Our reservist workforce: Scotland's secret superheroes

As part of the build-up to Armed Forces Day, reservists have been encouraged to turn up to work wearing their service uniforms. Here, our reporter profiles some of them

• TA Coporal Malcolm Miller (Scottish Transport Regiment (V), 230 Tpt Sqn) who works full time as a council grave digger. Picture: Dan Phillips

THEY are a formidable force who provide an often unheralded service for their nation in some of the world's most dangerous places. Yesterday their colleagues around Scotland will have done a double-take, as thousands of members of the reserve forces wore their military uniforms to their civilian jobs.

In hospitals and schools, cemeteries and courts, the nation's reservists highlighted the role they play in making up the wider Armed Forces family.

The Uniform to Work Day event was part of the build-up to Armed Forces Day on Saturday, and is designed to show how the UK's reserve forces – their number stood at 37,290 as of 1 April – support the Regulars and join operations in countries including Afghanistan and Libya. Since 2003, reservists have been deployed around 24,000 times.

After they wore their military uniforms to work, many Scots reservists yesterday described their colleagues' reactions. Some people, they said, were surprised to learn of their "second lives"; others, they said, were left impressed and proud on discovering what they did outside normal hours.

Their efforts were praised yesterday by the Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Peter Wall, First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, and Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton, as well as senior politicians. Defence minister Andrew Robathan, pictured left, said: "I'm intrigued by the sheer range of jobs our reserve forces do in civilian life.

"They are the people who keep our streets clean, who check our train tickets, drive us home on public transport, fight fires, and save lives in hospitals. They are lawyers, teachers, television producers and airline pilots. The list goes on and on."

SQUADRON LEADER JANE THOMPSON

'My RAF and NHS uniforms make me feel a sense of professionalism

ATTENDING her regular ward rounds at Stirling Infirmary yesterday, Jane Thompson discovered many of her patients were eager to speak about her other life.

As a lead Macmillan head and neck clinical nurse specialist with NHS Forth Valley, she found several forces veterans eager to share their experiences after they saw her in her RAF uniform.

"There have been lots of smiles and you can see the pride among older gentlemen who themselves have been in the military. They have been very keen to learn more about my life as a reservist and tell me their stories."

Squadron Leader Thompson, from Elie in Fife, joined the Royal Auxiliary Air Force ten years ago as a junior technician nurse and was commissioned in 2006. She serves with No 612 (County of Aberdeen) Squadron, a reserve surgical unit based at RAF Leuchars which provides field-hospital-based medical and surgical support to the armed forces in times of conflict.

During the past decade, she has deployed several times, most recently to a field hospital at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan. There, as 612 Sqn's senior nursing officer, she was in charge of a ward area and supervised 30 personnel.

Like many reservists, 48-year-old Thompson does not view her two lives as mutually exclusive: "One colleague made an interesting point when they asked me if I felt different in work wearing the military uniform. But both my RAF and NHS uniform make me feel a sense of professionalism."

CRAFTSMAN BILL DAVIES

'The guys have been calling me Rambo'

FOR one day only, Bill Davies' colleagues rechristened him after one of Sylvester Stallone's most famous roles. "A lot of the guys in the hospital have been having fun and calling me Rambo," he says.

It is a nickname which, all jesting aside, reveals the admiration with which the 30-year-old's workmates at St John's Hospital in Livingston regard him.

Until yesterday, only some people were aware of the other Bill – the one known as Craftsman Davies – who is capable of repairing military vehicles of all shapes and sizes.

He works as a porter specialising in the disposal of clinical waste, a position he has held for five years. From a young age, however, Davies aspired to serve his nation.

With a father who served for 17 years in the Royal Corps of Signals and a mother in the Royal Air Force, he spent his early years as a "pad brat" in Germany – a name given to children of British armed forces personnel serving abroad.

His dyslexia thwarted his attempts to continue a family tradition and join the Regulars, but he has been able to pursue his dream, as a reservist, serving as a Territorial Army officer under the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.

As a mechanic with the 105 Regiment Royal Artillery (Volunteers), he has helped repair and service vehicles from Land Rovers through to vast Bedford MK trucks, which weigh several tonnes.

Davies, who is married to Gillian, says: "It has allowed me to do something completely different and learn a whole new range of skills. With Uniform at Work Day, there has been a great reaction. Quite a few people didn't realise I was in the TA, and it might show me in a different light. I'd like to think so."

CORPORAL MALCOLM MILLER

'I love teaching and that has helped build confidence'

AS a gravedigger with the City of Edinburgh Council, Malcolm Miller had braced himself for the odd bemused reaction as he headed into work yesterday.

He says: "Some people have been a wee bit surprised to see a council employee in a cemetery wearing military uniform. It's not an everyday sight, and one or two colleagues have taken the mickey a little."

The experience, though, proved rewarding. For every person who enquired about his "combat 95s" (a camouflaged field jacket and trousers) he found unwavering support for his cause. "Once I've told them why I'm in my uniform and what the day is about, they've been really supportive."

