Royal Red Cross
The Warrant
The Royal Red Cross (RRC) was instituted by Queen Victoria on St George’s Day 1883:
War Office, April 27, 1883. VICTORIA, R.
WHEREAS We have been pleased to take into Our consideration the services rendered by certain persons in nursing the sick and wounded of Our Army and Navy, and have resolved specially to recognise individual instances of special devotion in such service ; Now, for the purpose of attaining this end, We have instituted, constituted, and created, and by these presents for Us, Our Heirs and Successors, do institute, constitute, and create a decoration, to be designated as hereinafter prescribed ; and We are pleased to make, ordain, and establish the following rules and ordinances for the government of the same, which shall from henceforth be inviolably observed and kept:
First.—The decoration shall be styled and designated “The Royal Red Cross,” and shall consist of a Cross, enamelled crimson, edged with gold, having on the Arms thereof the words Faith, Hope, Charity, with the date of the institutionof the decoration; the centre having thereon Our Effigy. On the reverse side Our Royal and Imperial Cipher and Crown shall be shown in relief on the centre.
Secondly.—The cross shall be attached to a dark blue riband edged red, of one inch in width, tied in a bow and worn on the left shoulder.
Thirdly.—The decoration may be worn by the Queen Regnant, the Queen Consort, or the Queen Dowager of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland ; and it shall be competent for Us, Our Heirs and Successors, to confer the decoration upon any of the Princesses of the Royal Family of Great Britain and Ireland.
Fourthly.—It shall be competent for Us, Our Heirs and Successors, to confer the decoration upon any ladies, whether subjects or foreign persons, who may be recommended to Our notice By Her Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council, for special exertions in providing for the nursing, or for attending to, sick and wounded soldiers and sailors.
Fifthly.- It shall “be competent for Us, Our Heirs and , Successors, to confer this decoration upon any Nursing Sisters, whether subjects or foreign persons, who may be recommended to Our notice by Our Secretary of State for War, or, as the case may be, by the First Lord of the Admiralty through Our said Secretary of State, for special devotion and competency which they may have displayed in their nursing duties with Our Army in the Field, or in Our Naval and Military Hospitals.
Sixthly.—The names of those upon whom We may be pleased to confer the decoration shall be published in the London Gazette, and a registry thereof kept in the office of Our Secretary of State for War.
Lastly.— In order to make such additional provision as shall effectually preserve pure this honourable distinction, it is ordained that if any person on whom such distinction shall be conferred shall by her conduct become unworthy of it, her name shall be erased, by an order under Our Sign Manual, from the register of those upon whom the said decoration shall have been conferred, And it is hereby declared that We, Our Heirs and Successors, shall be the sole judge of the conduct which may require the erasure from the register of the name of the offending person, and that it shall at all times be competent for Us, Our Heirs and Successors, to restore the name if such restoration should be justified by the circumstances of the case.
Given at Our Court at Osborne, this twenty-third day of April, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-three, in the forty-sixth year of Our Reign.
By Her Majesty’s Command, Hartington
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[1]. 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[2].
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. Through the work of the late Sue Light a transcription of all entries in the Royal Red Cross Register between 1883 and 1994 is now included on FindMyPast, and can be searched by name.
The First Awards
The Register of the Royal Red Cross lists 16 recipients, with “The Queen” being added to the top of the list of names. The first 16 are:
- The Princess of Wales
- The Crown Princess of Germany
- The Princess Christian of Schleswig Holstein
- The Princess Beatrice
- The Duchess of Connaught
- The Duchess of Teck
- Miss Nightingale
- Lady Strangford
- The Hon. Lady Wantage
- Mrs. J.C. Deeble
- Miss A.E. Caulfield
- Miss H. Stewart
- Miss M.A. Fellowes
- Miss J.A. Gray
- Miss H. Campbell Norman
- Miss J. Jerrard
The Princess of Wales
The Princess of Wales at this time was Alexandra of Denmark who married Queen Victoria’s son Albert Edward (Bertie) in 1863. Her mother Louise was Queen of Denmark and had a great interest in the care of the sick. Queen Louise’s most known project, and one which she herself referred to as her most important, was the Diakonissestiftelsen (The Deaconess Foundation) in 1863, which introduced the Deaconess profession in Denmark. The Deaconesses were the forerunners of the Danish nursing profession.
Princess Alexandra became Queen Alexandra when her husband ascended the throne as King Edward VII, and it is as Queen Alexandra she became the patron of Army nursing and after whom the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS) was named, as was the current Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps (QARANC). Queen Alexandra chose the cross of the Order of Dannebrog as the basis of the badge of the QAIMNS and which now also forms the badge of the QARANC.
The Crown Princess of Germany
The Crown Princess of Germany was Victoria, Princess Royal, the eldest child of Queen Victoria and Price Albert. Victoria was married at age 17 to Prince Frederick of Prussia, with whom she had eight children.
The Princess Christian of Schleswig Holstein
Princess Christian was Helena, the third child of Queen Victoria and Price Albert. Helena married Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein. Helena was the most active member of the royal family, carrying out an extensive programme of royal engagements. She was also an active patron of charities, and was one of the founding members of the British Red Cross. She was founding president of the Royal School of Needlework, and president of the Workhouse Infirmary Nursing Association and the Royal British Nurses’ Association. As president of the latter, she was a strong supporter of nurse registration against the advice of Florence Nightingale. She took great interest in Army nursing, especially during the Boer War (1899-1902). The Army nursing reserve was named Princess Christian’s Army Nursing Service (Reserve), and in South Africa there was a Princess Christian’s Ambulance Train, and a Princess Christian’s Hospital.
The Princess Beatrice
Princess Beatrice was the fifth daughter and youngest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
The Duchess of Connaught
Princess Luise Margarete of Prussia was a member of the House of Hohenzollern. She married Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, who was the seventh child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Her name was Anglicised as Louise Margaret. The maternity hospital adjacent to the Cambridge Military Hospital at Aldershot was named in her honour as the Louise Margaret Maternity Hospital.
The Duchess of Teck
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale is well known and her life is documented very well in other places. Her impact on Army nursing is less well known. For the Florence 2020 conference the QARANC Association presented the history of Army nursing and Nightingale’s impact through the eyes of 3 women. This includes some extracts from reports she wrote about Army nursing and military hospitals.
Lady Strangford
Lady Strangford was a British illustrator, writer and nurse. There are streets named after her and permanent museum exhibits about her in Bulgaria. She established hospitals and mills to assist the Bulgarians following the April Uprising in 1876 that preceded the re-establishment of Bulgaria. She was awarded the Royal Red Cross by Queen Victoria for establishing another hospital in Cairo.
Following her husband’s death she volunteered to serve as a nurse in (probably) University College Hospital in London. In 1874 her studies led her to advocate a change in the way that nurses were trained. She published Hospital Training for Ladies: an Appeal to the Hospital Boards in England. She advocated that nurses should be allowed to train and work part-time. She believed that training to be a nurse would benefit many women in their role within a family.
The Hon. Lady Wantage
Lady Wantage was the sole heiress to the fortune of her parents Harriet Wright and Samuel Jones-Loyd, 1st Baron Overstone, who gave her Lockinge House near Wantage as a wedding present when she married Robert Loyd-Lindsay in 1858. She was a benefactor to many causes, most notably nursing, for which she founded the National Aid Society (later the British Red Cross Society)
Nurses
The remaining ladies listed on Page 1 were all senior nurses employed in the service of the Army.
