The Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) was a voluntary unit of civilians providing nursing care for military personnel in the United Kingdom and various other countries in the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

. The most important periods of operation for these units were during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Although VADs were intimately bound up in the war effort, they were not

military nurse Most professional militaries employ specialised military nurses. They are often organised as a distinct nursing corps. Florence Nightingale formed the first nucleus of a recognised Nursing Service for the British Army during the Crimean War in 1854 ...

s, as they were not under the control of the military, unlike the

Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps (QARANC; known as ''the QAs'') is the nursing branch of the British Army Medical Services. History Although an "official" nursing service was not established until 1881, the corps traces its heritage t ...

, the

Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service (PMRAFNS) is the nursing branch of the British Royal Air Force. It was established as the Royal Air Force Temporary Nursing Service (RAFNS) in 1918, and became part of the permanent establishment ...

, and the

Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service (QARNNS) is the nursing branch of the British Royal Navy. The Service unit works alongside the Royal Navy Medical Branch. As of 1 January 2006, according to former Ministry of Defence junior minist ...

. The VAD nurses worked in

field hospital A field hospital is a temporary hospital or mobile medical unit that takes care of casualties on-site before they can be safely transported to more permanent facilities. This term was initially used in military medicine (such as the Mobile A ...

s, i.e., close to the battlefield, and in longer-term places of recuperation back in Britain.

World War I

The VAD system was founded in 1909 with the help of the

British Red Cross The British Red Cross Society is the United Kingdom body of the worldwide neutral and impartial humanitarian network the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The society was formed in 1870, and is a registered charity with more ...

and Order of St John. By the summer of 1914 there were over 2,500 Voluntary Aid Detachments in Britain. Of the 74,000 VAD members in 1914, two-thirds were women and girls.Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs)
at Spartacus.com Accessed May 2008 In August 1914, just after the outbreak of war in Europe, the British Red Cross and the Order of St John proposed to form a

Joint War Organisation The Joint War Organisation (JWO) was a combined operation of the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St John of Jerusalem during the World Wars. It was first created in 1914 and ceased operations when World War I ended in 1919; the organisa ...

with the intention of working with common aims, reducing duplication of effort and providing St John personnel with the protection of the Red Cross; an agreement was concluded on 24 October 1914. At the outbreak of the First World War, VAD members eagerly offered their service to the war effort. The British Red Cross was reluctant to allow civilian women a role in overseas hospitals: most volunteers were of the middle and

upper classes Upper class in modern societies is the social class composed of people who hold the highest social status, usually are the wealthiest members of class society, and wield the greatest political power. According to this view, the upper class is gen ...

and unaccustomed to hardship and traditional hospital discipline. Military authorities would not accept VADs at the front line. Initially, the VADs were officially recorded as being assigned to the one hospital, but as time went on, they also worked - often unofficially and only for a few days at a time - at a number of hospitals in their local area, potentially providing a continuity of care to certain patients when hospital transfers occurred.

Katharine Furse Dame Katharine Furse, ( Symonds; 23 November 1875 – 25 November 1952) was a British nursing and military administrator. She led the British Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment force during the First World War, and served as the inaugural Direct ...

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 hospital A military hospital is a hospital owned and operated by a military. They are often reserved for the use of military personnel and their dependents, but in some countries are made available to civilians as well. They may or may not be located on a ...

s. Furse was appointed commander-in-chief of the detachments 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. By 1916 the military hospitals at home were employing about 8,000 trained nurses with about 126,000 beds, and there were 4,000 nurses abroad with 93,000 beds. By 1918 there were about 80,000 VAD members: 12,000 nurses working in the military hospitals and 60,000 unpaid volunteers working in auxiliary hospitals of various kinds. Some of the volunteers had a snobbish attitude towards the paid nurses. VADs were an uneasy addition to military hospitals' rank and order. They lacked the advanced skill and discipline of trained professional nurses and were often critical of the nursing profession. Relations improved as the war stretched on: VAD members 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 In politics and military planning, a war effort is a coordinated mobilization of society's resources—both industrial and human—towards the support of a military force. Depending on the militarization of the culture, the relative size ...

. Many were decorated for distinguished service. At the end of the war, the leaders of the nursing profession agreed that untrained VADs should not be allowed onto the newly established register of nurses.

Notable VAD nurses

Violet Jessop in Voluntary Aid Detachment Uniform

Memoirists

Some VADs left written records of their service: *

Enid Bagnold Enid Algerine Bagnold, Lady Jones, (27 October 1889 – 31 March 1981) was a British writer and playwright known for the 1935 story ''National Velvet''. Early life Enid Algerine Bagnold was born on 27 October 1889 in Rochester, Kent, daught ...

