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- Queen Marys Army Auxiliary Corps during the Second World War -


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World War 2 Two II WW2 WWII 1939 1945

Queen Marys Army Auxiliary Corps



Those known to have served with

Queen Marys Army Auxiliary Corps

during the Second World War 1939-1945.

  • Kearon Anna Marjorie. Sister (d.12th Sep 1943)
  • Keats Amy Evalyn. Lt.
  • Loughran Mary Alice. Nurse
  • Pirie Barbara. Sister (d.12th Feb 1944)

The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed, please Add a Name to this List

Records of Queen Marys Army Auxiliary Corps from other sources.



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Want to know more about Queen Marys Army Auxiliary Corps?


There are:1320 items tagged Queen Marys Army Auxiliary Corps available in our Library

  These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War.


Sister Anna Marjorie Kearon (d.12th Sep 1943)

Sister Anna Marjorie Kearon is buried in the Grave 70. W. on Border N.section of the Arklow Cemetery.

s flynn



Nurse Mary Alice "Mae" Loughran

My aunt, Mary Alice Loughran, left Northern Ireland between 1936 and 1939 and is suspected of going to help in the Spanish civil war. We know she was in St James Hospital and Whipps cross hospital in London in the early fortees. She lived or worked in Walthamstow. Mary Alice went England with her sister Margaret Loughran.

I found a letter from aunt Mary Alice recently which she wrote during Hitler's advance in Europe and she said she was considering marriage to a Doctor in her hospital, but equally fancied a RAF man in a military hospital she was being seconded to. The family say a telegram came from the war office to say she was missing, presumed dead. This was after she wrote to say she was returning to Carricklane house, Armagh. But she never turned up.

In the eightees I found what looked like an older photo behind an old press and took them to NI Forensic dept. I got a call to say they thought they had info but before I got there the dept was blown up by the IRA. Later an army officer rang to say he had info that she may have been in wrac and to make contact. But the details were lost in vandalism in house. The search is on again now and we have a search firm looking for records. All her siblings died this year except my mum who is 86 years and we would like to draw closure. The Red Cross 15 yrs ago said they had no record of my aunt and the Salvation army drew a blank. I have one photo of her in uniform with a broad white head dress and small cross and trailing v shaped head dress and white dress and red cross. blue/grey shirt. It would be so great to get details of her resting place or any other next of kin. It was always thought she died in the blitz or on a boat to Belfast. I hope there is someone somewhere who has a memory of her. Her disapperance was a heart break and has blighted my life also as I can find no closure to my aunt's whereabouts.

tracey sheridan



Lt. Amy Evalyn Keats Hospital Ship Karoa

My mother joined the QA's [Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service, now known as the QARANC ] and arrived in India 21st March 1944. After a time serving in on-shore hospitals she joined the Hospital Ship "Karoa" and participated in the evacuation of wounded soldiers from the Burma Campaigns. The "Karoa" would sail between Madras, Chittagong and Calcutta collecting the wounded out of Chittagong. She remembers spotting 2 periscopes of submarines in the Bay of Bengal but they never fired on the "Karoa" so perhaps it was the Allies or the enemy respecting the Geneva convention. She made good friends of two other Sisters on board the "Karoa"and each had charge of a level of the Ship. There were four levels: Officers on top deck; British Other Ranks on the next level down; Indian soldiers on the next level; West Africans on the next level and East Africans on the lowest level. My mother was Sister-in-charge of the Officers' Ward; her friend Jane, Sister-in-charge of the Indian Ward and Joyce, Sister-in-charge of the West African ward. They each remember the visit of Lord Louis Mountbatten and would pass the message on to each other to be ready as he descended to inspect the Wards! These three Sisters kept up a friendship all their lives. My mother married a British Officer at the end of the War and went to Australia. Joyce returned to Suffolk, England and Jane married and went to live in Canada. The three corresponded over all the years. Eventually Joyce came out to Australia to visit her son who was married and based in Sydney. She was intending to visit her WW2 friend Amy in Melbourne but unfortunately my mother died only a few days before they ever re-connected. Joyce met my father and asked if she could have something of my mother's, an ashtray in the form of a brass shoe. The story went that she and my mother had bought one each in a bazaar in India and had pledged to meet on the steps of St Paul's cathedral after the War with their brass shoes! Chance had dictated otherwise and so the story closes here.

Kathy Clarkson









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British Women's Uniforms in Colour Photographs (World War 2)

Martin Brayley & Richard Ingham


This reference book contains the uniforms of the women's services during World War II. Nearly 200 colour photographs of rare, original uniforms from private collections are featured with detailed explanatory text. This really is an extraordinarily good book if you're looking for details of women's uniforms from the WWII period. Every page has a large, clear photograph of a uniform (worn by a modern model, but with 40s styling), plus detail shots of shoes, insignia, berets and so on.



The 1940s Look: Recreating the Fashions, Hairstyles and Make-up of the Second World War

Mike Brown


"The 1940s Look" tells you everything you need to know about the fashions of wartime Britain and the impact that rationing, the Utility scheme, changing tastes and the demands of everyday life had on the styles people wore. People had to 'Make Do and Mend' - with varying degrees of ingenuity and success. Hair styles, glasses, jewellery, and tattoos were essential in creating your own fashion statement. Women's magazines advised readers on the difficulties of dressing growing children, offered instructions for making clothes and accessories, and hosted debate over whether by dressing up, women were helping or hindering the war effort. Thoroughly researched and lavishly illustrated, "The 1940s Look" tells you how civilian men, women and children dressed - and why they looked the way they did during the Second World War. It draws on contemporary sources including government advice, periodicals and books, and benefits from an entertaining narrative by author Mike Brown.



Wartime: Britain 1939-1945

Dr Juliet Gardiner


Juliet Gardiner's 'Wartime' provides a marvellously rich, and often entertaining, recreation of life on the Home Front, 1939-45, drawing on an enormous range of oral testimony and memoir.
More information on:

Wartime: Britain 1939-1945




Joyce's War: The Second World War Journal of a Queen Alexandra Nurse

Joyce Ffoulkes Parry


Thank goodness that Joyce ignored the then military censors and kept a war diary because we learn so much from her diary which is so easily read in this book edited by her daughter, Professor Emeritus Rhiannon Evans , who has painstakingly presented her mother's words into this Voices From History book for The History Press. In addition this is a fine and rare example of a member of the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (Reserve) who not only served for almost the whole of World War Two but also served in different areas and locations such as ambulance trains, hospital ships such as HMHS Karapara and in Casualty Clearing Stations and hospitals such as the 47th British General Hospital in Calcutta. Few books exist about nursing in the Far East and we are very fortunate to be able to read about conditions and patient treatments in these regions which include Egypt and India. If, like me, you have an interest in military nursing history then this is the book for you b









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