, as a living recipient of the Albert Medal, she was deemed, by Royal Warrant, to be a recipient of the George Cross, and despite having misplaced her Albert Medal, elected to exchange her award for the George Cross. She was invested with the George Cross by H.M. Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace on 2 November 1972, and later received the Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977.

Florence Allen made national headlines in 1982 when, by now deaf and partially blind, she was attacked and robbed in her own home by two youths, who stole £25- they were later caught and convicted. She died on 1 August 1985, aged 78, still suffering from the injuries that she had sustained fifty years previously.

Only 12 awards of the George Cross, whether direct or by exchange, have been made to women.

Sold with three photographic images of the recipient, and other research.

Note: Florence Allen’s George Cross and Silver Jubilee Medal were sold in these rooms in July 1993.