The group of nine miniature dress medals attributed to Rachel, Countess of Dudley The Mos...

The group of nine miniature dress medals attributed to Rachel, Countess of Dudley The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, C.B.E. (Civil) Commander’s 1st type badge, silver-gilt and enamel; Royal Red Cross, 2nd Class (A.R.R.C.), G.V.R., silver and enamel; The Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Lady of Grace’s badge, silver and enamel; 1914 Star; British War and Victory Medals; Coronation 1902, silver; Coronation 1911, silver; France, Third Republic, Medal of the Société de Secours aux Blessés Militaires, bronze, all the British awards suspended from lady’s bow ribands, mounted individually for display in a Spink, London, glazed frame, nearly extremely fine (9) £200-£240 --- C.B.E. London Gazette 15 March 1918: Rachel, Countess of Dudley, Honorary Superintendent, No. 32 Stationary Hospital, France; Honorary Superintendent, Expeditionary Force, Officers’ Clubs and Rest Houses ‘For services in connection with the War in France, Egypt and Salonika.’ A.R.R.C. London Gazette 1 January 1919: Rachel, Countess of Dudley, C.B.E., Hon. Lady Suptd. ‘In recognition of valuable services with the Armies in France and Flanders.’ Order of St. John, Lady of Grace London Gazette 5 August 1904. Rachel, Countess of Dudley (née Gurney) was born in 1867 and married the 2nd Earl of Dudley in 1891. After the marriage, the Earl, ‘under the influence of his idealistic wife, surprised his friends by the energy with which he began to attack his public duties’, which included the positions of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1902-1905) and Governor-General of Australia (1908-1911). The Earl and Countess were immortalized in James Joyce’s Ulysses, and the Countess of Dudley’s Polo challenge cup in Australia is still contested in New South Wales. During her period in Ireland Lady Dudley instituted the Lady Dudley Nurses, a body of trained and committed nurses that provided medical care to the communities in the west of Ireland; and then during her period in Australia she set up a similar nursing scheme which became a forerunner to the famous ‘Flying Doctor’ service. Following the outbreak of the Great War she established a special Australian Hospital at Boulogne, which, although fiercely opposed by the War Office, became one of the busiest and most important hospitals on the Western Front. For her services during the Great War she was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, and awarded the Royal Red Cross. A frequent visitor to Ireland, Lady Dudley drowned whilst swimming off the coast of Connemara on 26 June 1920.