A Great War military O.B.E. pair awarded to Mrs Isabel Lace-Pritchard, Controller, Irish Command, Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) Officer’s 1st type lady’s shoulder badge, silver-gilt, hallmarks for London 1919, mounted ‘bow and tails’, in Garrard, London case of issue; Territorial Army Nursing Service Cape Badge, silver, in Vaughton, Birmingham case, extremely fine (2) £140-180

O.B.E. London Gazette 12 December 1919. ‘Miss Isabel Lace-Pritchard, Controller, Q.M.A.A.C.’ ‘For valuable services rendered in connection with the war’. The announcement for the O.B.E. was a substitute for the earlier announcement; being upgraded without receiving the earlier M.B.E.

M.B.E. London Gazette 3 June 1919.

Isabel Lace, born in 1881, was the daughter of Henry Leigh Lace, of Cardiff. She served in the Women’s Legion as Superintendent, April 1916; as Administrator in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Force, April 1917; was promoted to Controller in the Irish Command Q.M.A.A.C. attached to G.H.Q., August 1917, and was demobilized in December 1919. In 1921 her address was given as ‘The Great House, Llanblethian, Cowbridge, Glamorgan’.

Sold with the O.B.E. bestowal document, named to ‘Isabel Mrs Lace-Pritchard, M.B.E.’, dated 12 December 1919; together with covering slip; the Lord Chamberlain’s invitation (blank) to an Afternoon Party in the Garden of Buckingham Palace, 25 July 1919; together with Entrance Card; the Registrar’s Letter of Invitation, dated 18 November 1919, for an Investiture by the King at Buckingham Palace on 3 December 1919, addressed to her as ‘Mrs Lace-Pritchard, M.B.E.’; a letter from the Q.M.A.A.C. Controller-in-Chief, dated 15 December 1919, belatedly informing her of the appointment ‘in recognition of distinguished services rendered in connection with the War’ - her home address being given as ‘55 Foreland Road, Whitchurch, Glamorgan’. Also with the recipient’s W.A.A.C. ‘War Worker’s’ Testament and Gospel of St. John, these unnamed.