A Centuryof Caring

ARNNSQueen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service

1,11%,/Y NEWS, QARNNS CENTENAR\' SUPPLEMENT. FEBRUARY 2002

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Lt' The changing facenursing in the Nd

. ' -: illphroughout its history, the Queen Alexandra's Royal

Palace lor the Quii I'

w " Naval Nursing Service has proven itself adaptable, 9 _I, one investiture for i SI1

I capable and committed to caring for the lives of Palace. the Queen kani for.the men and women of the Royal Navy. took the OARNNS had

. Helen Craven gives you a glimpse at the.

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hand and mid: -You

fascinating history of these dedicated nurses.;i

Naval nursing c1fccticI hegan inand nurSIng. Mr l:luia Msckcn,itThe badge fr

the 1850s, in the Critiican war asiiinpanicd b tier husband, " - -OARNNS still cont-

I men lay dying in atrocious condi-Proiccint minister. headed to a nasalcrossed AM for

iion. hospital at fltcrapiaon the Hosphoru Alexandra's mow--Earlier nursing duties had been car-

to rwide care to .rvia. Pcrsonnc. combined with th-tied. out h pensioned sailors and ild had to

prcto a ubuing anchor.

marnes, or their wklows. and had conAdmiralty that sne could handle the

sisted of scant care and treatment. difficulties and horrors of nursing in As the (iFflCflS of VS" Mrs Eliza Mock~ began naval nursing at the naval As l'iorencc Nightingale creates !° grimy. Iearstaincd war. She stood i itcrialiscd. the larghospitalat Therapla, during the Crimean War. t'L, 1 ptl t fr hc 'LiIfs of Can rlg

in Inc operating theatre of theInghospitals in the cousMiddlesex Hospital as a young man tilicd nurses suitable ftleg was amputated. without anaesthetic to the armed forces as Sishe stood there and watched to prove QARNNSSiccrs wet'-'

that she could. 1)1 I iixr-s. with staff nursing dEliz.a and heARE r team had to deal with sided h the male Sick Be,il- . I gunshot wounds and infectious dis- Cape- Hut these men were needed

- M~ no- eases, but nursingatthtsstagewasreal- ditson. si, hiss itals filled their vacar--- --- . - ply a matter of basic by gene and nutn- The SUC

Voluntary Aid Detachmentslion - keeping the men clean and well. cc.-,% of these and Reserves.ferilong enough to a%ktheir hotticsin nuts sparked rol nlcTcsI In liftt.VADs were young won- - recover.QueenAlcxandra.wdeot I.snt'dward

joined up "to do their hit"--'- - VI l,wrotc to Lord Stlboinc. l-irst Lord Services in the war Or-

, But Eliza was conscious the Admiralty. stating that 'the great described the experience as-

throughout that she was t1'59 wish of my bean has always been to straight from my mothers. -"-have the Navy Nursing l)cpantmcnt room to the sluicc of a hi it.

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, llhe future of care in theNavy. also under my special charge. and that

World 'Air I also brought- - -,

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,The Admiratis skcsskst %Iii the it may likewise hear my name and he creation ot 'Massage Sisters'.-experiment with tliia Mutkenuie hadamalamatcd with the Army as soon as physiotherapists. Begun in I

proved a success. So naval nursing con. possiblerudimentary massage the brar-

tinued with the first nasal sisters The Admiralty responded with ly progressed before the

mg liaslar and Plymouth huspitas inspeed it) the offer of royal patronage, school of physiotherapy wet *44. but any question of amalgamation with

over by the RN in 1932.Patient care was carried out correct- the Army's nursing corps was quicklyAt the end of the war. th

ly and on time, ward cleanliness forgotten. contracted with wards staf-improved,and subtly but significantly, And on November lIt, 1902. the reg- again by Sick Berth staff and

the language and attitude of theulattuns for what is now called thel'hruugh the 20s and 30s,

patients and attendants changed. And OARNNS were publisiicd.and conditions of service.so the presence of nursing SistersThe Queen was personally involved OARNNS developed in line

extended to Chatham, in the consideration of conditions of Arms and civilian nursing.In fact. the Isrst female personnel scrvicc, and even the design of the uni- Most significant in this pi

" QARIVNS Sisters a wing their went to sea on active service in 11497, form,theercitlon of a register ofbadges on their tippets, at the Royal when two Sisters joined the hospital It seems that the uniforms were nurses. The Navy followed INaval Hospital Chatham an 1

Ship Malacca in lft)7 for the tknin made up on models and sent up to the deciding that anyone Josi

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Alexandrawished tohave lhe

service under her'5~charge'.

