Page 53 - QARANC Vol 14 No 7 2013

Vera died suddenly on the 29th March 2013 she was a long standing member of the Association and served as treasurer for many years she attended most functions the last being the Christmas lunch in December
Vera joined the Territorial Army in 1950 and served with a signal regiment attaining the rank of Staff Sergeant, she transferred to 217(L) General Hospital RAMC(V) following a reorganisation of
the Territorial Army.
In 1973 she was commissioned as
one of the first non nursing QARANC officers in the TA.
Vera retired from the TA in1985
In her civilian life she worked for the telecommunication branch of the Post Office until her retirement.
Vera lived in Beckenham for most of her life and was an active member of the local bowls club and took part
in many tournaments, her other great love was cruising and she had many amazing photographs of the exotic places she visited
Her funeral was extremely well attended by family and friends from her Bowling Club, CVOC, 217 Field Hospital and Millbank Branch.
She will be sadly missed by all.
Maureen Keating, Millbank Branch
My mum Gladys Elliott Healy sadly passed away in a local care home in Newcastle Upon Tyne on 2nd April at the age of 94 years and 7 months.
She did her early Nurse Training at the Royal Victoria Infirmary Newcastle (RVI) qualifying as a Nursing Sister and around 1942 she joined the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps. After further training in Oxford she was sent out to India on a troopship and based at the British Military Hospital in Bangalore and Madras. She loved nursing and looking after the wounded and had a fun filled social life on her days off! She was always immensely proud of her time serving in the QA’s helping the war effort.
She met and fell in love with her husband Fergus in 1944, who was an Officer in the ‘Royal Bombay Sappers and Miners’, also based in Madras and they were married in saint Mary’s Catholic Cathedral in Madras in 1945 at the end of the War.
They returned to live in Dublin and she had two boys, David and Michael in 1947 and 1948. During this period Fergus completed his Civil Engineering
Degree and managed to get a job with the Colonial Services of the Foreign Office and was posted to Uganda as a civil engineer form the Provincial Works Department.
Sadly the marriage broke down but Gladys decided to remain in Uganda which she had grown to love. She spent the next 24 happy years bringing up her two boys on her own and had numerous interesting jobs, managing the Police Mess for two years, running an Animal Sanctuary on an Island on the Kagera River and a Personal Secretary of the Coffee Marketing Board which carried a lot of responsibilities ensuring that the strict coffee quota’s were met and adhered to.
She gave her two boys a very happy childhood living and growing up in Uganda as it was a Garden of Eden with abundant bird and animal wildlife and there were plenty of opportunities going on “Safari” camping under canvass in the bush. She met and was friends of many interesting and extrovert characters living there.
She ran an old Colonial Club for ‘Members Only’ called the Kampala
Club (Top Club) in the capital Kampala for a number of years until the collapse of the country under Idi Amin and Milton Obote in 1973 after the expulsion of the hard working Asian Community. She loved the job and the lifestyle and made many friends there of all nationalities. She was evacuated with many other British residents and returned home to Newcastle with little more than her suitcases and got a job running the Nurses Hostel in the RVI for about five years before her retirement. She easily fitted back in to life in Newcastle again and took the student nurses under her wing and was always there for them to try and sort out their problems when they arose.
She lived for many years in West Jesmond, Newcastle in her own home which she loved and until the last few years of her life could always tell great stories of her interesting life abroad. She died peacefully in her sleep at the local Care Home.
Gladys was very much loved by her remaining family and friends and will be greatly missed by all who knew her. Michael Healy, Son
THE GAZETTE QARANC 51
Vera Harrison 1929-2013 T D
Gladys Elliott Healy 3 September 1918 – 2 April 2013
Betty Pickett (Née Buckingham)
Betty was born on the 6th May 1921 in Belper, Derbyshire. The daughter of a miner,
Betty started her training at the Derby County Hospital three months before her 18th birthday and started her nursing life on the children’s ward. The work on the ward and the studying was hard but Betty was able to pass the State Final Nursing exam before she was 21.
In 1943 Betty was transferred to an ATS camp reception centre in Cambridge. Matron decided that Betty should not have been in the Red Cross but should have gone straight to the Army Nursing Service and, if Betty applied, she would make quite sure
that she got there.
The nursing may not have been what
Betty was looking for in Cambridge but it was here that she met her husband Eric. Knocked over in the blackout by an undergraduate in a hurry she was picked up and dusted off by Eric who took the opportunity of inviting her to have tea with him in his rooms a week later. Betty liked the sound of his voice and a friend came to that meeting with Betty intending to continue on her way if she did not like the look of the young gentleman waiting for her. Happily, she did and it was the friend who went on alone.
With Matrons encouragement, Betty duly applied, had an interview at the