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PoppyAppeal



Books About British Army Nurses And Nursing


Books About British Army Nurses And Nursing with reviews and where to buy them online at discounted prices with free delivery:

There have been many books written about the history of the Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps (QARANC). A selection of the in print books are listed and reviewed below and there are links to take you to online book shops where they can be purchased at a reduced price. Some have free delivery available if you spend the minimum amount to qualify. This is usually over £5.


The Real Tenko

The latest book about British Army nurses and nursing describes a dark chapter in the history of the QAs. The Real Tenko: Extraordinary True Stories of Women Prisoners of the Japanese by Mark Felton is an account of the fall of the Far East to Japan. It comprehensively covers war atrocities performed by the Japanese troops to women stationed in places such as Singapore and Hong Kong. This included Sisters of the QAs who were stationed in hospitals such as BMH Bowen Road Hong Kong and BMH Singapore. The Real Tenko devotes several chapters to recounting, often by those who were there, how each hospital was overrun by the Japanese troops and what happened to the patients, nurses and medical staff.

Though an uncomfortable read at times, due to the horrific actions of the troops of Japan, Mark Felton rationalises their actions by giving the reader an explanation of their culture and attitudes to women and to soldiers who surrender.

Survivors who were taken prisoner or escaped from the Far East during the Second World War give their accounts in The Real Tenko: Extraordinary True Stories of Women Prisoners of the Japanese and this includes QA Sister Kay Christie. From one of her interviews she says:

We fully realized that we were no longer free people. That, along with the fact that Hong Kong had surrendered, gave us a feeling of guilt and degradation which the Japanese never allowed us to forget throughout the time of our incarceration.

Other QAs describe how life as a Far East Prisoner of War and a nurse was unbearable for patients and nursing staff:

A British Air Force officer had to have a foot amputated. Alice Rossie and I assisted the surgeon who had to do it in the most primitive manner. The Japs refused to let the patient go to the local hospital or to send in the right instruments, so someone made a saw out of a knife. Another man had been bayoneted in the stomach when trying to get a drink of water. One day this man was lying on the floor waiting to have his dressing done when the Jap guard came in and ground his heel into the man's wound.

The Real Tenko continues by describing day to day life at the internment camps, how the QAs managed to survive under the rule of the Japanese, how they were liberated and what happened to them in the post World War two years. This includes the account of Dame Margot Turner who survived over three years ain a Japanese prisoner of war camp and went on to become the Director Army Nursing Service and the Colonel Commandant of the Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps.

Buy Now with free delivery available.


View more British Army Nursing Books - with free delivery available.






A QARANC wall plaque and shield is available to buy through Amazon. The QA shield is hand made and ready to hang on the wall. .

Buy Now.






Findextrawork

Find Extra Work Since leaving the QA's we have done an assortment of self employed work and jobs, some which only take an hour a week, others have been full time. We have written about these at our other website Findextrawork at www.findextrawork.co.uk where we share the information for free to help others with information and resources about earning more money. Visit Findextrawork for more information.




Women In The War Zone

Women in the War Zone: Hospital Service in the First World War by Anne Powell is a collection of first hand accounts from the war diaries, memoires, papers and letters from women who nursed in casualty clearing stations, dressing stations, hospitals, barges, trains, ships and ambulances during the First World War. For example the war diary of QA Miss Mildred Rees describes her time aboard No 4 Ambulance Flotilla Barge during the Somme in France whilst the accounts of QAIMNS Nursing Sister Ida Jefferson comes from her time at Basra in Mesopotamia.

This wonderful book brings together over 60 accounts in one readily accessible resource not just from QAs but also the other women who nursed in the war zones during WWI such as British Red Cross, First Aid Nursing Yeomanry Corps (FANYs), St John's Ambulance Brigade, Territorial Force Nursing Service (TFNS), Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) and the Women's Hospital Corps in countries such as Serbia, Poland, Russia, Belgium, France, Dardanelles, Corsica, Italy and Romania. Common experiences include coping with bombardments, shortages of food and water, caring for wounded men straight from the battlefield who were mudded and crawling with lice, dealing with live weapons, lack of sanitation, minimum staff and little sleep and having to nurse in the dark or by torchlight.

Women in the War Zone has a history of the introduction of women doctors to the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) where they served in countries ranging from Solonika, Egypt, India and Malta as well as an extensive history of the Army Nursing Service.

