Medal Bar of 3

This is the medal bar of Dame Joanna Margaret Cruckshank DBE, the founder and first Matron-in-Chief of the Royal Air Force Nursing Service (later Princess Mary’s Royal Air Force Nursing Service).

The medals featured are the Royal Red Cross, the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, and War Medal 1914-1918. The Royal Red Cross is awarded to military nurses who have demonstrated exceptional devotion and competence in the performance of their nursing duties, or for an exceptional act of bravery at their post of duty. It was established by Queen Victoria in 1883 as a means of recognising the service of British military nurses.