I " Front covv QARNNS SW~ on board thePtassy during World War I.

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" Olga Franklin was taken frame military hospital toan Internment camp after the Japaneserecorded herex~~in a tapoatiy on her nurse's apron.

In captivity, she

NAVY NEWS, QARNNS CENTENARY SUPPLEMENT, FEBRUARY 2002

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lilied -

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pleted tibree bears training W,and [)C a registered nur%k hill].

BY the 30%. ill,vard and" E

in her OAkNNS Reserve was re I I . " "I

kit(" I established as a permanentI I U C A D d " .

.that you resource. This meant Ih,it I in 1939. Reserve Sisicr - " . .

r the were called up it) help iii "---

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the UK's hosnitals whilethe ()ARNT4S headedoverseas.

In lime. as the was

dragged on even the-

- - - -

Reservists were whisked i -j

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,straight overseas. some --r

limes without even trainingor uniforms.

These women served in" The Uganda was transformed in just 72 hours in Gibraltar from cruise ship to

Ipshss.hospital shipshospital ship, where QARNNS personnel worked through the Falkiands War.

allU lispi.liS IWUIIU lilt

world

For

three women. the experi-ence (it World War II was

shaped b their capture bythe Japanese at the RosalNasal lhrspiial in Hong

ill I)cccmlwr 14441.Mts,' Olpi Franklin was the sensor

nurse, a Supcrintcnding Sister, withtwo other OARNNS Sisters, Miss(irituith and Miss Rollin. These threewith lets other military nurses weretaken by the Japanese.who would not

recognise thei, military status, it) the

Stanley internment camp.Shetook with her a tropical discascs

nursing testhciok. and a set of embroi-

dery silks.

Throughout her time at thecamp,she sat arid stitched ontoher own

OARNNS uniform

apron in multi-coloured silkspictures of the harsh details of

camp life.

The Limp was full of women andchildren. ith all their ailment..corn-poundedby the tack of food and medi-cine.

Bartering with the local., providedthe only access to these essential sup-plies, and once items to exchange ranout, then promises and goodwill werethe only trade.On 11w return of the three OARNNS

Sister'. In.m I1w internment camp. lbe

QARNNS lkncsulciii lund was usedto pay the debts run up in this constant

struggle to relieve the suffering in the

camp.Alter the war, nursing life continued.

Sisters continued to work in the UK .and returned to places around theworld including Malta and hong Kong.

Military hospitals had ceased to be

male-only preserve, and female stallnurses were needed its provide thehands-sin care along with the male SickBerth Attendants (SBAs),

Initially Wren SI3As were tried, but

by the mid-50% the decision was takento form a QARNNS ratings section.called the Nasal Nursing Auxiliaries,The Admiralts then decided that the

Navy could train its own nurses, andtook a great step - to set up a RoyalNaval School of Nursing.The Statutory Body for nursing

required for all recognised traininschools to provide not only quali(icnurse teachers, but a patient base witha broader range of conditions than thenarrow field provided by young.healthy sailors and marine'..Now the Navy had to provide suit-

able accomnniodation and study lacili-lies, and open their military hospitalsup fully to acivilian catchmcnt area.

Student and pupil nurse trainingbegan in Portsmouth and Plymouth in19(i2.Medical Technicians. the male

branch of the KS that pr n iilcrl retilster,'i nut'.,'. tni.i st,rki',

laflIc huh Csi'.tcfls'c in tlw until tThese men were trained :ulongsuilc Itnwomen at the Royal Nasal ScIi.,,r of

Niur'.ing

For nurses joining theQARNNS from general hospi-tals, there were a lot of adjust-mentsto be made.

I tn the Language changed ii U I

mans nurses struggled with the icr ii

'deck, for floor, anti 'heusis lot toihi

One recalls her initial battle it) gtgrips with the 24-hour chick:" I it. nthe Sister must have been tearing ihair out because I couldn't work .'

what llK1 meant."Another former Sister recal

grand naval tradition which Wa'.

niicly not part of general hospitaltics, -the drink ration:"WhenI w.,

give out the drugs at about sin

evening, in my trolley I had these lutti,

trays with little caralcs and glasses i'

give out the appropriate drink -

they thoroughly enjoyed." Witreceived in turn an issue of beer,

In comnlu,i with working wt,

throughout the decades, the Sist

the mid-N)% had to cope with ..

andingrained attitudes.OneSister describes the tstiituil

few doctors to the QARNNS nilstall:

'\number seemed to think

ilw nursing Sisters were there tinnit il'rni sti Ii tr.r irntl i'ui(fi' and

" Turn to next page.

