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» Site Map » Home Page Historical Info » Family History/Trace Nurses » History » QAIMNS for India » QAIMNS First World War » War Graves Memorials Nurses » Book of Remembrance » QA World War Two Nursing » Africa Second World War » War Diaries Nursing Sisters » Belsen Concentration Camp » Voluntary Aid Detachment » National Service » Korean War and the QARANC » Gulf War » Royal Red Cross Medal » Colonels In Chief » Director Army Nursing Services (DANS) » Colonel Commandant » Matrons In Chief (QAIMNS) » March » Motto » QA Memorial National Memorial Arboretum » Army Recruitment Posters » Museum » QA Association » Army Standard » QA and AMS Prayer » Books Former Army Hospitals UK » BMH Cowglen Glasgow » CMH Aldershot » Colchester Military Hospital » DKMH Catterick » Ghosts » Hospital Ghosts » Haslar » QA Centre » QAMH Millbank » QEMH Woolwich » Musgrave Park Hospital Belfast » Netley » Royal Chelsea Hospital » Royal Herbert » Tidworth Military Hospital » Military Hospital Wheatley France » Ambulance Trains » Hospital Barges » Hospital Ships Germany » BMH Berlin » BMH Hanover » BMH Hostert » BMH Iserlohn » BMH Munster » BMH Rinteln Cyprus » TPMH RAF Akrotiri » BMH Dhekelia » BMH Nicosia Egypt » BMH Alexandria China » BMH Shanghai Hong Kong » BMH Bowen Road Hong Kong » BMH Mount Kellett Overseas Old British Military Hospitals » BMH Gibraltar » BMH Malta » BMH Nepal » BMH Singapore » Belize Hospital 
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Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service for IndiaInformation and history of the QAIMNS for India and the British Military Hospitals in India From 1858 to 1947 part of the British Empire was India where British troops acted as a security force from 1903 to 1947 with the Indian Army. Their role was primarily to defeat against attacks by Russian troops from Afghanistan. The Indian Army saw active service in World War I and WWII. The British element of the Indian Army was withdraw in 1947, two years after the end of the Second World War. The book Sub Cruce Candida: A Celebration of One Hundred Years of Army Nursing  has many photographs of nurses of the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service for India and the Hospitals.
This time of colonial ruling was known as the British Raj which was Hindi for rule. India was known as The Jewel In The Crown. Many people may remember the 1984 TV series of the same name which starred Charles Dance, Peggy Ashcroft, Art Malik, Tim Piggot-Smith, Saeed Jaffrey and Judy Parfitt. It featured several QAs and Indian hospitals but I'm not sure who the actresses were that played the nursing sisters. 
In the photo above is Sister Price in QA uniform in India, taking tea on a veranda. Read more about her service career during the Second World War on the War Diaries Nursing Sisters page. As the British ruling in India continued the India Office paid more attention to the medical and nursing needs of soldiers. Miss Ada Hind who had experience as a Sister in Charge at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Suez, Egypt was asked to form the Indian Army Nursing Service but declined because of her own ill health. Instead two nursing sisters Miss Loch and Miss Oxley were chosen by the India Office to supervise and train nurses in the military hospitals in India and to work with the men of the Army Hospital Corps (cited in the book Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps (Famous Regts. S)  by Juliet Piggott).
Miss Loch and Miss Oxley became Nursing Superintendents, or more correctly their title being Lady Superintendent, and took eight nursing sisters from Britain to India in 1888 to form the Indian Army Nursing Service (IANS). In the same year Miss loch and four of the sisters saw field service at the Black mountain Expedition in North West India (cited in the book Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps (Famous Regts. S) by Juliet Piggott). This may have been the first time that army nurses were armed for they carried revolvers to ward off enemy and robbers.
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Miss Loch later became the Senior Lady Superintendent of the Queen Alexandra's Military Nursing Service for India (QAMNSI). The title of Lady Superintendent was replaced when the QAMNS (India) were amalgamated to the QAIMNS. Instead the title became Principal Matron and then Chief Principal Matron. During these British Raj years the medical needs of the British Army and their families were then met by the QAMNS (Queen Alexandra's Military Nursing Service) for India (known as the QAIMN[I]) until they were amalgamated to the QAIMNS in 1926 by the War Office. The QAIMNS (Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service) with the RAMC (Royal Army Medical Corps) continued to care for British servicemen and women and their families. The Indian servicemen were cared for in Indian Military Hospitals which were staffed by Indian doctors, orderlies and members of the Indian Military Nursing Service (IMNS). Conditions were much different under this culture and hygiene standards were much lower than what any QA's would have approved. By 1929 there were 199 QAIMNS nurses serving in India and this increased to 288 QAs by 1935 (cited in the book Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps (Famous Regts. S) by Juliet Piggott).
British Military Hospitals in India included the Delhi Military Hospital, Station Hospital Rhaniket India, Station Hospital Bareilly, Mody Khana Military Hospital, Military Hospital Kasauli and the British Military Hospital Ambala the Punjab. The QAs were treated well in India and enjoyed a good social life and social status. Lt Col Edna Burrows 
Edna Burrows (nee Padua) had three sisters and two brothers. Her father was able to get work in the Kolar Goldfields, so the family settled there in the early part of
the last century.
