An Order of St. John group of three awarded to Miss Mary C. Coulcher, C.B.E., Lady District...

An Order of St. John group of three awarded to Miss Mary C. Coulcher, C.B.E., Lady District Superintendent, St. John Ambulance Association, and Vice-President, Suffolk Branch, British Red Cross Society The Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Officer’s (Sister’s) shoulder badge, silver, with heraldic beasts in angles, on lady’s bow riband; Coronation 1911, St. John Ambulance Brigade (Lady Supt. M. C. Coulcher.); Service Medal of the Order of St John, with two additional ‘5 Years Service’ bars (Lady Supt. Miss M. C. Coulcher. Ipswich Corps. 1909) contact marks to last, generally very fine (3) £300-£400 --- C.B.E. London Gazette 30 March 1920: Miss Mary Caroline Coulcher, O.B.E., Lady District Superintendent, St. John Ambulance Association, and Vice-President, Suffolk Branch, British Red Cross Society. O.B.E. London Gazette 7 January 1918: Miss Mary Caroline Coulcher, Vice-President and Lady District Superintendent, St. John Ambulance Brigade; Commandant, Broadwater Auxiliary Hospital, Suffolk. Miss Mary Caroline Coulcher was born in Lynn Regis, Suffolk, in 1852, the daughter of the The Reverend George Coulcher, and moved to Ipswich in 1870. She was one of the initial members of the St. John Ambulance Association movement in Ipswich, becoming Hon. Local Secretary of the Ipswich Centre, S.J.A.A., in January 1880, and was appointed to the Order of St. John of Jerusalem in 1902. Appointed a Lady Supervisor, St. John Ambulance Brigade, in 1904, she served as a town councillor from 1909 to 1912, and during the Great War was Commandant, Voluntary Aid Detachment, Suffolk 22; Commandant of Broadwater Auxiliary Hospital, Ipswich, from 21 October 1914 to 12 February 1919, and also Commandant of Gippeswych (Isolation) Hospital, Ipswich, from 20 March to 6 September 1915. It was her enthusiasm and financial support that led to the town’s first motorised ambulance. She was also a Vice-President of the British Red Cross Society for Ipswich, and a member of the East Suffolk War Relief Committee Executive. For her services during the Great War she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1918, and was advanced a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1920. She died in Ipswich on 15 June 1925. Sold with copied research, including a photographic image of the recipient; and also details of the publicity behind the play Dread Zeppelin, for which she was one of the inspirations, and in which she features.