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Pic: BosleysAuctioneers/BNPS

Pictured: The medals.

The amazing story of a woman who used her British husband's fortune to help thousands of wounded soldiers during the two World Wars can be revealed after her medals were discovered.

Lady Frances Hadfield CBE was born in Pennsylvania, USA, but moved to England after marrying the Sheffield-based industrial magnate Sir Robert Hadfield in 1894.

At the outbreak of World War One, she persuaded him to give her £75,000 - about £3million in today's money - to set up an 100-bed hospital for injured personnel in Wimereux, near Boulogne, in Northern France. She went over to France to be the superintendent of Lady Hadfield's Hospital which cared for 16,000 people throughout the conflict.

In World War Two, despite being in her late 70s, Lady Hadfield was desperate to do her bit again, spending £100,000 of Sir Robert's money to set up the Hadfield-Spears Ambulance Unit.

Her British Red Cross medals, awarded for her WW1 contribution, are being sold alongside her French Medaille D'Honneur with auctioneers Bosleys, of Marlow, Bucks, after being found in a small medal collection at a deceased estate.