Red Cross Blogs

Katrina Crew

One of the most interesting aspects of ITV’s Downton Abbey is the way class issues play out among the Grantham family and their servants, especially as wounded and recuperating soldiers have arrived in their home and begun mingling with the family members.

Our archivist Jenny Shaw explains more about the role the aristocracy played among British Red Cross volunteers during the war.

From our origins, the British Red Cross received a huge amount of support from the upper echelons of society. Members of the royal family had accepted positions on the governing council (roughly the equivalent of today’s board of trustees) and when county branches started to be set up from 1907 the wife of the local lord lieutenant usually served as the branch president.

DevonshireHouse

One of the main ways wealthy families supported the war effort was by volunteering their houses to be used by the rapidly expanding Red Cross. The Duke of Devonshire, for example, generously gave over the whole ground floor of Devonshire House in London to act as our headquarters during the war. Others, like the fictitious Grantham family in Downton Abbey, loaned us their stately homes to be used as convalescent centres for recuperating soldiers.

Women in particular got involved in volunteering with the Red Cross in ways that were considered suitable for ladies. Two of the Duke of Devonshire’s daughters – Lady Rachel Cavendish and Lady Dorothy Cavendish (who married prime minister Harold Macmillan) – worked at the county clearing house in Derbyshire, allocating wounded servicemen to the appropriate hospitals or nursing homes in the county. The duke’s daughter-in-law, Lady Edward Cavendish, volunteered over 1,000 hours making garments for the wounded.

From our records, it’s hard to tell about volunteers’ class (other than people with titles). Volunteers tended to be women who could afford to volunteer their time without pay, but the outbreak of the First World War saw thousands of new volunteers from all backgrounds assisting the Red Cross.

Read more about our history

Tags: Downton Abbey, First World War, history, WW1
Posted in UK, Volunteering

©Simone Novotny

We sounded the alarm in January.  There is a food security assessment that’s done every three months, with several sectors working together, and the Red Cross is on the steering group, which maps regions to see what their food situation is like. It’s a project funded by the World Bank in all arid lands, called the Arid Lands Resource Management Project. 

©Katrina Crew/British Red Cross

Unfortunately, there was a weak response. It’s quite discouraging because you see the real situation on the ground, in the communities. For example, when we say their livestock has died – livestock is everything for this community – it’s what they use to send their children to school, it’s what they sell to eat, it’s how they make money – so when we cannot cushion their livestock then the community feels let down. 

2) What would people normally eat in Turkana? Why is that a problem right now? 

They rely on milk and blood. They will milk their camels, cows and goats, and then they’ll pierce the animal in the neck and gather some blood, without killing the animal. They’ll mix them together and drink it raw or cook with it. It’s a common practice for most pastoralist communities, not just the Turkana. 

Even though they are herders, they rarely kill their animals to eat. Sometimes they will sell one or two animals and buy food, mostly maize to make ugali [a maize flour dish like polenta] with milk. Some households have chickens so they also eat eggs. 

©Simone Novotny

They value livestock a lot so they will not slaughter an animal for food. They will keep an animal until they realise the animal is dying, and then they might slaughter it for their family. Animals are their wealth, so having a lot of them is a demonstration of their wealth. In most cases, the only time they eat meat is when an organisation like the Kenya Red Cross will buy their dying animals, slaughter them, and give the meat to the family. 

The Turkana are nomads, and families used to move together. But now, the emerging trend is that men move with the livestock to find new pastures and leave the aged, women and children behind. Some of the settlements are more or less permanent. When the conditions become tough, it’s now mostly just the young men who move with livestock. 

The problem is that is that when the livestock moves away, women, children and the elderly cannot get milk or sell an animal to eat. 

3) What’s daily life like for Turkana people? 

Women gather water. They milk animals. They construct shelter. They prepare food. Men only look after livestock and provide security. 

