Page 53 - QARANC Vol 17 No 2 2019

June Thomas (née Lathan) 7 June 1927 – 9 March 2019
June Lathan was born in Stocksfield, Northumberland on the 7 June 1927. She was one of seven children, three brothers and three sisters. June trained as a nurse at Newcastle General Hospital, where the hours were long and the matron reigned supreme.
As soon as she qualified, June joined the QARANC Corps to ‘see the world’ but her first posting was Catterick. However, her desire to travel was fulfilled when she was sent on a troop ship to Singapore, aboard which she met Captain Alan Keith Thomas, an Army doctor and her future husband.
June worked in hospitals in Singapore, Kure Japan, and during the Korean War nursed American and Commonwealth troops, both as a ward and theatre sister.
June married Keith in Kure, Japan
in 1951 and returned to the UK to live with her husband in Dover, Kent where he was eventually able to find work as a General Practitioner. June raised four children and was a great support with building up her husband’s practice, acting as a receptionist, on call and dealing with endless queries.
The Gazette QARANC Association 51
Sheila Helen Bradford (nee Haigh)
Sheila Evelyn Bradford (nee Haigh), who completed her nursing training at St George’s Hospital, died in December 2018. She was an enthusiastic member of the St George’s Nurse’s League and attended their 25th and 50th year reunions.
Sheila was born in London in 1938 and suffered from scoliosis throughout her life but did not let this prevent her from having an active lifestyle. In her free time, she enjoyed playing squash and dancing, and took part in competitive sailing.
After completing her training at St George’s, she decided to complete an Army short-service commission. Once accepted, she took and passed her Part 1 midwifery exam, and proceeded to the QARANC Depot and Training Centre. She was then posted to London Queen Alexandra’s Military Hospital at Millbank, which later became Queen Elizabeth Military Hospital. There, she helped treat those in the services who
were repatriated from worldwide units and military hospitals for specialist care.
Sheila met her husband David, a doctor in the Army, when working at the same hospital, and they were engaged and married within the year – on his birthday on 12 December 1962. Shortly after becoming engaged she was posted to her first and only overseas post – to the British Military Hospital in Hanover, Germany. She stayed there for a few months before returning to the UK to get married.
Sheila was fascinated by different cultures and she and her husband enjoyed travelling. She spent some of her time abroad teaching English to Chinese friends in Hong Kong, and later learnt German while back in Hanover many years after her solo posting. They would later spend much of their time in Christchurch, New Zealand, where their daughter Tafflyn lives.
Sheila leaves behind her two daughters Tafflyn and Melissa, eight
grandchildren and a great grandson. Our condolences and best wishes to her family.
just under thirty years in this capacity. June returned to nursing when her four children were of an age to care for themselves, practicing in the NHS caring for the elderly, and other nursing
duties in the private sector.
June rekindled her love of travel,
joining the Korean War veterans association and travelled to many countries including Korea where she was made an Ambassador for Peace on 13 April 2000, for her contribution to the Republic of Korea.
Throughout her life, from nursing to charity work and caring for family, June demonstrated boundless energy in any endeavour. June loved the countryside and nature and was a keen rambler and gardener. In retirement she participated with enthusiasm in church services and parades, through the QA Association, until she was too frail to do so.
June died in her own home in Canterbury cared for and supported by her family.
With thanks to Elizabeth Sole, Hugh Thomas and Sian White
June also became a Justice of the Peace and served for