Page 8 - The Gazette Autumn 2024

8 The Gazette QARANC Association
Introducing
the QARANC’s new Regimental Secretary
Susie Squires describes herself as an “organiser” and has enjoyed a 40-year career working for the military in various roles.
If readers were to imagine a quintessential Old English village in which to live, it might sound a lot like Puddletown in Dorset. This is where our new QARANC Regimental Secretary Susie Squires grew up in the 1970s and 80s.
“It was a very community spirited village, where everybody knew one another,” she explains. “My parents were involved in all the community events and my father ran the annual carnival and other money raising activities throughout the year. My Mother, older sister and I, helped with the organising including raffles and made lots of sandwiches and tea! It was a place where everybody pulled together.” She joined the Brownie and Guides and went on to be a baton-twirling majorette, parading with her troop at local village events.
Susie’s first job after leaving school was with the civil service, working as a telephonist in Bovington Camp. It was an old-fashioned telephone exchange with cords and plugs, and she had to memorise 500 extension numbers. “Even today if you asked me the number for the Guardroom at Bovington, I could tell you exactly what it is,” she laughs.
She progressed to become an administrator for The Director Royal Armoured Corps dealing with a large volume of post (there were no emails in those days) and enjoyed working at the prestigious HQ at such a young age.
“I’ve been very lucky that opportunities have arisen throughout my career, and I’ve taken them and moved to the next place, always in a military environment. What I like about the Army is the structure and processes, it is very professional,” says Susie. Would she have liked to have joined? “Looking back, I wish I had, but I probably thought I needed to be a lot fitter.”
Susie worked in Germany in her twenties, in a
What I like about the Army is the structure and processes,
it is very professional.
telephone exchange at the British Military Hospital Iserlohn. She made lifelong friends and thoroughly enjoyed the experience and embraced the culture. She returned to Bovington for a role at the Army School of Recruiting, working there for five years.
A job working in Home Headquarters, The Queen’s Royal Hussars in 1998 took her to London which gave great insight into working in an HQ environment. She was Chief Clerk to the Regimental and Assistant Regimental Secretaries and Board of Trustees and attended their annual dinners, Field of Remembrance and was honoured to meet Queen Elizabeth II, The Duke of Edinburgh and the Queen Mother at St James’s Palace.
Other highlights on her CV include Patient Services Co-Ordinator at Frimley Park Hospital for two years and Band Administration Officer for the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. Her most recent role was with The Band and Bugles of The Rifles based at Worthy Down, where she received a Colonel Commandant’s Commendation for her work and service to Royal Corps of Army Music.
On 1 July, Susie took up her appointment as Regimental Secretary of the QARANC, based at Robertson House, Sandhurst. “I am very much looking forward to working and serving you to the best of my ability,” she says, adding that everybody has been extremely welcoming.
Susie lives about an hour from the base, in another interestingly named village – Over Wallop. In her spare time, she is learning to play piano – a skill she picked up through her last posting – and enjoys Zumba dancing. “It’s a good stress reliever. The music is infectious, you follow the dance instructor and other distractions disappear. It’s good fun and always puts a smile on my face.”