Turkana people live in a manyatta – a dwelling constructed by women of acacia trees and, depending on the area, palm trees. They use locally available materials. It takes up to a week to build. 

©Katrina Crew/British Red Cross

When they move, they pack all their housing materials on donkeys and take them with them. As long as there is pasture and water for livestock, they’ll stay there. Once that’s depleted, they move. 

In most areas, they find boreholes so they’ll always have water unless the borehole breaks down – but they have to walk a long, long way to get it. Sometimes they walk for hours to gather water. 

They know the locations of all the boreholes, many of which the Kenya Red Cross constructed during the 2006 drought with funding from the European Commission – Humanitarian Aid & Civil Protection (ECHO). 

4) How’s the Kenya Red Cross helping people survive the food crisis in Turkana? 

There are three Kenya Red Cross operations centres in Turkana, working across the region. Right now our focus in Turkana is on three things: 

©Simone Novotny

1) School feeding: we bring a nutritious corn/soy blend porridge called Unimix to early childhood development centres (three-to-five year olds, though many mothers bring children who are much younger than three) and to early primary schools (six-to-nine year olds). 

We are giving Unimix to 275 schools (at least 77,000 children) in Turkana. We target schools to reduce dropout rates. When we started doing school feedings in May, enrolment went up. For most kids, it’s the only meal they eat all day. Several metric tonnes of the Unimix came from funding through the British Red Cross East Africa Food Crisis Appeal. 

2) Nutritional interventions: A joint UNICEF/government survey in May showed that North Turkana had the highest malnutrition rate in the country – 37.4 per cent of children under five were malnourished (9.4 per cent of them were severely malnourished). The World Health Organisation threshold for an emergency is 15 per cent. 

©Katrina Crew/British Red Cross

The worst affected are children under five, pregnant and lactating mothers, and the elderly, so we’re focusing on them and providing a range of nutritional interventions depending on the severity of the case. 

The moderately malnourished, and pregnant and lactating women are put on the supplementary feeding programme, and their progress is monitored every two weeks. The severely malnourished are managed through outpatient therapeutic care and are also monitored regularly. 

©Katrina Crew/British Red Cross

Those who show marked improvement (based on mid-upper arm circumference) are discharged from outpatient therapy to supplementary feeding. Those who improve from the supplementary feeding programme are linked to the general food aid provided by the government and the World Food Programme. 

3) Improving access to water and sanitation, to help communities become more resilient to droughts in the future. 

Food isn’t grown in Turkana, but in some places the soil has the potential for crop production. The Red Cross is looking at some rivers in Turkana Central to see how we can do irrigation on a medium scale. 

We’ve given a lot of greenhouses to schools and we’re looking at how they can produce their own vegetables – tomatoes, for example. When students see how you can grow crops and get food from this soil, you’re also transforming their minds.  

5) What does the future look like for Turkana? 

In the next few weeks, we’ll do another food security prediction for the last three months of 2011. If we see that the rains will fail again, we will have a very serious problem because the drought will continue into 2012 and affect people who are already very weak. 

But the Red Cross will be here throughout the emergency – even if it continues into 2012. 

Donate to the East Africa Food Crisis Appeal

Tags: Africa, drought, East Africa, food crisis, food insecurity, Kenya
Posted in Emergencies, International

If you or a loved one has had the misfortune to eat hospital food recently, spare a thought for the wounded soldiers of the First World War who had to eat dishes like calf’s foot jelly and beef tea custard.

We’ve seen wounded soldiers being cared for in the luxurious surroundings of ITV’s Downton Abbey. During the war, Red Cross nurses looked after men in lots of different types of accommodation, including stately homes. But they certainly wouldn’t have eaten the same rich and delicious food that the homes’ titled owners did.

Food for wounded soldiers was chosen for its ease of digestion, not its taste. Our archives have a recipe book teaching volunteer cooks how to choose and prepare hundreds of dishes for the men. Men were put on different diets depending on their injuries (there’s actually a beef tea diet outlined in the book).

