Brigadier Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. I ...

Eileen Joan Nolan (19 June 1920 – 29 December 2005) was a former Director of the

Women's Royal Army Corps The Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC; sometimes pronounced acronymically as , a term unpopular with its members) was the corps to which all women in the British Army belonged from 1949 to 1992, except medical, dental and veterinary officers and cha ...

(WRAC).

Early years

Eileen Joan Nolan was born at Bournville, near

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

. Her father was a

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

veteran, later employed by Cadbury's as a technical adviser. She attended King's Norton Grammar School on a scholarship. In 1942, she joined the

Auxiliary Territorial Service The Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS; often pronounced as an acronym) was the women's branch of the British Army during the Second World War. It was formed on 9 September 1938, initially as a women's voluntary service, and existed until 1 Februa ...

(ATS) and was posted to

Halifax, Yorkshire Halifax () is a minster and market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It is the commercial, cultural and administrative centre of the borough, and the headquarters of Calderdale Council. In the 15th cen ...

. For much of the war she remained in the ATS's training branch. In early 1945 she joined the Officer Cadet Training Unit and earned her commission; she elected to remain in the military, becoming a career officer in the Army, and rising to the rank of

Positions held

* Junior commander (Captain at "B" Company 12 Battalion, Prince's Gate, Kensington; 1946) * Staff Captain Q (quartering branch), War Office, responsible for moving freight to and from the Middle East * Major, WRAC (at

Tripoli, Libya Tripoli (; ar, طرابلس الغرب, translit= Ṭarābulus al-Gharb , translation=Western Tripoli) is the capital city, capital and largest city of Libya, with a population of about 1.1 million people in 2019. It is located in the northwe ...

; 1957) * Home posting, WRAC (1963; Stanmore) * Officer training wing, WRAC (at Camberley) * Lieutenant-Colonel, WRAC (1967; posted to

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

, where she commanded the WRAC; remit also covered

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

, Saigon and

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...

) * WRAC College (1981; Sandhurst; women cadets took up residence in 1984, integral step in integrating women in the Regular Army)

Retirement

Nolan retired as director in 1977 and was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath.

Death

Eileen Nolan died on 29 December 2005, aged 85 at

Crowthorne Crowthorne is a large village and civil parish in the Bracknell Forest district of south-eastern Berkshire, England. It had a population of 6,711 at the 2001 census, which rose to 6,902 at the 2011 census. A 2020 estimate put it at 7,808. Cr ...

, Berkshire, although her death was not announced until February 2006. She never married.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nolan, Eileen 1920 births 2005 deaths Companions of the Order of the Bath People from Crowthorne People from Birmingham, West Midlands Women's Royal Army Corps officers Auxiliary Territorial Service officers British people of Irish descent British Army brigadiers Military personnel from the West Midlands (county)