Voluntary Aid Detachment
Encyclopedia
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and various other countries in the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
. The organisation's most important periods of operation were during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
The organisation was founded in 1909 with the help of the Red Cross and Order of St. John
Venerable Order of Saint John
The Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem , is a royal order of chivalry established in 1831 and found today throughout the Commonwealth of Nations, Hong Kong, Ireland and the United States of America, with the world-wide mission "to prevent and relieve sickness and...
. By the summer of 1914 there were over 2,500 Voluntary Aid Detachments in Britain. Each individual volunteer was called a detachment, or simply a VAD. Of the 74,000 VADs in 1914, two-thirds were women and girls.
At the outbreak of the First World War VADs eagerly offered their service to the war effort. The British Red Cross was reluctant allowing civilian women a role in overseas hospitals: most VADs were of the middle and upper classes and unaccustomed to hardship and traditional hospital discipline. Military authorities would not accept VADs at the front line.
Katharine Furse
Katharine Furse
Dame Katharine Furse, GBE, RRC , founder of the English Voluntary Aid Detachment force, was born Katharine Symonds, daughter of the poet and critic John Addington Symonds and Janet Catherine North...
took two VADs to France in October 1914, restricting them to serve as canteen workers and cooks. Caught under fire in a sudden battle the VADs were pressed into emergency hospital service and acquitted themselves well. The growing shortage of trained nurses opened the door for VADs in overseas military hospitals. Furse was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the VAD and restrictions were removed. Female volunteers over the age of twenty-three and with more than three months' hospital experience were accepted for overseas service.
VADs were an uneasy addition to military hospitals' rank and order. They lacked the advanced skill and discipline of professional trained nurses and were often critical of the nursing profession. Relations improved as the war stretched on: VADs increased their skill and efficiency and trained nurses were more accepting of the VADs' contributions. During four years of war 38,000 VADs worked in hospitals and served as ambulance drivers and cooks. VADs served near the Western Front and in Mesopotamia and Gallipoli. VAD hospitals were also opened in most large towns in Britain. Later, VADs were also sent to the Eastern Front. They provided an invaluable source of bedside aid in the war effort
War effort
In politics and military planning, a war effort refers to a coordinated mobilization of society's resources—both industrial and human—towards the support of a military force...
. Many were decorated for distinguished service.
Famous VAD nurses
- Mary BordenMary Borden-Life:Mary Borden was born into a wealthy Chicago family. She attended Vassar College, graduating with a B.A. in 1907. In 1908 she married George Douglas Turner, with whom she had three daughters; Joyce , Comfort and Mary...
- Vera BrittainVera BrittainVera Mary Brittain was a British writer, feminist and pacifist, best remembered as the author of the best-selling 1933 memoir Testament of Youth, recounting her experiences during World War I and the beginning of her journey towards pacifism.-Life:Born in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Brittain was the...
, author of the best-selling 1933 memoir Testament of YouthTestament of YouthTestament of Youth is the first installment, covering 1900–1925, in the memoir of Vera Brittain . It was published in 1933. Brittain's memoir continues with Testament of Experience, published in 1957, and encompassing the years 1925–1950...
, recounting her experiences during World War I - Agatha ChristieAgatha ChristieDame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
who briefly details her VAD experiences in her posthumously published AutobiographyAgatha Christie: An AutobiographyAn Autobiography is the title of the recollections of crime writer Agatha Christie published posthumously by Collins in the UK and by Dodd, Mead & Company in the US in November 1977, almost two years after the writer’s death in January 1976. The UK edition retailed at £7.95 and the US edition at... - Hattie JacquesHattie JacquesJosephine Edwina Jaques was an English comedy actress, known as Hattie Jacques.Starting her career in the 1940s, Jacques first gained attention through her radio appearances with Tommy Handley on ITMA and later with Tony Hancock on Hancock's Half Hour...
- Violet JessopViolet JessopViolet Constance Jessop was an ocean liner stewardess and nurse who achieved fame by surviving the disastrous sinkings of sister ships RMS Titanic and HMHS Britannic in 1912 and 1916 respectively...
trained as a VAD nurse after the outbreak of World War I. She had been a stewardess aboard the RMS Titanic when it sank in 1912 and was also aboard the hospital ship HMHS BritannicHMHS BritannicHMHS Britannic was the third and largest of the White Star Line. She was the sister ship of and , and was intended to enter service as a transatlantic passenger liner. She was launched just before the start of the First World War and was laid up at her builders in Belfast for many months before...