, British author of the novel ''

National Velvet ''National Velvet'' is a novel by Enid Bagnold (1889–1981), first published in 1935. It was illustrated by Laurian Jones, Bagnold's daughter, who was born in 1921. Plot summary ''National Velvet'' is the story of a 14-year-old girl named ...

'', on which the 1944 film with Elizabeth Taylor was based. Her account of her experiences are related in her memoir
A Diary Without Dates
' published in 1918. *

Vera Brittain Vera Mary Brittain (29 December 1893 – 29 March 1970) was an English Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse, writer, feminist, socialist and pacifist. Her best-selling 1933 memoir ''Testament of Youth'' recounted her experiences during the First ...

, British author of the best-selling 1933 memoir ''

Testament of Youth ''Testament of Youth'' is the first instalment, covering 1900–1925, in the memoir of Vera Brittain (1893–1970). It was published in 1933. Brittain's memoir continues with ''Testament of Experience'', published in 1957, and encompassing th ...

'', recounting her experiences during World War I *

Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictiona ...

, British author who briefly details her VAD experiences in her posthumously published ''

Autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

'' *

Frances Cluett Frances Cluett (June 25, 1883 – November, 1969) was an army nurse and educator from Newfoundland, noted for her service during World War I, and especially for her many letters back home beginning in 1916 that conveyed the eye-opening experiences ...

, from Newfoundland, whose letters describe the horrors of World War I *

Lady Ursula d'Abo Lady Ursula Isabel d'Abo (''née'' Manners, formerly Marreco; 8 November 1916 – 2 November 2017) was an English socialite and aristocrat who served as a maid of honour to the Queen at the Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 193 ...

, English author who details her VAD experiences in her memoir titled ''The Girl with the Widow's Peak: The Memoirs'' *

E. M. Delafield Edmée Elizabeth Monica Dashwood, née de la Pasture (9 June 1890 – 2 December 1943), commonly known as E. M. Delafield, was a prolific English literature, English author. She is best known for her largely autobiographical ''Diary of a Pr ...

, British author of the ''Diary of a Provincial Lady'' series and some 30 other novels; her experiences working at the Exeter VAD Hospital provided her with material for one of her most popular novels, ''The War Workers'', published in 1918 *

Mollie Skinner Mary Louisa (Mollie) Skinner (18761955) was a Western Australian author, best known for the novel ''The Boy in the Bush'' co-authored with D. H. Lawrence. Biography Mollie Skinner was born on 19 September 1876 to a Western Australian family t ...

(under the ''nom de plume'' R. E. Leake) wrote ''Letters of a V.A.D.'' (London: Andrew Melrose, 1918)

Medical personnel

People notable for their contributions to nursing, health, or science, or for their VAD service itself: * Dame Anne Bryans , head of the Middle East Command of the Voluntary Aid Detachment during World War II, first director (and later chairman) of the St John and Red Cross Service Hospitals Welfare Department in 1945, vice-chairman of the British Red Cross Executive Committee in 1964 *

Edith Cliff Edith Cliff, OBE, (1871–1962) was the Commandant of Gledhow Hall Military Hospital in Gledhow, Leeds, Yorkshire, England from its opening in 1915, throughout the First World War until it closed 1919. Edith Maud Cliff, daughter of William Dewh ...

, commandant of

Gledhow Hall Gledhow Hall is an English country house in Gledhow, Leeds, West Yorkshire. A house, built in the 17th-century by John Thwaites, was remodelled for a new owner by the Yorkshire architect John Carr. It is a Grade II* listed building and has been ...

Military Hospital, one of many such directors to be appointed honoured for her nursing work *

Violet Jessop Violet Constance Jessop (2 October 1887 – 5 May 1971), often referred to as the ''"Queen of sinking ships"'' or ''"Miss Unsinkable,"'' was an Argentine woman of Irish heritage who worked as an ocean liner stewardess, memoirist, and nurse in t ...

, British ocean liner stewardess 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 ''Britannic'' (the ''Titanics sister ship) as a Red Cross nurse when it sank in 1916 *

Marjory Stephenson Marjory Stephenson (24 January 1885 – 12 December 1948) was a British biochemist. In 1945, she was one of the first two women elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, the other being Kathleen Lonsdale. She wrote ''Bacterial Metabolism'' (1930 ...