Edna together with two sisters, Adelaide and Daisy, wanted to be nurses and were trained at General Hospital , Madras. During her training Edna met Frank Burrows who was in the Madras Police Department and when she completed her nurses training they married and settled in St. Thomas Mount. They had two children, Gwen and Derrick, and lived very happily until tragedy struck in January 1940. It was a motor accident that happened on Mount Road, Madras. Frank had multiple injuries and died two days later. Edna was in hospital for eight months with injuries. When she was discharged from hospital, she wasted no time and joined the Indian Military Nursing Service as a Private and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, receiving the highest award in nursing from King George V1, the Royal Red Cross India Medal in his Birthday Honours for her work with PaiForce (Persia and Iraq Force). At that time there were only six nurses in the world to receive the RRC award. She served in I.M.H. (Indian Military Hospital) Jubbulpore where her work had been much appreciated and the RRC recognised her excellence in nursing. After World War 1, Edna applied for several positions in nursing and finally accepted work as Principal Matron at the hospital in Andaman and Nicobar Islands and remained there until her retirement. To be gentle, charitable and humane came naturally to Lt Col Edna Burrows. She spent the last years of her life in Whitefield, Bangalore, and passed away in 1971. Originally published as (Burrows, D.,F. (2006) as written for Anglos in the wind. p.26.) and reproduced on Qaranc.co.uk with kind permission of Lt Col Edna Burrows Son Derrick and Grand-Daughter Georgina. If you can help with any additional information about Lt Col Burrows, her colleagues or place of work then please contact Qaranc.co.uk Read more about the RRC medal on the Royal Red Cross Medal page. World War Two in India This all changed with shortages of nurses and servicemen during World War Two. A QA sister was sent to work in an Indian Military Hospital for the first time in 1941. This was Sister Gwendoline Jones of the QAIMNS who was posted to the province of Gowali with an RAMC officer. They were to care for the wounded of the Gowali Regiment who were returning from North Africa. She soon found volunteers from the locals which included two trained nurses. This Indo British unit was so successful that QAs began to work in Indian General Hospitals with the Sisters of the Indian Military Nursing Service (IMNS). This saw the formation of the Combined British Indian General Hospital (CGH). There is more written about Sister Gwendoline and her work in setting up the hospital at Gowali 7000 feet up in the Himalayas in the book Quiet Heroines: Nurses of the Second World War 
by Brenda McBryde.
India was thrust into WWII when Japan invaded Burma. Casualties of war were taken to India for treatment and the first were men of the 17th British and Indian Division. Sister Gwendoline Jones was sent to the tented 75th Indian General Hospital near the Brahmaputra River North East India as Assistant Matron. It was mostly staffed by Indian Military Nursing Services Sisters, though she was joined by several QAs and RAMC officers. Orderlies and nursing assistants were employed from the local population of the Bengal. Supplies were limited and supplied by the Indian Red Cross and Miss Jones and her staff had to improvise and make use of what little they had to cope with the many patients arriving by ambulance train. Once these patients had their emergency treatment and operations they were evacuated to base hospitals by RASC drivers (Royal Army Service Corps) in ambulances. Digboi War Cemetery 
Sister Constance Dotterel Mary Wort QAIMNS is buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) Digboi War Cemetery in Assam, India. She is the only woman buried in all the World War Two Cemeteries in the North East of India. Sister Wort died on the 1 May 1945 aged 33 years. Her service number was 209451 and her grave reference number is 4.E.2. She was an SRN and SCM. Sister Wort was the daughter of William and Bessie Annie Wort of Highfield, Southampton. Her gravestone reads: At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them until If you can help provide any more information about Sister Wort such as how and where she died please contact Qaranc.co.uk For more QA graves please visit the War Graves Memorials Nurses page. Dame Louisa WilkinsonThe Matron of BMH Ambala was a prominent QA, Louisa Wilkinson who later became a Dame, formed the QA Association in 1947 and was the first Colonel Commandant and the Director of Army Nursing Services (DANS) of the newly formed QARANC in 1949. Last QA To Leave India The last QA to leave India was Dame Monica Johnson in 1947. Dame Johnson was given a carved chest from The Ladies of India to mark the years of nursing service by the QAs. For many years it stood on the first floor of the Headquarters Mess in Aldershot (cited in the book Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps (Famous Regts. S) by Juliet Piggott).
Ada Hind
Though Ada Annie Hind was unable to form the IANS due to ill health she led a distinguished nursing career in England and was later able to return abroad to nurse military patients. In February 1885 Ada Hind was a nurse at St. Mary's Hospital, London when she was appointed temporarily for service in the Suez hospitals during the Sudan Invasion. Ada Hind nursed in various locations and was placed in charge of war wounded and disabled being shipped home.
In April 1885 Ada Hind then served aboard the hospital ship SS Iberia and then in September 1885 the SS Ganges. For her commitment to military nursing Ada Hind was decorated with the Royal Red Cross on her return. Ada Annie Hind married and her name changed to Ada Yorke. During World War One Ada Hind became the Matron at Winchester Divisional Red Cross Hospital. During this service she was decorated with a Bar to the Royal Red Cross on the same day that her son, Captain H Yorke, Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) received the Military Cross (MC). During this period a brother of a patient drew a picture of Ada Hind. If anyone has further information about this image and the artist could they please get in touch. QARANC.co.uk would like to thank the great grandchild, Alexandra Yorke, of Ada Hind for kind permission to use the photograph of Ada Hind wearing her Royal Red Cross and campaign medals from the Sudan conflict and the additional information. Tales from the Raj The actor and comedian Spike Milligan was a child of the Raj. In April 2008 BBC Radio 7 ran a series called More Plain Tales from the Raj to celebrate what would have been the 90th birthday of Spike Milligan. These early recordings were broadcast before episodes of the Goon Show. He described his childhood growing up in India, the son of a serviceman. He recalls the wooden army hospital where he was born in 1918 and conditions in the Raj. Spike Milligan also talked about the high incidence of suicide amongst soldiers who could not cope with Indian life. They would commonly shoot themselves through the roof of the mouth or jump off a ravine. One ravine was guarded at night to prevent such suicides. 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 *********************************************** 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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