Page 43 - QARANC Vol 18 No 2 2020

Newcastle Branch
Chair: Shirley Laverick Stovin Secretary: Jacqui Hall
During our 2019 Battlefield tour to the Somme we were fortunate to be able to lay wreaths at the Menin Gate and at the grave of our own Sister Nellie Spindler. These are the personal accounts of Catherine Lawson and Gill Bell, who carried them out on our behalf.
NorthumbriabranchesoftheQueen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps and Royal Army Medical Corps Associations jointly attended a battlefield tour to Ypres in Belgium in October 2019. It had been a few years since I had the pleasure of participating in a battlefield tour and very much was looking forward to it.
A few weeks before we were due to leave I was asked by the QA Association chairwoman if I would like to lay a wreath at The Menin Gate on behalf of the QARANC Association Northumbria branch. I was very honoured to receive such a request and I didn’t hesitate to oblige.
From October 1914 to October 1918, five major battles occurred at Ypres. By the time the last shells fell nearly 200,000 servicemen had been killed. The Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial in Belgium is one of the most well-known war memorials in the world and is one of four memorials to the missing in Belgian Flanders, which cover the area known as the Ypres Salient. It was built between 1923 and 1927 Being designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield and since 1928 the last post is sounded every evening at 8pm under the memorial. Only during the Second World War was the ceremony interrupted and it was moved to at Brookwood Military Cemetery near Woking in Surrey.
Having been a former serving member of 201 Northern Field Hospital (V) for 17 years I had visited Ypres before, but on this occasion it was to be all the more special. We lined up for the 8pm service of remembrance with other wreath layers, watched by a substantial volume of attendees and dignitaries, some of whom were wearing berets and insignia of their armed forces service. I read some of the names of the 54,000 missing soldiers who have no known grave, whilst waiting.
Catherine Lawson and Jimmy Muir ex RAMC at the Menin Gate
The Gazette QARANC Association
When the buglers trumpeted the start of the service it became even more personal thinking of the people who tragically lost their lives in the service of this country and my humble attempt to pay respects 100 years later. On this particular evening a choir sang beautifully during the service and laying of the wreaths, and this added to the atmosphere, experience and pride of undertaking such a duty.
It struck me that the named soldiers and officers who made the ultimate sacrifice were remembered with such respect and I somehow wished that these young people who lost their lives knew that we still held them in our hearts. I felt very humbled to be part of such a special occasion, the memory of which will live with me for the rest of my life.
I truly believe that more people should make a pilgrimage to visit the battlefields of the world and realise what our ancestors gave so that we could be free
Long may we remember them.
Catherine Lawson Major (Retd)
Between the 9th and 13th October, our QARANC/RAMC Associations, Newcastle Branch, went off on our travels to Flanders Fields in Belgium for a battlefield tour. My first ever expedition on anything like it! During our jaunt, our happy band just had
Gill Bell salutes the grave of Staff Nurse Nellie Spindler QAIMNS(R)
to take in a visit to the graves of Captain Noel Chavasse VC and a young QAIMNS(R) staff nurse called Nellie Spindler. I couldn`t believe I was personally asked if I would like the task of laying a poppy wreath at her graveside on behalf of the Branch and for the Corps. Panic stations for me, as I`d not done any sort of drill or parade stuff for around 42 years. Butterflies doing clog dances comes to mind, I felt a mixture of being chuffed to NAAFI breaks and feeling very, very nervous. I didn`t want to let everyone down, least of all young Nellie. Arriving at her cemetery in Lijssenthoek, the sight of all the white headstones made me catch my breath, so many of them it was difficult to take in, fairly brings
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