Cap Badge for PMRAFNS Question

[Home Guard]

What cap badge would a nurse in the RAF, PMRAFNS wear? I know their collar badges are a winged medical badge, but not sure what cap badge should got with them.

Thanks,

Terry

[Padre]

Terry

It depends what time period and uniform you mean. The black felt hat has remained largely unchanged for 100 years or so and would be worn with an officers cap badge as seen on standard peaked caps. (Photo below is 1960 but otherwise the same today).

In more recent years a similar hat in blue/grey felt has been introduced with the 'Airman's pattern badge, originally in anodised aluminium, more recently in the 'lovely' mylar!

Male nurses wear the same badges on peaked cap, ward dress can be the headscarf without badge.

During the war they also wore a barathea beret, and a 'Storm Cap' (similar to the WAAF cap but with no peak) both worn with a standard officers cap badge.

[mike_vee]

Male , Female and Officer.

.

[conservator]

Terry,
PMRAFNS nurses wore the standard RAF cap badge on a black mohair band on their tri-corn hat.
Female Medical Secretaries, who later became Medical Assistants, when the trade name changed, wore the standard RAF cap badge on their berets and on their hats apart from the 'Air Hostess' type hat which used a smaller sized anodised RAF badge. This hat was worn by all WRAF (excluding officers, though some officers wore it as an optional item with the smaller standard officer's beret badge).

Female Medical Secretaries, then Medical Assistants, were part of the WRAF not PMRAFNS and whilst they wore the RAF medical collar badges (presented after completion of a six-week First Aid course), they were not nurses.
At one time, the RAF trained 'Student Nurses' (SN) on a three year course for graduation as 'State Registered Nurses', SRNs were generally PMRAFNS officers. The RAF ceased training SRNs in the late 1970s, I think, choosing to recruit trained civilian SRNs directly..
A two year course trained 'Pupil Nurses' (PN) for graduation as 'State Enrolled Nurses', SENs were the non-commissioned element of the PMRAFNS.
All non-commissioned ranks of the PMRAFNS (other than Warrant Officer) wore the standard RAF cap badge. All officers wore the standard RAF officer's cap badge and also one with a white felt background for tropical wear.
In training, SNs wore white shoulder slides with one, two or three short vertical blue bars signifying their year of training; PNs wor similar but with one or two bars only and in bottle green. After graduation, SENs wore bottle green Petersham slides beneath their rank slides to show their qualification (along with their RAF Nurse Training School badge and PMRAFNS cloth badge on ward dress)
Things are probably a little different now.
.
George

[Home Guard]

Gentlemen, Thank you all. Excellent info and the pictures really help tell the story. I am sorry that I don't have a specific time period in mind, but will say post WW2, and maybe 1980's up. I have some nice PMRAFNS patches and collar badges that were sent to me by a fellow member (Thank You again!), and also included was a nice large A/A wreathed badge, and assume(d) it was worn by the nurses (I am thinking female, which I should have said). I was also thinking of it as a beret badge, but see that it is (also) worn on the tricorn. Mike in your picture I also see that they wore a shoulder eagle so might oughta add one of those, and a couple of the corporals are wearing the Aero-Medical No.1 Dress Badge.


Again, thank you very much!

Terry

[Padre]

Terry

If you want shoulder eagles I have a matching pair you can have free of charge. Just drop me your address.

[dragon166]

The shoulder eagles were not worn by the PMRAFNS other ranks until the addoption of the new 1996 pattern eagle. From their beginnings they wore the PMRAFNS shoulder titles, firstly with a blue/grey backing and, after 1972, on a dark blue backing. The wear of these titles ceased in 1980 when males were allowed into the PMRAFNS.
Dave

[Padre]

From their beginnings they wore the PMRAFNS shoulder titles, firstly with a blue/grey backing and, after 1972, on a dark blue backing.

Not from their beginnings, these were introduced in the mid 1950s. In recent years female officers have lost the unique Norfolk Pattern tunic too.