Page 49 - QARANC Vol 20 No 1 2022

The Gazette QARANC Association 49
Remembering Pearl
I would like to honour the memory of QARANC L/Cpl. Pearl Patterson – formally of British Military Hospital, Up Park Camp, Jamaica, who died on 3 November 2021, aged 95, at her home in Kingston, Jamaica.
L/Cpl. Patterson served as the chair- side dental assistant at the Hospital Dental Centre in the early to mid 1950s. The three dental staff were Pearl Patterson QARANC, Major Bob Nichol RADC, and myself, Cpl Ian Tugwell RADC – dental technician.
Pearl left the army later and came to England to gain further nursing experience and qualifications at The
North Middlesex Hospital. In the late 1950s she was a bicycling midwife in the Surrey area.
In later years she emigrated to Canada and continued her hospital nursing career until she retired. She lived in Toronto until, in advanced age, she returned to her home country.
My own family and Pearl’s have remained friends ever since my two years National Service in Jamaica. The former British Military Hospital is now The Bustamante Children’s Hospital.
Ian Tugwell, RADC National Serviceman 1952 - 54
Laura Jayne Sadler (nee Murray)
Laura Jayne Sadler, who died in October, was born and raised in Edinburgh, leaving in her teens for Manchester Royal Infirmary where she trained to become a nurse and midwife.
On Qualifying she joined the QAs heading to The Pavilion in Aldershot in 1985 to start her officer training.
Laura’s first posting was to BMH Rintal then onto CMH in Aldershot, where she meet Capt Rory Sadler who was to become her husband. Laura left the Corp on the birth of her first child Maxine, later becoming a civilian midwife at BMH Munster, on her husband, by then Major Sadler, being posted to Germany.
Laura later worked at Queen Mary’s hospital Roehampton, while her husband Major Sadler was
posted on attachment to Guy’s in London. On his departure from the RAMC the family moved to Greater Manchester and welcomed their second daughter Charlotte in 1993 followed by Clarisse in 1995.
In July 1998 Major Sadler passed away leaving Laura a single parent of three young girls.
She returned to work has a pharmaceutical rep and quickly became a rising star in this field, relocating herself and the girls to Maidenhead in 2006. After taking redundancy Laura returned to nursing at Wexham Park Hospital Slough.
In 2012 Laura became ill with a rare blood condition, finding herself in the John Radcliffe Hospital Oxford having a stem cell transplant. Once
again she showed her fighting spirit returning to work at the Wexham Park six months later as a ward sister in the oncology department.
During lockdown in 2020, Laura, who was by then a Matron at Wexham park, found she had breast cancer. She had the breast removed and was given the all-clear to return to work.
Laura showed the fighting spirit of a soldier throughout her adult life, but sadly on 23 October 2021 Laura was taken from her family and friends by a heart attack that there was no coming back from.
She is survived by her three girls Maxine, Charlotte, Clarisse and two grandchildren.
A poem of Remembrance
The poppy is a symbol
In France the fields were red A world War one memorial
To the wounded and the dead
Each poppy was a soldier
Who feared and fought and died Each poppy has a family
That loved and mourned and cried
How many years have passed And the poppy means much more It signifies the sacrifice
In each and every war
It represents the caring
The QARANC
Where ever there are wounded Our nurses there will be
So as we wear our poppy On Remembrance Day
With pride we will remember The Scarlet and the Gray
A poem written by Gillian Whittaker for her daughter Lt Col Caroline Whittaker