Ethel Armstrong

Ethel Armstrong (born 1930) is a British radiographer. She began working for the National Health Service (NHS) on the day it was established, 5 July 1948, and subsequently played a key role in establishing the NHS Retirement Fellowship.

Early life and education Ethel Armstrong was born in Durham in 1930. She attended school until the age of 17, then her headmaster recommended that she get a job rather than continue in the sixth form. She was unable to attend university as there were no grants for women to study dentistry or medicine. Armstrong worked with John Charnley during his early work on hip operations, before he received his knighthood. At the time that she worked for the service, it was an experimental unit and only adopted across the NHS in the 1980s.

During the course of her work, Armstrong earned a master's degree in clinical practice (oncology).

Voluntary work After retirement, Armstrong returned to Durham and continued her work for the NHS by volunteering for the Durham branch of the NHS Retirement Fellowship. She served as chairman from 1994 to the present. From 2005, she became part of the National Council, and was elected vice chairman in 2009, then chairman in 2011 and president in 2013. Having been involved with the service for so long, Armstrong was invited to become the Retirement Fellowship's first Life Patron in 2015. However, she noted that when the NHS turns 70 it would also be her 70th anniversary, and perhaps time to retire fully. ==