(the Titanics sister ship) as a British Red CrossBritish Red CrossThe British Red Cross Society is the United Kingdom branch of the worldwide impartial humanitarian organisation the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The society was formed in 1870, and is a registered charity with over 31,000 volunteers and 2,600 staff. At the heart of their work...
nurse aboard when it sank in 1916. - Naomi MitchisonNaomi MitchisonNaomi May Margaret Mitchison, CBE was a Scottish novelist and poet. She was appointed CBE in 1981; she was also entitled to call herself Lady Mitchison, CBE since 5 October 1964 .- Childhood and family background :Naomi Margaret Haldane was...
- May Wedderburn CannanMay Wedderburn CannanMay Wedderburn Cannan was a British poet who was active in World War I.-Early life:She was the second of three daughters of Charles Cannan, Dean of Trinity College, Oxford .In 1911, at the age of 18 she joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment, training as a nurse and eventually reaching...
- Anna ZinkeisenAnna ZinkeisenAnna Katrina Zinkeisen was a Scottish painter and artist.in 1935, Anna Zinkeisen and her sister Doris Zinkeisen were commissioned by John Brown and Company Shipbuilders of Clydebank to paint the murals in the Verandah Grill of the famous ocean liner the RMS Queen Mary...
- Doris ZinkeisenDoris ZinkeisenDoris Clare Zinkeisen was a Scottish theatrical stage and costume designer, painter, commercial artist and writer. She was best known for her work in theatrical design.-Early life:...
Fictional VAD nurses
Two Ernest HemingwayErnest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
novels feature VADs:
- Brett Ashley in The Sun Also RisesThe Sun Also RisesThe Sun Also Rises is a 1926 novel written by American author Ernest Hemingway about a group of American and British expatriates who travel from Paris to the Festival of San Fermín in Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls and the bullfights. An early and enduring modernist novel, it received...
and - Catherine Barkley in A Farewell to ArmsA Farewell to ArmsA Farewell to Arms is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Ernest Hemingway concerning events during the Italian campaigns during the First World War. The book, which was first published in 1929, is a first-person account of American Frederic Henry, serving as a Lieutenant in the ambulance...
.
Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
had several characters as VADs in her books including:
- Cynthia Murdock in her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at StylesThe Mysterious Affair at StylesThe Mysterious Affair at Styles is a detective novel by Agatha Christie. It was written in 1916 and was first published by John Lane in the United States in October 1920 and in the United Kingdom by The Bodley Head on January 21, 1921. The U.S...
(1920), - recurring character Prudence "Tuppence" BeresfordTommy and TuppenceTommy and Tuppence are two fictional detectives, recurring characters in the work of Agatha Christie. Their full names are Thomas Beresford and Prudence Cowley....
and - Nell Vereker in her 1930 novel Giant's BreadGiant's BreadGiant's Bread is a tragedy novel written by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons in April 1930 and in the US by Doubleday later in the same year. The UK edition retailed for seven shillings and sixpence and the US edition at $1.00...
, written under the pseudonym of Mary Westmacott.
- Mildred Haycock (nėe Blaides), who features in the novel sequence A Dance to the Music of TimeA Dance to the Music of TimeA Dance to the Music of Time is a twelve-volume cycle of novels by Anthony Powell, inspired by the painting of the same name by Nicolas Poussin. One of the longest works of fiction in literature, it was published between 1951 and 1975 to critical acclaim...
by Anthony PowellAnthony PowellAnthony Dymoke Powell CH, CBE was an English novelist best known for his twelve-volume work A Dance to the Music of Time, published between 1951 and 1975....
.
- The novel Not So Quiet . . .Not So Quiet: Stepdaughters of WarNot So Quiet: Stepdaughters of War was published in 1930 by Evadne Price, using the pseudonym Helen Zenna Smith. Smith’s semi-biographical account of an ambulance driver provides female insight to the horrors of the First World War...
by Helen Zenna Smith (a pseudonym for Evadne PriceEvadne PriceEvadne Price , who wrote mostly under the pseudonym Helen Zenna Smith, was an English writer, actress, astrologer and media personality....
) recounts the experiences of VAD ambulance drivers who evacuated the casualties of World War I.
- The character of Georgina Worsley becomes a VAD in the fourth series of Upstairs, DownstairsUpstairs, DownstairsUpstairs, Downstairs is a British drama television series originally produced by London Weekend Television and revived by the BBC. It ran on ITV in 68 episodes divided into five series from 1971 to 1975, and a sixth series shown on the BBC on three consecutive nights, 26–28 December 2010.Set in a...
, a fictional narrative based on the diaries of Lady Cynthia Asquith who was a VAD in the First World War.
- The character of Lady Syblil Crawley becomes a VAD in the second series of Downton AbbeyDownton AbbeyDownton Abbey is a British television period drama series, produced by NBC Universal-owned British media company Carnival Films for the ITV network. The series is set during the late Edwardian era and the First World War on the fictional estate of Downton Abbey in Yorkshire, and features an...
, the series that follows the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants during the reign of King George V