Anne Powell guides the reader through the history of the Great War through these narratives which bring to life the emotions and feelings of military nurses who bore so much and still showed great compassion and bravery.

Buy Now with free delivery available.



Sisters In Arms: British Army Nurses Tell Their Story

Sisters In Arms: British Army Nurses Tell Their Story by Nicola Tyrer is an account of the QAs during the two World Wars. It includes first hand accounts of the Queen Alexandra nurses who were in the dressing stations, casualty clearing stations and field hospitals of Dunkirk, D Day, the fall of Singapore and many more locations where the QAIMNS served.

Buy Now.

Sisters In Arms: British Army Nurses Tell Their Story is also available as a talking book read by the actress Barbara Flynn and Sian Thomas. Buy Now.


View British Army Nursing Books - with free delivery available.




Sub Cruce Candida: A Celebration of One Hundred Years of Army Nursing

Sub Cruce Candida: A Celebration of One Hundred Years of Army Nursing
Sub Cruce Candida: A Celebration of One Hundred Years of Army Nursing is a collection of photographs and the history of QA's from the first days of the QAIMNS in 1902 to the QARANC through the decades right up to 2002. It is written by retired Colonel Eric Gruber Von Arni and Major Gary Searle for the QA Association.
Buy Now With Free Delivery or read more information.
Qaranc.co.uk highly recommend the book Sub Cruce Candida: A Celebration of One Hundred Years of Army Nursing which has a collection of QA related photographs from the Boer War, Great War, Second World War, Korean War, Falklands Conflict, First Gulf Campaign and photos of peacetime operations and day to day lives of the QAs. It also contains many pictures of former military hospitals such as the CMH, QEMH, Netley, Tidworth and those overseas in places like India, Cyprus, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malta as well as hospital ships, barges and field hospitals.

Sub Cruce Candida: A Celebration of One Hundred Years of Army Nursing is an historical account from the early days of the Army Nursing Services through to the QAIMNS and then the QARANC with photos of QAs throughout the century. Sub Cruce Candida: A Celebration of One Hundred Years of Army Nursing is published by the QA Association with images taken from the Army Medical Services Museum Buy Now.



Dame Margot Turner - Will To Live

Dame Margot Turner - Will To Live - Book by Sir John Smyth - Read The QARANC website Review.




A British Army Nurse In the Korean War

A British Army Nurse In The Korean War by Elizabeth Jilly McNair A recently published book about QA nursing during the Korean War is A British Army Nurse In the Korean War by Elizabeth Jilly McNair. QA Sister McNair saw active service in Korea and Japan and this book is based on her letters home and photographs she took during her 18 months spent nursing at the British Commonwealth General Hospital in Kure, Japan and the British Commonwealth Zone Medical Unit in Seoul, Korea. Buy Now!



Dog Dirt Doris

Dog Dirt Doris is a novel about a QA nurse during the Second World War who nurses in a Field Hospital in Italy. The unusual title is about her life post war where she become homeless. Read more about this fictional story on the qaranc.co.uk Dog Dirt Doris a QA Novel by Howard Ward page or Buy Now at a discounted price with free delivery available.





It's a Long Way to Tipperary: British and Irish Nurses in the Great War

It's a Long Way to Tipperary: British and Irish Nurses in the Great War is a new book about nurses and nursing during the First World War. Key features include a history of the QAIMNS which would eventually become the QARANC, testimonials from QA nurses who served in the Great War, extracts from war diaries, wounds and injuries, treatment of gas attack patients, the introduction of triage casualty treatment and evacuation and a nominal role of the nurses killing on active service.
Buy It's a Long Way to Tipperary: British and Irish Nurses in the Great War at a reduced price and with free delivery available or read the qaranc.co.uk review.


View More British Army Nursing Books - with free delivery available.




Tales of a Lady in Grey with a Touch of Scarlet by Lt Col Rosemary Sutton

Tales of a Lady in Grey with a Touch of Scarlet by Lt Col Rosemary Sutton is the memories of a QA nursing officer during the 1960s and 1970s. She remembers many foreign and exciting postings such as Malta, Egypt, Sierra Leone and even BMH Berlin when its most infamous patient was the Nazi Rudolph Hess.

