Page 52 - QARANC Vol 17 No 2 2019

50 The Gazette QARANC Association
Obituaries
Mrs YJM Hofner
(nee Lt Col Yvonne Dunning ARRC)
23 August 1931 – 29 November 2018
Yvonne Hofner died after a short illness on 29 November 2018.
Yvonne was born in Folkestone on 23 August 1931. Her father was a doctor who was the Medical Officer for the Port of Dover. He had also served as a medical officer in WW1. She was the middle child having an older brother and younger sister. Her mother was Hungarian who allegedly came from the nobility. The story that came down through the family was that one of her ancestors, a courtier at the Austrian Hungarian Court, had accidentally shot the Emperors’ dog. For this dastardly act he was banished from court .and the family moved to England in the 1800s. Her mother suffered from ill health; consequently Yvonne and her sister were looked after by a nanny and home educated by a governess.
In 1938 her father took up the appointment of a GP in Cowes on the Isle of Wight. Yvonne would often help her father in his surgery within the family home. These tasks helped prepare her for the less glamorous aspects of nursing and instilled a social conscience in her at a young age. She undertook her nurse training at Ryde Hospital on the Isle of Wight. However, the thought of being in a civilian hospital for years on end did not appeal to her. With her innate taste for adventure Yvonne joined the QARANC in 1955, initially as a ward sister at the Cambridge Military Hospital Aldershot.
In the years that followed Yvonne was posted to military hospitals around the world, in the roles of theatre sister and theatre superintendent. She went to Accra in Ghana, Paris, (SHAPE) Millbank, Singapore, Nepal,, Hong Kong, and Berlin as matron. Her final posting ending up where she started at the Cambridge Military Hospital. By then she was a Lieutenant Colonel in charge of a busy suite of operating theatres. She was awarded the ARRC for services to nursing.
On leaving the Army in 1979 Yvonne began a second career in Nuffield Hospitals, first in Bath in her role as theatre sister as well as teaching theatre
Yvonne Dunning as a young QA officer
technicians. Later she moved to the Nuffield Hospital in Hereford where she became matron. She retired in 1991 at the age of sixty and continued to live in Hereford until 1999 when she moved to Chilworth in Surrey to be nearer family. Having devoted many years to the service of humans, she then turned her attention to the welfare of cats!
On moving to Surrey, not one to be idle for long Yvonne threw herself into voluntary work, first at the Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice shop in Guildford which she did for fifteen years almost up to the day she died. She was also a very enthusiastic supporter of the Guildford and Godalming branch of Cats Protection.
Yvonne and I had many postings to similar parts of the world. Our paths never crossed apart from briefly at the Cambridge Military Hospital. It was not until many years later when she moved to Chilworth we reconnected. This came about through our mutual love of cats! I t was at a Cats Protection Charity function held in one of the member’s gardens, I recognised her and introduced myself; we were both very pleased to meet again and a friendship began, lasting until the day she died. We often met at one another’s houses and various events, sharing stories about our careers in the QARANC. and how the present day Corps was functioning. A very important matter that was always on the agenda were
Yvonne Hofner (nee Dunning) in more recent times
‘tails’ relating to our feline friends and their many escapades.
It was in 2005 in Pains Hill Park on a tour with the National History Society that Yvonne was fated to meet her future husband Gerry. Friendship grew and romance blossomed. In 2009 they married. Gerry moved in with Yvonne and her two cats Poppy and Bertie. They spent many happy days together and were generous hosts enjoying entertaining their many friends particularly in summer in their delightful garden, It was always a pleasure being in their company. Yvonne continued her voluntary work, now ably assisted by Gerry in supporting The Cats Protection Charity.
Over the last year her health sadly began to deteriorate limiting the amount she could do, but she was lovingly cared for by Gerry. During the last two weeks of her life as an inpatient in the Royal Surrey Hospital, despite being very poorly and breathless, she remained cheerful to the end, making light of her illness. It was a real privilege to have known Yvonne and to call her my friend. She is sorely missed.
Her funeral at Guildford Crematorium on 18 December was very well attended by family and friends, members of the QARANC and RAMC Associations and of the charities to which she had given so much of her time.
Deepest sympathy is extended to her dear husband Gerry.
Colonel (Retd) Maggie Slattery