, biochemist, bacteriologist and one of the first two women elected to the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1945

Other

Many VADs were prominent in other fields after the war: *

Ida Nancy Ashburn Ida Nancy Ashburn (1909–1980) was an Australian head-mistress and nurse. After graduating from the University of Queensland, she became founding principal of Clayfield College from 1934 to 1964. During the Second World War she trained as a ...

, Australian headmistress *

Mary Borden Mary Borden (May 15, 1886 – December 2, 1968) (married names: Mary Turner; Mary Spears, Lady Spears; pseud. Bridget Maclagan) was an American-British novelist and poet whose work drew on her experiences as a war nurse. She was the second of ...

, Anglo-American novelist *

May Wedderburn Cannan May Wedderburn Cannan (14 October 1893 – 11 December 1973) was a British poet who was active in World War I. Biography Early life May was the second of three daughters of Charles Cannan, Dean of Trinity College, Oxford (he was in charge at ...

, British poet * Dame

Rachel Crowdy Dame Rachel Eleanor Crowdy, Mrs Thornhill, DBE (3 March 1884, Paddington – 10 October 1964, Outwood, Surrey) was an English nurse and social reformer.Alice Prochaska‘Crowdy, Dame Rachel Eleanor (1884–1964)’ rev. ''Oxford Dictionary of N ...

, English nurse who was Chief of the Department of Opium Traffic and Social Issues Section of the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

from 1919 to 1931. *

Lottie Dod Charlotte Dod (24 September 1871 – 27 June 1960) was an English multi-sport athlete, best known as a tennis player. She won the Wimbledon Ladies' Singles Championship five times, the first one when she was only 15 in the summer of 1887. She ...

, English sportswoman best known as a tennis player. She won the Wimbledon Ladies' Singles Championship five times in the late 19th century. *

Amelia Earhart Amelia Mary Earhart ( , born July 24, 1897; disappeared July 2, 1937; declared dead January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer and writer. Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many oth ...

, American aviation pioneer *

Hilda May Gordon Hilda May Gordon (20 September 1874 – 21 November 1972) was a widely travelled British artist, known for her watercolour paintings of landscapes and figures. Biography Gordon grew up on the Isle of Wight to Scottish parents who had previously ...

, British painter *

Hattie Jacques Hattie Jacques (; born Josephine Edwina Jaques; 7 February 1922 – 6 October 1980) was an English comedy actress of stage, radio and screen. She is best known as a regular of the ''Carry On'' films, where she typically played strict, no-non ...

, English comedy actress *

Naomi Mitchison Naomi Mary Margaret Mitchison, Baroness Mitchison (; 1 November 1897 – 11 January 1999) was a Scottish novelist and poet. Often called a doyenne of Scottish literature, she wrote over 90 books of historical and science fiction, travel writin ...

, Scottish writer *

Olivia Robertson Olivia Melian Durdin-Robertson (13 April 1917 – 14 November 2013) was an author, artist, co-founder and high priestess of the Fellowship of Isis.Fellowship of Isis The Fellowship of Isis (FOI) is an international spiritual organisation devoted to promoting awareness of the Goddess. It is dedicated specifically to the Egyptian goddess Isis because the FOI co-founders believed Isis best represented the ene ...

Sophia Duleep Singh Princess Sophia Alexandrovna Duleep Singh (8 August 1876 – 22 August 1948) was a prominent suffragette in the United Kingdom. Her father was Maharaja Sir Duleep Singh, who had been taken from his kingdom of Punjab to the British Raj, a ...

, suffragette *

Freya Stark Dame Freya Madeline Stark (31 January 18939 May 1993), was a British-Italian explorer and travel writer. She wrote more than two dozen books on her travels in the Middle East and Afghanistan as well as several autobiographical works and essays ...

, explorer and travel writer *

Jessie Traill Jessie Constance Alicia Traill (29 July 1881 – 15 May 1967) was an Australian printmaker. Trained by Frederick McCubbin at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, and by painter and printmaker Frank Brangwyn in London, Traill worked in ...

, Australian painter * Eleanor Vachell, Welsh botanist *

Anna Zinkeisen Anna Katrina Zinkeisen (29 August 1901 – 23 September 1976) was a Scottish painter and artist. Biography Zinkeisen was born in Kilcreggan, the daughter of Clare Bolton-Charles and Victor Zinkeisen, a timber merchant. The family moved to Mid ...

, Scottish painter and illustrator *

Doris Zinkeisen Doris Clare Zinkeisen (31 July 1898 – 3 January 1991) 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 Doris Zinkeisen was born in C ...

, Scottish painter, commercial artist and theatrical designer

References

Sources

* ''A VAD in France'', Olive Dent, Diggory Press,