The book even includes a definition of salad.

You can see excerpts from the recipe book embedded below. Just in case calf’s foot jelly or beef tea custard tickles your tastebuds, I’ve written out those recipes under the document player. You may want to wash it down with a tall glass of albumen water (mix equal parts egg white with water).

And if you do make them, please don’t invite me over for dinner. I’m a vegetarian.

Beef tea (pg 65)

1 lb. beef to each one pint water.

Scrape the meat, removing fat, gristle and bone. Place in cold water as scraped, press with fork. Cover with paper, place in pan of water and bring water barely to the boiling point, so that meat is just coloured only. Strain, remove any fat with paper and serve. Season as required.

Double quantity of meat may be used.

Beef tea custard (pg. 58)

Required: Two or three eggs to each pint beef tea. Sugar to taste.

Method: Strain the beef tea well before using or a heavy sediment falls to the bottom of the dish. Beat the eggs, add beef tea and beat again, well strain into buttered dish and bake 20 to 30 minutes. Custards must be baked very slowly. The pie-dish may be stood in a baking tin of water, which helps to set them firmly by preventing too quick a heat from reaching them.

Calf’s foot jelly (pages 70-71)

[To make] stock for jelly:
(1) Gelatine or isinglass, 1 oz. to one quart liquid. Soak the gelatine in 1/2 pint cold water six to seven hours, or in boiling water 20 to 30 minutes, if needed in haste.

(2) One calf’s foot, quartered, washed and blanched, to one quart liquid. Boil the calf’s foot gently for four or five hours in one quart water, skimming well. Strain into a basin, and when set wipe off any grease from the top with a cloth dipped in hot water.

To make one quart [calf's foot jelly], using the calf’s foot stock. Strain in the juice of one lemon, add slices of thinly peeled rind, the shells and beaten whites of two eggs, sugar to taste, and whisk all thoroughly together until they come to the boil. Draw to the side of the fire and allow to stand for 15 to 20 minutes, when a crust will be seen to form, then strain and add a wine-glass of wine – sherry is generally preferred, but port wine or any white wine may be used.

See photos of our work in the First World War

Tags: Downton Abbey, First World War, history, wwi
Posted in UK, Volunteering

Downton Abbey fans will have seen Lady Sybil in action as a Red Cross nurse helping wounded soldiers.

In our archives, we’ve found letters from one of our nurses who sheds more light on the difficulties of nursing, as well as some of the lighter moments. According to our records, Miss Dorothy M Robinson, daughter of Major General Sir C W Robinson KCB (ex Rifle Brigade), was a nurse at Waverley Abbey Military Hospital in Farnham, Surrey.

Dorothy tells her mum about the trouble she has to go through to get a bath, the jokes wounded servicemen play on each other, and the nervous anticipation everyone feels when the Zeppelin warning bell goes off one night.

You can see some of Dorothy’s letters on Scribd (embedded below), or read the transcript.

First World War nurse letters 1915-1916

December 3rd, 1915

My dearest Mother

Thank you so much for forwarding Joan’s letter. I am glad she is getting on so well. I think that all things considered it is much better that Gladys Goument is not coming here. Her cousin really made a very bad character for herself and as everybody knows it and would associate Gladys with it, it would not be very nice for her.

I met another Waverley Abbey girl at the station and drove up in her motor and sent the two lots of boxes on the cab that came to meet me! Jamie met me in the Hall and I could not see the Commandant as she was out, since then I’ve tried four times to see her, and always hit the time she is out. I really can’t make another effort as I shouldn’t know what to say when I did see her, all this time after my arrival!!

