Admission of Women
Until 2009, only male candidates were admitted. It was announced in 2007 that female ex-service personnel would be admitted on the completion of modernisation of the long wards. In March 2009 the first women in the Hospital’s 317 year history were admitted as In-Pensioners. Dorothy Hughes (aged 85) was the first, soon followed by Winifred Phillips (aged 82). Hughes had joined the British Army in 1941, later working as part of 450 Heavy Anti Aircraft Battery in the London Division. In 1945 the Battery was deployed near Dover to defend against V1 rocket attacks. Phillips trained as a nurse and later joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1948 before enlisting in the Women's Royal Army Corps in 1949 while serving in Egypt. After 22 years service she retired with the rank of Warrant Officer Class 2.
Read more about this topic: Chelsea Pensioner
Famous quotes containing the words admission of, admission and/or women:
“A completely indifferent attitude toward clothes in women seems to me to be an admission of inferiority, of perverseness, or of a lack of realization of her place in the world as a woman. Or—what is even more hopeless and pathetic—it’s an admission that she has given up, that she is beaten, and refuses longer to stand up to the world.”
—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)
“The admission of the States of Wyoming and Idaho to the Union are events full of interest and congratulation, not only to the people of those States now happily endowed with a full participation in our privileges and responsibilities, but to all our people. Another belt of States stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
“There is only one place for the women who served and that is on the same site with our brother soldiers. These women have touched thousands of those names on the wall. We have to be at that spot, physically, spiritually and emotionally.”
—Diane Carlson Evans (b. c. 1943)