Page 38 - QARANC Vol 20 No 2 2022

38 The Gazette QARANC Association
‘Thank you, Army!’
Jill Simon, chair of the QA’s West Branch, shares her story of a life less ordinary.
Sitting at my desk, I am reflecting on my life’s journey from Middlesbrough where I was born and raised, to seeing the world as an army nurse, and finishing up retired in a lovely bungalow in rural Somerset.
I started my nursing career at Middlesbrough General Hospital. Something was missing, I didn’t know what, but I thought I might find it in the Army. So, I signed-up, did the basic training at Royal Pavilion, Aldershot, and that woke me up. Intense, I thought.
From there I went to Royal Herbert in Woolwich, where I worked in Intensive Care and met Alec, a young soldier with a broken neck following a road traffic incident, we became friends and three years later we were married (48 years so far and wish I could have another 48).
One year, a week before Christmas, I was posted without any warning to Rinteln in Germany. I thought the timing was terrible, but you’re in the Army kiddo, so get over it. It turns out that I had a wonderful time there, and to make things even better Alec managed to wangle a posting to Detmold. Yay!
From there I was posted to Louise Margaret in Aldershot for a 12-week maternity course. It was amazing and I loved it. Onto Millbank, I was thrilled to be able to tell my family and friends, ‘oop North,’ that I was working in London.
Eventually I was posted to Cambridge Military Hospital, Aldershot, where I took my Army finals and gained a ‘bin lid,’ so precious and hard won. Then state finals and a frilly cap, red belt and epaulets. I thought I was ‘all that’ and probably I was! I’d had brilliant training and felt equipped to deal with anything. Ah, the confidence of youth!
I finished my time serving as a married soldier and had to make some decisions about my future. My husband was Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) attached to the Army Air Corps and we jointly decided to come out of the Army and try civvy living. Scary.
Oman, 1976
Alec spent his final year as a soldier attached to the British Antarctic Survey and spent an Antarctic summer down there. They offered him a job, so we moved to Cambridge on discharge, and I went to Felbourne Hospital to do RMN [short for?].
After a short stay in Aberdeen, we got an offer that was impossible to resist, a job in Oman. Wow! I worked for a Lebanese construction company who employed an unknown number of workers, mostly from India. They lived in rows of small tents as far as the eye could see. My job was to care for them and, to if I’m honest, to try to keep them working.
The company were granted a construction job on the island of Masirah. There was no doctor on the island, so they flew me in every Sunday
London, 1971