Full medal write up
BRITISH EMPIRE MEDAL, (MILITARY) G.VI.R., 1ST ISSUE ‘NO. W/564050 CPL. CLK. EVA M. SEWART. V.A.D.’ MOUNTED AS WORN ON LADY’S BOW RIBAND; DEFENCE AND WAR MEDALS 1939-45; TOGETHER WITH THE RECIPIENT’S TWO BRITISH RED CROSS SOCIETY PROFICIENCY CROSSES, GILT AND ENAMEL, THE FIRST WITH ‘PROFICIENCY IN RED CROSS NURSING’ INTEGRAL TOP RIBAND BAR 20580 E. SEWART’; THE SECOND WITH ‘PROFICIENCY IN RED CROSS FIRST-AID’ INTEGRAL TOP RIBAND BAR ‘28670 E. SEWART’; A BRITISH RED CROSS SOCIETY COUNTY OF EAST LANCS. BADGE, GILT AND ENAMEL ‘33845 E. SEWART’; AND A MOBILE V.A.D. ARM BAND AND ARM PATCH
B.E.M. London Gazette 2 June 1943.
Miss Eva Margaret Sewart was born in Chorley, Lancashire, on 18 March 1916, and enrolled in the British Red Cross Society on 15 June 1937. She served during the Second World War as a Corporal Clerk with the Voluntary Aid Detachment at the Military Hospital, Lancaster, from 9 September 1940 and was awarded the B.E.M. in 1943 for her services at this hospital. She died in 1996.
The rank of Corporal is military, not civilian, which the V.A.D. were so this is quite unusual. It is possible Sewart with a military nurse attached to the V.A.D. Two newspaper articles in the Lancaster Guardian about the award of her B.E.M. (one with a portrait photo) simply say she was a nurse with the V.A.D.
Condition NEF. Ex DNW 2018. Note, the B.E.M. still has its pin back and is pinned to the recipients ribbon bar, not fixed to it.
One of only 27 British Empire Medals awarded to women of the Voluntary Aid Detachment for the Second World War.