It's Your History by Wendy H. Jones

 

The vision for this blog when we started it almost a year ago was to capture the history of the Corps of which we are all so proud. It may bot be History Today but it is our history one which should be told. The blog was started to capture the memories of the people who made our Corps what it was, is and will be in the future. The memories of everyone in our corps, from Private to General, and all ranks in between. You may have been in for many years and served in numerous units. I was posted to QATC, QEMH, Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, CMH, BMH Hong Kong, BMH Iserlohn, CMH (again for 8 weeks), St. John's Eye Hospital Jerusalem, DKMH, Bovington Medical Centre, HMS Dolphin/Fort Blockhouse, Defence Nursing School University of Central England, and Portsmouth University. Whilst a tutor, I also had several visits to RAF Akrotiri RNH Gibraltar, as well as visits to numerous units to provide CPD Training. The people I met and the memories I made will never be forgotten. I am sure there are people still alive who served in postings I have never even heard of. You may only have served for a couple of years in one unit but you will still have stories of your time in the Corps.

We really want to capture these memories and to hear your stories. So this is a plea; without your stories it is difficult to publish posts each week. This thought may terrify you but I am more than happy to help you if you don't feel you can write a blog. It needn't be more than five hundred words and it does not need to be polished. What it needs to be is heartfelt and reflective of a slice of your time in the Corps. So, please send me your stories to wendy@wendyhjones.com or even an idea for a story, I can help you develop it if you want me to. No story is too mundane; you may think it uninteresting but, trust me, everyone else will find it fascinating. I'm asking you to take a trip down memory lane, think of all the happy times you had, and then share those with your fellow QAs. Let's show the world what QA's are made of. 

About the author 

Wendy H. Jones served as a Nursing Officer in the QARANC between 1987 and 2004 leaving with the rank of Major. She never went on an operational tour but undertook many exercises as well as serving in numerous units in both the UK and overseas. Hong Kong and Jerusalem had to be two of the highlights. Moving into nurse education, she was proud to have served as Tri-Service Head of Pre-Registration Nurse Education. This brought her full circle to where she started as a student nurse in the QARNNS. She is now an author and lives in Scotland. 

Thoughts of past, present and future by Wendy H. Jones

When you are the first person to write a blog for the New Year it is simultaneously an honour, exciting and nerve-racking. The nerve-racking part is because you feel you ought to be writing something tremendous - earth shattering even. This is how I feel writing this. Where on earth do I start representing an organisation which counts so many amazing people amongst its family? It’s a tricky one but I decided to channel my inner Jacob Marley and introduce the ghosts of past present and future. 

Being Scottish, New Year is important to me and I nearly always managed to wangle the time off. Mainly by doing night duty over Christmas I might add. But, I know that all over the world, there were always plenty of parties happening in messes and NAAFIs.. The military never missed an excuse for a knees up and always wanted to see the New Year in in style. During my time serving, I did manage to usher in the bells in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Germany and Israel, with friends and colleagues I will never forget. And I want to pick up on that word - forget, it is so easy for us to forget the stories of the magical time we had while at we are or were serving and this blog is a way of addressing that. We all have stories to share, stories which are important, no matter how mundane we personally might think them. They are an important record of QA, and indeed Military, history. We want to capture the stories of our time in the services using this blog. If you would like to share a story, please contact me via email on wendy@wendyhjones.com. I would love to work with you to write a blog. We all want to hear of your experiences. 

So, our ghost of the past hands over to the Ghost of the present, who has the most difficult job I feel. The present is something no one will forget in a hurry. As the bells rang in the New Year 2021 the BBC were reporting that Military Medical Personnel were on standby to support the NHS against an overwhelming influx of COVID patients, and most of the country was, and still are, in Tier 4 lockdown. This is probably a New Year most of us would like to forget but won’t in a hurry. If you are in the military and working this year, know your retired colleagues are thinking of you. 

And so to the future. Much as I have enjoyed being Jacob Marley it’s impossible for me to predict the future as I have no ghost to help me. What I do have is the knowledge that a record number of QARANC personnel were awarded honours in the Queen's New Years Honours List. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate them. What I can say with the utmost certainty is that the future of the QARANC is in, not only safe, but truly magical hands. 

Let's raise a glass of our favourite beverage - to all QAs, past, present, and future, I salute you. It is an honour to be counted in your midst

To continue with our literary vibe, I will misquote  Clement Clarke Moore and The Night Before Christmas - Happy New Year to all, and to all a good night.

About the Author

Wendy H. Jones served as a Nursing Officer in the QARANC between 1987 and 2004 leaving with the rank of Major. She never went on an operational tour but undertook many exercises as well as serving in numerous units in both the UK and overseas. Hong Kong and Jerusalem had to be two of the highlights. Moving into nurse education, she was proud to have served as Tri-Service Head of Pre-Registration Nurse Education. This brought her full circle to where she started as a student nurse in the QARNNS. She is now an author and lives in Scotland.