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Pictures courtesy of Noonan's

MBE (Civil) Member’s 2nd type lady’s shoulder badge, silver, on lady’s bow riband, in Royal Mint case of issue;
RRC VR with Second Award Bar, on lady’s bow riband, in Garrard, London, case of issue;
QSA (0) (Nursing Sister J. P. Stow.) officially re-impressed naming;
King’s South Africa 1901-02, (0) (Nursing Sister J. P. Stow.);
BWM and VM with MID (Sister J. P. Stow.)



MBE LG 1 January 1951. R.R.C. LG 31 October 1902. R.R.C. Second Award Bar LG 3 June 1919: ‘In recognition of valuable services with the British Forces in Mesopotamia.’ MID LG 5 June 1919.

Miss Jessie Philipson Stow was born in South Africa in 1877 and was educated at the Diocesan School at Grahamstown. She did her nursing training at St Bartholemew’s Hospital in London from 1895 to 1899, before returning to South Africa. She served with the Natal Volunteer Medical Corps during the Boer War, and was present throughout the Siege of Ladysmith at the Intombi Camp Hospital, and for her services was awarded the Royal Red Cross, First Class.

Miss Stow was Matron of Livingstone Hospital from 1908 to 1914, before joining Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve, whom she served with during the Great War in Malta, Egypt, India, and Mesopotamia. For her services in Mesopotamia she was Mentioned in Despatches by Lieutenant-General Sir W. R. Marshall, and was awarded a Second Award Bar to her Royal Red Cross.

Post-War, Miss Stow served as Matron of the Government Hospital at Der-es-Salam, before taking up an appointment with the Rhodesian Railways Nursing Service in 1932. She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1951 New Year’s Honours’ List, and finally retired in 1952.

She died in Luansha, Northern Rhodesia, in 1962.

Sold with an extensive file of original documents, including the recipient’s original MID Certificate, dated 7 February 1919; various telegrams and letters regarding both the award of the R.R.C.; the Second Award Bar; and the MBE; a large quantity of original letters, newspaper cuttings, and photographs; other ephemera, including the recipient’s napkin ring, this damaged, engraved ‘JPS. Malta Xmas 1915’; and copied research, including medal roll extracts.

Picture courtesy of Noonan's

Royal Red Cross, 1st Class, VR, silver-gilt and enamel, mounted on bow;
QSA (0) (Nursing Sister A. M. Whiteman.) officially re-impressed naming;
Jubilee 1935, unnamed as issued

RRC awarded 26 June 1902: ‘In recognition of services in South Africa.’

MID LG 17 June 1902: ‘Miss Ada Whiteman, Matron, College Hospital, Maritzburg, and Leper Hospital near Pretoria.’

Ada Maria Motum Wynn Whiteman, daughter of Francis William John Wyn Whiteman and Ada Maria Motum Hill. She was born at Bath, England, and educated in England. She was the matron of the Pretoria Leper Institution, retiring after 29 years’ service, providing useful work for the Leper Institution. In January 1896 she came from England to assume duties at the General Hospital, Johannesburg, but left there to take over as matron of the Van Ryn Mine Hospital until the outbreak of the Boer War. During the Boer War she was superintendent sister at Fort Napier Military Hospital, and then occupied a similar position at College Hospital, Maritzburg, until it closed. Whiteman was later called by Lord Roberts to come and work at the Leper Asylum in Pretoria.

At the 2nd meeting of the Guild of Loyal Women of South Africa (Pretoria, August, 1901), she joined as a member, and later became a foundation member of the Pretoria Women’s Club and Pretoria Country Club. Member of the I.N.A. in England; her name is mentioned in the list published by Burdett. A keen social worker, Whiteman also belonged to the Civic Society, Pretoria; St Dunstan’s and Civilian Blind Societies; Home for Friendless Women; and a number of others. She is a holder of the South African War Medal and the Royal Red Cross for work during the Boer War. In 1926 she was made an honorary serving sister of the venerable order of St John of Jerusalem, and became a recipient of the King’s Medal.

Whiteman was honoured by the friendship of the Royal Family, and her favourite recreations included: literature, music and singing, and in her youth was a keen sportswoman. She died in 1938.

The two RRCs sold this afternoon.

The RRC* to Jessie Stow sold for a hammer price of GBP 3,800. Totals: GBP 4,894. R 107,700. AUD 8,990. NZD 9,780. CAD 8,030. USD 6,080. EUR 5,490.

The RRC to Ada Whiteman sold for a hammer price of GBP 1,100. Totals: GBP 1,417. R 31,180. AUD 2,600. NZD 2,830. CAD 2,320. USD 1,760. EUR 1,590.

