Making My First and Last Veil By Major Domini Barrett

As a young Lieutenant Reservist in 219 Field Hospital in 1992, I was unable to attend the Unit’s Annual Camp so it was suggested I spend two weeks on the Children's Ward at The Cambridge Hospital in Aldershot. I was an adult qualified nurse and was looking at commencing my paediatric training within the Army so this was a wonderful opportunity…….until it came to finding out I had to make a veil to go with my issued grey nursing dress.

In 219 Field Hospital we had an attached regular Nursing Officer. She kindly offered to help me complete the task. So sitting on the floor of the Officers’ Mess, my veil making lesson began. I had a plastic sheet mounted on a hard board, a bottle of liquid starch, a paint brush and a floppy cotton veil. We laid out the veil, painted it with starch onto the board and, as I was going to the Cambridge Hospital a few days later, I took it home with me to dry. She suggested I ask someone to fold it once I’d arrived in Aldershot.

I duly arrived on the Sunday afternoon at the Officers’ Mess. It was like the Marie Celeste, not a soul to be seen. As time went by I became more worried as to how I could possibly go into the hospital in uniform but without a veil. An easy solution so I thought was to walk the corridors and listen out for an occupied room. An hour or so later, having gone up and down the floors, to the TV room, bar area, laundry room, I had found no-one. I then spotted someone in their dressing gown walking down the corridor from the bathroom and plucked up the courage (I was desperate) to ask if they could help me. She looked at me and with a “follow me” I was invited into her room with my huge board & veil. As she was a Major and I a mere Lieutenant and, of course, she was in her dressing gown I was very, very nervous. Swiftly the veil was made and having thanked her I scuttled back to my room.

The following day I proudly made my way to the Children's Ward. With short hair it was rather a challenge keeping the veil on my head (it was surprisingly heavy so I needed quite a few hair grips). The acting Sister on the ward was very particular about dress and appearance and we weren't allowed to take it off until we were in the office. I tried my best but it was a challenge not to take out the doctors eye with the veils pointed edges as we both tried to pass through the door at the same time. I soon learnt the importance of doorway etiquette!

I had a wonderful two weeks at The Cambridge and went on to complete my children's nurse training at Great Ormond Street. I am still serving in the Reserves now with 306HSR.

It was the first and last time I wore a veil, but the challenges of making it have never been forgotten so much so that the veil sits starched and made up in a suitcase in my loft just in case I need it for another day……..

MEMORIES OF THE NURSING OFFICER VEIL By The Jurassic Coast Branch Members

 

The history of the nursing veil can be traced back to the early Christian era when deaconesses, who cared for the sick, were distinguished from others by wearing a white covering on their heads. During Victorian times women in service wore white caps and different styles were developed for nurses to distinguish them from servants. The veil was popular as it covered the hair for neatness and hygiene. Female nursing officers wore the veil with those in the ranks wearing a short cap until 2003/4, when QA’s moved into tunic and trousers and nursing head-dress was abolished. 

To prepare the veil, a large white piece of white cotton with an embroidered red QA emblem at the back, was usually starched with Dip and laid out flat, to dry on a board. The veil was gently peeled off ready to be pressed and shaped into the veil.  

Jan Westbury 

STORIES OF THE VEIL

1. THE SHREDDED VEIL By Dot Ritchie 

As a student nurse in the 60's at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, I wore a butterfly cap. When I joined the QARANC in 1972 I was used to starching and ironing veils so did not use the large pieces of thick plastic or the back of room doors that most other Sisters used. 

I was stationed in Belfast in 1973 where Major Joan Pease was Matron. One day I was in the laundry room of the Mess doing my ironing when Matron came in to get her veil off the plastic. Suddenly, there was a shout from Matron. I looked up to see Matron pulling her veil off in shreds! It was so thin that it tore into strips. After a few seconds, we both burst out laughing. 

The moral to this story is, just iron your veil and it will not end up shredded! 

