Latest news with #RoyalArmyMedicalCorps
Telegraph
4 hours ago
- Telegraph
Army colonel tracked ex-partner with secret device
A retired British Army colonel terrified his ex-partner by stalking her and putting a tracker on her car. Col Terry Southwood, 57, bombarded Sarah Crossley-Weir with messages and turned up at her home several times after she ended their relationship. His 'relentless' behaviour left her so frightened she was 'suicidal' and increased her home security. Col Southwood graduated from Sandhurst and retired after a 37-year career in the army with 'exemplary conduct'. He avoided a prison sentence after a judge received references to his 'positive character', but was handed a five year restraining order against Ms Crossley-Weir. Bournemouth Crown Court heard the retired officer, from East Stour, Dorset, spent most of his career in the Royal Army Medical Corps in Salisbury. He had been in a relationship with Ms Crossley-Weir for four years and moved in with her and her four children in July 2021. About a year later she told him she needed space and asked him to move out. He 'took that badly' and downed half a bottle of whisky, which reacted with medication and left him hospitalised. Ms Crossley-Weir then told him she did not want him to see her children any more and he 'reluctantly' moved out. Casey Chard, prosecuting, said that on Aug 30 2022 he sent 23 text messages to Ms Crossley-Weir 'in quick succession, professing his love'. On Sept 16 2022, Col Southwood left flowers and a note outside her house with a note that said: 'This is from the heart. Don't be mad with me, I miss you in every way. I have a sun tattooed on my chest because that's what you are. I think you will think bad of me for doing this. I miss you all, T.' Mr Chard said that three days later she became suspicious about a tracking device in her car. She had 'noticed on her mobile an air tag had been located near her', and was 'able to track the device to the vicinity of her car'. Col Southwood then told her he had 'done something stupid' and later confessed to putting the tag in the vehicle. In November and December Col Southwood sent Ms Crossley-Weir two handwritten letters and 86 text messages, prompting a non-molestation order to be granted. Ms Crossley-Weir told the court she became 'terrified to step outside' because of 'unrelenting' contact attempts from her ex-partner, and sought advise from a domestic abuse support worker to install alarms and cameras. She added: 'To be reduced to feeling suicidal was horrendous. I was terrified of absolutely everything, severely depressed and suffering with extreme anxiety. It rendered me incapable of functioning.' Col Southwood admitted one offence of stalking. Graham Gilbert, defending, said: 'He is remorseful, no relationship is meant to end up in front of your honour. 'His military history is lengthy and distinguished, in the circumstances he found himself in that career he showed exemplary conduct in difficult personal circumstances.' In sentencing him, Judge Susan Evans acknowledged his service and 'PTSD'. She said she could avoid sending him to prison and gave him a community order for his 'positive character'. She added: 'Following the breakdown of the relationship it is quite clear your mental health declined and you became depressed. It is very much to your credit you're now working full time and clearly valued by your employers.' Judge Evans gave him a 12-month community order with 120 hours of unpaid work and 25 rehabilitation days. She also ordered him to pay £500 costs.
