Royal Air Force Nursing Service | |
---|---|
![]() RAF General Hospital in Brussels during the Second World War | |
Active | 1 June 1918–present (originally as Royal Air Force Temporary Nursing Service) |
Country | ![]() |
Allegiance | HM The King |
Branch | ![]() RAF Medical Services |
Type | Nursing |
Role | Medicine |
Size | 498 nurses |
Garrison/HQ | Air Command, RAF High Wycombe |
Engagements | World War II, Korean War, Falklands War, Gulf War (Op GRANBY), Bosnian War, Kosovo War, War in Afghanistan, Gulf War II (Op TELIC) |
Commanders | |
Matron-In-Chief | Group Captain Charlie Thompson |
Patron | Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy, LG, GCVO |
Insignia | |
RAF Ensign | ![]() |
Red Cross Emblem | ![]() |
Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service (PMRAFNS) is the nursing branch of the British Royal Air Force.
It was established as the Royal Air Force Temporary Nursing Service (RAFNS) in 1918, and became part of the permanent establishment as the Royal Air Force Nursing Service on 27 January 1921. It received the Royal prefix after Princess Mary agreed to become its Patron in June 1923.
It was a women-only branch until 1980, when men were also permitted to join. Until the Second World War, it was only open to unmarried women, or childless widows. There was also a Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service (Reserve) (PMRAFNS(R)) to supplement the regular service during times of war or emergencies.
A history of the service was commissioned from the writer Mary Mackie and appeared in 2001. [1] An updated and extended edition covering subsequent decades (including service in Afghanistan) was published in September 2014. [2]
The initial ranking system used by the PMRAFNS was as follows.
PMRAFNS rank | Equivalent RAF rank (from 1943) |
Staff Nurse [3] | |
Sister | Flying Officer |
Senior Sister [4] | Flight Lieutenant |
Matron | Squadron Leader |
Principal Matron [5] | Wing Commander |
Chief Principal Matron [6] | Group Captain |
Matron-in-Chief | Air Commodore |
From 1 June 1943, PMRAFNS personnel were granted emergency Commissions, and wore rank insignia corresponding to their equivalent Royal Air Force officer rank. On 1 February 1949, the women's forces were integrated into the Armed Forces, and a new ranking system was introduced, although professional titles were still used on the wards.
PMRAFNS rank | Equivalent RAF rank |
Flying Officer | Flying Officer |
Flight Officer | Flight Lieutenant |
Squadron Officer | Squadron Leader |
Wing Officer | Wing Commander |
Group Officer | Group Captain |
Air Commandant | Air Commodore |
Air Chief Commandant [7] | Air Vice-Marshal |
Other Ranks were introduced in 1956, although unqualified Nursing Orderlies had previously served in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force and Women's Royal Air Force. They held standard RAF ranks. Officers used the separate ranking system until 1980, when they too adopted RAF ranks.
The RAF had several hospitals which were staffed by nurses from the PMRAFNS. These were located at Akrotiri, Albrighton, Wolverhampton, Ely, Halton Nocton Hall, Lincolnshire, Aden, Uxbridge, Wegberg and Wroughton. [8]
The Women's Royal Naval Service was the women's branch of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. First formed in 1917 for the First World War, it was disbanded in 1919, then revived in 1939 at the beginning of the Second World War, remaining active until integrated into the Royal Navy in 1993. WRNS included cooks, clerks, wireless telegraphists, radar plotters, weapons analysts, range assessors, electricians and air mechanics.
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Flight lieutenant is a junior officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank originated in the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) in 1914. It fell into abeyance when the RNAS merged with the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War but was revived in 1919 in the post-war RAF. The rank is used by air forces of many countries that have historical British influence.
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Air Commandant Dame Felicity Hyde, Lady Peake was the founding director of the Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) She started flying when her first husband took up the hobby in 1935, but in 1946 became the first director of the WRAF. She was Honorary Aide-de-camp to King George VI from 1949 to 1950.
Dame Joanna Margaret Cruickshank, was a British military nurse and nursing administrator. She founded Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service in November 1918 and served as its first Matron-in-Chief from 1921 until her retirement in November 1930.
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The Princess Mary's Hospital, RAF Akrotiri,, was a military hospital located on the Royal Air Force base at Akrotiri on the island of Cyprus. The hospital was the last British military hospital to remain in operation after all other hospitals had closed down in the 1990s and 2000s. Originally the site was a dedicated RAF Hospital, but since 1996 it had been a Defence Medical Services asset. The hospital provided care for service personnel, their dependants and the local Cypriot population. It also treated many others from non-British and non-Cypriot countries. The setting of the hospital gave rise to the nickname Alcatraz, and it was staffed by personnel from the Royal Air Force and the British Army.
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RAF Hospital Ely, was a Royal Air Force staffed military hospital in Ely, Cambridgeshire, England. The hospital opened in 1940, and was one of a handful of Second World War era RAF hospitals that were kept open post Second World War, remaining a military asset until 1992, although it also treated non-service patients, usually those who lived locally. On closure, the hospital became a civilian hospital under the NHS. Although not located on an established RAF Base, RAFH Ely was located within 50 miles (80 km) of forty RAF bases in the Second World War.
The Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Hospital Halton, was the first Royal Air Force hospital to be built that was dedicated to air force personnel. Located on what was then the largest of the RAF camps at RAF Halton in Buckinghamshire, England, the hospital treated over 20,000 patients during the Second World War and was the first place in the world to use penicillin on a large-scale. The hospital continued in use throughout the Cold War, only closing in 1996 due to defence cuts.
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Iris "Fluffy" Bower was a British nurse who served in the Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service during Second World War. She was one of only two women in Normandy during the first few days of the D-Day campaign, and attended patients at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. Prior to D-Day, she had been in two different RAF hospitals which had suffered from bombing raids.