A RARE medal awarded to a Second World War nurse has gone on show at an award-winning museum.

The Royal Red Cross Medal was given to Mary Louisa Thompson for her time in the Territorial Army Nursing Service in North Africa.

Tommy, as she was known, was born in Batley, West Yorkshire, and went into nursing after leaving school.

She won five medals during the Second World War and received a letter of thanks from King George VI along her with Royal Red Cross Medal.

It was awarded for "special devotion in nursing sick and wounded army and navy personnel".

The medal is on show at the museum at Eden Camp, near Malton, North Yorkshire.

Museum archivist Nick Hill said: "We have got a very comprehensive display of medal boards from men and women from all different walks of life, but they all have a story.

"She volunteered to go into a militarily active area when she could have stayed as a civilian nurse.

"The patients that she was treating in Egypt would not have been in a very good state at all.

"The nurses did have to double up. As well as providers of medical treatment, they acted as surrogate mothers and sisters, even though they would have been fairly young girls.

"These girls were young enough to be the patients' daughters, but grown men were crying on their shoulders and the nurses had to give them tea and sympathy, and also treat their medical needs."

After the war, Mary worked as a theatre sister at Leeds General Infirmary, before retiring to live in Sleights, near Whitby, where she died in 1982 at the age of 88.

Mr Hill said: "This is the only one of its kind that we have and it is nice that is it now on display.

"The medal boards are very popular and there is a lot of local interest in there.

"We get a lot of people coming from Sleights who will remember this little old lady, but might not realise that she actually went away to war and was a heroine.