Page 14 - QARANC Vol 18 No 2 2020

12 The Gazette QARANC Association
Page from Gazette Number 3 with information on other rank trades
Major Margot Turner who commanded the parade, had been a prisoner of war of the Japanese, as had the Director of Music and the Quartermaster, Major TO Sinden RAMC. It is fitting that in the 75th year commemorating Victory in Japan that we should remember them.
By 1951, it seemed that QA Other Ranks were well established within the Corps and Army Medical Services. Gazette number 6 contained contributions from other ranks and they demonstrated their skill with pen and paper in both poetry and prose. Jeanne Miller contributed a poem which was read at a New Year Carol Service, the sentiments of which still hold true today and contains the lines:
‘Wherever British soldiers serve, at home, or overseas,
The QA Nursing Service will be there, their pain to ease.’
See Gazette number 6, page 3 ‘We Also Serve’ for the complete poem.
It seems incredible to us now that by November 1950 over 200 young women were undergoing basic training at Queen Alexandra Camp, and 30 had already been posted to hospitals. Recruits entered Queen Alexandra Camp at fortnightly intervals to undergo a 12 week course of both nursing and regimental training. An officer, Mary Scannel, writes that the recruits very quickly gained a Corps spirit and identity, and were very cohesive in their particular ‘set’ (as all student nurses find when they start training). Bridget Lennon, a recruit, writes ‘we have no regrets at having joined the QARANC and we are looking forward to at least three more years spent as happily as our first months at the Depot’. Virginia Lighton writes that ‘work on the wards is still rather bewildering, but we are gradually finding our way about and are becoming accustomed to the general routine. I feel I have already learned a lot, and having been ill myself I am able to see things from the patient’s point of view. Life in the QAs as an OR is largely what you make it, and it does feel one is doing work that is really worthwhile’.
Matron Annie Rowlands welcomed the first batch of recruits into her unit in November 1950. She wrote that for her it was another milestone, and a new era in the life of the Corps had been reached. She felt there had been ‘no greater step for the Corps than the opening of the Corps to other ranks. From the Matron’s point of view, with the coming of other ranks it brings a
account of the parade held on 13 September 1950 to celebrate the official opening of the QARANC Depot and Training Establisment at Ontario Camp, Hindhead. The occasion also marked the change of name from Ontario Camp to Queen Alexandra Camp. From this account we learn that the first other rank entrant to the Corps was Private A Catherall. She was presented with a memento, a small clock, from the Depot officers. Private JL Reeve was named as best all-round recruit, and received a leather writing case presented by the Nursing Mirror. Lieutenant JM Brooks was the best all-round student on the officers basic course and was presented with a silver compact, also from the Nursing Mirror.
It is also interesting to note that this was the first occasion on which the Corps March, Grey and Scarlet, was played. It was arranged by Captain Brown, Director of Music for the RAMC, from suggestions made by Professor A Lewis of the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham and members of the Depot staff.
General Sir James Steele, the Adjutant General, spoke of his admiration for the Corps and after he had taken the salute remarked that this was the first time he had taken the salute of a parade of men and women together, and spoke encouraging words to the assembled recruits, some of whom had been in training for only two weeks. We were reminded that