The scheme for the organisation of voluntary aid in England and Wales defined the British Red Cross’ role in assisting the government in wartime by providing supplementary aid to the territorial medical service. A similar scheme for Scotland followed in December 1909. It was granted on 16 August 1909.
Why was it needed?
The Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907 reformed the reserve forces of the British Army by transferring existing volunteer and yeomanry units into a new territorial force and by redesignating units as part of the Army Reserve.
Part 1 of the act defined the position of the county Branches of the British Red Cross, to work with their respective county territorial associations. The scheme laid down the terms by which the organisation would work with the Territorial Army.
Who was involved?
The executive committee appointed a small committee to consider the situation with the director-general of the Army Medical Service. The executive committee sent a copy of the scheme to every president, vice-president, honorary secretary and committee member of each county Branch. Colonel Sir James Magill was appointed organizing secretary.
What happened as a result of the scheme?
As a result of the scheme, the Red Cross organised voluntary aid detachments (VADs), made up of men and women, in every county to carry out transport duties and staff rest stations and hospitals.
The Red Cross selected suitable buildings for general hospitals, prepared schedules of equipment for the hospitals and submitted schemes to establish auxiliary hospitals and convalescent homes for wounded servicemen.
Each county Branch appointed a county director to be in charge of raising detachments.
All VAD members were trained in first aid and nursing through St John Ambulance Association. Volunteers were also trained to make use of local resources to improvise stretchers and other methods of transport, and to convert local buildings into shelters and rest stations for the sick and wounded.
By October 1910, 202 detachments had been registered with more than six thousand volunteers in total.
An amended scheme was published in December 1910, which gave county associations authority to employ other means of raising detachments, including registering with the St John Ambulance Brigade and St John Ambulance Association units. A few territorial force association detachments were also raised.
In March 1911, a sub-committee recommended uniforms ”which would not appear of too military a character and which would readily distinguish the wearers as belonging to the Society’s Detachments”.
In October 1911, the council agreed an official badge of the Red Cross, known as the ”county badge”. Also in the autumn of 1911, Sir James Cantlie wrote the first manuals in first aid, nursing and training. They were published in 1912. The Red Cross also began issuing certificates in first aid and nursing, which had equal status with the St John Ambulance Association’s certificates.
VADs continued to be at the core of voluntary services until the reorganisation of the Red Cross in 1984.
Find out more about voluntary aid detachments
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