Medal group awarded to Isabel Wicks, First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, 1914-1918 (metal)

Medal group awarded to Isabel Wicks, First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, 1914-1918. Wicks (1874-1937) was 34 years old when she joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) in 1909. She had served as a civilian nurse during the Boer War (1899-1902), so was more experienced than most of the FANYs. During World War One (1914-1918) she was in charge of typhoid wards where Belgian soldiers were treated, hence the two Belgian medals in her medal group. This role, however, resulted in her developing paratyphoid fever (related to the more serious typhoid fever) and she had to return to England late in 1915 to recover. She then nursed in Salonika at the Serbian Relief Fund Hospital – for which she was awarded the Serbian medal of the Order of St Sava. It is perhaps due to the prejudice of the British authorities towards women’s roles that Wicks was awarded the 1914-15 Star despite arriving in France in October 1914, which should have made her eligible for the rarer and more prestigious 1914 Star. The medal group includes: 1914-15 Star; British War Medal 1914-20; Allied Victory Medal 1914-19; Order of St Sava, Serbia 1914-18; Medal de la Reine Elisabeth, Belgium 1914-18; Croix Civique, Belgium 1914-18.