She Tore Every Stitch of her Underlinen Part B

 

She Tore Every Stitch of her Underlinen Part B

Mrs Marion Smith medal of the Order of St John of Jerusalem

“When peace was declared the three brave women returned to England, and Mrs. Smith was decorated with the medal of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. She was reported, in the application that was made on her behalf, to have been 'unremitting in her attention to the wounded and dying soldiers during the action, and that her conduct while living under canvas was beyond all praise. She did the utmost to relieve the sufferings of the men in hospital, and soothed the last moments of many a poor soldier, while sharing their privations to the full.”

Source: The Project Gutenberg Ebook of Noble Deeds of the World’s Heroines by Henry Charles Moore. Originally published in 1903

 

The Bury Free Press 31th December,1881 put it like this:

“Marion Smith was awarded the medal of the Chapter of the Order of St John for deeds of gallantry on land and her courageous self-devotion for remaining under fire during the action at Bronkhorst Spruit on December 20^th 1880 alleviating the sufferings of the wounded in every possible manner, even tearing up her own dress to make bandages, and also the good service rendered by her for a period of three months when she voluntarily remained with the prisoners of war, many of them wounded, and to whose comfort she displayed unremitting attention under the most trying circumstances”.

 

Medal of the Order of St John

 At Tyneside, in 1882 Marion Smith was awarded the Silver Medal and the Diploma of the Sovereign Order of St John of Jerusalem.

The Royal Red Cross

“Mrs Fox and Mrs Maistre were the first to be awarded the Royal Red Cross. Marion Smith had remarried and was not located at that time. In 1905 Marion was traced under the name of her second marriage, thus the King conferred the coveted decoration of the Royal Red Cross on Mrs Marion Jeffreys in recognition of her services at the action of Bronkhorst Spruit in 1880”.

Source: The Edinburgh Evening News 02.08.1905 

 

The Royal Red Cross medal

The Royal Red Cross medal on award would be bearing an effigy of the reigning monarch.

 So eventually all three women were awarded the Royal Red Cross for their actions during and after the action and were, upon their deaths, afforded military funerals.

To be continued.