A Jurassic Coast Committee’s year in the life of Covid-19 - By Marjorie Bandy

What a year this has been and looking back, what a challenge for our association and this branch. Thinking back to the beginning of March 2020 neither I nor our committee could possibly have imagined how this year was going to pan out. Normally the branch follows a set format of events which allows us to get together [husbands included] three or four times a year. 

2020 was not normal. How were we going to keep our members in touch with one another and how might we need to support people as Covid-19 gradually took on an almost strangulation hold on the country. What came out of these questions was amazing and the committee and our members very much lived up to our “Dynamic Dinosaur” name. In the past we had obviously sent gifts to members who were in hospital or had a close family bereavement or indeed visited some of our older members. RHQ realised that more would be needed, and every branch was given a generous grant to use as thought appropriate. We decided on going down the route of looking at everyone individually and responding according to what we thought was needed rather than one size fits all. A number of our members sadly suffered from Covid infections and we were able to send gift boxes of goodies or flowers according to what we knew that that person might like. We did the same for those who were shielding or isolating, taking account of the fact that many of our members are married and sharing with husband might be appropriate. Gifts on their own didn’t seem enough and camaraderie was also needed; so the Saturday night Zoom drinks party was born. You have already heard about our zooming from Merrill and Kay. I hadn’t previously realised what an adventurous group the Jurassic Coast branch are as we have heard of feats of daring do as well as the challenges facing members who are still working.

Still more support has been needed and I was more than happy to visit QAs in hospital when it was allowed as well as like so many of our group spend time on the telephone with those who just needed a chat. Sadly, Pat McKay and I represented our Association at the funeral of one of our oldest members, but the appreciation shown by the family certainly made it worthwhile.

I am proud to say that the Covid restrictions have not stopped us fundraising for our branch with the sale of face masks for those not so handy with a needle and a virtual raffle with all of the prizes so kindly donated by branch members. You have all been so generous and we have raised £400+ for our funds.

The effort of living up to our motto “Friendship” has certainly paid off and we have been pleased to welcome new members during the year. As the vaccination programme gradually rolls out reaching ever younger age groups, we are gradually seeing a light at the end of what has been along dark tunnel. I am so proud of the members of the Jurassic Coast branch who have supported the committee throughout the year with help and innovation. I think that most of us agree that we know each other so much better now, so much so that everyone is comfortable to say if necessary, on Saturdays “I have had a bad week.” Surely this is what was intended when our association was set up in 1947.

One last thank you to the committee and those who have taken a lead in producing not only a weekly get-together but our branch Facebook page and a Blog. I hope that when this group don their QA apron to cook supper, they realise just how much I appreciate the support they have given to make my life so much easier during such a difficult year. Hopefully we are now looking forward to getting together in person, how wonderful will that be?

Lt Col [Retd] Marjorie Bandy RRC Branch Chairman 

Served 1975 – 2003

24 April 2021 - A Year in the History and Life of the QA Jurassic Coast Branch Zoom Meetings and Blogs - By Kay Foster and Merrill Bate

The Covid 19 Global Pandemic, with little warning, changed the face of the globe for a year and maybe well beyond, Millions of people died around the world and our way of life was turned upside down. This is a story of how one small group of QARANC Nurses pulled together to help each other through the impact of fear, loneliness (for some illness), and created resilience amongst ourselves.

30th March 7.30pm. I was having dinner when I felt an overwhelming fatigue. I left most of my food and went to bed and stayed there for ten days. I had caught Covid-19. Three-weeks earlier I had attended a weekend Transcendental Meditation course in Kent. There were over 50 people there from around the country, many from London. As I knew no one in Devon who had had Covid, I could only pinpoint it with some certainly to Kent. I was pretty ill with several quite severe side effects, but then there was not the knowledge around that there is today. Long Covid was not even known about by the scientists at that time.

