Page 5 - QARANC Vol 14 No 12 2016

Former DANS Farewell Message
You will all know by the time that you read this issue that Colonel Karen Irvine RRC QHN is appointed the first Chief Nursing Officer (Army) and de facto Director QARANC as well as President of the QARANC Association. She is the 31st incumbent in a long line of Matron’s in Chief War Office and Directors Army Nursing Services. Colonel Karen has the unenviable task of navigating the Corps through yet more turbulence as the Army continues to transform and defending our integrity against a multitude of external threats. That is why two and a half years ago we set ourselves a challenge to pull the three components of the Corps together so that we could exploit our strengths as serving (Regular and Reserve) and Retired members of a family that is glued together by the Association. There is some evidence of this happenning but everyone needs to be pulling together not just a few. So as I leave and Colonel Karen takes over I want to re-issue the challenge because if we do not support each other we will have to suffer the second and third order consequences, whatever they may be!
That said there have been some excellent examples of the Corps pulling together the most recent being British Forces Germany and Defence Primary Health Care Professional Conference and Christmas celebration last December where the Colonel Commandant was heard to say that this was one of the best examples of esprit de Corps that she had seen for a long time! Well done Germany. National and Regional events such as this are encouraged and supprted by RHQ and the Association but individuals must be members of the Association and for officers the RHQ Mess. People reading this will of course be Association members but please recruit your colleagues, especially those of you in the Reserves, to join so that you and your unit or Branch can enjoy the full support of the Corps and its resources. Welsh Branch and 203 Field Hospital will be hosting our National Corps Day celebration this year which will be the third of this newly revived tradition. Those of us who are old enough to remember the QA Training Centre and Keogh Barracks (some of you will even rememember Hindhead and Church Crookham), will remember when the Aldershot Garrison Church was filled and the Parade Square in Keogh hosted the annual Drumhead Service. The new national Corps Day events will never replicate that but we should do our best to support them in order to demonstrate real esprit de Corps to our new soldiers and officers.
It is no accident that Corps Day will be celebrated in Wales this year as you know it is a hundred years since the opening of the Battle of the Somme in July 1916. The 49 Welsh Division fought in a feature called Mametz Wood and those of you
who have visited the Former Army Staff College in Camberley, renamed Robertson House by CGS before Christmas, will have seen the huge oil painting of Mametz Ward in the old Cardiff Royal Infirmary hung in the atrium. This painting is on long loan to the Corps but is due to return to Cardiff for an exhibition covering the actions on the Somme in the summer. Details of Corps Day and other commemorative events covering this poignant moment in military and Corps history will be posted on the web-site and the Corps Facebook pages. The Heritage Sub Committee and the AMS Museum will be busy so please support them in some way. CNO(A)’s Symposium will be held in Camberley on the 12th (International Nurses’ Day) and 13th May this year. There were over 300 delegates last year despite Operation GRITROCK and some major exercises swallowing up nursing resource to do what we should be doing, caring for the Army. This is another event that I urge you to attend even if it is only one day because it is one of the few occassions when you can interact with the influencers face to face. Indeed those of you who attended the the last two symposia actively contributed to the Corps’ strategy. Of course, it is also another opportunity, like Corps Day, ‘to rally around the colours’, and promote our Corps and what we do. We know that everyone is busy but do try to get to at least one major event this year and I plead with those of you who have QAs under command to support them in attending Corps, AMS and Army activities.
I hope that these forewords have been informative as I have attempted to keep everyone of you up to date with recent changes and to prepare you for what might be round the corner. I have had some excellent feedback from many of you and I am certain that you will continue to support the team that I have been privileged to work with under Colonel Karen’s leadership. I will of course maintain an interest in what you are all doing through the Association and the web site but more importantly Colonel Sue Bush has been re-appointed Colonel Commandant and de facto Chair of your Association to maintain continuity and momentum over the next year and Heather will remain at the ‘tiller’ as Regimental Secretary so you will continue to see improvements and developments. So with a new team leader and a firm intent Army Nursing will not ossify to misquote Nightingale’s cautionary tale and we will continue to be the Best to care for the Best, the British Soldier.
Finally, Helen and I thank you for all of the support and friendship that you have shown us over the last two and half years. Fare thee well.
Col David Bates RRC
THE GAZETTE QARANC 3
Editor’s report
There have been quite a few changes since the last Gazette was published, our new charitable status (Col Sue has written all about it in her report) and a big welcome to our new Chief Nursing Officer Army, Col Karen Irvine. Goodbye and good luck for the future to Col David Bates and his family.
As always, thank you very much to you all for your contributions. Without you, there would be no Gazette. I
hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have compiling it, I look forward to your further submissions.
It is always sad to have to say goodbye to our departed members. It is with deep regret that we have to inform you that our Vice Patron, Maj (Retd) Joan Battersby ARRC sadly passed away on 8 January 2016.
Patricia Gibson MBE