Description
Physical description
Midi-length gored skirt of khaki fabric featuring a side opening of four press stud fasteners, three white plastic buttons on the rear external waistband and an internal elasticated waistband which closes at the zipper via two hook and eye fasteners.
Label
Principal Matron Anne Evelyn Read (206401) served with the QAIMNS in Iceland, North Africa and Italy between 1939-1945. Mentioned in Despatches for her 'gallant and distinguished' services in Italy (London Gazette 27/Nov/ 1945) NB.
History note
Principal Matron Anne Evelyn Read RRC (service number 206401), born 19 October 1895 in Bingley, West Yorkshire, first served as a nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) at Morton Banks Military Hospital during the First World War. During the interwar period, Miss Read joined Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS), serving in India, Sudan and Egypt, and was awarded the India General Service Medal (1936) for her service in an outpost hospital on the North West Frontier in the mid-1930's. Read returned to England in 1939, and following the outbreak of war, was first charged with the conversion of an ocean liner into a hospital ship, and was then sent to Iceland in 1941, where as Matron she established a British Military Hospital. In late 1942, Read was sent to North Africa with the British First Army, serving as Matron of the British Military Hospital in Algiers, and then as Principal Matron in Tripolitania, with responsibility for several military hospitals in the region. Read then served in Sicily and Italy, attached to the Headquarters of General Harold Alexander, and in 1945 was Mentioned in Despatches for her 'gallant and distinguished' services in Italy (London Gazette 27/Nov/ 1945).
Read was decorated as an Associate of the Royal Red Cross (RRC) for her service in Iceland, and was then made a Member for her service in Norrth Africa.