Baldwin & Sons
Auction 90 24 September 2014
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COMMEMORATIVE MEDALS, WORLD MEDALS, Medals of the First World War, Medals of the Allies, Great Britain, Medicine / Suffragists, University of London, an Important Gold Prize Medal for Bachelor of Medicine to a recipient who was to play an important role in the Great War, Mary Hannah Frances Ivens, University Scholar in Obstetric Medicine 1900, university shield, rev inscription in and around laurel wreath, 32.33g, 37mm. Extremely fine.
Mary Hannah Frances Ivens CBE MS (Lond) ChM (Liverp) FRGOG (1870-1944), was an exceptional individual. It was only at the end of the 19th Century that women gained the right to study and practice medicine making Ivens a pioneer. In 1894 she enrolled at the London School of Medicine for Women, later part of the University of London, and took her clinical studies at the Royal Free Hospital. She was awarded the present medal and, on graduating, honours in medicine and forensic medicine. In 1903 she became Master of Surgery being only the third woman to attain this degree and, after working in Vienna, Dublin and London she took the position of Consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Liverpool Stanley Hospital.
At the outbreak of the Great War she joined the Scottish Women's Hospital for Foreign Service, a suffragist organisation developed in response to the war. In December 1914, the organisation tasked her with establishing a 200 bed Auxiliary Hospital (Hôpital Auxiliaire 301) at Royaumont, a Cistercian Abbey in northern France. The hospital was staffed entirely by women, and would treat allied soldiers from the Western Front, the first of whom started arriving in January 1915. Ivens ran the hospital throughout the war until February 1919, subsequently being awarded the French Legion d'Honneur for her work. After the war she returned to Liverpool to continue a prestigious medical career receiving honours in her field and also the CBE. At the age of 60 she married.
Estimate: £3000-5000
Mary Hannah Frances Ivens CBE MS (Lond) ChM (Liverp) FRGOG (1870-1944), was an exceptional individual. It was only at the end of the 19th Century that women gained the right to study and practice medicine making Ivens a pioneer. In 1894 she enrolled at the London School of Medicine for Women, later part of the University of London, and took her clinical studies at the Royal Free Hospital. She was awarded the present medal and, on graduating, honours in medicine and forensic medicine. In 1903 she became Master of Surgery being only the third woman to attain this degree and, after working in Vienna, Dublin and London she took the position of Consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Liverpool Stanley Hospital.
At the outbreak of the Great War she joined the Scottish Women's Hospital for Foreign Service, a suffragist organisation developed in response to the war. In December 1914, the organisation tasked her with establishing a 200 bed Auxiliary Hospital (Hôpital Auxiliaire 301) at Royaumont, a Cistercian Abbey in northern France. The hospital was staffed entirely by women, and would treat allied soldiers from the Western Front, the first of whom started arriving in January 1915. Ivens ran the hospital throughout the war until February 1919, subsequently being awarded the French Legion d'Honneur for her work. After the war she returned to Liverpool to continue a prestigious medical career receiving honours in her field and also the CBE. At the age of 60 she married.
Estimate: £3000-5000