2. YOUR VEIL IS A DISGRACE! By Merrill Bate

Picture the scene at The Gun Hill QARANC Nursing Officers Mess at the Cambridge Military Hospital (CMH) in Aldershot one weekday lunchtime. It was a requirement that on entering the Mess you removed your veil and left it on a shelf in a cloakroom before having lunch in the Dining Room. On this occasion Matron had obviously decided to cast a critical eye over the quality and state of disrepair of the veils that had been deposited by QAs having lunch. One veil had clearly met with Matron’s disapproval and she left a handwritten note saying:

This veil is an absolute disgrace. You must replace is with a clean and properly made veil immediately. Matron

When Pat McKay and I left the Ante-Room to return to work after lunch we went to collect our veils and saw Matron’s note discarded on the shelf. There was no evidence of the veil which had clearly upset Matron. Presumably the guilty Nursing Officer had either scurried back to her room to find a new veil or returned to work wearing the less than perfect veil.

The note provided us with an opportunity! A number of newly commissioned Nursing Officers fresh from the QA Training Centre had arrived at CMH. One of these QAs had left her beautifully made and very new veil on the shelf. Pat and I decided she would be our victim and left Matron’s note on her veil.

I cannot recount what happened next because by the time the poor QA went to retrieve her veil I was safely back in the School of Nursing and Pat was working in the Operating Theatres. Did she in a confused state return to her room to get a new veil forever puzzled as to why she incurred Matron’s displeasure and what happened to the note? We will never know.

3. JUST LIKE THE OLD DAYS By Merrill Bate

In 1981/1982 I was on the held strength of the QA Training Centre whilst I undertook my Registered Clinical Nurse Teachers (RCNT) course at Suffolk College in Ipswich. I was accommodated in the Garrison Officers Mess in Colchester. To qualify as a RCNT I had to spend periods of time in clinical practice and was allocated to work in the School of Nursing at Colchester Hospital.

The only uniform I had was my QARANC ward dress and my supervising Tutor thought it would be a good idea for me to wear it on the wards. The lady who looked after me, and a PMRAFNS Nursing Officer in the male dominated Mess, spotted my uniform in the laundry room and excitedly greeted me one morning asking if she could look after my uniform whilst I was working at the Hospital. She explained that when there had been QAs in Colchester she had looked after their uniforms and to look after mine would be ‘just like the old days’. So, over the next 6 months I had my very own ‘batting lady’ who polished my shoes, washed and pressed my uniforms and most importantly washed, starched and shaped my veils. She took so much pleasure in looking after a QA’s uniform that on my departure she presented me with 6 beautifully made veils. I stored one of these veils flat in a large plastic bag just in case I ever needed it for something important; I wore it when I represented the QAs at the Royal British Legion’s Festival of Remembrance in 1984. 

4. VEIL INCIDENT AT THE QATC 1976 By Pat McKay

I arrived as a newly commissioned officer at the QATC on 5 July 1976 and was introduced to the mysteries of how to starch a veil by members of the permanent staff. Most people I joined with had never worn a head dress like it, so when the suggestion was made that the best flat surface to use when starching a veil was one’s room window, most took up the suggestion and consequently a row of windows at the QATC now had a veil applied to it.

Colonel (later Brigadier) Moriarty was the Training Centre Commandant and lived in the bungalow just along from the front door to the Officers Mess. On a beautiful summer evening she walked down from her accommodation with the most pained expression on her face to inspect what these new officers had done to her ‘Training Centre’. She described it as looking ‘like a Chinese laundry’.

Needless to say, the offending items were removed at the earliest opportunity and an alternative flat surface was found to starch our veils on.

Here ends the Veil Incident at the QATC.!!!! 

Contributors: 
Capt (Retd) Jan Westbury TAVR & Regular Service 1986 - 1992
Lt Col (Retd) Merrill Bate ARRC 1980-2002
Major [Retd] Pat McKay ARRC Branch Secretary Served 1976 - 1996
Major (Retd) Dot Ritchie Regular service 1972 to 1980 TAVR 1980 to 2003