PHOTOS: Roly's fond farewell after five decades of lifesaving service

Last week, South Western Ambulance Service paid a fond farewell to familiar face to colleagues and patients across the city.

After half a century in the Service, Roland ‘Roly’ Revell retired from his Paramedic role – a job title that didn’t even exist when he joined the NHS Wiltshire Ambulance Service in the summer of 1976.

Colleagues from across the NHS paid tribute to the ‘Ambulance Man’ at Salisbury Ambulance Station on Odstock Road on Thursday; a man who has undoubtedly saved countless lives and treated tens of thousands of patients in his 50-year career.

“We were so glad to be able to have taken the opportunity to celebrate Roland and the unwavering commitment he has shown to the local community over the past 50 years”, says fellow Paramedic Emma Parkhill.

“In the days when Roland joined the Wiltshire Ambulance Service, his role was to pick someone up on a canvas stretcher and carry them to the ambulance, then deliver them to hospital.

“These days, with the advances in medicine, training and equipment, the Ambulance service aims to bring elements of the hospital to the patient and treat many patients in their own home, or provide interventions to stabilise critically unwell patients, before delivering them to the most appropriate destination.

“With this comes a need for a much greater understanding of technology, medicine and of the human body, than the role required in 1976 and Roland has consistently adapted to this change.”

‘Roly’ has been nominated as a finalist in Salisbury Radio’s Local Hero Awards, in the Lifetime Achievement category, sponsored by local company Cara Glass.

“He is so deserving of this recognition and we will keep our fingers crossed for him on the day of the award ceremony”, adds Emma.

After joining the Service as an ‘Ambulance Man’, he progressed to ‘Leading Ambulance Man’ and even had spent several years working on the Wiltshire Air Ambulance - while it was also the Police Helicopter - as one of its founding members, the precursor to the invaluable service it still operates today, thanks to Wiltshire and Bath Air Ambulance. 

Colleagues at the event on Thursday lunchtime also acquired access to an Austin Princess ambulance, the very ambulance Roly would have driven back in the 1970s.

In the past decade, Roland has focused on a mentoring role; supporting students to become ‘the best Paramedics that they can be’ and forging a workforce around him, based on his knowledge, skills and experience, gained over the past 5 decades.

This is the legacy Roland ‘Roly’ Revell leaves behind at Salisbury Ambulance Station.

Colleague Emma concludes with fond, farewell observation, “We are so proud to have worked alongside Roland, and wish him a long, healthy and happy retirement with his family.

“Finally, they can make plans for birthdays and Christmas’ without having to worry about what shift he is working that day!”

From us all at Salisbury Radio... Ambulance Man 'Roly' Revell, we salute you.