Badge of a Dame Commander, Order of the British Empire, 1947

Awarded to Dame Mary Colvin, Director of the Women's Royal Army Corps, 1947.

Dame Mary Colvin served in the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) before overseeing the transfer into the Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC) in 1949. She became Director of the WRAC in 1957 and served with the Corps until her retirement from the British Army in 1961.

Immediately after the end of World War Two (1939-1945), Colvin was sent to Hamburg in Germany, to establish basic welfare services, such as housing, and to set up a local council. After two years of undertaking this work, she was awarded an OBE.