Page 44 - QARANC Vol 19 No 1 2021

42 The Gazette QARANC Association
Corps Heritage Matters Another pic in the wall
As part of the Nightingale 200 for 200 Challenge the QARANC Association identified many of the Army nurses who have been awarded the Royal Red Cross (RRC) or the Associate Royal Red Cross (ARRC). During the challenge period (21 October to 4 November 2020) we built a wall of images on the heritage website (https://britisharmynurses. com). We used a number of images from our Heritage Collection, some in the public domain, and put out a call on social media. In a very short space of time managed to get to just over 100! We have added a few more since.
The Royal Red Cross award was instituted by Queen Victoria in 1883 to recognise ‘services rendered by certain persons in nursing the sick and wounded of Our Army and Navy, and ... specially to recognise individual instances of special devotion in such service’.
By the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, only 246 women had been awarded the honour during the preceding thirty-one years. They had been decorated for their services during the Zulu War, the 1st Anglo-Boer War, the Sudan and Nile Campaigns, the 2nd Anglo-Boer War; for their work with the West African Frontier Force in 1899, and for duties in India over many years. The number also included several awards to members of both the British and European Royal families for their organisational and administrative connection with nursing rather than their direct involvement in practical care.
By the last day of 1915 the total number of awards of the Royal Red Cross since its inception in 1883 stood at 288. Twelve months later, another 644 awards had been added. In November 1915 a second class of the Royal Red Cross was instituted by amendment to the Royal Warrant. This new class, the Associate Royal Red Cross (ARRC) could be conferred on a greater proportion of women than previously – up to 5% of the total nursing establishment. Holders of the second class who receive a further award are promoted to the first class, although an initial award can also be made in the first class. Holders of the
first class who receive a further award are awarded a bar.
The decoration was conferred exclusively on women until 1976, when men became eligible, with posthumous awards permitted from 1979.
Up to the early 1990s recipients’ names were recorded in the Register of the Royal Red Cross. The original Register is held at the National Archives at Kew, but a complete copy is available at the Museum of Military Medicine. Names are also published in the London Gazette.
When we tried to track down recipients of the awards, we realised that neither the Association nor the Corps held a definitive list of who they were. At this point it became a heritage
project with the aim of documenting the history of these awards, continuing to find and display photographs of recipients, and to create a database of all Army nurses who have been awarded the RRC or ARRC.
The history of the award, the photographs and the database can all be found on the heritage website: https://britisharmynurses.com. If you would like to help us build the database or have a photograph we can add to the wall please contact me at keiron@ britisharmynurses.com.
Keiron Spires
Chair, QARANC Association Heritage Committee
Part of the wall of pictures of RRC/ARRC recipients on the heritage website