A rare Great War Female Egypt Casualty pair and tribute medal awarded to Miss Marion D. Chapman, Voluntary Aid Detachment who saw service in Egypt during the Great War and died of Pneumonia in Alexandria on 10th August 1918, being one of only 128 British Red Cross nursing members who died during the Great War and one of only a small handful who died in Egypt. She is remembered on the memorial at the Church of St. Michael and All Angels, Westoe Road, at South Shields Golf Club and on the Five Sisters Memorial and Window at York Minster.
Group of 3: British War Medal and Victory Medal; (M.D. CHAPMAN.) County of Durham V.A.D. Worker tribute medal in gilt and enamels, reverse inscribed ‘Presented to Miss M.D. Chapman for service rendered during the European War 1914-1919’
Condition: Good Very Fine
Marion Dorothy Chapman was born in 1890 and would go on to see service with the Voluntary Aid Detachment as a nurse in Egypt during the Great War. She would die of Pneumonia in Alexandria, Egypt on 10th August 1918, one of 128 British Red Cross nursing members who died during the Great War and one of a small handful who died in Egypt.
‘The Shields’ Daily News of 15th August 1918 notes:
‘An intimation from the War Office has been received by Mr and Mrs Henry Chapman of Seacroft, Westoe, South Shields, that their youngest daughter, Miss Marion Dorothy Chapman, VAD nurse, died at Alexandria, of Pneumonia on August 10th. The deceased lady, who was 27 years of age, joined the nursing staff of the VAD Hospital in South Shields in 1915, and was subsequently at Alnwick. Offering for service abroad, she proceeded to Egypt in October 1917. Miss Chapman’s youngest brother, Major C.L. Chapman MC< was killed in France some time ago.’
She is buried at Hadra War Cemetery, Alexandria and remembered on memorials at the Church of St. Michael and All Angels, Westoe Road, at South Shields Golf Club and on the Five Sisters Memorial and Window at York Minster.