PICTURES: Caithness midwife, still working after 55 years, honoured to meet King at royal garden party
A Caithness midwife, still working at the age of 75, talked of her delight at being invited to the King’s garden party at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh.
Pam McBeath, who originally hails from Newmarket, has been a midwife for 55 years and has worked in Caithness for the last 50 years, starting in the Henderson Memorial Hospital in Wick.
“We closed and had to go to the Dunbar Hospital [Thurso] in 1978 and then started at the new hospital [Caithness General Hospital in Wick] in 1986,” said Pam who lives in the coastal village of Ackergill.
“Obviously, the unit got downgraded, and now I work in CMU [community midwifery unit] doing odd shifts. I don’t have a contract, but I’m still in a bank of midwives and nurses available.”
Pam said that she mostly goes out doing postnatal checkups of Caithness mums who have had their babies at Raigmore and returned home. “I’ll do medical checks, blood pressure, weigh the baby and do the baby’s blood tests. There’s a thing called the ‘baby blues’ that mums can get in the first few days, but later on it can develop into postnatal depression.”
Pam met her husband, the late Raymond McBeath, while he was stationed in Malta with the RAF, and they moved to Caithness in 1975.
Earlier this year, her name was forwarded to Lord Thurso by friend Janice Flannigan for a quota of Caithness residents who have served their community with distinction. Those lucky enough to feature on the list were invited to King Charles III’s garden party at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh.
“The security people check you at the gate and then you are invited in,” Pam recalls about the July 1 event.
“The gardens are absolutely beautiful. You get afternoon tea, and the Royal Family have their own tea tent. The food was absolutely delicious, and then the King and the Royal Family came around. There were Princess Anne and Camilla as well.”
Pam said that people in the crowd would be called out to go and speak to Princess Anne, but she was in a circle of invitees earmarked for an introduction and chat with King Charles III. “When the King came and spoke to me, unfortunately, my hat blew off just as he arrived.
“I said, ‘Oh no, I’ve lost my hat!’, and he said, ‘Don’t worry, somebody is rescuing it for you.’ One of the guards, like a Beefeater [Royal Company of Archers], went and got it.
“Then I asked him if he would come and officially open our Tree of Tranquility in Thurso in remembrance of all the babies that have died before, during or after birth [in Caithness].”
Pam said that the King talked about travelling, in the near future, to his Caithness residence at the Castle of Mey and will consider the matter.
“I was actually quite lucky to get to speak to him, as there were around 8000 people there and not everyone had the chance. I was in a big circle that was five deep, but I got right at the front and was determined to speak to him.
“I was surprised when I was nominated, and thought it was a scam at first. I texted back and fore with the person working for Lord Thurso, who was sending me messages, and I kept thinking it was a scam. It took a bit of time for them to convince me it was real.”
Pam was allowed to take a guest, so went along with her sister. On her official invite, the royal household mistakenly called her ‘Patricia’, and she was worried she would not get in. “I thought I’d be left at the gate and my sister would get in, so I had to get that sorted.”
Reflecting on the experience, she said it was “really something special and memorable” and was delighted at being nominated.
As a midwife, Pam has brought many Caithnessians into the world and says she laments the fact that pregnant mothers in the county now have to travel to Inverness to have their babies.
“It’s a real shame, and I liked it when we had our consultants and everything up here, but I better not say too much about that, as it’s too controversial.”
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