Page 55 - QARANC Vol 14 No 7 2013

Major Margaret Hudson 1938 – 2013
Margaret and I met in 1964 at Colchester Military Hospital a first posting for both of us. She was a general ward sister and I was a midwife. Our friendship began by accident Margaret was due to go on holiday with another QA who had suddenly been posted so Margret asked me if I would join her on holiday I said yes and so began our long and lasting friendship.
She was a loyal friend with a great sense of humour and a caring attitude to both patients and staff. Her postings were to Germany, the Far East, Edinburgh, Northern Ireland and of course the UK. She had a variety of
appointments from Clinical Tutor to Military Law Instructor and Matron in Northern Ireland.
Throughout her career although we only had one posting together, we continued to meet as frequently as we could and our postings allowed us. We enjoyed holidays together and weekends in London with other QA friends ‘doing’ the shows.
On retirement, Margaret moved back to her home area and has a beautiful apartment overlooking Poole Harbour. Not one to remain idle she quickly became involved in Voluntary work and found working for the Citizens Advice Bureau particularly rewarding.
THE GAZETTE QARANC 53
be in a 50mile radius of her husband – the War Office would have had plenty to say about that! Betty went to Bir Ya’qub (Jacob’s Well) to work on a ward in the general British Army Hospital.
Betty and Eric returned to the U.K. and were demobbed, but when the opportunity arose Eric accepted a job on the oilfields of Trinidad and back they went to the West Indies. Richard was born a year after they arrived in Trinidad and Sue 15 months later. Betty and Eric both placed great importance on educational opportunities for their children and so they returned to the UK in 1955 but a year on the North East coast was enough and the offer of a job with Alcan in Jamaica was too good an opportunity to miss. In 1956, both Betty and Eric were called in to help as volunteers at the Kendall Rail Crash. It was Jamaica’s worst train disaster and at the time, the second worst world railway disaster. Betty’s nursing skills were greatly needed when 200 people perished and many more were injured on a church outing travelling in a greatly overcrowded wooden train. Eric acted as a driver ferrying passengers to
hospital and they both received a letter of commendation from the Jamaican Government for their contribution to the rescue operations.
We meet many special people in our lifetime and Betty is definitely one of them. A loving and supportive wife, mother, godmother, family member, trusted and valued friend. Modest, unassuming, determined and compassionate with a gentle sense of humour, Betty was someone who had the knack of welcoming people, putting them at their ease and making them feel special too.
Sue and her brother, Richard remember –
“Mum wasn’t one to complain; she got on with things and made the best of whatever she had to deal with, possessing a terrific resilience.
Mum always worked hard at whatever she did and the successes she achieved were with great effort and determination. It was never in her nature to give up easily on anything. Mum will be greatly missed for the person that she was and we remember and give thanks for all that she meant to us, her example and for
the opportunities she provided for us, often holding back on things for herself and Dad so that she could give the benefit to us.”
July 2013
In retirement she was able to see more of her adored family, meet up with old friends and make new ones and of course indulge in her love for her four legged friends always Rescue Dogs and nearly always West Highland Terriers. We continued to meet up in one another’s home and latterly we became ‘ladies who lunch’ meeting up in John Lewis Store in Southampton. We spoke on the telephone on the day before her death and we were looking forward to meeting up again. She will be greatly missed.
Roz Trinkwon (nee Timms)
Betty Boyce OBE DStJ 1916 – 2012
Betty was born on 19 January 1916, the only daughter of Maj William Boyce RAMC and Mrs Boyce. She had two brothers. Betty’s father had served in the Royal Army Medical Corps at the battle of the Somme. Betty’s parents had married in Bombay during her fathers posting to India. Her mother dies at an early age so the family settled in Belfast. Betty was educated at schools in Malta, London, Methodist College Belfast and the Royal School Bath. She started her nursing career at the Royal Victoria Hospital Belfast qualifying as an SRN in 1935. She qualified as SCM in 1939 at the Royal maternity Hospital Belfast. In 1940 she joined the Belfast West Division of St Johns Division of St Johns Ambulance as ots Nursing Officer. In later years she
became District Superintendent. She was made a Dame of Grace in 1983.
Betty joined the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve in January 1944. After initial training in Belfast she was sent to Chesterfield where she lived in a large house some three miles from the town with fifty other QA’s and three physiotherapists. As she had a bicycle her main duty was to cycle to town to purchase toilet rolls. She was then moved to the London Orphan school Watford to work on packing up the hospital and finally in August 1944 the unit moved to France. Camp was set up in a field at Bayeux.
In September she was moved with others to Amiens to take over from an American unit in the local hospital. Betty