Page 52 - QARANC Vol 20 No 3 2023

52 The Gazette QARANC Association
OBITUARY
‘Madge was without doubt an inspiration to all who met her’
Margaret Annie Brown
30 October 1918 – 17 December 2021
Margaret Annie Brown (known as Madge) was born in Annan, Dumfriesshire just before Armistice Day in 1918. The daughter of a locomotive fitter, she was the oldest of four siblings. Life was tough when there was no work, and entire families had been wiped out due to the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918 – 1920.
Madge later wrote about the grim living conditions with no running water, an outside toilet, and the shop and school being a hard two miles walk. By 1926, there were 12 people living in their small home, so they moved to a larger house near Carstairs, Lanarkshire. The house was beside the River Clyde and prone to flooding. Madge remembered fishing for minnows in the front porch.
In 1930, the family settled in Biggar, Lanarkshire but by then two of her brothers had died in infancy as well as her four-year-old sister, Roma. Madge remembers that ‘despite the hardships and the grief, we were lucky in many respects. We were taught table manners and how to keep ourselves clean. We said grace at meals and prayers at night. We had dumplings on birthdays and Easter eggs boiled by mum and decorated by dad which we rolled down the brae.’
She enjoyed holidays with her grandparents and outings with her father when he would pack as many of the children in as possible into a large motorbike and sidecar. As the oldest, Madge was allowed to sit pillion.
Madge trained as a Registered General Nurse at the Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle from 1940 – 1943 and then specialised in Infectious Diseases. On qualifying, her first salary was £18 a year. She volunteered for active service in the QAIMNS(R) in 1944 and, after completing military training, deployed by sea from Greenock, Scotland to Naples and onto 93 British General Hospital, Barletta, Italy.
The hospital had 1,200 beds covering General Surgery, Medicine, Orthopaedics, Neurosurgery and Maxillo Facial (this team being led by the renowned Dr Archibald McIndoe, later Professor Sir). Madge worked in the Operating Department spent
She had fond memories
of the D Day landings and catching a lift back to the hospital on an USAF transport plane when she was called back from a day off.
a considerable amount of time washing, boiling, and sterilising swabs.
At Christmas the nurses visited all the wards singing carols. Madge vividly remembered all the soldiers on the German ward joining in singing Silent Night. She had fond memories of the D Day landings and catching a lift back to the hospital on an USAF transport plane when she was called back from a day off.
Eventually coming home on annual leave, the first part of the journey from Italy was made by train and Madge travelled with a good friend who became unwell on the journey. Sadly, she could not be saved and died of poliomyelitis before reaching home. She was buried in the military cemetery at Caserta, Italy.
Madge was then posted to the Far East but was diverted to India at the cessation of the war in Europe. She arrived in Madras, India and waited for orders to join the Burma Campaign. The campaign, however, ended in 1945 and she was moved directly to the British Military Hospital, Wellington, Nilgiris Hills, India. She was then posted
to 68 British General Hospital, Lagos, Nigeria. Madge was demobbed in 1947. After a brief stint as a Staff Nurse at Law Hospital, Carluke, Lanarkshire she joined the QARANC in 1948. She served at BMH Kinrara and BMH Kluang (both in Malaya), BMH Nepal, BMH Rinteln (as Matron), BMH Gibraltar, Queen Alexandra Military Hospital, Millbank and
BMH Waringsfield, Northern Ireland.
One of her favourite posts was at BMH Paris.
Known as the Hertford British Hospital, serving the British public, it was used for military purposes during both World Wars, and during WW2 was under the protection of the Swiss Embassy, the French Croix Rouge and latterly, the British Red Cross. It closed in 1952 before reopening as a military hospital in support of SHAPE, when it was then run and staffed by the RAMC and QARANC. It reverted to the civilian sector in 1961.
Madge served a full career in the QARANC before retiring in 1975 at the rank of Colonel. She was extremely humbled to have been awarded the Royal Red Cross that same year. She thoroughly