Trish Spiers is a former Ladysmith resident who was recently awarded the British Empire Medal for voluntary work, fund-raising and care of the community of Winchester in England.
Trish was awarded a British Empire Medal in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list and was presented with her medal by the Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire, Dame Mary Fagan. The Lord Lieutenant is the Queen’s representative and the hand-over took place in Hampshire over New Year’s.
Trish was born in Bethlehem in the Orange Free State and moved to Ladysmith when she was seven years old. Her schooling was in Ladysmith and she matriculated from Windsor High School. After finishing school, she worked as a teaching assistant for two terms but wanted to study Medicine at university. However, she did not have the funding and when a cousin suggested that she use nursing as a stepping stone into England, she jumped at the idea. “I accepted with enthusiasm. However, I rather gave up the idea of struggling financially with university, so I trained as a nurse, then a midwife and in Cardiology,” says Trish.
She applied and was commissioned as an officer into the Army Nursing Corps (Queen Alexander’s Nursing Corps) and then qualified as a nurse teacher. There, she met her husband with whom she would have two daughters.
“I met John on my first posting. We married after about three years, having followed each other around the world by sheer coincidence!” reminisces Trish. They lived in several countries, but when her husband John retired, they settled in Winchester with family. Trish took a part-time post at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital, but fell seriously ill after four years and had to retire.
After recovering, she could not commit to a full-time job and so she started her years of voluntary work and fund-raising.“I did not want to lose touch with our hospital and so I became a member of ‘The League of Friends’.
“This is a body that raises money to supplement the financial shortfall in the health service to buy equipment for our hospital and also help with postgraduate nurse training.“I was invited to take over as chairman and was in office when our hospital and Basingstoke Health Care Trust joined forces to become a bigger and more viable organisation.
“I also became rather good with flowers during my recuperation and took over as co-ordinator for our very busy and popular church, once again raising funds for several projects within the church and for our buildings. St Cross is the Chapel of The Almshouse Of Noble Poverty – the oldest Almshouse in the UK and thus a popular venue for weddings. I also volunteer in various ways at Winchester Cathedral and with various other projects in the city,” concludes Trish.
