Engraved coffee spoons: Nurse Mary Marlowe, Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment, Quex Park Territorial Red Cross Hospital, Kent, England

Six sterling silver commemorative coffee spoons each with a decorative enamelled tip of a hospital patient in blue uniform. Each spoon is hallmarked and individually engraved; “K178 1914-1918”; K178 1914-1918”; “K178 ARMISTICE, 11-11-1918”; “XMAS 1918”; “NEW YEAR 1919”; CHRISTOPHER 23-2-1919”.

Actor, nurse, author and journalist Mary Marlowe was born Margaret Mary Shanahan in 1884, at St Kilda, Melbourne, but in 1907 adopted the stage name Marlowe and was thereafter known by that name. She served with the British Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachments (VAD) at the Quex Park Territorial Red Cross Hospital in Kent, England from June 1917 to January 1919.
Marlowe was called up twice for nursing duty in France, but at the commandant’s request was retained at Quex Park due to shortages of trained nursing staff. Marlowe described her time at the hospital as "the two most useful years of my life".
The spoons were presented to the VAD nursing staff to commemorate milestones of the hospital. The final spoon engraved "CHRISTOPHER 23-2-1919”, commemorated the birth of the heir of Quex Park, and all the VAD staff were subsequently made his godmothers at the christening at the village church.