We recently purchased this watercolour by WH Truscott, painted in 1885. It depicts Sarah Jane Ireland who was the Superintendent Sister, Army Nursing Service, in Suakin, Sudan.

It is in need of a very good clean and some attention from an art conservator … so we will get that organised.

The Army Nursing Service came into being in 1881, and this is the earliest painting we have seen depicting an Army nurse. You can see they wore the scarlet tippet, but the distinctive tippet medals did not appear until 1902 when the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS) was formed.