Daily Mail
6 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Former British Army colonel who stalked terrified ex and put tracker on her car slapped with five-year restraining order
A retired British Army colonel with a distinguished 37-year career terrified his ex-partner by stalking her and putting a tracker on her car, a court heard. Col Terry Southwood, 57, bombarded Sarah Crossley-Weir with messages, sent her flowers and turned up at her home after she ended their four-year relationship. He also placed a covert air tag device in her car so he could track her movements. His 'relentless' behaviour left her so frightened she beefed up her home security, adding alarms and cameras, and she was given a police phone to use in case matters escalated, the court heard. Ms Crossley-Weir said she even felt scared when she opened her door to let her cats in and had to take medication to treat anxiety. Col Southwood, who graduated from Sandhurst had a 37-year career in the army with 'exemplary conduct'. He partly blamed the PTSD he suffered from his time in the Army for his conduct. A court heard how he had also paid Ms Crossley-Weir thousands of pounds to pay her children's private school fees after they had split up. Col Southwood, who lives in the north Dorset village of East Stour, was spared prison by a judge after she received glowing character references for him. Instead he was handed a five year restraining order to keep away from his ex-partner after pleading guilty to one count of stalking. Bournemouth Crown Court heard the retired officer spent most of his career in the Royal Army Medical Corps in Salisbury, Wilts. He had been in a relationship with Ms Crossley-Weir for four years and moved in with her and her four children at their home near Milton Abbas in July 2021. But about a year later she told him she needed space and asked him to move out. He 'took that badly' and downed half a bottle of whisky, which reacted with medication he was on and he ended up in hospital. After that Ms Crossley-Weir told him she did not want him to see her children anymore and he 'reluctantly' moved out. Casey Chard, prosecuting, said that on August 30, 2022 he sent 23 text messages 'in quick succession, professing his love'. Mr Chard added that on September 16, 2022, Col Southwood left a bunch of sunflowers outside her home. A note with them said: 'This is from the heart. Don't be mad with me, I miss you in every way. I have a sun tattooed on my chest because that's what you are. I think you will think bad of me for doing this. I miss you all, T.'' Mr Chard said that three days later Ms Crossley-Weir became suspicious about a tracking device in her car. He said: 'She noticed on her mobile an air tag had been located near her and didn't think much of it that day but noticed it again the following day. 'Following investigation she was able to track the device to the vicinity of her car, albeit she was never able to find the device. 'On September 20, the day after she was able to track the device, Mr Southwood told her he had done something stupid, later confessing to placing the air tag within the vehicle. In November and December Col Southwood sent Ms Crossley-Weir two handwritten letters and 86 text messages, prompting her to apply for a non-molestation order, which was granted. But Col Southwood attended 'the vicinity' of her home twice in February 2023, which the court heard although not a technical breach of the order, did go 'against the spirit' of it. Mr Chard said: 'It was persistent action over a prolonged period and very serious distress has been caused.' Ms Crossley-Weir told the court it had been 'exceptionally difficult' and a 'deeply traumatic' time in her life. She said: 'The defendant's actions led to an abject fear of being in my own home. 'My domestic abuse support worker came to assess and advise on safety modifications. Every door and window is now alarmed. 'I was terrified to step outside my home, to do even the most basic of tasks such as letting my cats in. 'I had a police phone due to the unrelenting attempts by the defendant to either contact me, come onto my property or watch me from the farm yard next to my property. 'I was further advised to install an outside camera due to a tracker the defendant placed in my car. 'I am a very happy person who loved life. To be reduced to feeling suicidal was horrendous. I was terrified of absolutely everything, severely depressed and suffering with extreme anxiety. It rendered me incapable of functioning.' Col Southwood, who had no previous convictions, admitted one offence of stalking. Towards the end of his army career he was the assistant chief of staff of army personnel and welfare. After retiring he got a job as a medical delivery manager with Leidos, an industry and technology leader that works for both government and commercial companies. Graham Gilbert, in mitigation, said the stalking was not persistent and prolonged because Ms Crossley-Weir had said in October 2022 she had not yet made a decision on whether she wanted to continue the relationship and text messages between them continued until early November. He also said in the first few months after they split up Ms Crossley-Weir still expected Southwood to pay her children's school fees. The court heard between January and October 2022 he transferred £115,000 to her. Mr Gilbert said: 'He is remorseful, no relationship is meant to end up in front of your honour. He's in work and brings a significant amount of value. 'His military history is lengthy and distinguished, in the circumstances he found himself in that career he showed exemplary conduct in difficult personal circumstances.' In sentencing him, Judge Susan Evans said: 'I have listened to the effect on Ms Crossley-Weir. 'She felt unable to function and her ability to parent her children suffered. It was persistent action over a prolonged period.' But she said she could avoid sending him to prison and give him a community order for his 'positive character'. She added: 'You had 37 years in the army, leaving at the rank of colonel. You did active service in various locations and suffered PTSD. 'Following the breakdown of the relationship it is quite clear your mental health declined and you became depressed. It is very much to your credit you're now working full time and clearly valued by your employers.' Judge Evans gave him a 12-month community order with 120 hours of unpaid work and 25 rehabilitation days. She also ordered him to pay £500 costs.
