Page 25 - The Gazette Autumn 2024

During a pause between courses at the Reunion Lunch, the Gazette caught up with Sue Reading, one of the lynchpins of the Midland QA Branch and asked how she came to join the army. It turns out, military service is in the family.
Her father was a Chindits in World War Two, one of the ‘Forgotten Few’ of British and Indian soldiers who went behind Japanese enemy lines, crawling through the jungle with a huge backpack – he got shrapnel near his spine and caught malaria!
Thankfully, he survived and after posting to Africa, settled down in the more sedate surroundings of Suffolk where Sue attended boarding school and a grammar school in Ipswich. She was stricken with osteomyelitis, an infection of the bone, and ended up at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Hospital in Oswestry for four long months.
Sue recalls that, “There were children on the ward with wires coming out of their spine. Each morning, we were pushed out onto the balconies to get the fresh air. I had to have regular injections that were very painful, but there was a particular nurse called Bobby who managed to make it easy for me and inspired me.”
Max Bygraves also visited and sang to the children.
Sue didn’t have the grades to get into the schools of nursing, but a recruiting visit from the Army pointed her in the direction of the QARANC, where she was accepted in October 1963. She did basic training at Hindhead and was given £60 to buy shoes, clothes and underwear for kitbag use only and began PTS in Aldershot.
Her first posting was Tidworth, she won a prize for making the most progress in her first year. Sue was posted to Hanover and had a great time socially, as evidenced by “getting splinters in my bum slipping on a dance floor” after having one too many! She was posted to Cyprus and was involved in triaging those fleeing the Six Day War in the Middle East
She struck up a relationship with a ‘charming rogue’ who was in the RAMC but they had a big falling out, which ended with Sue throwing a radio at him! He was posted back to England and six months later saw Sue’s name on the posting-in board of the Royal Herbert, Woolwich. “He
I saw him, and my heart skipped a beat
wrote saying he was sorry how things ended, and he would love to get back together. As I got off the train at Paddington Station, I saw him, and my heart skipped a beat. I thought ‘this is it.’”
They were married for 17 years and in that time, Sue left the QARANC, had children, Nicki and Philip, and worked in Orthopaedics, Dermatology and General Surgery. After getting divorced in 1984, she carried on nursing (she was a sister by then). While on a flight to Ibiza, she got chatting to a group of young men – teasing them about their attempts to chat up the air hostess – and would go on to marry one of that group, called Jan.
She explains, “After that flight we went our separate ways, but I bumped into Jan again in Leicester a few months later. I wasn’t sure he was my type but we became soulmates – we’ve been together 37 years and married for 26
years.”
Thanks to her efforts, they got a 10-bedded
breast care ward up and running. After that, she was asked to look at pre-assessment to reduce the number of surgical cancellations and the loss of theatre time. She presented her findings to the Consultants and Anaesthetists and got the go ahead. The Surgical and Orthopaedic Preassessments Clinic was born and took off. Sue was there 10 years until retirement. Then did family support at the local hospice for 8 years.
She joined the QARANC Association in 2001 and became Chairman of the Midlands Branch in 2008. She was succeeded by Colonel Dutton, and supported her on her move to France, and supported Darren Illingworth in his take over from Col Dutton. She then became welfare officer
until Spring this year. Sue jokes: “So that is a potted history. There were lots of naughty bits in between but you’ve got
the cleaner version!”
Sue was speaking to Steve Bax
The Gazette QARANC Association 25
Sue Reading:
‘My father was a Chindits in WW2’
Sue Reading (nee Hawksley), from the Midland Branch, chatted to the Gazette at the Reunion Lunch in Birmingham about her life and service