Page 24 - The Gazette Autumn 2024

24 The Gazette QARANC Association
‘We were only allowed in one pub – The Army & Navy’
Eight friends who met exactly 40 years ago while doing their nurses training at Aldershot came together to celebrate their anniversary at the Reunion Lunch.
Myra Alford, Deborah Blockley, Amanda Holmes, Tracy Hughes, Iona Jones, Sally McKeown, Lesley Ricchiuti and Andrea Vincent spent 15 weeks in each other’s company in 1984 at the former QARANC centre in Farnborough Road and formed a lasting bond.
They remembered the numerous rhododendron bushes and being strictly advised that they were only allowed to frequent one pub in Aldershot: a den of iniquity called The Army & Navy (it closed in 1999 to become flats).
Deborah explained: “In basic training we weren’t allowed to go into any of the pubs in Aldershot, only The Army & Navy. All the other regiments knew when the new recruits arrived, and it was like a meat market in there. You’re dancing away to Frankie Goes to Hollywood and all the rest of it and there were all these men eyeing you up from the side. We were 18 and quite innocent!”
Why did she join the Army? “I found an advert in a Jackie mag to join the QARANC and I was 11 and I thought that’s it. That’s what I’m going to do.”
Others spoke about their reasons for joining the Army: one because her dad and brother were in the Navy (Dad was not happy). Another got the bug for nursing after seeing how her brother was cared for after suffering an accident.
Amanda went to Saudi Arabia in 2000 attracted by the promise of money to be made nursing at a government hospital. She flew into the UK especially to attend the Reunion Lunch and catch-up with old friends.
Joy and Susan:
‘Great swimmers
but diabolical skiers’
Twin sisters Joy Dolphin and Susan Harding-Morris have much common (obviously) including their army nursing careers and talent for swimming.
They were among the honoured guests in the spectacular ballroom in Birmingham and shared stories with the Gazette about their time in service.
The Maisey sisters, as they were, grew up in Swindon and when Joy was 17 and working as a secretary, she stopped by the army careers shop near work. She decided to enlist, partly to experience more of the world but also to get “a bit independence from being a twin.”
However, when her sister Susan heard what the army could offer, she also decided to join! “Mum nearly had a fit,” laughs Joy. “She was worried about the soldiers we might meet I think, and with such lovely daughters she was going to miss us.”
Joy and Susan were posted to Tidworth and Woolwich, and at Munster they shared a room. To forge their own paths, they decided to flip a coin to choose which should go to Catterick.
Both excelled in the army swimming team and Susan set an army record in the 100m fly. Skiing, on the other hand, was not their forte. They went on a trip to the Alps and proved to be “absolutely diabolical skiers”, which was a problem as everyone else seemed to be “really good,” the sisters recalled.
Susan said: “The instructor couldn’t really be bothered with us and agreed that we could go for a walk over the Alps into Switzerland instead. So off we went, and we had a lovely time. When we got back to the chalet, our names were mud! The instructor had not told anyone where we were, and a helicopter had been out searching for us!”
Another time, they went to Munich. Joy went to get their warrants while Susan went aboard the train, which unfortunately turned out to be the first-class train – “it cost an absolute fortune” said Joy, and they had to skimp for the rest of the trip.
Joy served for four years, and Susan for seven (until she got married to a member of the Royal Mechanical and Electrical Engineers). These days Joy is retired and looks after people with learning difficulties, and Susan volunteers for Home-Start.