The National
15-07-2025
- General
- The National
The Scot who who suggested schoolchildren be given free milk
Garlanded with honours during his long career, Boyd Orr was knighted in 1935 and created a life peer as Lord Boyd Orr in 1949. A tall, distinctive man with 'penetrating blue eyes' and 'astonishing' bushy eyebrows and who smoked a pipe, his family affectionately referred to him as 'Popeye'. Unsurprisingly, much has been written about Boyd Orr. Yet few of these narratives make mention of the driving ideological force behind his endeavours: humanism. READ MORE: Rarely seen Millais artworks to be displayed in Scotland for the first time While readers might associate humanism with celebrants who conduct wedding, funeral and naming ceremonies for the non-religious, it is, and has been, a considerably more expansive moral, ethical and rational life stance. Historian Callum Brown reassesses this aspect of Boyd Orr's career in his forthcoming book, Ninety Humanists And The Ethical Transition Of Britain. For Brown, Boyd Orr was: 'A humanist scientist whose ethical commitment drew upon humanitarianism, the autonomy of the human being and internationalism. He was devoted to a simple cause – ending hunger as a means to ending war.' Humanism and Humanitarianism BOYD Orr was born in Kilmaurs, Ayrshire, in 1880. His hostility to organised religion, Brown writes, was 'shaped in his youth and crafted an adherence to rationalist science and humanist ethics'. Boyd Orr's family home was 'strictly religious'. His Free Church father, 'enveloped the family in a regime of nightly prayers, puritan morality and Sabbath observance'. As Boyd Orr recalled in his memoir, 'promiscuous dancing' was considered abhorrent, and he did not dance until he was nearly 30. After this, he rarely missed a ceilidh. He discarded the faith of his family, although, rather confusingly, not before he had published a book on theological debate. He eschewed church, apart from a visit to a Quaker Meeting House, where he approved of the lack of ornamentation, doctrines and freedom of conscience. Reading the work of Charles Darwin led Boyd Orr, Brown argues, to break from the hold of biblical interpretation. In Glasgow, he was much affected by the deprivation he witnessed in the city's slums, then among the worst in western Europe. His experience, which included several years as a teacher in the east end, gave him an 'intense hatred of unnecessary hunger and poverty'. After a complex career of study, in which he came to specialise in nutrition, Boyd Orr graduated as a medical doctor in 1913, joining a new research centre in Aberdeen, the Rowett Institute. Following the outbreak of the First World War, Boyd Orr served as a senior medic in the Royal Army Medical Corps, rescuing the wounded at the Battle of the Somme, for which he was awarded the Military Cross. He also used his knowledge to improve the diet of soldiers. Nutrition BROWN demonstrates that Boyd Orr's humanitarian drive to understand and counter the malnourishment of the poor, and children in particular, was a constant driver in his research. Convinced of the nutritional benefits of milk, Boyd Orr was appalled it was wasted when poor families could not afford it, and that his proposals for a government scheme to supply free milk to schools were ignored. He conducted large-scale experiments in the mid-1930s which conclusively showed the benefits of milk consumption among Scottish children and was reported widely in the press as having shown that around one-third of children in Britain and Northern Ireland were malnourished. By the 1950s and 60s, the free milk in schools scheme was the eventual result of such campaigning. It was, according to Brown, the simplest and most effective mass system to improve physical health ever devised. Boyd Orr was at the forefront of an ethical movement for dietary improvement, which drew the admiration of humanists such as Julian Huxley and fellow Scot Naomi Mitchison. Throughout the 1930s and 40s, he persistently lobbied government to improve the diet of the population, advocating that food supply be subject to state intervention. In 1943, he appeared in a documentary, World Of Plenty, which presented in simple terms his argument that the world was shifting from food scarcity to plenty. The same year, he was elected to Parliament as an independent MP representing the Scottish universities. World Government BOYD Orr's ethical ambitions were greater still. In the years following the Second World War, his mission was to achieve world peace by transforming the supply of food across the globe. In 1946, acclaimed by fellow nutritionists the world over, he was appointed the first director-general of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation. Three years later, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Receiving the award, he stated there would be: 'No peace in the world so long as a large proportion of the population lacks the necessities of life and believes that a change in the political and economic system will make them available. World peace must be based on world plenty.' Humanists such as HG Wells had long dreamed of utopian schemes which would create international institutions to ensure prosperity and to prevent conflict. With Boyd Orr appointed to the United Nations, such dreams seemed upon the cusp of becoming reality. Yet his plans for a World Food Bank, and a huge international project to boost agricultural productivity, lacked political support. 