Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War O.B.E. pair awarded to Mrs. Charlotte A. Baynes, who served as Director of the Catholic Women’s League on the Western Front, and was twice honoured for her services and Mentioned in Despatches

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Civil) Officer’s 1st type badge, silver-gilt, hallmarks for London 1918, on lady’s bow riband, in Garrard, London, case of issue; British War Medal 1914-20, with M.I.D. oak leaves (C. A. Baynes) nearly extremely fine (2) £300-£400

O.B.E. London Gazette 2 November 1920:
‘For services in connection with the War.’

M.B.E. London Gazette 7 June 1918:
‘For services in connection with the War.’

Charlotte Augusta Baynes, née Irby, was born in 1868, the elder daughter of the Hon. Augustus Irby, and the granddaughter of the 3rd Baron Boston. In 1888 she married Edward Baynes, son of Sir William Baynes, Bt. She was an early member of The Catholic Women’s League (C.W.L.), founded by Margaret Fletcher in 1906 with the aim of promoting Catholic principles in English social and national life. It sought to recruit women of balanced common sense who could be utilised in ‘convincing the Catholic world that business-like methods and intellectual gifts are excellent weapons in the service of God’.

At the beginning of the Great War a C.W.L. Services Committee was formed and quickly raised considerable sums of money for projects such as Red Cross work, refugee assistance, two motor ambulances, and the provision of a recreation hut for soldiers in Boulogne. Mrs. Baynes was placed in charge of the Boulogne Hut, assisted by three other members of the League; the first mass was said there on Palm Sunday 1915, when 80 Catholic soldiers attended. As the war continued so the work of the League expanded and by the end of 1918 it was operating 35 huts in England and France, all staffed by League members. As Director of the Huts in France Mrs. Baynes was first mentioned in Sir Douglas Haig’s despatch of November 1916 (London Gazette 4 January 1917), created a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1918, and finally promoted to an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1920.

Post-War Mrs. Baynes became a scholar of some note. Having already carried out geological investigations in Galilee, in 1925 she was admitted as a student at the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, where she worked alongside some of the leading archaeologists of the time. Elected a fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute in 1927, she published various academic papers as well as her book A Coptic Gnostic Treatise, Contained in the Codex Brucianus in 1933. She died in Paris in 1949.

Note: The campaign medal roll for the Catholic Women’s League shows only 36 names, each receiving a British War Medal as sole entitlement.