Rowena Patrick MBE trained at the WRAC College in Camberley and began her long military career in the WRAC in 1969 at the age of 23. Employed with the Royal Army Physical Training Corps at Aldershot and then Shrewsbury, Rowena was responsible for rewriting the then-outdated syllabus for women’s military training in the WRAC. As a keen mountaineer, Rowena’s new syllabus included adventurous survival training for both men and women, including rock climbing, ice climbing, and walking in all weather in the UK and abroad.

In 1976, Rowena was posted as a grade 3 staff officer in the Ministry of Defence to the Directorate of Army Training in Guildford. During her career as an Army Major and Commanding Officer, Rowena worked alongside Wrens and members of the WRAF. Rowena remembers several IRA bombings that occurred in the 1970s and her experience with the SIB. Rowena also recalls, with pride and sadness, marching at Lord Louie Mountbatten’s state funeral in 1979.

From then, for two and a quarter years, Rowena worked in Brunei for the Sultan of Brunei on loan service with the Royal Brunei Malay Regiment. Whilst in Brunei, Rowena carried out physical training, forming the Women’s Army of Brunei. Back in England, in 1985, she became employed with the Royal Corps of Signals in Blanford. Rowena resigned from the WRAC in 1992. She went on to work for The Burma Star Association; in 2012, Rowena was awarded an MBE for her outstanding contribution and services to the veteran’s association.