WRAAC badge brooch : Colonel K A L Best Accession Number: REL/19938

Description

Custom made brooch of silver, diamonds and silver gilt, plated with 18 carat gold in the shape of the badge of the Women's Royal Australian Army Corps. The obverse is surmounted with the Queen's Crown above a wreath of eucalyptus leaves that surrounds five diamonds in the form of the Southern Cross constellation set on silver diamond shape. Below this is a scroll bearing the letters 'WRAAC'. There is a gold pin-fitting with a safety catch set into the back of the brooch. Underneath this the brooch is stamped '18 plat' indicating the level of gold plating.

Contextual Description

Born in 1910, Kathleen Annie Louise Best volunteered for service with the Australian Army Nursing Service in May 1940 and was posted as matron of 2/5 Australian General Hospital based in Egypt. In December the hospital opened at Rehovot, Palestine. In April 1941, Matron Best and her staff were moved to Ekali, 12 miles out of Athens, where the Anzac Corps were coming under constant German attack. As the enemy closed in, most of the medical personnel from the Hospital were evacuated. Matron Best and 39 nurses remained to care for the wounded, but were ordered to leave on the evening of 25 April, enduring a hazardous voyage to Crete. For her courage and efficiency throughout the evacuations, she was awarded the Royal Red Cross. Evacuated from Crete, Best and her staff then returned to Egypt where she had charge of a nurses' staging camp at Suez. Enclosed by a high, barbed wire fence and with only one gate, the camp was popularly known as 'Katie's Birdcage'. In August 1941 Best went with 2/5 AGH to Eritrea in Ethiopia, returning to Australia in March 1942. Her AIF appointment terminated in June and she was made inaugural controller of full-time Voluntary Aid Detachments (later the Australian Army Medical Women's Service or 'AAMWS') in July. Promoted lieutenant colonel in 1943, she was posted as Assistant Adjutant General for women's services dealing with matters of policy. In September 1944, Best transferred to the Reserve of Officers and joined the Ministry of Post War Reconstruction, where she retrained servicewomen for civilian life. Recalled from the Reserve in 1951, she was appointed first director of the Women's Australian Army Corps (WAAC), which gained the title Women's Royal Australian Army Corps (WRAAC) later the same year. Promoted honorary colonel in September 1952, Best was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1956 in recognition of her achievements. In 1957, learning of her illness, WRAAC members had this brooch made for her, but it was not delivered until the day of her death. It was then presented to the next honorary colonel WRAAC, S I Irving, who wore the brooch until her death in 1973, when it was returned to the Corps. It was subsequently worn by each honorary colonel of the WRAAC until the Corps was disbanded in 1985.