Joining the QA’s in 1956 by Diane Welsh

I’m 85 now and joined the QAs to train as a state registered nurse when I was 18 in 1956, leaving a small village near Salisbury. From the age of 7 I had wanted to be a nurse and I imagined myself like Florence Nightingale; I wanted to join to nurse the soldiers.

We started off at Hindhead for 2 weeks, just the new QA’s collecting uniform, before we went to Elizabeth Barracks in Aldershot for the next 3 months . The training was a mix of army and nursing training. We wore khaki, learnt to march and go on parade, and then in the classroom we had lessons on map reading and nursing. We were 2 in a room and had to be up at 0630 to clean our room before breakfast, followed by parade and general tidying before starting lessons. At 12md we marched; lunch 12md – 1300; more lessons until 1700 when we had tea; then back in the classroom until 2100, five days a week. There was a free hour spent in the NAAFI with the medical corps, before we had to be in at 2200, when the doors were locked and in bed by 2300. It was very strict. We were allowed 2 late passes every month and taught to write a letter “Dear Ma’am, I have the honour to submit this, my application…..” We worked 5 days a week until 9pm at night. After passing our basic examinations we were sent to hospitals and I was posted to Catterick.

I was at Catterick for 2 years working on the wards and undertaking block training with the Sister Tutor and loved it. The hospital and accommodation were very old and I was in a billet of 10 of us with a coke fire in the middle of the room. We worked 6 days a week and I cannot remember if we had ½ day off or one day, but do remember being told that in the army it was 24 hours a day and 7 days a week! I do remember the long hours from 0800 -1700 or more commonly split shifts from 0800 – 1400 and back from 1700 – 2200. Our routine was usually to clean the wards when we came on duty, pulling out the beds into the middle of the room, wash down the floors, followed by the bumper machines to polish the floor. At 1000 we started the treatments for the patients. One day I had just finished my 0800-1700 shift when matron saw me and said “Nurse Willmot, I need you back on night duty tonight to do a special”, then another time I was on a ½ day off and laying on my bed when deputy matron appeared to tell me I was babysitting that night for the Commanding Officer. There was no choice. Can you imagine nurses doing that today? During my time at Catterick there was a huge outbreak of influenza in the country and this was hard work, but there was great camaraderie, perhaps like it was in the recent COVID pandemic.

We still had a bed time and were locked in at Catterick. One night I was in the NAAFI, as I enjoyed dancing, a friend and I were locked out as we were so late. We had to climb though a window, but were caught. Deputy matron made us scrub the lavatory walls down as a punishment.

For meals we had a QA section, that separated us from the men from the medical corps, by a huge board. They would make comments as we walked through and then occasionally they would throw something over the board, like a rock cake. It was all with a sense of fun.

I was posted to a hospital in Germany and that was very different. The hospital was very small and modern, with just 8 QAs and lots of medics, located out in the country. I was based on the gynaecological ward and we carried on with block training with a Sister Tutor. Here I had my own room and we shared a maid who did all our cleaning for us. There was no NAAFI club, but a small NAAFI, where the men had formed a band and that was great fun. We were not allowed out of camp and still had to be in. The only parts of Germany I saw were when we had transport to a shopping centre on a Saturday and when I travelled on the train home for my leave. I used to do a lot of nights where we worked 3 weeks on then had a week off, so I used my travel warrant to go on the train to the Hook of Holland to catch the ferry to Harwich. There were always others to travel with.

It was in Germany I met my husband. I was in the NAAFI at the Juke Box and I saw this man looking at me. The next day one of the QAs who worked in the operating theatre gave me a note from him asking to meet me. Well, that was that. He was shortly to be demobbed after two years on National Service with a one-year extension and as I was going to marry him I had to leave the QAs. This meant I did not take my final examinations to be an SRN as I left just before.

Looking back, I loved my time, it was a good life and I made lots of friends, particularly from our time in the NAAFI.

Formerly Private Diane Willmot QARANC

1. NAAFI The Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes, who provide bars and clubs (and more) for socialising across the world for the Forces community.