Miller, 33 – known as Malky to his friends – serves as a corporal with the Scottish Transport Regiment (Volunteers), the only regiment of the Royal Logistics Corps based in Scotland, which provides general transport support for the Army. He has been with the regiment for nine years, an experience which allowed him to follow his father by serving his country.

He said: "I'd tried the Regulars when I was younger, but I had a pin in my hip so although I tried twice, I couldn't pass the medicals. The military is close to my heart, as my dad was lieutenant commander in the Royal Naval Reserve."

Based with 230 Transport Squadron in Edinburgh, Cpl Miller has worked as a chef and driver, and has been deployed to various international locations.

"It's taught me how to become a leader, and it's given me a great deal of responsibility," he enthuses. "I love teaching people and that has helped to build my confidence up, and I'm much more regimented in my day job, too. I was only promoted to full corporal a couple of months ago, and my aim to become sergeant before I'm 35."SERGEANT MAGS SIMPSON

'It gives you a lot of personal satisfaction'

A SCHOOL nurse will be for many an emblem of reassurance and care, who would might look out of place in a military uniform. Spare a thought, then, for the children at Albyn School, who yesterday saw Mags Simpson, their school nurse, in the uniform of her "secret" profession.

"When the children caught sight of me their eyes have been like saucers," she laughs. "Some of them are very cool about it, and others are asking about what it is I do in the military. One pupil even said, 'Oh yes, it's Uniform to Work Day;' they'd read about it in the paper."

As a nurse with the RAuxAF's No 612 (County of Aberdeen) Squadron she has deployed on operations three times: to Iraq in 2003, 2006, and Afghanistan in 2010, where she worked as a ward master. She says: "I was part of a team which looked after a really broad range of people: allies, contractors, civilians, local police, and enemies too, because we bring them in and look after them."

Simpson says the reaction to her turning up in her slate-grey RAF No.1 uniform was fantastic: "It's a very important day in that it encourages a lot more people to get involved. It gives you a lot of personal satisfaction to know you've done something to help other people."

A reservist for 14 years, Simpson, now 58, hit upon the idea of a second career while working at a school with a Combined Cadet Force. "I'd always wanted to be part of the forces. My father and my grandfather had served and I thought it would be wonderful to serve my country."

FLYING OFFICER IAIN TWEEDIE

'I think I've persuaded one person to join'

MOST reservists yesterday swapped one uniform for another, but Iain Tweedie was able to combine two. Tweedie, 38, is a defence solicitor with Andrew Gilbertson Solicitors in Dalkeith. He is also Flying Officer Tweedie a reservist with the RAuxAF, serving with No 602 (City of Glasgow) Squadron, which provides support to the RAF's intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR) units at RAF Kinloss.

The role, he says, allows him to combine two worlds: "I would consider myself a frustrated Regular in the sense that I did a history degree and applied to the Regulars. When I didn't get in I went on to law, but military service always been an interest of mine."

Yesterday he wore his RAF No 1 service uniform to Edinburgh Sheriff Court, on top of which he donned his lawyer's gown. "It was an outfit which combined the two roles completely."

Many of his colleagues in the legal profession were aware of Tweedie's military life, but he thinks that seeing his uniform in person spurred them to think about what being a reservist entails: "I knew the uniform would generate a lot of reaction, and some of my colleagues asked in detail what I do and what the commitment involved was. I think I may have persuaded at least one person to join the reserves."

He says: "One of the more surprising things was that a lot of the people I deal with on a daily basis are not necessarily the greatest respecters of authority, but I probably got more respect from them wearing my RAF uniform than I do as a lawyer."

REVEREND ROSS McDONALD

'A chaplain's job is to provide support'

THE youngsters at Clydebank's Linnvale Primary were given an unexpected insight into their teacher yesterday when it emerged that the man they know as Mr McDonald also goes by a different title.

The 44-year-old teacher from Glasgow is also a chaplain with the Royal Naval Reserve, the volunteer reserve force of the Royal Navy. Based on HMS Dalriada in Greenock, he works with West Coast reservists

Rev McDonald, an ordained Church of Scotland minister, says: "I had worked as a minister in Glasgow before I trained to teach, and having become a primary teacher, I wanted to continue the other role. The reserves is a good way to combine the two."

As well as conducting services, marriages, baptisms, and other religious functions, his work chaplain means he has specific duties.

"You're working mostly with younger people than you would in a regular church, and it's people who could be deployed and mobilised into conflict areas – a chaplain's job is to provide them support."

Yesterday, he wore a daily working rig naval uniform with a chaplain's cap, and told the pupils in his P1 class about its significance. "The children were brilliant, and they were interested in why I was dressed differently, and I explained in very simple terms why I had two jobs. Uniform to Work Day also reminded my colleagues that one of their number has another string to his bow, and they have all been very supportive."