Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Family Group:

A Great War A.R.R.C. group of four awarded to Sister Miss Amy Kaye, later Mrs. Fisher, Territorial Force Nursing Service, who served at the Rawalpindi British Hospital, Wimereux, France, caring for the soldiers wounded at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle 10-13 March 1915
Royal Red Cross, 2nd Class (A.R.R.C.), G.V.R., silver and enamel, mounted on original lady’s investiture bow riband, in Garrard, London, case of issue; 1914-15 Star (Sister A. Kaye. T.F.N.S.); British War and Victory Medals (Sister A. Kaye.); together with the recipient’s British Red Cross Society Proficiency Cross, gilt and enamel, with 'Trained Nurse' riband bar, the reverse engraved ‘531 Amy Kaye’, with top riband buckle; and a British Red Cross Society 'For Service' Lapel Badge, gilt and enamel, the reverse numbered 19184, nearly extremely fine

Three: Captain J. C. Fisher, Royal Army Medical Corps
1914-15 Star (Lieut. J. C. Fisher. R.A.M.C.); British War and Victory Medals (Capt. J. C. Fisher.) light contact marks, good very fine and better (lot) £700-£900

A.R.R.C. London Gazette 18 June 1918: Miss Amy Kaye, Matron, Loughborough General Hospital.

Miss Amy Kaye, later Mrs. Fisher, was born in Linthwaite, Yorkshire, on 15 September 1877, and trained as a nurse at the David Lewis Northern Hospital, Great Howard Street, Liverpool, between August 1904 and August 1908, following which she became Outpatient Sister and then Housekeeping Sister at the same hospital. She joined the Territorial Force Nursing Service on 12 August 1909, and in 1912 was appointed Matron of the Cottage Hospital, Lytham, Lancashire.

Following the outbreak of the Great War, Miss Kaye was mobilised by the Territorial Force Nursing Service on 12 August 1914 and sent as a Theatre Sister to the 1st Western General Hospital, Fazakerley, Liverpool. On 10 February 1915 she was posted to the Rawalpindi British Hospital in Wimereux, France, where she cared for soldiers wounded in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle (10-13 March 1915). In May 1915 she was forced to resign from the Territorial Force Nursing Service because of a family crisis, the precise nature of which is unknown; she had also received a letter from the Hospital Board in Lytham saying that they had found it very difficult to manage with temporary matrons, and consequently she returned to Lytham as Matron for a short while.

Miss Kaye re-enrolled in the Territorial Force Nursing Service on 7 March 1916, and her name was put on the waiting list of the Headquarters Reserve. At the same time she also applied for the position of Matron and Lady Superintendent of Voluntary Aid Detachments at Loughborough General Hospital. She was chosen from 31 applicants for the post and she took up the position on 17 April 1916. Loughborough General Hospital had been designated an Auxiliary Military Hospital and it included 80 beds accommodating wounded soldiers. For her services during the Great War she was awarded the Royal Red Cross (Second Class), and received her insignia from H.M. the King at Buckingham Palace on 31 July 1918. The following year she was also invited to a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace.

Following the cessation of hostilities, Miss Kaye remained as Matron in Loughborough until 1933. She then moved to Maidstone, Kent, and in 1934 married Dr. John Cecil Fisher. Dr. Fisher had previously been a visiting surgeon at the Cottage Hospital, Lytham, and had served with the Royal Army Medical Corps as a Captain during the war. Recorded in the 1939 Register as living in Maidstone, she died in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, on 5 October 1969, aged 92.

Sold with a Presentation Key, 117mm long, silver-gilt and enamel, the face engraved ‘Miss A. Kaye, A.R.R.C., Matron. Reverse 1928-1933’, the edge engraved ‘*Loughborough General Hospital Extensions*’, in case of issue; a presentation wallet, front titled in gold lettering 'Loughborough & District Hospital Extensions, Miss A. Kaye, Matron’, containing two black and white pictures of the hospital in 1862 and with the extensions 1928-1933; and extensive copied research.


John Cecil Fisher was born in Lytham, Lancashire, in 1868, and was educated at Warrington School, Charterhouse, and Brasenose College, Oxford. He was registered as a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons on 21 February 1896, and prior to the Great War was a visiting surgeon at the Cottage Hospital, Lytham. He was commissioned temporary Lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps on 17 July 1915, and served with them during the Great War in the Gallipoli theatre of War from October 1915, being promoted Captain on 17 July 1916.

Dr. Fisher married Miss Amy Kaye in 1934, by which point he was practising at the General Hospital, Maidstone. He died in Maidstone on 15 July 1941.

Sold with copied research.