" Nursing duties for OARNNS Sisters were around the world. One sister works in anoperating theatre in thehospital at B,ghi Malta, in 1965.

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- - ' " The caption reads: Ever so much better since you came in, Commander!

S The male RN qualified nurses unified with the female OARNNS branch in 19 this photo shows a Sensor Nursing Ca,'toons above and centre page were drawn by Alice Ruff~, a RN VAD (VoluntaryOfficer instructing probafionar/ student nurses at the Royal Naval Schoolof Nursing in the same year Aid Detachment) In World War II. A file containing her drawings and cartoons was

found at a showroom in P'mouth, but no on. knows what became ofAlice.

rvice celebrates its centenary, 1902-2002

4 NAVY NEWS, QARNNS CENTENARY SUPPLEMENT, FEBRUARY 2002

two ratings with burns from HMSSheffield: "They talked a lot aboutlittle presents and things they hadbought to bring back to their wivesand children that had been lost.

"It was quite poignant to hearthem talking about things that real-ly were quite simple little things -but they were very upset aboutthat."

Nurses had to decide their prior-ities in patient care, and improviseto cover missing equipment: "Onething we had not got was weights[for traction], so we filled plasticlemonade bottles with water."

After the Falklands QARNNSpersonnel took every opportunityto exercise and train nurses in their

• A home visit from a QARNNSSister in Malta in the 1950s.much more, but any sister worthher salt faced with that situationsoon ensured that it didn't happenagain."

Of course, it wasn't just the doc-tors who had to be set straight. The60s also brought the arrival of themicro miniskirt: "If you had a real-ly young Sister join whose dresswas perhaps a little over the top,she would be taken aside by one ofthe older people and remindedthat she was a nursing officer aswell as a young person. And thatsometimes one took precedenceover the other."

In 1977, all QARNNS personnelcame under the Naval DisciplineAct; effectively up to that pointthey had been civilians attached tothe RN.

One Sister's opinion of this tech-nical distinction is typical of many:"I joined in 1967, and it didn'toccur to me that I wasn't legallypart of the Navy. As far as I wasconcerned I had definitely joinedthe Navy."

The next major event forthe Service after theKorean War was theFalklands War in 1982.The teaching staff at the

Royal Naval Hospital Haslar hadto move fast to cobble together asyllabus of teaching for the nursesand medical staff heading out tothe South Atlantic.

After two days of intensive train-ing, the medical teams set off forwar.

The nurses who headed off tothe Falklands were lacking basic kitfor operational conditions. Anemergency dash produced Marksand Spencers trousers and DentalWrens white tunics.

But the trousers contained man-made fibres, completely unsuitablefor the hazards of shipboard life.Quickly the nurses reverted toNo.8 blues, the standard workingrig for sailors.

One advantage of the long jour-ney south was that it providedample opportunity for fur thertraining and drills. A number ofthe teaching staff made up the sur-gical and nursing teams, and allexpertise was passed on andshared.

• A Sister tutor instructs nurses and Sick Berth staff in the 1960sat Haslar.

This travelling time was particu-larly useful for the chance to exer-cise with the Royal Marines bands-men, musicians whose specificoperational role was to act asstretcher bearers.

These Marines had a difficulttask, carrying patients throughdoors, along corridors and upstairs in difficult sea conditions andtraumatic times.

A QARNNS Sister who servedin the Falklands recalls: "Theywere absolutely wonderful, marvel-lous."

For the first time the hospitalship's role changed during thisSouth Atlantic conflict.

Up to then hospital ships wereprimarily the carriers of thewounded and nursing generallyconsisted of making the patientscomfortable, redoing their dress-ings, and feeding and wateringthem, with some necessary emer-gency treatment.

In the Falklands, the surgicalteams performed not only this ini-tial surgery, but secondary surgery.

The nurses treated casu-alties brought from fieldhospitals, or even just liftedfrom the battlefield.Argentinians were treatedalongside the British, and allreceived equal care andattention.

The Sister recalls treating herfirst patients from the Falklands,

war role, along with the SurgicalSupport Teams and the RoyalMarines, in a ship environment.

