QARNNS nurses 1940?
During the Second World War auxiliary naval hospitals would have been manned by VADs with just a few QARNNS nurses in charge. QARNNS nurses were classed as officers and were intended to operate in a supervisory role. They did not undertake everyday nursing duties on the wards - that was the work of the VADs. At this time there were no QARNNS naval nurse ratings. These did not appear until the early-1960s. VADs continued to work with the Royal Navy until the late 1950s and their demise was one of the reasons that QARNNS began to recruit naval nurse ratings. Many of the first QARNNS naval nurse recruits had previously been VADs.
Pete
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'It is upon the Navy, under the good providence of God, that the Wealth, Prosperity and Peace of these islands and of the Empire do mainly depend' - Preamble to the Articles of War in the reign of Charles II
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