I am sleeping in what is known as the Cubicles. It is a large room divided into seven cubicles and is just above the stables. Now the stables are used as a laundry, so you can imagine there is no fear of my being cold at night. They really are awfully nice cubicles, and the bed is a very comfy one, but I’m exceedingly glad I had the electric torch with me that Daddy gave me on my birthday as you have to find your way in the dark across a very cobbly and at present very puddly courtyard, through the wash tubs of the laundry and up a sort of wooden staircase! The fun comes when you want a bath and have to run across the afore said courtyard in your nightdress (I usually put on a coat!) with your towels etc. Jamie is sleeping in the house and would have asked if I could be up in her room, only the spare bed there was so very lumpy, she thought she could not commit me to it!

I am in a ward known as the Lady of the Lake with two other smaller wards attached to it called Abbot A and Abbot B. One thing I shall know the names of some at least of Scott’s novels as a result of being here. Jamie is 2nd nurse and I’m third which is a ripping arrangement. She is supposed more or less to be in the Abbot ward while I’m in Lady of the Lake. As a matter of face we hop pretty freely between the two. As there are wardmaids under us, we have all the nice part of the work without any of the other!

Yesterday an officer brought over some men of his regiment and they gave a variety entertainment. They were most clever. A conjuror, a musician and a ventriloquist came. All the patients were taken into the Monastry Hall. The ones that could not move were put on stretchers on the floor and the others were in chairs etc. They enjoyed themselves most awfully. Jamie and I only saw a small part at the end as we had a whole lot of dressings etc to prepare, but to judge from the cheering and laughing that went on it must have been a most brilliant performance. I think it was a very good idea of the officer’s myself as he could select the most suitable men, and they naturally know exactly the sort of thing that amuses Tommies.

How are you all getting on? I hope nothing new has turned up which requires a vast amount of energy to meet it!

Please give my love to Daddy and Charlie.

Your loving daughter
Dorothy

Jamie and I are getting quite expert at calling each other Beverley and Gaisford. I occasionally omit to answer but that is a minor detail. Jamie’s day off is Monday and mine is Tuesday.

February 2nd, 1916

My dear Mother and Daddy,

Very many thanks for your letter. I told Jamie about Jack and she was very pleased. You must have had quite a thrilling time what with Jack and Bob both popping in. I am so glad that Bob managed to get leave, though I wish it were for more than five days.

Jamie went up this morning. It really was dreadful. We were half afraid she would not be able to go at all. A new man developed alarming symptoms and the doctor was puzzled to know whether he was in for rheumatic fever or spotted fever. Of course he was packed off at once and there was a great carbolisation in his ward and all of us who had been near were vigorously sprayed with the antidote (a vile process).

We have not heard definitely, but it is not thought to be spotted fever and the doctor thinks that even if it is it is safe to go about.

I am only telling you all this as Jamie had to write to Aunt Esmé about it and I was afraid you might hear a distorted account and be alarmed. If anything of that sort did happen you may be sure I’d always let you know the exact truth about it.

I am feeling very cross as a patient of ours has been whisked off by the Cambridge. He was not in the least fit to travel, but after much perseverance there had been a distinct improvement the last 2 days. The doctor was wild at having to send him as it was positively dangerous. What Jamie will say I can’t imagine.

I am just going to have a bath. Hurrah! The 2nd in ten days! Quite a luxury.

Your loving daughter

Dorothy

P.S.1 I am enclosing Joan’s cable and was so glad to see it.

P.S.2 I am so glad Dr Cockburn has given you a tonic. I hope you are taking it! I have put my name down on the list for March.

4.30am March 8th 1916

My dearest Mother

Very many thanks for the £2, your letter and all the other various letters you forwarded.

I was very interested in Joan’s on-night duty. It certainly is a most topsy turvy life and it feels most strange to have meals in the middle of the night and odder still to go to bed at 10 o’clock in the morning!

I have been having a most amusing time this evening. Tomorrow is discharge day and the men always behave badly in honour of those departing – if they can.

Three of them evidently thought they’d see if they could hide in somebody else’s bed in one of the other wards and come back late without my knowing. I don’t usually go round their end much between 8.30-10, but being Tuesday night I though I would and went in about 9.15.

