The Queen Frederica nursing school cap badge

This gilt cap badge comes from the Greek Army's school for nurse officers, from the years it carried the name of Queen Frederica, the first school in Greece to train women as army officers, set up with British help after the Second World War.

Reading the badge

• ΒΑΣΙΛΙΣΣΑ ΦΡΕΔΕΡΙΚΗ on the scroll means "Queen Frederica".
• Φ in the blue enamel centre is her initial.
• Σ.Α.Α.Ν. on the lower scroll most likely stands for Σχολή Αδελφών Αξιωματικών Νοσοκόμων, the School of Officer Nursing Sisters. We have not found a published source that spells out the abbreviation, so treat this as our reading.
• The crown with red enamel marks it as a badge from Greece's royal era.

• The design is a cross set inside a laurel wreath, topped by the crown. The back has two slide fixings for wearing on a cap.

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  A school built after the war

  The school opened in Athens in 1946. The end of the Second World War showed the Greek army needed permanent military nurses, and this became the first nursing school in Greece for women officers.

  The first 21 students started on 14 November 1946. That date is still celebrated as the school's founding day. Only women were admitted, and the course lasted three years.

  Britain played a part. Officers of Queen Alexandra's nursing corps, serving with the British Military Mission, helped set up both the nursing corps and the school. When they left in early 1949, Lieutenant Colonel Cleopatra Avagianou, trained by the Hellenic Red Cross, took over as director.

• The school's first home was a building at the Petraki Monastery, run as an annex of the 401 General Military Hospital in Athens.

  Year	Name of the school
  1989	School of Nursing Officers
  1971	School of Military Officers Nursing Sisters
  1953	"Queen Frederica" School of Nursing Sisters
  1946	School of Nursing Sisters of the Army

  Queen Frederica and the nurse officers

  On 27 January 1951, the Greek government made Queen Frederica head of the nurse officers' corps. Two years later the school took her name, which is why it appears on this badge.

  A 1954 decree went further. It gave the Queen, as honorary head of the corps, the rank of brigadier general. The corps' own director held the rank of lieutenant colonel.

  Life as a nurse officer came with strict rules. A nurse officer could only marry five years after graduating, and only with the Ministry's approval. Having children was not allowed until 1970.

  Service in Korea

• Greek expeditionary force in the Korean War. Greece sent an infantry battalion and an air transport squadron to the United Nations effort.

  The nurses worked in forward surgeries on the Korean front, in a harsh climate. Their work was recognised by the Allies with the Bronze Star, and the school counts it among the proudest chapters in its history.

  Dating the badge

  The Queen's name was added to the school in 1953, and the crown places the badge before the end of the Greek monarchy in 1973. That gives a likely window of 1953 to 1973.

  The school carried on after the monarchy ended. Men were first admitted in 1990. Today the course runs for four years, with academic study at the University of Athens, and graduates join all three branches of the armed forces. Badges like this one, with the royal crown and the Queen's name, belong to a chapter of the school's story that has now closed.