Tidworth Military Hospital: David Oates-Operating Theatre Technician, RAMC

I am very pleased to be able to publish the following article submitted by David Oates. David was a National Serviceman who saw service at 20 Company RAMC, Tidworth Military Hospital, before moving overseas to Japan.

I heartily recommend a visit to the website that David has published. It is a fascinating account of what it was like to serve not just in the RAMC but in the Korean War period, in Kure, Japan.

The address of the site is http://www.kurememories.com/

Thanks David, for submitting the following article.

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I was enlisted for whole time Service under the National Service Act and posted to the RAMC Depot on the 7^th February 1952.

After passing the Corps Instruction Course I was posted to 20 Company, Tidworth Military Hospital on 9th April 1952.

I initially worked on the wards but at the end of April my Appendix started playing up and Capt Williams decided I should have it out which is what happened. After my short recovery and a spot of sick leave I returned to the hospital and was told that I would be working in the Operating Theatre. For me this turned out to be very much the part of my service which I really enjoyed and at Tidworth I really immersed myself in the work.

I think I made an assumption that I would be at the hospital for the whole of my two years service then ‘out-of-the-blue’ I was put on a draft for Korea and left Southampton, aboard the Empire Orwell on 18^th November 1952.

So my days at Tidworth Military Hospital, serving as an OTT, were fairly short but I thoroughly enjoyed them and I’m pleased to say that I continued to work in the Operating Theatre at the British Commonwealth General Hospital, Japan for the remainder of my whole time National Service.

One amusing incident happened the first week of my arrival at Tidworth. I was put on orders to do fire duty but I failed to realise that the duty prohibited me from leaving barracks! On an off duty period I went out of camp and missed a fire duty call. For this I got two weeks confined to barracks and had to stoke the boiler for the QA quarters twice a day. I had absolutely no experience of this task but I recall it all seemed to go ok!!

Written for Peter Haynes web-site (www.tidworth.blogspot.com) which is about Tidworth Military Hospital.

7^th May 2011