Page 52 - QARANC Vol 18 No 2 2020

50 The Gazette QARANC Association
Obituaries
Major (Retd) Elizabeth Therese McCurry
4 Sept 1932- 12 April 2020
Major Elizabeth Therese McCurry (Known as Betty) was born in Coalisland Co Tyrone, the middle of three girls. Betty went to school at the Sisters of Mercy Convent and later at St Joseph’s Convent, Donagh. Betty passed her grammar school exams and went on to join the Civil Service aged 17 and worked in Belfast. On her 21st birthday she left home to start nurse training in Rochdale infirmary then went on to midwifery training at Bolton District Hospital.
On 17 September1958 she gained a Short Service Commission into the QARANC and following training was posted to the Louise Margaret Maternity Hospital. During her 21 years in the QA’s she served as a midwife in BOAR, Malta, Dhekelia, and then back to the Louise Margaret. As a midwifery tutor she taught in BMH Rinteln, and
BMH Singapore. In 1971 Betty was posted to CMH Intensive Care Unit then continued her studies with the Royal College of Nursing to become a tutor. She went on to teach pupil nurses In Tidworth and Hong Kong. Betty was student nurse tutor at the CMH where she retired in the rank of Major in May 1979.
Betty became a clerical officer in the Benefits Agency in Aldershot and retired on her 60th birthday. However, she continued to work for SSAFA for many more years.
In her spare time, she loved travelling worldwide with her cousins and her two sisters, but sadly in her later years she became quite frail, and her youngest sister would visit her in Aldershot when needed. Both of her sisters died but her
brother-in-law, John, continued to look after her until her last few days. The end of an era but one of great service to all who came in touch with her.
Her wish was to be buried in the Military Cemetery In Aldershot.
Betty’s funeral was held on Wednesday 6 May 2020 at 2pm and due to the Covid-19 restrictions it was attended by her brother-in-law, close friends and a representative from the Aldershot Branch of the QA Association
John Eaton (brother-in-law)
Mary Edna Montgomery (nee McGough) 6 May 1917–5 April 2019
Mary Edna Montgomery (known as Moira) was born and raised at South Shields, County Durham. The daughter of a mining engineer, she was the youngest of four siblings. She learned to read very early in life and loved school, where she was taught by an inspiring headmaster. Moira said that it was this combination that gave her a drive for life.
She trained as a Registered Sick Children’s Nurse at the Queen Mary’s Hospital, Carshalton, Surrey (now closed) from October 1935 – 1938. This was followed by Part One of Midwifery, a specialty she did not enjoy. With friends from her student nurse intake, she began training as a Registered General Nurse at the Lewisham General Hospital, London
in July 1939. At the outbreak of World War 2, the entire staff were moved to a requisitioned hospital in Dartford, Kent where she said that ‘nothing much happened till the following year’. It was during this time that she helped care for the troops admitted to hospital having been evacuated from Dunkirk. With her colleagues, she spent many weeks cleaning oil from soldiers’ bodies and treating their subsequent eye infections.
Her student cohort returned to Lewisham General Hospital to sit their final examination. They arrived back to London in the middle of the blitz, taking their turn as Fire Watchkeepers on the roof of the hospital, and sleeping in the basement during air raids.
Moira volunteered for active service in the QAIMNS(R) in 1943
Sister Mary Edna McGough QAIMNS(R) in 1943
and completed military training in Gillingham, Dorset. On D-Day, 6 June 1944, while gliders were flying