Juliet Piggott Famous Regiments Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps Edited by Lt-General Sir Brian Horrocks
Below is the November 1975 edition of Soldier Magazine book review of Famous Regiments Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps Edited by Lt-General Sir Brian Horrocks and written by Juliet Piggott
It reads:
Guardian Angels
Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps (Juliet Piggott)
The sufferings of the British soldiers in the Crimean War, so graphically described by Russell's articles in The Times, horrified the public. Sidney Herbert, responded to the outcry by inviting a German-trained nurse, Florence Nightingale, to do what she could to help. Thus was born the well-known legend of "The Lady with the Lamp" at Scutari in 1854.
In actual fact there had been nurses of a sort for centuries, mainly in religious orders, hence the term "Sister." Most military nursing however was done by the women of the regiment and throughout the 18th century they did what they could, in an unskilled fashion, on every battlefront from Flanders to North America.
Fortunately, Miss Nightingale's experience had caught the imagination of the nation, especially Queen Victoria, and it was not long before various military hospitals were established. By 1884 military nurses were serving in Egypt and the Sudan. In fact, they were the first white women ever to have sailed up the Nile. The greatest challenge came in the Boer War in which thousands died from enteric fever. Some 1400 nurses went to South Africa in response to the need. In recognition of this service Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service was created in 1902.
Under the guidance of various strong-minded matrons-in-chief the QAs were ready for World War One. This was a new kind of war on a new kind of scale. Over 10,000 nurses tended men who had been injured in gas and air attacks or who were suffering from trench foot or shell shock. Casualties poured in from the bloody battles of Marne, Ypres, The Battle of Passchendaele, Loos and the Somme. Some nurses even served at Salonika, in Mesopotamia or even Russia.
In World War Two their service was even more extensive. QAs were dive-bombed in Tobruk, savagely treated by the Japanese at Singapore and Java, fought polio in bomb-ravaged Malta and cleared up the foul mess that the Nazis left at Belsen. Not surprisingly, in 1949, they became an integral part of the Army as the Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps.
Since the war the QAs have been found all over the world, wherever Tommy Aitkins has required care and attention from gentle hands - Suez, Malaya, Borneo and Jordan. It was only appropriate that the QAs received the Freedom of Aldershot in 1973.
Second hand copies of the book can be purchased from Amazon.
More Book Reviews.
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
My PTSD assistance dog, Lynne, and I have written a book about how she helps me with my military Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, anxiety, and depression. I talk about my time in the QAs and the coping strategies I now use to be in my best health.
Along the way, I have had help from various military charities, such as Help for Heroes and The Not Forgotten Association and royalties from this book will go to them and other charities like Bravehound, who paired me with my four-legged best friend.
I talk openly about the death of my son by suicide and the help I got from psychotherapy and counselling and grief charities like The Compassionate Friends.
The author, Damien Lewis, said of Lynne:
"A powerful account of what one dog means to one man on his road to recovery. Both heart-warming and life-affirming. Bravo Chris and Lynne. Bravo Bravehound."
Download.
Buy the Paperback.
This beautiful QARANC Poppy Pin Badge is available from the Royal British Legion Poppy Shop.
For those searching military records, for information on a former nurse of the QAIMNS, QARANC, Royal Red Cross, VAD and other nursing organisations or other military Corps and Regiments, please try Genes Reunited where you can search for ancestors from military records, census, birth, marriages and death certificates as well as over 673 million family trees. At GenesReunited it is free to build your family tree online and is one of the quickest and easiest ways to discover your family history and accessing army service records.
More Information.
Another genealogy website which gives you access to military records and allows you to build a family tree is Find My Past which has a free trial.
Former Royal Air Force Regiment Gunner Jason Harper witnesses a foreign jet fly over his Aberdeenshire home. It is spilling a strange yellow smoke. Minutes later, his wife, Pippa, telephones him, shouting that she needs him. They then get cut off. He sets straight out, unprepared for the nightmare that unfolds during his journey. Everyone seems to want to kill him.
Along the way, he pairs up with fellow survivor Imogen. But she enjoys killing the living dead far too much. Will she kill Jason in her blood thirst? Or will she hinder his journey through this zombie filled dystopian landscape to find his pregnant wife?
The Fence is the first in this series of post-apocalyptic military survival thrillers from the torturous mind of former British army nurse, now horror and science fiction novel writer, C.G. Buswell.
Download Now.
Buy the Paperback.
If you would like to contribute to this page, suggest changes or inclusions to this website or would like to send me a photograph then please e-mail me.
Free Book.
The death of the Brotherhood will be avenged.
RAF gunner Jason Harper and a team of Special Air Service operators are enraged after the death of their brothers by a terrorist drone strike. They fly into south-eastern Yemen on a Black-op mission to gather intelligence and avenge the death of their comrades.
Can they infiltrate the Al-Queda insurgents' camp, stay undetected, and call down their own drone missile strike and get home safely?
Will they all survive to fight another day?
Operation Wrath is a free, fast-paced adventure prequel to the non-stop action The Fence series by military veteran author C.G. Buswell.
Download for free on any device and read today.
This website is not affiliated or endorsed by The Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps (QARANC) or the Ministry of Defence.