I mention this because less than three weeks later on 25th April 2020, I hosted the first Jurassic Coast Drinks get together via Zoom. The QA Association had funded each QA branch to connect to its members. Marjorie Bandy, the Chair of the Jurassic Coast Branch, had put out an SOS for anyone with knowledge of using the Zoom Video Conferencing Software App. Now I can’t remember when I first used Zoom. I know it was with my golfing friends but was it before or after I had Covid? Whatever, I had some experience. That meeting started at 6.30pm and for future meetings we changed it to 6pm by popular request. We began with an informal chat.

Pat McKay, Branch Secretary, sent out newsletters to Branch members and invited them to the Zoom meetings, and before long, we had an average of 20 people attending every Saturday. We were a mixed bag from Serving and Retired, Regular and Reservist QAs, mostly Officers; the meetings were open to All Ranks and sometimes to family and friends of members. After the first couple of chat evenings, we decided to have members of the group give a presentation to add interest. On 6th June, Karen Melling was our first speaker and talked about her experience Sailing Inside the Northwest Passage. That was the first time I started “screen sharing' and had to rehearse, thank goodness for YouTube tutorials!

Merrill Bate who is a QA Association Trustee saw the benefits of this for communicating to our members. We joined forces and decided to share the responsibilities of running the Saturday evening “Zooms”. As I sit here writing this reflection with our year anniversary just one week away, we are proud to say that every Saturday since the 25th April 2020, we have sat with our computers hosting the Zoom meetings. Some presentations we recorded, as they were given by Serving Officers with what we thought were historical records for the Corps archives. These are now stored on The Cloud at RHQ QARANC. 

Over the year we have had a range of activities all designed to provide something that would distract people from the tedium of living life in the midst of a pandemic, to entertain, support and provide friendship. These activities have included talks, commemorations of VJ Day and Remembrance Day, quizzes, a Regimental Murder Mystery Guest Night and a Burns Supper when we joined up with the Scottish Branch. Talks given by Serving and Retired QAs have been entertaining and informative. A number of talks on the QARANC in the 21st Century have certainly proved that nothing ever stands still and that the Corps goes from strength to strength.

Merrill and I were passionate to try and engage with our group and beyond to get 'QA Corps History" documented. With the help of Wendy H Jones, a retired QA who now has a successful international career as an author, we started a blog to capture our history. Our aim is to capture and share the stories of the 3 R's (Regulars, Reservists and Retired) which we believe are important and contribute to the more recent history of our Corps. We currently have 33 blogs published and over 11,000 hits. Our blog can be found on https://qareminiscences.blogspot.com

There has been a sterling effort by Wendy and Jan Westbury to get the blogs proof-read and loaded onto Blogger by Saturday of each week; the blog team have been joined by Eileen Nolan to help with management of the blogs produced to date and encourage the wealth of fascinating historic stories still to be written.

We didn't stop there, as Sue Shrimpton set up our branch Facebook page, well and truly taking the branch into another forum for communication.

The 3rd Covid lockdown was lifted on the 12th April 2021 due to the stunning efforts made by the population from social distancing, wearing face masks and changes in social and personal hygiene practices. This was achieved by government planning, the changing of laws to insist when appropriate that we all must stay at home and work from home when possible. For quite long periods the only shops allowed to open where those for essential elements of daily living. This was complimented by the sterling efforts of our scientists to develop vaccines in the fastest time ever known and to date are hugely successful. As the QA Jurassic Coast Committee and Zoom team move into the spring-summer of 2021, we have decided to reduce the meeting to twice a month with the view of returning to weekly in the autumn/winter when maybe, just maybe, we might return to some form of restricted living as the Covid-19 virus continues to wreak its damage.

Below are a collection of comments that our group felt about how the Jurassic Coast Zoom meetings have helped them through the lockdown and for some, the severe isolation experienced during the 2020-2021 Covid pandemic.

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS By Moira Dixson

In the course of our military careers we have our photos taken at many events and in several guises. This picture is one of my favourites. Not that you can tell, but I am the one in the middle.

My last post in the Army was as SO2 Health Promotion at Army Headquarters. I was the Army Medical Services representative in a small team of just 4 personnel.

