Matron Alice Cashin completed her initial nurses training at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney. While working in London she joined the British Red Cross as a nurse at the outbreak of the First World War and served in France and Belgium. She then joined Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve in which she was awarded the Royal Red Cross First Class, the highest award given to nurses during the war. In March 1917 she oversaw the evacuation of all patients after the hospital ship she was aboard was torpedoed by a German U-Boat. For this action she received a First Class Bar to her Royal Red Cross, becoming one of the few Australian nurses to be awarded this decoration twice. Cashin was also twice mentioned in dispatches. This important collection consists of Matron Cashin’s Royal Red Cross First Class and bar, First World War campaign medals including her 1914 Star rarely awarded to Australians and her Queen Alexandra’s nursing medal and badges.
Gift of Jennifer Furness & Lyndell Ford, 2016