Page 48 - QARANC Vol 18 No 2 2020

46 The Gazette QARANC Association
Volunteer Reserves Service Medal 2nd Clasp
Major CG GITTINS
Lieutenant Colonel J CLARK ARRC Major JD DONALD
Volunteer Reserves Service Medal 3rd Clasp
Major SJ SHAW
Major MS WARDLE
Congratulations to the following on their QARANC 2020 awards
CNO(A) Medal: Joint winners
The late Major Huw JONES ARRC (awarded postumously) Sergeant Shahla NAJAD
Burroughs Cup
Major Gerwyn MICHAEL
Glover Prize
Major Susan JOHNSON
Best Health Care Assistant
Corporal Tabitha NDIRANGU
Talbot New Cup
Lieutenant Colonel Catherine LINSTROM ARRC
Ambrosioni Cup
Corporal Danielle HODGKINSON
Please note that due to the Covid-19 outbreak, there was no Queen’s Birthday Honours list this year.
Brigadier Joan Moriarty CB RRC
11 May 1923 –
19 July 2020
Brigadier Joan Moriarty enjoyed a distinguished career in the QAs rising to the Corps’ highest rank and appointment as Brigadier, Matron in Chief (Army) and Director of Army Nursing Services.
She was born Joan Olivia Elsie on 11 May 1923 in Cheshire to Lieutenant Colonel Oliver Moriarty of the Royal Artillery and his wife. As a child Joan accompanied her parents to India and enjoyed an outdoor life, riding her pony alone in the countryside. Her childhood was marred by a motor accident in which she was seriously injured, carrying a scar on her chin for the rest of her life. After qualifying as a nurse at St Thomas’ Hospital Nightingale School in London, and completing Part 1 Midwifery, she joined QAIMNS in 1947 and her first posting was to the Royal Victoria Hospital Netley. She was granted a regular commission in QARANC in in 1950 and was posted to the Louise Margaret Hospital and then to the Depot and Training Centre at Hindhead as an instructor. Her first posting overseas followed to BMH Gibraltar.
In 1958 after a staff appointment in the War Office Medical Directorate (AMD4), Joan was posted to Malaya, where the communist insurgency which had begun ten years earlier was in its final throes. The extraction of combat casualties from the jungle in time to prevent gangrene was a constant concern as time from wounding to extraction could take several hours. Joan worked at BMH Singapore, the Cameron Highlands, and the Military Hospital in Kluang in North-Central Johore. Her active service in Malaya made her determined to specialise in operating theatre nursing, and she completed the Operating Theatre Certificate in 1961. She enjoyed the thrill of being called in the middle of the night to attend an urgent operation.
In her later career in the mid 1960s she was posted to Cyprus after the
EOKA terrorist campaign was over; however the establishment of a UN Force there in 1964 put considerable strain on the facilities of BMH Dhekelia and she found herself caring for soldiers from Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland Ireland and Sweden.
A posting as deputy matron to the Military Hospital Colchester followed in 1967, and then on promotion to Lieutenant Colonel she joined the Army School of Recruiting and became the Corps Liaison Officer. By 1973 she was Assistant Director of Army Nursing Services and Matron of the Military Hospital in Catterick, and in 1976 she was appointed as Commandant of the QA Training Centre in Aldershot. In 1977 she was decorated with the Royal Red Cross for outstanding services to military nursing and was promoted to Brigadier to become Matron in Chief (Army) and Director of Army Nursing Services.
Brigadier Joan retired from the Corps in 1981 and made a home in Farnham in Surrey keeping close contact with the Corps through the Aldershot Branch of the QARANC Association. She enjoyed travelling and regularly visited friends and family in Australia. She enjoyed riding around the Hampshire countryside until late into her life.
Part abridged from her obituary in The Times 31 July 2020, with thanks.
Obituaries