This photo was taken in the run up to National No Smoking Day which occurs in March every year. There was a close working relationship between the National No Smoking Day organisation, who organised the event, and the Armed Forces Smoking Cessation Co-ordinator due to the high prevalence of smoking within the Armed Forces. A Military No Smoking Day ran along with the national day. Images from military and civilian events were used for publicity for the event. Never wishing to pass up photo opportunities the 3 Services could always be relied upon to come up with some impressive, eye catching and amusing shots. 

The Big Cig character costumes were designed and produced by another smoking action group and proved very popular at events such as Health Fairs to get the No Smoking message across, or at least to start a conversation, the Pudsey Bear of Health Promotion if you like. Our team “lit” on the idea, inspired by the zebra crossing that crossed the main “drag” through the HQ at Wilton, and someone suggested a re-creation of the famous Beatles photo of them crossing Abbey Road but using Big Cig instead of the “Fab Four”. We clearly didn’t do our research very well as we had 5 members instead of 4 and we are crossing in the opposite direction to the Beatles original. However we decided that seeing as we had managed to beg, steal and borrow 5 Big Cig costumes we should use them all to make the biggest impact.

So one sunny morning in March 2009 a Lt Col, 2 Majors and 2 Staff Sergeants donned the Big Cig outfits and waddled our way down to the road to meet the photographer. As we were at Army HQ we were lucky to have access to the services of the Media and Communications professional photographers. The adage that you adapt and do whatever is required to get the job done was certainly at play here. Although our job usually focussed on serious strategic matters, there were times when getting our message circulated called for a more basic and light hearted approach. We didn’t have any other personnel at our disposal so we just got on with it. To be honest, it was great fun and a world away from patient care. On this occasion we were assisted by 2 Royal Army Physical Training Corps Staff Sergeants. The RAPTC had recently taken on an extended role as Health Trainers.

The photo has been a great success, it was circulated throughout Army sources, included in an article in Soldier Magazine and the No Smoking Day organisation used it widely in their publicity that year and also in subsequent years. Military No Smoking Day was an important date for an increased uptake of smoking cessation courses and we hope we played some part in getting the message out that seeking help to stop smoking is significantly more successful than trying to quit alone.



Moira Dixson

Maj (Ret’d)

QARANC

A BMH Nepal Experience by Penny Moody

I rejoined the QA’s in 1976 and as a midwife I was almost immediately posted to BMH HongKong arriving in January 1977. Although I was very happy and thoroughly enjoyed all that HongKong had to offer I also had a yearning to experience BMH Dharan, Nepal. I therefore regularly found an excuse to visit Matron Anne Healey’s Office to request that I be considered for a 9 month posting. I don’t know if she weakened because she got fed up with seeing me but eventually I got my posting order and was privileged to serve at BMH Dharan from January to September 1978.

From the moment of my arrival I knew I was somewhere very different. The mess and hospital were very colonial in appearance, both single story and the mess was surrounded by exotic flowering trees. 

The hospital had 70 beds in total and a long roofed open sided corridor connecting the two main wards and departments. These wards were divided relatively equally, one looking after all female and young children both medical and surgical with a maternity facility attached, whilst the other looked after all the male patients both medical and surgical. The Medical team was made up of a physician, surgeon and anaesthetist plus the CO and there were 5 QA Nursing Officers to include two theatre sisters, two midwives and matron. The midwives worked on female and maternity facility and the two theatre sisters were on the male ward covering both ward and theatres. The rest of the staff were made up of local qualified and auxiliary staff and were absolutely brilliant.

Nepal only opened its borders to the outside world in the 1950’s having been a closed country since gaining independence from India and the British in 1816. This meant that even in 1970’s there had been minimal foreign influences so we were lucky to experience Nepal in a relatively preserved state. Dharan, situated in the east of the country was almost 400 miles from Kathmandu and 30 miles from the Indian border so was little effected by the influx of those on the popular hippy trail to Kathmandu and Phokara . The hospital was first established in the 1960’s to look after Gurkha soldiers serving in the recruiting and pensions establishment, those on leave and British staff and their families. However as most of us living on the Cantonment were young, well and healthy this gave the hospital the opportunity to treat quite a few of the local population. Health service facilities throughout Nepal was very limited and people travelled for days on foot, or being carried by another person often over the Himalayan foot hills, to try to get into the BMH. To insure the hospital was not overwhelmed there was a daily selection procedure at the Cantonment gate which must have been a very difficult task. Relatives were asked if they would donate a pint of blood if the sick person was admitted.