It wasn't until 1983 that the twonaval nursing branches, male andfemale, were unified.

This gave the male MedicalTechnicians, a previously unavail-able option to advance from nurserating toN u r s i n gOfficer - anew titlet h a tr e p l a c e dSister inthese men-f r i e n d l ytimes.

W h e nthe prob-lems flaredup in theGulf, noB r i t i s hh o s p i t a lship wassent to thefront.

T h e r ewas nos u i t a b l eBritish ves-sel in UKwaters; and a dedicated hospitalship was required to conform tostrict regulations in terms of loca-tion and communications.

Within a fortnight, the hangar ofthe Royal Fleet Auxiliary aviation

training ship, RFA Argus, hadbeen filled with a "portacabin hos-pital". And the medics set off onceagain to war.

RFA Argus spent more time inthe frontline of the Gulf Conflictthan any other British ship, ensur-ing that whatever happened, allpersonnel were within close rangeof a modern hospital facility.

Argus has only just finished amajor refit in 2001, and now con-tains a complete hospital on threedecks. QARNNS nurses and NavalMedical Branch personnel wereinvolved in the planning from thebeginning, ensuring that Argusnow provides the best hospitalenvironment for the restricted con-ditions.

In September 1995, QARNNStook naval rank with gold braidand badges on both arms, but withthe crossed AAs motif worn onboth sleeves or as a badge.

Ultimately in April 2000 theQARNNS became part of theRoyal Navy as a discrete nursingservice, closely aligned to themainstream of the RN, but withsome differences due to its nursingfunction.

The QARNNS, along with themedical branches of all threeServices, had gone through a seri-ous review in the mid-90s, and thenumbers in the Service were signif-icantly reduced while collaborationbetween the Services grew.

Now the Royal Navy hasan increasing humani-tarian role across theworld, with an accom-panying need for med-

ical support.The Service is growing again in

response to this need, providingeffective and excellent nursing careto Service personnel and civiliansin the UK and around the world, intimes of peace and conflict.

The men and women of theQARNNS will continue to adaptand face with bravery the futurefor the Royal Navy.

QARNNScentenary

1902-2002

• Below left: Youngsters atHMS Ganges don't seem to be

performing too wellat a training session.

• Miss K'Eogh, oneof the first women toserve at sea with theRoyal Navy in 1897.

• With thanks to:Captain Claire Taylor and theQARNNS Archive for materialand photographs;The Oral History Collection of theRoyal Naval Museum, Portsmouth.

Centenary events:• October 2001 - a tree plantingin the Garden of Remembranceat Haslar Hospital.• May 8 - Florence NightingaleFoundation ceremony atWestminster Abbey. All threeServices take part, and thethree Matrons-in-Chief escortthe Book of Remembrance forall British nurses who have diedin conflict; 2002 will have aspecial significance for theQARNNS.• May 9 - Reception atGoldsmith's Hall in London forserving and retired QARNNSpersonnel.• June 17 - Exhibition at NetleyMuseum in Southampton tocelebrate QARNNS and theArmy's nursing corps, QARANC.• July - QARNNS 2002 SailingExpedition: Portsmouth, Lisbon,Gibraltar using BT ChallengerYacht.• September 7 - Dedication ofchapel in Portsmouth cathedral.Commissioned artwork andplaque with motif.

Commemorations:• Book: 'Nursing in the SeniorService' by Claire Taylor, pub-lished in January 2002.• Article: 'Light before Dawn:Naval Nursing and Medical Careduring the Crimean War' byRichard Huntsman, Mary Bruin,Deborah Holttum. Published inthe Spring 02 edition of theJournal of the Royal NavalMedical Service produced at theInstitute of Naval Medicine.• Notelets, postcards andcoasters to commemorate thecentenary.For details, contact theQARNNS Archive, Institute ofNaval Medicine, Gosport,PO122DL.• RN Philatelic Society isproducing a commemorativecover to mark the centenary inNovember.• Permanent exhibit at RoyalNaval Museum in Portsmouth.

Further details:For recruitmentinformation:

www.rnjobs.co.uk.I QARNNS Archive,INM, Gosport, PO12

2DL.I QARNNS Assn(Officers),Secretary, 2LongwaterDrive, Gosport,PO12 2UP.www.qarnnsassociation.co.uk.• QARNNSAssn (Ratings),Secretary, 12Dell Close,

Widley,Waterlooville,

PO7 SAY.www.qarnns

ratings.cwc.net.