'Boyd Orr,' Brown argues, 'proclaimed the power of science to transform the world, to quell racism, to feed the millions and thereby to end war, travelling the world telling this story to intellectuals, medics and scientists.' On Boyd Orr's death in 1971, aged 90, an extensive obituary lauded him as 'one of the truly outstanding Scotsmen of the age'. Charlie Lynch thanks Callum Brown for providing him with a preview of his forthcoming book, Ninety Humanists And The Ethical Transition Of Britain: The Open Conspiracy 1930-80, which will be published by Bloomsbury Academic in November
The Herald Scotland
17-05-2025
- General
- The Herald Scotland
Heroic Scottish pilot who brought stricken jet back to base dies
Died: March 26, 2025 Captain Geoffrey Harold Rosenbloom, who has died aged 88, was a legendary aircraft pilot who was born in Shimla, India, to Major Leah Violet Rosenbloom, and Colonel Alfred Rosenbloom, both Royal Army Medical Corps. Both parents were Scottish Surgeon Officers attached to the Indian Army. The Indian divisions would go on to acquire a truly heroic reputation in the Second World War, with 87,000 killed in action, including 3,000 killed in the taking of Monte Cassino, during the Italian Campaign. Young Geoffrey lived in India until he was nine years old. Later in life he would hold his children and grandchildren spellbound with stories of growing up with a pet elephant and several pet monkeys. Geoff was sent off to boarding school in Scotland while his parents remained serving in the Army in all its theatres of war. His parents fully expected him to gain excellent grades and enter university to become a doctor like them. The world then was not what it is today. The war had just ended, and displaced and lost souls were trying to find their families in a world as yet unencumbered with the internet and social media. His trip to Scotland, with his mum and younger sister, Jane, took several weeks on trains and steamers. At boarding school, Geoff joined the Air Cadets. Dutifully gaining good grades, he started medicine at Edinburgh University. By this time, he was also enlisted in the University Air Squadron. At just 18 years old he obtained his wings. Read more Obituaries He had now caught the 'flying bug' however, and after just two years of medicine, Geoff was awarded a commission in the RAF. He abandoned his medical studies. Today the RAF would pay for such a cadet to finish their studies but, perhaps back then, the RAF needed pilots as much as they needed doctors. Geoff then found his future wife, Liz on a blind date. This was the start of a life-long 'honeymoon'. When Geoff was promoted as a fast jet pilot, he was posted abroad, where the victorious powers were still trying to restore post-war order. He was posted to Cyprus with 43 squadron, to help the restoration effort in the Middle East. He few a Hawker Hunter single seat fast jet fighter. At first Liz remained in Scotland studying at the Domestic Science School, fondly remembered as the 'Dough School' in Edinburgh. Liz, who died in October 2020, was renowned for her cooking and needlework skills. Liz and Geoff wrote to each other almost every day. On the occasion of one of his rapid promotions in the squadron, Geoff ended one of his letters to Liz with the remark 'I'm thinking of getting married.' Liz immediately replied with a two-word letter 'Who to?' Soon after that the couple were married in Scotland, and they were allocated officer's family accommodation in Cyprus. Geoff received an official Commendation and a medal from the Queen, while stationed in Cyprus. One day he was performing a tight left dive at 21,000ft in his Hunter jet fighter, when he realised that he no longer had full control of his jet; it would no longer respond to aileron input, which rolls and turns the jet. Being over the sea, the standard drill if one lost control, called for the pilot to depart the stricken jet by ejection seat, and bask in the Mediterranean sunshine until fished out of the water by helicopter. However not our Geoff, to whom losing aileron control meant little more than an inconvenience. Geoff wrestled the jet to something close to straight and level and nursed his jet back to a very passable landing. When asked by his Station Commander why he had not ejected, Geoff replied that trying to bring the stricken jet back would allow engineers