The Cantonment was quite large with military personal from different Corps and Regiments. The town of Dharan was a 20 minute walk, a great outing but with minimal shopping opportunities. There were no telephone links and most communications came by signal. We were not able to drive in case we knocked over a cow( a sacred animal) so for the occasional outings were were able to order a gari with driver which was usually a land rover. The Cantonment had its own local radio station and this would link into the world service service several times a day, our only up to date contact with the outside world except for the UK Sunday papers, usually a week late, sometimes not at all, but a wonderful link with home.

In Hong Kong we regularly worked with Gurkha mums and their families but working in BMH Dharan was where we really experienced the amazing Nepalese people . The patients were a delight when bearing in mind their living conditions, great poverty and the distances required to travel, mostly on foot for the most rudimentary of treatments before maybe being lucky enough to be admitted to our hospital. 

For the average patient there was little idea of western medications and I remember that some of the long standing TB outpatients would often swap their prescribed medication with someone else’s because in their view a different colour pill would get them better more quickly! This was particularly common amongst the older patients who probably had experience only of the local medicine man.

Sheila Cooper, our Matron, was always keen that we should make the most of our time spent in Nepal, encouraging us to go on various trips. Planning a holiday from Dharan was no simple feet. There were no travel brochures or travel agents. Firstly you needed to work out your itinerary, all gleaned from others experiences. Then a signal was sent to Kathmandu for the bookings to be made. As this was quite a challenge we often did more local things. Dharan was tucked into the base of the first Himalayan foot hill. If you kept walking in a straight line over all of these hills and mountains you would eventually arrive at the foot of Everest. At the top of the first foot hill was a ‘lodge’ belonging to the Cantonment nestled in the amongst wild rhododendrons. The lodge was very much on most people’s ‘ to do’ list not only for the experience but to be able to spend a little time in the the ‘loo with a view’.

One weekend Sheila decided we need a trip to the lodge and started planning. It would take approximately 4 hours to walk to the top, and I am talking proper Himalayan foot hill here, so embarrassingly volunteer local workers from the cantonment and our mess were employed to guide us and transport all our food and other needs for the weekend, plus be chief cook and bottle washer. Five of us set off around 6am. The climb whilst pretty arduous offered up the most spectacular views and gave us the opportunity to observe the local people on the move. The well worn dirt track would be almost the equivalent to one of our major roads in the U.K. We were to see, ‘talk’ with, and have great hilarity along the way as we constantly passed all and sundry carrying everything on their backs in baskets with a looped strap over their head. This would include families with all there personal good, or trades people with wares to sell, heavy loads of fire wood, or maybe a sick family member. Children were not excluded from this task. We were regularly invited to stop and partake of tea and have a sign language gossip and laugh.

The lodge was rustic but with the luxury of an open fire, good food, oil lamps and a little alcoholic beverage we all fell into slumber mode after the days stimulating and arduous activities. And of course there was the most important joy of using the loo with a view. Did I ever imagine that one day I would be in a remote corner of the world sat on a wooden box, legs a dangling, gazing out at a distant view of the Himalayan range with the summit of Everest summit rearing up at the back. Sadly, as is the way with these things, I think it was misty throughout our visit so I had to do with the picture hanging on the lodge wall!! But in my memory I can dream.

My time in Nepal was one of the highlights of my Army career and life. In many ways one day drifted into another but at the same time work, the mess, cantonment life and the amazing Nepalese people made it the most wonderful experience you could wish for.









