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Posts tagged ‘history’

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March is Women’s History Month: a chance to celebrate the huge contribution women have made to society over the years. Women have played a central role in the British Red Cross right from its very beginnings. They have always outnumbered men in its ranks and often held highly influential positions.

Here are five inspiring ladies who represent the hundreds of thousands of women who have given their time, skills and passion to our humanitarian work. They include a pacifist and poet, an artist who swapped society portraits for the battlefield, a woman who falsified her age to serve in France and the nurse who inspired Live Aid.

 1. The lady with the lamp – Florence Nightingale

No account of women’s history within the Red Cross would be complete without Florence Nightingale. Best known for her work during the Crimean War, she also inspired Red Cross founder Henry Dunant. She went on to directly influence the setting up the British Red Cross in 1870. Hundreds of thousands of women have followed in Florence’s footsteps, becoming wartime nurses in conflicts across the world.

 2. Poet and pacifist – Vera Brittain

Poet and writer Vera Brittain was a Red Cross nurse during the First World War. In her most famous work, A Testament of Youth, she writes about her experiences as a nurse in the UK, Malta and France, where she was based at a military hospital near Étaples.

In one extract, she describes treating the victims of gas attacks: “…the hut was reserved for gassed cases, and I had once again the task of attending to the blinded eyes and scorched throats and blistered bodies which made the struggle for life such a half-hearted affair.”

Vera lost her brother, fiancé and closest friends in the war which, not surprisingly, turned her into a lifelong pacifist and anti-war campaigner.

 3. War artist – Doris Zinkeisen

Doris Zinkeisen was a well-known society artist in the 1940s. Having already volunteered as a V.A.D, she offered her services as a war artist in 1945 to the Joint War Organisation of the British Red Cross and the Order of St John (JWO). In April 1945, she visited Belsen concentration camp shortly after it was liberated.

Evelyn Bark, of the JWO, remembers seeing her at work: “She arrived in Belsen while I was there, and I watched her start a painting of the saddle-room.”

This painting became the chilling ‘Human Laundry’, now held by the Imperial War Museum (pictured, right). As shocking as any photograph, it shows emaciated, disease-riddled survivors being washed and disinfected by German nurses. The British Red Cross museum holds four of Doris’s other paintings, including ‘The Burning of Belsen’.

 4. Practical idealist – Lady Angela Limerick

Lady Angela Limerick joined the Red Cross during the First World War. Officially too young for overseas service, she falsified her age so she could nurse in France.

She rose through ranks and, at the outbreak of the Second World War, was President of London Branch. She also became Deputy Chairman of the JWO. In these roles, she led the British Red Cross response to the Blitz in London and travelled on missions to Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and America.

She was responsible for recovery work carried out by the Red Cross in Germany immediately after the

 war, and continued to play a central role with both the British Red Cross and the International Red Cross until the mid-1970s.

When asked what she thought was the chief quality in the ideal Red Cross worker, she replied: “Practical idealism. What we need is that subtle harmony between basic goodness and feasible reality. The mixture’s vital and the proportions critical. But it certainly isn’t impossible to achieve.”

This quality could well be used to describe Lady Limerick herself.

5. Live Aid nurse – Claire Bertschinger

Claire Bertschinger is the nurse who drew the world’s attention to Ethiopia’s devastating famine in 1984 – and inspired Bob Geldof to organise Live Aid. Michael Buerk, BBC reporter, interviewed Claire at a feeding station in Mekele, where she was working for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

In the report, she candidly described having to decide which children to admit to the centre, knowing that those she didn’t were likely to die. When asked how she felt, she replied: “What do you expect? It breaks my heart.”

In a letter to the British Red Cross, dated December 1984, she wrote: “They must think that I am like a god who, with a nod of the head, can decide if they are in or out. You see, I have to select 50-70 children from over 1,200 who are all under nourished and sick in one way or another. All screaming – or lying too still. The pressure is unbearable. Hell! What a job.”

Claire, who worked for the ICRC in a dozen different countries, was awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal in 1991 and a DBE in 2010.

Our fascinating museum and archives hold records of these women – including letters, diaries and photographs – and many more.

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Red Cross, Red Crescent or Red Crystal? The Movement, the Committee or the Federation? We are such a large and complex network of organisations you’d be forgiven for getting confused.

So who is working in Syria?

Currently, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) are working in Syria.

The Syrian Arab Red Crescent is the Syrian equivalent of the British Red Cross. It is the country’s National Society. Most countries around the world have a National Red Cross or Red Crescent Society. Each Society has a responsibility to support the public authorities by helping vulnerable people within its own borders, and to work in conjunction with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement to protect and support those in crisis worldwide.

The ICRC works to protect and assist victims of armed conflict and other emergencies, and co-ordinates the work of National Societies in these situations. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is mandated by states as a guardian of international humanitarian law.

The Danish Red Cross and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies are supporting operations in Syria, and have representatives in the country.

And why does the Syrian National Society use a crescent instead of a cross?

The red cross emblem is an inversion of the Swiss flag, which shows a white cross on a red background. This recognises the historic connection between Switzerland and the original Geneva Convention of 1864. 

But while the red cross emblem has no intentional religious meaning, the symbol reminded soldiers from the Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey) of the crusaders of the Middle Ages and so in 1876 they began using a red crescent instead.

Now, each country can choose whether to use a red cross, a red crescent or a red crystal as their emblem. None of the emblems have a religious significance.

Oh, it’s not a religious thing?

No part of the Movement is political or religious. Being completely neutral means that we can reach and offer impartial help to people in need whoever and wherever they are. In Syria, it has enabled the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the ICRC to help people affected by the violence, even when many other agencies have been unable or unwilling to work in the country.

National Societies are auxiliaries to the government in the humanitarian field, but their operations are not affected by politics or religion. This enables them to work effectively in the country while retaining functional neutrality.

We often cross front-lines in times of war to help conflict victims and the ICRC visits people who have been detained on both sides. We can only do this life-saving work if we are understood to be a completely neutral, independent network of organisations. Put simply, our neutrality saves lives. 

For this reason, the British Red Cross is helping support a public awareness campaign in Syria, to ensure the Syrian Arab Red Crescent’s work is understood and respected – this includes education to highlight the Syrian Arab Red Crescent’s neutrality, and the Movement’s fundamental principles.

Fine, but why do I keep reading about ‘the Movement’?

The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is the world’s largest independent humanitarian network. It is made up of three parts:

• the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
• the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
• 188 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies around the world.

Because different parts of the Movement often work together – and because many of the organisations have long names – we sometimes use ‘the Movement’ to refer to all of them. That way, it’s easier for people to read our website quickly and find out what is happening.

When we talk about ‘the Movement’ working in Syria, we are usually referring to the the ICRC and Syrian Arab Red Crescent’s operations. However, this term could include any part of the Movement which is present in the country – for instance, the Danish Red Cross or the Federation.

Alright. And where does the British Red Cross come into things?

The British Red Cross is not working directly in Syria at the moment, but it is supporting the work of the Movement in the country.

Since 2004, the British Red Cross has been working to help the Syrian Arab Red Crescent modernise its disaster management operations. In the past year, we have given over £900,000 – including some funds raised through our Libya & Region Appeal and Disaster Fund – to support the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement’s operations in Syria.

In response to the worsening situation, we launched our Syria Crisis Appeal on 1 March 2012. This enables people in the UK to donate and help the Syrian Arab Red Crescent continue to provide aid including food parcels, first aid, and support to healthcare facilities.

Donate to the Syria Crisis Appeal

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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.

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

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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

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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

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