History of the QAIMNS

Formed in 1902 the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing service or QAIMNS served with the British army both at home and overseas.

At the beginning of WW2 this branch had 640 active Military nurses, however, by 1945 this had increased to 12,000

As they always have, the Nurses of the QAIMNS joined the British Army in all fields of conflict, including Burma, Singapore, Malaya and Occupied Europe.

As part of this the Nurses underwent training to help them with operations such as D-Day, training included activities such as climbing rope ladders, embarking and disembarking boats and ships, scrambling through barbed wire and self defence.

During this training it was quickly realised that the ward dresses and veils were impractical and so the Nurses were issued with battledress based on the male uniforms which was worn from 1942 onwards.

Members of the QAIMNS had to deal with the same challenges as the male members of the army including being evacuated under fire from Dunkirk and being captured, imprisoned and tortured in German and Japanese POW camps, and helping with the liberation of  concentration camps, including Belsen and Auschwitz.

 Gaining the Royal designation in 1949, this branch became the QARANC (Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps) which is still serving the British Army today