‘I wouldn’t be able to do what I do if I was married and had children’

Lieutenant Colonel Jan Ransom started her working life in the army and went on to lead ministry teams in post-conflict areas to help those affected by extreme trauma

I was an only child, born in Corbridge in Northumberland. My mother was a nurse and my father in the navy. I would say we were a fairly working-class family.

We settled in Portsmouth, where eventually my parents had a small hotel. My father died when I was 20 of cancer, so my mother was a widow for longer than she was married. As a child I used to be sent off to Sunday school and I went to church, but there was no talk of Jesus.