The British Army Corps, known by its initials, QARANC, provides what type of military support?

QARANC stands for Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps and traces its heritage to Florence Nightingale, who was instrumental in lobbying for the support of female military nurses. The Army Nursing Service, which was established in 1881, and which from 1889 provided Sisters for all Army hospitals with at least 100 beds, employed only a small number of nurses. The expansion of this small service to a regular unit within the British Army had much to do with British royalty in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

In 1897, in an effort to have nurses available if needed for war, the service was supplemented by Princess Christian's Army Nursing Service Reserve, named after Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, the fifth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Nurses registered for the service and by the beginning of the First Boer War the reserve had around 100 members, but swelled its membership to over 1400 during the conflict. Princess Christian's Army Nursing Service Reserve eventually became the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS), named after Queen Alexandra, wife of King Edward VII. In 1902, QAIMNS was established by Royal Warrant with Queen Alexandra as its president.

In 1949, QAIMNS became a corps in the British Army and was renamed as the Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps. Since 1950 the organisation has trained nurses and, in 1992, men were allowed to join.