Airpig.......
Thank you however for correcting me about the post they were completing for, it wasn't for the RAF's senior medical officer (SMO has an air of Stn Snr Med Offr which is why I didn't use that abbreviation) but for a similar tri-service role. I suspect said tri-service post has never been held by anybody other than a doctor?
I fail to see what relevance your comment about retirement age has to my post. Although, if Gp Capt Williams aged 54 (in 2013 according to the BBC report) applied for the 1* role in 2011, she would have been 51/52 and therefore past the retirement age you cite. Perhaps this had something to do with her not being selected. Afterall, the Med Services are/were making redundancies in which case it would be hard to justify her continuance when there was a suitably qualified candidate under retirement age. Apparently promotion at those levels is all to do which 'reach' and if she was on continuance or near retirement then she won't have had much 'reach'. Perhaps PMRAFNS has come inline with the rest of the RAF with a retirement age of 55?
For what its worth, I genuinely believe she was discriminated against, but not due to gender but due being a nurse.