Picture courtesy of Spink

RRV VR;
QSA (0) (Nursing Sister E. M. Whiteman), officially re-impressed naming;
KSA (0) (Nursing Sister E. M. Whiteman.);
1914 Star (Miss E. M. Whiteman. Q.A.I.M.N.S.R.);
British War and Victory Medals, with MID (Sister E. M. Whiteman.)

RRC London Gazette 31 October 1902. MID London Gazette 11 June 1918.

Emily Margaret Whiteman was born at Lamport, Northamptonshire on 22 January 1869, the daughter of William and Emma Whiteman. Training as a nurse at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Rochester, Kent between 1890-94, she had been appointed Head Nurse on a Ward by the end of her time there. Following this she served a Sister at Yarmouth from 1894 before transferring to the Princess Christian's Army Nursing Service Reserve, based at Windsor in 1896.

With the outbreak of the Second Boer War, Whiteman was mobilised for service and arrived in South Africa on 4 November 1899. She was posted to No. 3 General Hospital at Kroondstat before joining No. 12 Hospital, also based at Kroonstat. Taking some leave, she returned to South Africa on 22 February 1902 and was later posted to St Helena from 27 May 1902. Finally she returned to Britain for leave on 9 October 1902, where she terminatined her engagement on 9 November 1902. Whiteman was awarded a gratuity of £60-5-6 on the cessation of employment, and was invested with the Royal Red Cross on 18 November 1902.

Re-called for duty on 12 August 1914 at Chatham, she served on the Western Front from 17 August 1914. Posted to No. 6 General Hospital she served here until 10 November 1915, when she returned to Britain. Leaving Liverpool on 2 December 1915 for Salonika, via Alexandria, Whiteman arrived on 1 February 1916. Served there for much of the war she embarked on 23 May 1918 and returned to Britain, via Taranto, arriving on 2 June 1918. Here she was granted five weeks leave before joining a Home Station at Colchester. There, with the war over, she applied for a transfer to the Army Occupation in Germany, this was denied on 14 June 1919 and Whiteman was demobilized on 31 July 1919. She was removed from the Permanent Reserve Roll as a result of attaining the age limit on 19 January 1925, with her final report stating:

'A very good conscientous nurse, much liked by all. Conduct excellent.'

Whiteman died in Peterborough in 1953.

The RRC group to Nursing Sister Whiteman sold for a hammer price of GBP 2,800. Totals: GBP 3,606. R 82,270. AUD 6,610. NZD 7,100. CAD 5,950. USD 4,410. EUR 4,050

Picture courtesy of Noonan's

RRC VR;
QSA (0) (Nursing Sister H. Hogarth)

RRC London Gazette 26 June 1902: ‘Miss H. Hogarth, Army Nursing Service Reserve, Hospital Ship Princess of Wales.’
MID London Gazette 17 June 1902.

Noonan's text is very similar to a post by Justin from 11 years ago ( www.angloboerwar.com/forum/13-miscellany...t-to-the-troops#6377 )

Miss Helen Hogarth was one of four nursing staff hand picked by H.R.H. Princess Christian to serve on the royal hospital ship Princess of Wales during the Boer War.

Hospital Ship Princess of Wales

Much of the history behind the creation of the Princess of Wales is well documented in the columns of The Times, Lord Wantage having corresponded with the newspaper in October 1899 about the creation of the Central British Red Cross Committee, including the Army Nursing Service Reserve, whose President was H.R.H. Princess Christian. In turn she became Honorary President of the newly formed Committee, out of which emerged the funding for a fully equipped hospital ship. The vessel in question, the well-known yachting steamer Midnight Sun, was chartered for the purpose and sent to the Armstrong works for the necessary alterations into a 200-bed hospital ship, ready to leave for South Africa by the end of November 1899. In addition to assisting with the cost of fitting the ship, Her Royal Highness spent more than £1,000 in luxuries and comforts for the sick and wounded soldiers and, at the express wish of the Central British Red Cross Committee, consented that the ship be called the Princess of Wales. In the company of her husband, she visited the ship at Tilbury Docks in late November, just before her departure for South Africa - painted white, the Princess of Wales had the Geneva Cross ‘standing out in bold relief on her side’. The Times continues:

