Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Nurse Miss Mary T. Barclay, Scottish Women’s Hospital’s First Serbian Unit

British War and Victory Medals (M. T. Barclay.); Serbia, Cross of Mercy, gilt and enamel, suspension re-affixed; Serbia, Medal for the Retreat from Albania 1915, bronze, generally very fine (4) £400-£500

Mary Thomson Barclay was born in Edinburgh on 1 May 1881 and, following the outbreak of the Great War, volunteered for service with the Scottish Women’s Hospital. She joined the Scottish Women’s Hospital’s First Serbian Unit at Mladanavatz, in the Balkan theatre of War, in February 1915. When Bulgarian and Austro-Hungarian forces attacked and broke the Serbian line in October 1915, some members of the Scottish Women’s Hospital unit, including Dr Elsie Inglis, opted to remain in Serbia. However, Sir Ralph Paget, a British diplomat in Serbia, set out the options and advised that, due to the arduous nature of the terrain, only the fittest amongst the nursing staff should attempt to join the retreat of the Serbian army through Albania. Some, including Mary Barclay decided to join the retreat, and her diary, which is held by the Imperial War Museum, confirms that by 7 December 1915 she had arrived with the remainder of the column at Scutari on the Albanian coast:
‘The state of confusion here [Albania] is beyond description. I arrived here on the 20th November... The Chief of Staff and Operational Staff only arrived last night. Unfortunately on two occasions I had to burn all I possessed in the shape of notes, “statutes” etc. only keeping a very short condensed diary...’ (copy of extracts from original diary included with lot refers)

Note: As the Scottish Women’s Hospital operated under the auspices of the French Red Cross, their members accordingly were not entitled to the 1914-15 Star, this being restricted to those who served on the establishment of a unit of the British Expeditionary Force. As a result, this is her full medal entitlement.