The Royal Red Cross Warrant

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume XIV, Issue 1, 1 January 1921, Page 45

The Royal Red Cross Warrant

By the King's command a new Royal Warrant has been issued cancelling all previous Wan-rants for the award of the Royal Red Cross. The principal points ordained by the new Warrant are that: — The Decoration shall be styled and designated "The Royal Red Cross," and shall be divided into two classes fas at present). It may be worn by the Queen Regnant, the Queen Consort, or the Queen Dowager, and either class of the decoration may be conferred on any of the Princesses of the Royal Fapnily of Greal Britain and Ireland, also upon the Queens and Princesses of foreign countries who may have specially exerted themselves in providing for the nursing of the sick and wounded of foreign armies and navies. The First Class of the Decoration may be conferred upon a fully-trained nurse who is a member of one of the officially recognised nursing services, and who has shown exceptional devotion and competency in the performance of actual nursing duties with the Army in the Field, in the Naval, Military, oir Air Force hospitals, or in an Auxiliary War Hospital over a continuous and long period, or who may have performed some very exceptional act of bravery and devotion at her post of duty. The Second Class of the decoration may be confererd under the above conditions upon a fully-trained nurse, or an Assistant Nurse, Probationer, or V.A.D. nursing member who belongs to one of the officially recognised nursing services. The awards in the First ("lass of the Decoiration are not to exceed two per cent., and. in the Second Class, five per cent, of the total establishment of nurses, the allotments to be proportionate to the numbers of each nursing service. It is competent to His Majesty to make such

additions, as under exceptional circumstances he may deem fitting. Recipients of the Second Class, if trained nurses, will be eligible for advancement to the First ('lass as vacancies may arise. Recipients of the First Class of the Decoration who are British subjects wil] be designated M.R.R.C., and of the Second (Mass, A.R.R.C. Either class of the Decoration may be conferred on ladies, whether subjects or foreign persons, recommended to His .Majesty's notice by the Secretary of State for War, the First Lord of the Admiralty, or the Secretary of State for Air, as having voluntarily undertaken nursing duties and shown special devotion and competency in the performance of such duties, over a continuous and long period, in hospitals which have been specially established for the treatment of sick and wounded personnel of the Naval, Military or Air Forces, including the Indian Forces, and the Forces of the self-govern-ing Dominions beyond the seas; but the First Class of the Decoration shall be conferred only upon a fully-trained nurse. Any foreign lady upon whom the decoration is conferred will be regarded as an honorary member, or honorary associate respectively. The recipients under Ihe above clause will be additional to the members of the Regular Services. Anyone holding the First Class of the Decoration may be awarded a Bar for further approved service. AVe are pleased to observe that (beyond Royal peirsons) the First Class Royal Red Cross is to be reserved for fully-trained nurses. Also that a limit is placed to the number of awards, as the large mrmiber given in the recent war has materially depreciated its value.— " The British Journal of Nursing. "