Tales of a Lady in Grey with a Touch of Scarlet was written by Lt Col Rosemary Sutton in 2007. She came form a military family. Her father had been in the army and her grandmother trained a s a midwife as the Louise Margaret Maternity Hospital in Aldershot. Lt Col Sutton had a varied career in the QARANC which spanned over 33 years and took her to many locations such as Egypt, Germany Kenya, Malta and Sierra Leone. Lieutenant Colonel Rosemary Sutton ARRC died in 2009.

Buy Now!





A Few Deeds Short of a Hero

A Few Deeds Short of a Hero by Robert Widders is the memories of life as a nurse during the first Gulf War as the author learned to cope with caring for casualties during Scud missile attacks and nursing Iraqi wounded as well as British service personnel. His NBC training at Saighton Camp in Chester prior to deployment with No 4 RAF War Hospital proved valuable.

Prior to becoming an RAF nurse Robert Widders was a member of the 219 (TA) Field Hospital in Keynsham Bristol having completed his enrolled nurse training at Southmead Hospital. After the Territorial Army Robert joined the Royal Air Force in the 1990s and describes his life at RAF Halton and taking part in the Nijmegan March in Holland and an expedition to the base camp at Mount Everest.

Rob Widders has the distinction of being the only man alive to have served in all three branches of the armed forces and readers of his book gets a glimpse into tri-service life and the unique humour of service life. His career started at the age of 15 years when he joined the Royal Navy during the 1970s and was awarded the prestige title of Best Recruit. These earlier memories of being a recruit describes having to bull boots, vault boxes in the gym and make up bed boxes each morning before rigorous inspections with a day of square bashing to follow. His naval career allowed him worldwide travel to countries such as Malta and Singapore.

An Army career followed in the Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) as a tank gunner during the 1980s where Rob was part of a Chieftain tank crew in Paderborn Germany. Chapters describe the uncomfortable life for a Tankie during the Cold War. During his army career Rob went AWOL with a friend to seek work as a mercenary in South Africa. This adventure saw the duo travel through France, Spain, Tangiers, the Atlas Mountains, Tunisia, Sicily and Italy before they saw sense and returned to camp in Germany to face a court martial. They were placed under close arrest before their sentence of 28 days at the Military Corrective Training Centre (MCTC). Life in the famous Colchester Glass House is described and reminds the reader that military prison is no picnic as he describes the square bashing, exercises and harsh tiring regime of each day which were in sharp contrast to recruit life in each service that Robert found easy.

Robert Widders has a wonderful style of writing that makes the reader imagine that they are sat with Rob in the NAAFI having a chat, reminiscing and laughing over a pint. Royalties from the sale of A Few Deeds Short of a Hero will be given to the charity Combat Stress.

Buy Now.




Florence Nightingale




Florence Nightingale: The Woman and Her Legend by Mark Bostridge is the first Biography of the Lady with the Lamp in over 50 years. A full review will appear soon. Buy Now.





Sean Beech - The Ice Crown

The Ice Crown is a novel written by former QA Sean Beech who served in Iraq in 2006 as an Emergency Nurse Practitioner with an Infantry Company. Sean was impressed with the tailored education packages that the army offered to soldiers in an effort to address the falling standards of literacy amongst many of the youngsters today. He wanted to help those who left school with lower standards of ability to read and write and is now training to become a Primary School Teacher.

During his time with the QARANC in Iraq he started work on his first novel, The Ice Crown (The Lords of the Moon) which was published in September 2008 with 50% of his profits from the sale of the book and any subsequent works to the National Literacy Trust. This charity helps to provide support for those children, who for whatever reason, are not receiving the support they desperately require in school. Read more about the National Literacy Trust at their website www.literacytrust.org.uk
Buy The Ice Crown with free delivery available.

Read more about Cpl Beech and his QA career on the Sean Beech The Ice Crown Novel Lords of the Moon Trilogy by QA Nurse page.



Stand By Your Beds

StandByYourBeds Stand By Your Beds by David Findlay Clark is an account of the author’s national service days and captures the wit, wisdom and sarcasm of NCOs and Drill Instructors of national servicemen whilst describing how a young lad from Aberdeenshire survived military life just after the Second World War. Read the QARANC site book review.


Do English Women Never Cry?: British Army Nurses Tell Their Story Do English Women Never Cry?: British Army Nurses Tell Their Story is a collection of true stories of British Army Nurses. QA's from the First and Second World Wars tell of their experiences aboard hospital ships, in the Far East in Singapore and in concentration camps and at the beaches of Dunkirk and D Day. More Information or Buy Now.




