The Royal Red Cross is a military decoration awarded in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth for exceptional services in military nursing.
The award was established on 27 April 1883 by Queen Victoria, with a single class of Member. A second and lower class, Associate, was added during World War I in 1917.
The award is made to a fully trained nurse of an officially recognised nursing service who has shown exceptional devotion and competency in the performance of actual nursing duties, over a continuous and long period, or who has performed some very exceptional act of bravery and devotion at his or her post of duty. This decoration had the distinction of being conferred exclusively to females until 1976. It is conferred on members of the nursing services regardless of rank. Holders of the second class are promoted to the first class on second awards.
Recipients of the Royal Red Cross are entitled to use the post-nominal letters "RRC" or "ARRC" for Members and Associates respectively.
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“a highly respectable gondolier,
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With his own beloved brattling.”
—Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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—Mother Jones (1830–1930)