Rhubarb 2017

ST EDWARD’S r h u b a r b

11

What do you think the value of CCF is forTeddies pupils? Such experiences, whether in or out of a uniform, add huge value for everybody. CCF gets you out of your usual school boundaries of house, class or year group, and makes you do something with a wider group, all in the same uniform, all hopefully working togther towards a common goal. It takes you out of your comfort zone, which is really important for self awareness, but is getting harder and harder to do in a normal school environment. It allows you to do things you never get to do otherwise, and gives you a very small understanding and appreciation for the military, which society as a whole does not understand very well. What's your view on women serving on the front line? There are certainly women who are capable. The physical demands are high but they're not ridiculously high, and with the right training,

equipment and fitness there are definitely female soldiers and officers who could fulfil that role. I think in some ways, whether physically, mentally or emotionally, females are actually better equipped to deal with the pressures of being on the front line. The reality is also that there isn't such a thing as a ‘front line’ any more - we talk about combat roles. Morally I think it is the right thing to do, although clearly there are some complicated issues in practice. For what it’s worth, I think it is going to happen, but that it will be a gradual thing and it will take some getting used to. The guys have been in men- only groups for years and years and years in a testosterone-heavy environment. It will be a big change - but that doesn't mean it will be for the worse. Anything else? I'm really looking forward to getting married in the school chapel in December!

three hours out of town, and town was a petrol station and a pub - that's it! It's quite physical work with a high injury high risk but it’s a very simple, satisfying existence and the mentality is very similar to what you need in the Army. On a remote cattle station if something goes wrong nobody is going to come and help you. You can’t call the electrician or the plumber - you have to come up with a solution yourself. You have to fix it, and that is pretty much the military approach - "adapt and overcome". If circumstances had been different I might have stayed in Australia. I don't know. . . maybe something to do with international aid relief. Long term I think I will probably end up teaching; I really enjoy training people, working with recruits, working with young soldiers. I used to do a lot of work with Teddies CCF and that kind of thing and really enjoyed it. So eventually I may find myself back at a school… maybe this one, you never know! BritishArmy Girls was big news when it came out onTV last year.Tell us a bit about it. The show definitely turned out to be much bigger than I was expecting. It was never something I thought I was going to have to do and snuck up on me slightly! It moved very fast from the time when we became aware of it to actually happening, and I was shocked to be asked to do it. It’s quite a strange experience to have your job, which you do very naturally, suddenly invaded with cameras watching you all the time. It makes you very aware of all of your mannerisms, and a little bit paranoid, whereas normally you would just get on and do it. But you do get used to it. The film crew was absolutely great and the end result was absolutely worth all the stress and effort. If you hadn’t joined the army, what would you have done? Do you have any further plans to be onTV? Definitely not, although when I turned up to speak at Gaudy last year there were cameras there too, so you never know what the future holds! It has certainly been an interesting introduction to TV and the media, and I can now see how useful a tool that can be.

F E A T U R E S

Rosie trains senior NCOs on a CCF Field Weekend