to examine why the jet lost aileron control. True enough it was readily determined that the near catastrophe was due to the failure, through metal fatigue, of an aileron pulley wheel bracket. Geoff's Commendation recorded that in heroically and selfishly nursing his uncontrollable jet back to base, the problem was corrected across the fleet, potentially saving loss of life in the future. Geoff also saw service in Aden and the Suez Crisis, after which his Commission on fast jets came to an end. Returning to Scotland in 1962, Geoff was hired by Willie Logan's fledgling Loganair becoming their third pilot after Captain Duncan 'Mac' MacIntosh DFC and Captain Ken Foster DFC, both sadly no longer with us. Geoff was invited as a guest of honour to Loganair's recent 60-year anniversary celebration, which he attended with his customary grin. After some years flying for Loganair, which included piloting the renowned 24/7 air ambulance service to the outer and northern isles of Scotland, Geoff started his own air charter company. Later, with a fleet of 12 aircraft and many pilots, Geoff took on a new director, Sir Hugh Fraser, at that time owner of House of Fraser including Harrods. Geoff flew many well-known characters and celebrities, including Elton John, the Rolling Stones, The Average White Band, Diana Ross and Scotland's own Billy Connolly. Elton invited Geoff to a VIP seat at his Glasgow concert including a visit back-stage. As well as being a legendary pilot on the Scottish scene, Geoff was equally well known for being an international broker in the purchase and sale of all types of aircraft, from the smallest primary trainer to Boeing Jumbo jets. Only a couple of years ago he arranged the sale of two very large passenger jets from the French Government fleet to a customer in Indonesia. Geoff personally delivered a lot of the aircraft he bought, sold or brokered. He performed over 1,000 long-distance ferry flights, over the Atlantic, the Arctic and Indian oceans. Read more Obituaries However such was Geoff's humility, that not a lot of people were aware that he was also for 25 years, one of the unpaid volunteer pilots of the St John Ambulance Air Wing, transferring donor organs, such as kidneys, hearts, lungs and all manner of 'human spare parts' as well as patients and surgical teams all over Britain and the Continent. The co-ordination of human transplants never sleeps and Geoff saw it as a special achievement in humanitarian service to have delivered a combined heart and lungs one Christmas day, followed a week later, on New Year's Day, by transporting a surgical team complete with a child donor heart and lungs in the 'white cold-box with the large green cross'. Geoff was decorated by the Queen at Buckingham Palace as an Officer of the Order of St John 'for services, above and beyond duty, to mankind'. Perhaps Geoff's loss to the medical profession was somewhat redeemed after all. Geoff passed all his regular flying medical examinations, with associated X-rays, ECGs, etc, every year right up until he was 82 years of age. In 2022 his heart, as he described it himself, 'sprang a leak'. Not only did Geoff have heart surgery at the Jubilee Hospital, Clydebank, but he allowed the operation to be filmed or the Heart Hospital TV series. Geoff was operated on by the extraordinary heart surgeon, Angie Ghattas. She had been hoping to review Geoff's health this year. Geoff Rosenbloom employed, nurtured and inspired hundreds of pilots, many of whom are now flying 'heavies' for airlines all around the world, and he will be sorely missed. He is survived by his two daughters, Lizanne and Lucy, Lizanne's husband Gerry, and grand-daughters Leah and Lily, as well as his sister Jane and her husband Rod. FRANK CANNON
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Maj Gen James Crook, RAMC scientist who studied the biological impact of nuclear tests
Major General James Crook, who has died aged 101, took part in a major British nuclear test programme in the course of a distinguished career in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC). In 1956, Crook went to South Australia as one of a group of scientists working on the biological problems of atomic explosions. Maralinga – the name means 'Place of Thunder' – is on the edge of the Great Victoria Desert about 700 miles north-west of Adelaide. It was covered with grass, flowering shrubs and trees, and there was plenty of animal life, including lizards and snakes, rabbits, kangaroos, emus and parrots. Scientific and recreational facilities had been established, a large runway and aerodrome built and a 100 ft tower constructed at the end of a long road leading from Maralinga village. In this series of weapons tests, four rounds were planned – two from the tower, one from the ground and an air-drop from a Valiant bomber. Crook's task was to put out items of medical equipment at varying distances from the tower. Some were