Army medic from Plymouth takes step up on promotion ladder

A Plymouth soldier has won a spot on a leadership course having been selected for promotion from Private to Lance Corporal. Army medic Acting Lance Corporal Eleanor Charlesworth has taken on the training as a break from her current Army-funded study at Birmingham City University to qualify as an operating department practitioner, working to support surgeons during operations.

The leadership course started with a week in the classroom learning about the role of a Lance Corporal, which will see Eleanor take on the responsibility as second-in-command of a section of eight soldiers.

The troops then moved out into Friday Woods Training Area in Colchester to apply what they have learned during tactical scenarios.

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Eleanor, 24, said: “This course is teaching what the Army expects of us as leaders. It’s important for my career, but the transition from being a student back to soldiering has been a challenge!”

Eleanor has been in the Army for five years, starting as a Royal Army Medical Services (RAMS) combat medical technician, trained to deploy alongside frontline units to provide care at the point of wounding. She has been deployed on the evacuation of South Sudan in 2022 and on exercises in France, North Macedonia, Kuwait, and Cyprus.

The former Plymouth High School for Girls pupil said: “Being a soldier can put you in very serious and stressful situations and, from my experience, a leader needs a lot of emotional intelligence.

"Good leadership is not about shouting at people and asserting yourself, you have to be approachable and inspire people to do their best.”

Eleanor is one of 30 RAMS soldiers on the fortnight-long course. It is part of the Army Leadership Development Programme, a progressive system of training to give soldiers the leadership and management skills and wider military knowledge they need as they rise up the ranks.