Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War M.B.E. group of four awarded to Commandant Miss Dorothy M. Liddell, Sherfield Manor Auxiliary Hospital, and French Red Cross

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, M.B.E. (Civil) Member’s 1st type badge, silver, hallmarks for London 1917, on lady’s bow riband, in Garrard, London, case of issue; British War and Victory Medals (D. M. Liddell.); France, Third Republic, Legion of Honour, Fifth Class badge, silver and enamel, blue enamel damage to mottos around central medallions; together with the recipient’s related miniature awards for the three British awards; two British Red Cross Society Crosses, with integral top riband bars for Proficiency in Red Cross Nursing and in Red Cross First Aid, the reverses engraved ‘6451. D. Liddell.’ and ‘10208. D. Liddell.’ respectively, both in named card boxes of issue; the recipient’s Incorporated Society of Trained Masseuses lapel badge, the reverse inscribed ‘1410 Dorothy M. Liddell’; a C.S.M.M.G. lapel badge, the reverse officially numbered ‘1863’, in card box of issue; and a French nursing medal, the reverse inscribed ‘Miss Liddell D.’, in card box of issue, good very fine and better (4) £240-£280

M.B.E. London Gazette 7 June 1918: Miss Dorothy Mary Liddell, Commandant, Sherfield Manor Auxiliary Hospital, Basingstoke.’

Miss Dorothy Mary Liddell was the eldest daughter of John Liddell Esq., of Sherfield Manor, Hampshire, and the sister of Captain John Aidan Liddell, V.C., M.C., Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, who died of wounds received in action in 1915 whilst serving with the Royal Flying Corps. She was appointed Commandant of the Auxiliary Hospital set up in her family home on 1 October 1914, and served there for the first year of the War, before going to France in January 1916 and serving with the French Red Cross as part of the Ambulance del’Ocian, at la Panne, Belgium until August 1916, and then at the temporary Hospital at Arc-en-Barrois, Haute Marne, France, from January to August 1917. From September 1917 to March 1917 she was employed on massage training and work in various hospitals under the Swedish Institute in London. For her services during the Great War she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire. She died at home at Stratfield Turgis, Hampshire, on 25 May 1938.

Sold with the recipient’s riband bar, and copied research.

For the medals awarded to the recipient’s sister, brother-in-law, and niece, see lot 21.

For the miniature V.C. and M.C. named to Captain J. A. Liddell, together with a family archive, see lot 1190.