Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

‘During the War, I had seventeen Belgian refugees planted on me - it was a pleasure not a duty - but their long sojourn with me made the labour and expense somewhat difficult for us, though my wife received the Medaille de la Reine Elisabeth. Hers was a wonderful career. She joined my sister’s (The Duchess of Sutherland) hospital at the front early in the War, coming home on rare occasions and remained with her till our youngest son, David, was born. It was almost a Plaisanterie to find her with a row of medals while I have none (except the South African).’
My Gamble with Life, by the 5th Earl of Rosslyn, refers.

The rare Great War group of four awarded to Vera, Countess of Rosslyn, who served in the Duchess of Sutherland’s Ambulance in 1914, and afterwards in her hospital at Calais: parting company with her husband, the 5th Earl, a noted gambler and philanderer, after the War, she became the mistress of Bruce Lockhart, the famous spy

1914 Star (Countess of Rosslyn); British War and Victory Medals (Countess of Rosslyn); Belgium, Medaille de la Reine Elisabeth, mounted as worn on frayed ribands, very fine (4) £1800-2200

Vera Mary Bayley, afterwards the Countess of Rosslyn, who was always known to her friends as “Tommy”, was born in February 1887, and married James Francis Harry St. Clair Erskine, the 5th Earl of Rosslyn, in October 1908.

In common with other ladies of the aristocracy, she quickly volunteered her services on the advent of hostilities in August 1914, and was enlisted by her sister-in-law, the Countess of Sutherland, to assist with her private Ambulance out in France and Belgium. Duly arriving in that theatre of war in October 1914, at the height of the Yser fighting, when thousands of wounded French and Belgian troops were pouring thorough the town, she ended up at the Duchess of Sutherland’s auxiliary hospital building at Malo-les-Bains, close to the sea - owing to the generosity of British and American friends, funds were secured to run the establishment with 100 beds, these facilities in addition to a fleet of ambulance cars.

Returning home in February 1915, “Tommy” enrolled as a V.A.D. under the Joint Committee of the British Red Cross and Order of St. John, prior to rejoining the Duchess of Sutherland at her newly established No. 9 Red Cross Hospital at Calais in March 1916, and she remained similarly employed until April 1917, when she came home to take up an appointment at Struan House Auxiliary Hospital in Reading. In addition, as cited above, she lent ‘kind help and valuable assistance to Belgian refugees and soldiers’, as a result of which she was awarded the Belgian Medaille de la Reine Elisabeth (The Times, 29 June 1918, refers).

Meanwhile, her marriage was coming to an end, for the 5th Earl’s addiction to gambling and women had not abated with the passage of time, and, by the early 1920s, she was having an affair with Bruce Lockhart, the famous spy, an affair that lasted for many years. “Tommy” is credited with getting him to convert to Catholicism and was with encouraging him to write his classic British Agent, and Lockhart's career in turn inspired his son Robin to write (Reilly) Ace of Spies, which was the basis of the classic 1983 BBC-TV series about Reilly, with the title character being played by Sam Neill, and Ian Charleson playing Robin's father. Moreover, she introduced him into the highest society, and through her he became an acquaintance of the Prince of Wales (afterwards the Duke of Windsor). Indeed Lockhart’s son has stated that a marriage between his father and “Tommy” almost happened.

Love life aside, the Countess returned to the employ of the British Red Cross on the renewal of hostilities in September 1939, enlisting as a Transport Driver in No. 146 (Paddington District) Detachment, and is credited with having assisted in raising the Friends Ambulance Unit that was embarked under the aegis of the Red Cross for service in Finland during the conflict with Soviet Russia in the winter of 1939-40 - indeed Lockhart states in his Comes the Reckoning that she was hell bent on going to Finland to nurse the wounded.

The Countess died in February 1976.

Sold with copies of Bruce Lockhart’s British Agent (1933), Retreat from Glory (1934), A Son of Scotland (1938), and Guns or Butter (1938), together with The Diaries of Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart 1915-1938, by Kenneth Young, and the enchanting My Gamble with Life, by the Earl of Rosslyn, in both of which the Countess of Rosslyn receives frequent mention, and Dear Duchess, Millicent Duchess of Sutherland 1867-1955, by Denis Stuart, with extensive coverage of the Great War period and further mention of the Countess of Rosslyn.