Page 16 - The Sandbag Times Issue No:58

The Ex Forces programmeis the only one Thanks to the generosity of The Soldiers’
of its kind which provides regionally based, Charity we will be able to continue delivering
comprehensive career advice and job opportu- life-changing support to many soldiers and
nities to all ex-military personnel, irrespective veterans who need our help.”
of circumstances, rank, length of service, or
RFEA RECEIVES GENEROUS FUNDING reason for leaving. Brigadier (Ret’d) Robin Bacon, Chief of Staff,
FROM ABF THE SOLDIERS’ CHARITY ABF The Soldiers’ Charity adds: “Offering our
TO PROVIDE HELP TO THOUSANDS OF Bridging the Gap provides specialist vocational veterans advice and support to get back into
EX-SERVICEMEN AND WOMEN support to exForces who face problems in their employment after their time in the Army is
lives that make it harder to get and keep a job crucial to their wellbeing and to securing their
RFEA – the Forces Employment Charity - has and who are no longer eligible for CTP resettle- future. RFEA has provided their vital services
received two generous grants from ABF The ment support. for many years and they thoroughly deserve the
Soldiers’ Charity, totalling almost £400,000. grant we have awarded, which will help them
Commenting on the grants, Alistair Halliday, care for our veterans for the long-haul.”
The funding will enable RFEA to continue its RFEA’s chief executive, said: “We are hugely
hugely successful work to provide employment appreciative of these substantial grants from Last year RFEA supported almost 20,000 ex
advice, guidance and mentoring to veterans ABF The Soldiers’ Charity. We couldn’t help Forces personnel and created over 90,000 job
through its Ex Forces and Bridging the Gap those we do without the wonderful assistance opportunities.
programmes. and support we receive from our key funders.

‘Ma’s Collar Dogs’ was a nurse in the WAAF too, but she was killed during the war.
You see, you look so much like her...”

By Julie Warrington Ma said that the old man looked desperately sad, but then he
reached into his pocket and took out these collar dogs and
pressed them into her hand. “These were hers,” he said, “But l
want you to have them.”

Ma said that she couldn’t take them but the old man was most
insistent, saying that his daughter would want them to be worn
by another nurse, it would have made her proud, and so Ma–
close to tears - thanked him and promised faithfully that she
would always look after them.

For a little over fifty years Ma kept those ‘collar dogs’ safe and
sound, she retired from the WRAF when she married my Dad
– who was also a medic – and she would let him borrow them
to wear on his ‘best blue and mess kit’ but they’d always go back
into her jewellery box afterwards.

We never did know the name of the wartime nurse whose Dad
gave his girl’s collar dogs to my Ma on that station platform
many years ago, but we -as a family – have never forgotten her,
and I like to think that we never will. It is in the preservation of
such stories as this that the memory of our unsung heroes and
heroines survive, and I hope that in sharing this with The Sand-
bag Times, that others may think of ‘our nurse’ and those who
y late Mother(Ma to us kids!) was a WRAF nurse and served with her during our country’s ‘Darkest hour’ too.
these are her ‘collar dogs’ which came to me with the
Mrest of her ‘treasures’ when she died. Turns out that Lest We Forget.
they weren’t any ordinary collar dogs but ones with an interest-
ing – and rather poignant - story behind them.

One day in the summer of 1951, when travelling home in
uniform, she was standing on a platform and waiting for a
train back to her home city of Nottingham when she noticed
an old man standing close by and staring at her. Madidn’t take
much notice at first but the old fellow kept looking and she was
starting to feel a bit uneasy when he came over to speak to her.
I remember her exact words when she told me what happened
next: “I’m sorry to keep staring at you,” the old man said, “But l
see that you’re a WAAF nurse...”

Ma nodded and smiled at him and he went on “My daughter

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