QAIMNSR  Badge

Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Reserve cape badge of Staff NurseMay Palmer

While the British Army Nursing Service has its origins in the 1850s, when Florence Nightingale took nurses with her to the Crimea, the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service was established in March 1902 replacing the Army Nursing Service (ANS) and the Indian Nursing Service (INS). A reserve force, the QAIMNSR, was formed in 1907.

In 1914 there were only 297 regular members of the QAIMNS which limited its intake to nurses who were single and of a high social class. These restrictions were subsequently removed to admit qualified nurses who were married and of lower social status and approximately 100,000 regular and reserve QA’s serving in countries such as France, India, East Africa, Italy, Palestine, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Salonika and Russia.

Collection Auckland War Memorial Museum Tamaki Paenga Hira, presented by James Watt, 2006.4.6.