Of course I found three empty beds. Knowing the men in them were good sorts and wouldn’t do anything really bad, I said nothing but took away all their bedclothes – which very much upset the gravity of the other patients.

About 10 o’clock they came back and started hunting quietly for them, not wishing me to hear and thinking one of the other men had played a joke on them. After a bit, one of the men hinted that I might have them and of course they had to come in and ask for them.

I really meant to scold them but they were so sheepish and taken aback I had to laugh instead. However, I hardly think they’ll try these games again. The monkeys had gone to the ward at the very farthest end of the hospital and had lain under the bedclothes of two of the men there – so that there were three in one bed; how the nurse there did not notice an unusual bulkiness I can’t imagine. But they got back without being spotted for which I was rather glad.

Wednesday night – that is tomorrow night, is my night off and I’m spending it with the Oakes, which I am rather looking forward to.

We have just had another fall of snow.

By the way, the Zeppelins came over in our direction – at least one did and the Zeppelin hooter at Aldershot sounded the alarm at 1.50. You can imagine how thrilled we were, but they never came actually over us, but were at Frimley.

After a bit we telephoned to Aldershot camp (as hospitals are allowed to know on account of the patients) but they had not heard which way it was going. In ½ an hour we telephoned to the Flying Corps Headquarters at Aldershot and they said that they had just had a message from the Home Office to say the raid had been beaten back and we need take no further precautions. It appears that they did not get as far inland as they meant to.

The £2 will last me about three weeks. Boarding fee and washing together come to about 14/- a week – not more.

Best love to Daddy,
Your loving daughter

Dorothy

P.S. It is too distressing about Cotterel. Maids really are appalling just now.

Find out more about our archives

Tags: Downton Abbey, First World War, history, wwi
Posted in UK, Volunteering

If you’re one of the ten million people enjoying the new series of Downton Abbey, you’ll know that one of the characters, Lady Sybil, has joined the Red Cross.

This year’s series follows the Crawley family and their servants as they try to survive the First World War.

The British Red Cross was instrumental in helping soldiers survive the appalling conditions of the Great War. Our archivist, Jenny Shaw, explains how the Red Cross helped:

During the First World War the British Red Cross, operating as the Joint War Committee with the Order of St John, recruited and trained thousands of volunteers who served alongside professional staff mainly in the UK, but also overseas.

These volunteers provided vital services to the sick and wounded, helping  ease pressure on the medical and military services. There were four main services provided by the Red Cross during the war, paid for by extensive fundraising.

1. Transport for the wounded

We were the first organisation to supply motorised ambulances, instead of horse-drawn ambulances, to the battlefields with the first convoy arriving in France in September 1914.

As more men were called up to fight, women were trained to drive the ambulances as well. Trains and boats were also equipped to act as mobile hospitals.

2. Auxiliary hospitals and convalescent homes

Over 3,000 auxiliary hospitals and convalescent homes were organised, equipped and staffed by the Red Cross. In readiness for war, the Red Cross had already secured buildings, equipment and staff so many temporary hospitals were available as soon as wounded men began to arrive back in the UK from the battlefield.

Thousands of women volunteered to serve in their local hospital supported by medical professionals. Patients at these hospitals were generally less seriously wounded or those who needed to convalesce. Servicemen often preferred the auxiliary hospitals because discipline was not as strict as in military hospitals, they were less crowded and the surroundings were more homely.

3. Work parties

Work parties were set up across the country to help supply hospitals. Women often did knitting and sewing in their own homes to produce items such pyjamas, socks and dressing gowns for patients. Instructions and patterns were provided which helped to make the most of limited supplies.

4. Wounded and missing soldiers

Centres for recording the wounded and missing were set up in France with Red Cross searchers going to villages where fighting had taken place and to local hospitals. Information could then be passed to families nervously waiting for news of loved ones.

Tags: Downton Abbey, First World War, history, wwi
Posted in UK, Volunteering