Under The White Cross: British Army Nurses Tell Their Own Story is written by Nicola Tyrer. She brings together a collection of the forgotten voices of frontline QA and QAIMNS nurses who treated and cared for army casualties during the First and Second World Wars.

QA's have shown much courage and determination during their military careers and until now their true stories have went largely untold to the public. Nicola Tyrer addresses this by telling their tales and adventures from their training through to caring for the troops on the front line. Many of the nurses came from privileged backgrounds and had led a sheltered life that ill prepared them for the brutality and harshness of war. Yet they coped admirably and won the hearts of many a soldier. Their care saved many lives and made the last few hours or minutes more comfortable to many of the casualties of ferocious battles. Many of these courageous QA's gave their own lives to the service during the bombing of field hospitals and torpedo raids at hospital ships. Others died in concentration camps at the hands of the Japanese.

QA's served at Gallipoli, the Somme, Dunkirk, Singapore, D-Day and the Battle of Britain. This book details the battles and their work in extra-ordinary conditions to save the lives of British soldiers.

Under the White Cross: British Army Nurses Tell Their Story is a poignant collection dedicated to the memory of British Army Nurses and the history of British Army nursing.

Pre-order a copy and have it delivered on the day of publication.


The hardcover edition has 320 pages with photographs and will be published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson on the 9 Aug 2007. The ISBN is 0297846582.


Nicola Tyrer has also researched and written the following books:
  • They Fought in the Fields: The Women's Land Army - the Story of a Forgotten Victory

  • Child of Happy Valley: The Childhood Memoir of Juanita Carberry

  • Child of the Happy Valley: A Memoir

Read more about these books


If you would like a QARANC related book reviewed at QARANC.co.uk then please use the contact page where you can e-mail me details of the book, or use the address to send me a copy to review.


For more QARANC items like wall shields, figures, uniforms etc please see the merchandise page.



The Real Tenko

The latest book about British Army nurses and nursing describes a dark chapter in the history of the QAs. The Real Tenko: Extraordinary True Stories of Women Prisoners of the Japanese by Mark Felton is an account of the fall of the Far East to Japan. It comprehensively covers war atrocities performed by the Japanese troops to women stationed in places such as Singapore and Hong Kong. This included Sisters of the QAs who were stationed in hospitals such as BMH Bowen Road Hong Kong and BMH Singapore. Read the Qaranc.co.uk review or Buy Now with free delivery available.


View more British Army Nursing Books - with free delivery available.



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.

The photos and pictures on this page have been kindly sent to us for inclusion on this page. If you would like to contribute photographs then please contact us.


For the official Army QARANC webpage please go to
www.army.mod.uk/home.aspx
For the QARANC Association website please go to
www.army.mod.uk/army-medical-services/qaranc/9884.aspx


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Help Needed

A reader of Qaranc.co.uk is researching the exhumation of Heinrich Himmler in Luneberg, Germany circa 1945-46. He thinks that two nurses from the QAIMNS attended the exhumation due to the poor state of health of Walter Schellenberg. He would like to learn if any of the nurses kept a diary of the events leading up to the exhumation or sent any personal letters home to friends or family that may have provided an insight into Walter Schellenberg and the exhumation. Please contact Qaranc.co.uk if you have any information.



Qaranc.co.uk have recently learnt about two former Military Hospitals that we would like to write about. These are the British Military Hospital at Wuppertal in Germany and BMH Benghazi. If you know any information, would like to share your memories or have photographs that we can use on the site then please contact Qaranc.co.uk



A reader is writing an article about the demise of the Military Hospital for the RAMC Magazine and seeks some help. There was, in Kuala Lumpur, a hospital called BMH Kinrara. He would like to know when it opened and closed, what happened to the buildings and the staff. He thinks that Kinrara closed as Terendak opened and that the staff were transferred across to 34 Company RAMC? He would also like any information about the Military Maternity Hospital, Penang. If you can help then please contact Qaranc.co.uk



There is a lovely photo of three QA Midwives from the 1960s about half way down on the Royal Herbert Hospital page. If you can help with information about the Maternity Unit in Woolwich or identify the QA Officers then please contact Qaranc.co.uk


The BMH Dhekelia has new photos which includes a stunning picture of the demolition of the original building and some staff photos. The contributor would like some help with the date it was demolished and would love to hear from anyone who worked with her relative.




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