‘The interior fittings have been swept away, commodious wards taking the place of dining room, music room, and so on, and the ship now represents a perfectly equipped floating hospital. There are three large wards, and one small one, the last being for officers, and altogether cots are provided for about 200 patients ... The operating room is on the lower deck, in the middle of the ship, and is fitted, not only with a cluster of electric lights showing right down on the operating table, but with the Rontgen rays, as well. Then there is a well-arranged dispensary and also an isolation ward. In addition to the wards already spoken of there are some private cabins available for sick and wounded officers. Three refrigerating rooms with a total capacity of 2,200 feet, have been arranged, in order to allow of an adequate supply of fresh meat being carried for the long voyage. The Principal Medical Officer will be Major Morgan, of the Royal Army Medical Corps, and he will have three assistants from the same corps. Of nursing sisters there will be four – one, who will superintend, from the Army Nursing Service, and three from the Army Nursing Service Reserve of the Central British Red Cross Committee. The three have been personally selected by Princess Christian, who has taken the greatest interest in the arrangements ... The nurses (Sisters Chadwick, Brebner, Hogarth, and Spooner), the staff and the men of the Royal Army Medical Corps who go out with the vessel were drawn up on deck as the Royal party came on board. Passing through commodious wards the Royal visitors entered the officers’ ward, into which the dining and music rooms have been converted, and inspected the numerous appliances provided for the relief of the patients ... To the personnel as well as to the vessel the Princess of Wales devoted much attention. Her Royal Highness presented to each nurse a distinguishing badge and addressed to them individually a few words of encouragement and approbation ... The Princess then proceeded along the line of R.A.M.C. men, 23 in number, and to each she handed a badge. To a similar number of the St. John Ambulance Brigade Her Royal Highness also gave badges and expressed special interest in this branch of the hospital staff, who, for the first time, are being sent abroad for service.’

Those services were much required by the time the Princess of Wales reached South Africa in the wake of ‘Black Week’ in December 1899, unprecedented British casualties having emerged from the battles of Magersfontein, Stormberg and Colenso. In all, the Princess of Wales made three voyages to South Africa and on each occasion that she berthed back at Southampton H.R.H. the Princess of Wales made private visits to the ship to meet the nursing staff and the sick and wounded. And the first such occasion was in February 1900, when she was cheered into port by nearly 500 men about to depart for South Africa in the Goorkha. The Times once more covered events in detail:
‘Then away to the Empress Dock close to the embarkation office where the Princess of Wales, formerly the Midnight Sun, was being slowly warped up to the quayside. Her bulwarks were lined with as healthy looking a lot of men in blue uniform as ever I saw, but one imagined that below there must be many worse cases. But it was comforting to find on asking Major Morgan, who was the R.A.M.C. surgeon in charge, that, as a matter of fact, there was only one man out of the 174 who was not on deck, and that he was carried on deck every day. In fact, the state in which the men arrived did every credit to Major Morgan and Miss Chadwick, the superintendent nursing sister, and to the nurses, female and male, who have been in charge of them. Of limbs lost there appeared to be but a small percentage, but of a sort of partial paralysis following upon a wound from a Mauser bullet there were a good many cases among these victims of Magersfontein and the Modder River ... ’

The Prince and Princess of Wales visited the officers, nursing staff and wounded men on board the ship the day after it had docked at Southampton, carrying out a ‘friendly inspection’ of each and every ward, The Times’ correspondent reporting that ‘there is not one of the 176 men on board the Princess of Wales who cannot boast that the wife of the Prince of Wales has spoken to him words of comfort and encouragement.’

On 14 April 1900, the Princess of Wales left Southampton for Table Bay, Cape Town, where she worked as a floating hospital until returning home with more wounded and invalids that July - as was the case before, H.R.H. the Princess of Wales inspected the ship and met all of the 170 casualties and the nursing staff, Major Morgan and the Nursing Sisters being presented to the Princess as she arrived on board. So, too, on her return from her third and final trip in December 1900, when H.R.H. the Princess of Wales was introduced to two particularly bad cases:
‘The cases that aroused the deepest sympathy of Her Royal Highness were those of two men named Stoney, of the Liverpool Regiment, and Dyer, of the Scots Guards. Stoney was wounded in eight places, most of the bullets having been fired into him after he had been knocked down; while Dyer was shot through the head and paralysed in both legs and one arm.’

Moreover, The Times report continues:
‘Before leaving the ship she presented the four nursing sisters – Misses Chadwick, Brebner, Hogarth, and Spooner – with a souvenir brooch. The brooch consists of a white enamel cross surmounted by a gold crown, and the front of the cross bears the initial ‘A’ in gold.’

In the course of this visit, the Princess was presented with an official record of the services rendered by the ship, in which it was stated the Princess of Wales had travelled considerably over 40,000 miles and the total number of admissions of sick and wounded for treatment on board or conveyance to England amounted to 728, of whom 523 were brought home to England, while the remainder returned to duty in South Africa or were transferred to hospitals there.