Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Mrs Helen Moxsy, Voluntary Aid Detachment

1914-15 Star (H. Moxsy, V.A.D.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (H. Moxsy. V.A.D.) good very fine (3) £200-240

M.I.D. London Gazette 4 January 1917.

Florence Helen Parcell, formerly Moxsy, née O’Brien was born at Tixover Hall, Rutland in 1887, the second daughter of Lucius Stafford O’Brien, Esq., of Tixover Hall and of St John’s, Fahan, Co. Donegal. A member of St John’s (Co. Donegal) Voluntary Aid Detachment, she volunteered for service on the outbreak of war. Selected as a Nurse attached to Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service, she served in France from 26 October 1915 until 25 November 1916, and was Mentioned in Despatches.

Helen O’Brien married Captain Arthur Rupert Moxsy, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, in 1915. Moxsy served during the First World War with the 2nd Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and later as Staff Captain, 148th Infantry Brigade, in France, from 20 March 1915 to July 1918; was awarded the Military Cross; and was twice Mentioned in Despatches. They divorced in 1920, and in March 1922, she remarried Lieutenant (later Brigadier) Hubert Greenish Parcell, who had served with the Royal Field Artillery in France from 10 October 1917, and had been awarded the Military Cross in 1918 for his conduct during the March Retreat. Shortly after their marriage, the couple left for India, and in 1934 Parcell transferred from the Royal Artillery and embarked on a career in the Indian Army. On the outbreak of the Second World War, he served as Assistant Director of Armaments, Indian Army Ordnance Corps, attached to Headquarters, Master-General Ordnance Branch, Indian Army. His medal group sold in these rooms in March 1997.

She died in Chard, Somerset, on 25 May 1959.