placed on the surface, while others, including foodstuffs, were buried to assess the effect of ionising radiation. A further task was to place articulated dummies in battle-dress to calculate the dynamic effects of the blast wave on human beings. Also exposed to the bomb were trucks, light vehicles, aircraft, tanks, guns, radar and other military equipment. Blast detectors, heat detectors and gamma neutron detectors were among a large assortment of scientific instruments laid out to measure the effects of the bomb. The area was a scene of great activity. Bulldozers, drillers, graders and mobile cranes raised clouds of dust. Several times, Crook found himself looking over his shoulder at the tower and wondering whether atomic bombs ever exploded prematurely. The first round was to be exploded from the tower. The fireball was expected to come into contact with the ground and the radioactive fall-out, affecting the first 100 miles downwind, was expected to be high. Firing, therefore, could only be permitted when the wind was in exactly the right direction and of the right strength. Crook and other service officers watched the explosion on a hill within a few miles of the tower. He wrote afterwards: 'A tremendously bright, white-blueish flash illuminated the area. It was like a magnesium flare and outshone the sun. An orange fireball rose extraordinarily quickly, attached to the ground by the mushroom-stalk cloud. The roar and the intensely hot pressure wave came several seconds later.' James Cooper Crook was born at Prestatyn, north Wales, on March 19 1923. He won an open scholarship to Worksop College before going to Guy's Hospital on a junior science scholarship. His father, Francis, had served in the First World War before going to Guy's, and his grandfather, Sir Edwin Cooper Perry, was Superintendent of Guy's from 1897 to 1920 and vice-chancellor of London University. In 1946 he was commissioned into the RAMC as a National Serviceman and was serving in North Africa during Britain's severe winter of 1947-48. A soldier's life seemed preferable to that sort of experience and he decided to make a career in the regular Army. After three years in Cyrenaica Province, Libya, he returned to England to begin his training in pathology at the Queen Alexandra's Military Hospital at Millbank in London. It was during the period 1954 to 1957, when he was the Army medical liaison officer to the Medical Research Council in the radiobiology unit at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell in Oxfordshire that he attended the nuclear tests at Maralinga. Early in the morning, on the day following the explosion of the first round, he drove to the health control checkpoint, where a complete decontamination centre had been established. He changed into protective clothing, including rubber boots, overalls and a respirator. He was given a personal dose-rate meter and walked to the 'dirty' car park. There he collected a 'dirty' jeep and drove towards the bomb site through a scene of devastation – with blackened earth, charred and flattened trees, and fires burning in vehicles and other target items. As he retrieved the food targets, the needle on his dosimeter was recording several roentgens per hour. He wasted no time in completing the task and returned to the centre to undress and shower. This was followed by rigorous monitoring to confirm that he was completely free of contamination. There followed postings to Cyprus during the EOKA Emergency, and to the David Bruce Military Hospital in Malta. He was the RAMC specialist and pathologist at the Chemical Defence Establishment at Porton Down in Wiltshire from 1960 to 1963. After a posting to Eastern Command Laboratory, he moved to the Ministry of Defence. He hated having to wear a city suit, a bowler hat and carry an umbrella, and he jumped on the hat when he finished the appointment. After five years in command of the British Military Hospital at Munster in West Germany, he returned to the MoD – this time without a bowler hat. It was his final appointment. He was promoted to major general and finished as director of Army Pathology. In 1981 he retired from the Army and worked as a civilian medical practitioner at the Army Blood Supply Depot in Aldershot , where he became known as 'the Bleeding General'. In retirement in Cornwall, he loved travelling and, having loaded his family into their veteran Morris Oxford, he would drive across France to Bavaria for camping holidays. He also enjoyed researching the family history. In 2023 he received the British Nuclear Tests Medal and wore it at the last Remembrance Service he attended. James Crook married, in 1950, Ruth Bellamy, who was serving with Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps. She died in 2015 and he is survived by two daughters and a son. Major General James Crook, born March 19 1923, died March 16 2025 Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
