Q&A: Veteran army nurse Ann Parnham on Armed Forces Day

Ann was an army nurse specialising in burns and reconstruction from 1984 to 1987 and was based at the Queen Elizabeth Military Hospital in Woolwich. She was then placed at Mount Vernon Hospital and her unit was later located to the Royal Free Hospital in London where she served until she retired.

What motivated you to join the Armed Forces?

My father served in the Royal Air Force in the Second World War. Additionally, I wanted to travel and to use my nursing skills.

In 1985, I was posted to the Falkland Islands for four months. It was after the hospital had burnt down. So, we were nursing in like portable cabins, and we looked after civilians as well as soldiers who were still posted out there.

Were there any aspects of Armed Forces life that you found surprisingly different from your expectations?

Probably the hardest thing was being an officer. I went in as an officer accompanied by the fact I was a qualified nurse. That experience with a speciality that was useful to the Army and as you have to earn respect of your peers and other officers.

Woolwich was a very senior officer's mess, so all the officers were similar status, like Generals and Brigadiers. I was quite young and naive at the time. Fitting into that environment was quite difficult. That was the worst part, but I loved the work.

Looking back, are there any lessons or insights from your service that you found particularly relevant to acclimatising back to civilian life?

I think I had a new recognition for the veterans and what they’d been through nursing wise, I can help them a little bit more than I could have done before.

On a personal level, the Army gave me a lot of social skills. I made great friends, I think I get on quite well with most people. I'm a very good listener and I hope if people have a problem that they feel they can come to me and discuss it.

What are some of the things you're most proud of from your time in the Armed Forces?

Hopefully making a valuable contribution, especially looking after burn patients. It’s very traumatic for the patients and their families. So, just hopefully I was giving them a little bit of compassion and care they needed. Funnily enough I have met some of the patients who I looked after in Woolwich. So, it's like I have still seen people I looked after back in 1984 and in the mid-2000s. I suppose that's the proudest moment, I think discovering that so many of those individuals went on do things for the other veterans and charities and it’s great to share that.

Do you think there's anything that you'd like to share about the Armed Forces in general? Whether that's issues that you're currently seeing at the moment or public perception or things that can be dealt with differently?

I do feel like veterans are sometimes forgotten about. It's not just the older veterans, but we must focus on the younger veterans as well who served in Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan. We tend to forget about them and their mental needs. Society neglects them when they leave the Forces because they go from an environment where everything has been structured and then they come out into a world in which they pretty much have to fend for themselves.

The main benefit is the ability to travel the world and empower and train Forces from across the world. I was married to my husband who was in the Navy for 22 years. We lived in the Middle East for three years and when I left the Army i worked in the military hospital in Oman.

These types of facilities had a lot of British Army personnel out there who were loan service guys who were helping train the Omani Army for example. That is another aspect of the job that often goes under the radar.

I would recommend the Services like this to all veterans as you’re surrounded by people from a similar background.

Ann (pictured, centre, marking the VE Day 80th anniversary) has recently been trained to take on the role of an Armed Forces Service Champion for Forces United, a voluntary role to ensure that the “Veterans Together” and Royal British Legion members can be supported in terms of wellbeing. She will be helping to raise awareness of both the moral and contractual obligations under the Armed Forces Act 2021, the Armed Forces Covenant, the NHS Constitution and the Health and Social Care Act and other Acts.