Page 57 - QARANC Vol 19 No 1 2021
P. 57
The Gazette QARANC Association 55
of family and community, and sheer determination that got her through being widowed at the age of forty four with three young children. When they were older, Doreen trained as a District Nurse, qualifying as a Queen’s Nurse in 1966. She worked within the communities of Bo’ness, Falkirk and Grangemouth until her retirement in 1982. For twenty years, she was a member of the Casualty Simulation Team at the nearby oil refinery when they practiced emergency drills. Her family remembers fake blood, bones and vomit on the kitchen table for at least a week in the run up to the drills as she put everything together. During this time, she was also a member of the team tasked with establishing Strathcarron Hospice, Denny, Stirlingshire which opened in 1981. She was a volunteer with her local Community Care Trust, the Red Cross, and various committees at her church.
Retirement was an adventure for Doreen. As well as her voluntary work, she travelled extensively visiting family and friends, including a round world
trip. A staunch supporter of the QA Association, at 80 years young, she joined other members on a battlefield tour to Gallipoli in 2002 and was extremely honoured to lay a wreath in the military cemetery at Scutari. A keen swimmer from an early age, in her 90’s she was swimming in the North Sea. She was also still sledging and riding pillion on a motorbike.
Tennis was her favourite sport as both a player and spectator. On her 95th birthday, she asked to be photographed beside Andy Murray’s Olympic gold medal winning pillar box in his hometown of Dunblane, Stirlingshire. Her granddaughter had also arranged for her to receive a signed photograph of him that day. Doreen claimed to have recognised Andy’s talent long before anyone else.
Doreen’s funeral was held at St Mary, The Scottish Episcopal Church, Grangemouth where she had been an active and committed member since arriving in Scotland 68 years ago. Whilst maintaining the restrictions of COVID-19, the service was well attended
by family, friends and colleagues from the charities and organisations that she had been involved with. She is survived by three daughters, five grandchildren and five great grandchildren.
Sheila Jones
Secretary, Scottish Branch
The Last Post
Michelle GIBB (nee Blanchard) 21 February 2020 Mrs Fay Evelyn PRICE 27 February 2020
Teresa LLOYD March 2020
Mrs Dorothy HIGSON 9 June 2020
Colonel (Retd) Sheila McAULAY RRC TD 16 June 2020
Mrs Margaret ROBERTS (Colonel (Retd) Margaret MOYNIHAN) 23 June 2020 Gewndoline Nina WADE 5 December 2020
Miss Catherine DELANEY 8 December 2020
Jennifer Anne PEARSON 8 December 2020
Marjory GRAY 16 December 2020
Dennis INGRAM TD 2020
Major (Retd) Barbara POPE 2020
Major (Retd) Dorothy WOOD 3 January 2021
Pauline LOFTUS 15 January 2021
Major (Retd) Valerie EVANS TD January 2021
Major Denise CAPSTICK TD 5 February 2021
Mrs Sheila BOSSINGHAM 15 February 2021
Our sympathy and condolences to families and friends