Lt Col (Rtd) Penny Moody

Afternoon Tea in the Garden by Merrill Bate

 

I had finally retired, after a 41-year career in the NHS, the QARANC, and the NHS for a 2nd time. I was discovering that one of the little luxuries of retirement was being able to enjoy a leisurely cup of coffee whilst reading a newspaper. One morning, whilst struggling with a particularly difficult question in the cryptic crossword, the postman delivered a large cream envelope. It was my invitation to a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace!

Every year The Queen hosts three parties in the Palace and one in Holyrood House as a way to recognise and reward public service. However, my invitation was for a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace organised by The Not Forgotten Association (The NFA). The NFA is a tri-service charity which provides entertainment, leisure and recreation for the serving wounded, injured or sick and for ex-service men and women with disabilities. At the NFA’s Annual Garden Party, 2,500 guests from over 120 military organisations enjoy afternoon tea at Buckingham Palace.

So it was that on 7th June 2018 my husband and I made our way to London to enjoy afternoon tea in the garden at Buckingham Palace.

However, before the big day there was quite a lot of planning to do. People who know me well know that I never ever go anywhere without a plan!

Would we go by train? Maybe not, I wasn’t sure that my hat would survive the train journey up to London and I didn’t fancy travelling home in the midst of the rush hour on a train crammed full of commuters. Could we drive? Where would we park? What should I wear and what shoes would be most comfortable? I knew from experience that wearing thin heels isn’t the most practical thing to do – if you stand on grass in one place for a while the heels sink into the grass and when you start to move you realise you are cemented to the spot – how embarrassing that would be! This is why the Queen wears sensible wears shoes with a wide heel. So, my beloved Bally court shoes, well known to many a QA, were pressed into service again. It was some months later that I discovered the you can buy flat discs that you attach to the heel of your shoes which prevent the sinking into the grass problem.

The big day eventually dawned. Thankfully the weather was beautiful, not too hot and there wasn’t a rain cloud in the sky. We drove to London and entered the cordoned area around the Queen Victoria Memorial in front of the Palace Gates waiting to be security cleared. Whilst waiting we stood and chatted to serving personnel and veterans from all 3 Services. There was a palpable sense of excitement and pride - uniforms pressed, shoes bulled and medals polished; summer dresses with elaborate hats and fascinators. I wonder what the crowds of tourists thought?

Eventually, security cleared, we navigated the car through the throngs of people, police and tourists, through the gates of Buckingham Palace and past the Sentry into the inner courtyard. This was indeed a very special day!

As we stood looking out onto the gardens from the top of the steps leading down from the Palace, there were marquees where tea would be served plus lots of tables and chairs in small groups all over the lawn, a military band playing and hundreds of Service personnel ready to lend a hand for those less able to navigate the steps.

The first port of call on arrival was to find what in polite company you might refer to as “rest rooms”. Surely these were the smartest and cleanest “Portaloo’s” in the land!

It wasn’t too long until The Yeoman of the Guard looking resplendent in their uniforms took their positions to welcome HRH The Princess Royal, as Patron of The Not Forgotten Association.

Today the Yeomen of the Guard have a purely ceremonial role and are mustered about eight times each year and this includes the garden parties at Buckingham Palace.

The gardens are as you might expect truly wonderful to walk around but eventually the need for a cup of tea took priority. We were lucky to find some seats and sat down only to find that we had company – Wayne Sleep and his partner were also taking a well-earned rest! I had not realised that a number of “showbiz” personalities who support The NFA would be there. So, whilst enjoying a particularly good afternoon tea we were ‘royally’ entertained by Wayne with tales of his experiences on the BBC series “The Real Marigold Hotel”. I won’t reveal the detail but it was certainly an afternoon with lots of fun and laughter!

My husband would say that I made a bee-line towards Alfie Boe, whilst I will say that I just happened to bump into him!

All too soon it was time to go home taking with us memories of talking to injured service personnel, WW2 veterans and the volunteers from the numerous charities that offer so many different types of support.

As my husband drove the car across the Palace forecourt and through the magnificent gates, I will admit to being tempted to give a royal wave to the crowds outside!

I think this quote sums the day up: “There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.” (Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady)

Lt Col (Retd) Merrill Bate served in the QARANC from 1980-2002