Matron Violette Thurstan, MM, Order of St George (Russia), Order of La Reine Elisabeth (Belgium)

Military Medal

Miss Violetta Thurstan was a pupil at the Ladies’ College, Guernsey. She trained as a nurse at the London Hospital and was working as a nurse in the Isolation Department of the Town Hospital when war broke out. She immediately volunteered for overseas service and went to Belgium and was there when it was occupied. After escaping overland she worked in hospitals in Belgium and Russia then with a Flying Column ambulance train in Serbia. Her books sold in vast numbers, especially “Field Ambulance and Flying Column.”

During an air raid at the Rouen hospital where she was matron she was knocked down by a falling roof. She immediately got up and helped stretcher-bearers to carry the wounded to the next line ambulance. For this she became one of the few women to win the Military Medal. She also won the Russian Order of St George and the Belgian Order of La Reine Elisabeth.

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