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XIII
MRS. FURSE, G.B.E., R.R.C., LADY PERROTT, R.R.C., AND THE VOLUNTARY AID DETACHMENT
Throughout the war the services of the Joint Societies of the British Red Cross and the Order of St. John have covered a vast area of work for the sick and wounded.
One of the most vital branches of the work has been that of the great army of untrained or part-trained women, who have been supplementing the limited number of trained nurses in the hospitals at home and abroad. Sir Alfred Keogh, the Director General of the Army Medical Service, has explained the scope of their work when describing the organisation of the Territorial Army nursing system. He says: “It was necessary to arrange for the dilution of the nursing services by women who had received some special training, though of elementary character, to afford assistance to the more highly trained nurses. This had been foreseen, for at the time of the formation of the Territorial Army, the training of the civil population to this extent was taken in hand, and voluntary detachments of women in possession of elementary certificates, but receiving continuous training, were formed in the country. Thus at the outbreak of war there were some 60,000 women in England who had received this training.”
For a long period of years the St. John Ambulance Association, under the ancient order of St. John of Jerusalem, had already controlled a large organisation of ambulance and nursing divisions, and may claim to have originated the teaching of first aid, which has now become the basis of all Voluntary Aid Detachment training. When the scheme was started, detachments were formed throughout the country, in answer to Queen Alexandra’s appeal, by the British Red Cross Society, the great new organisation inaugurated by King Edward VII. in July, 1905, and also by the Order of St. John. Many of the old-established St. John Nursing Divisions enrolled at once as Voluntary Aid Detachments, their composition being similar. Shortly after the outbreak of war, the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St. John decided to amalgamate their organisation and finances for the period of the war.
The administration of the Voluntary Aid Detachments throughout the country is largely local. Each county has its own system under the central offices in London, and the work of the women, from the county presidents to the humblest workers, has been one of the proudest records of the war. Some Voluntary Aid Detachments have been mobilised in their entirety for service in the auxiliary military hospitals, many of which have been almost entirely staffed and financed by individual detachments. Others are posting their members separately for hospital work elsewhere.
The work of the V.A.D. members besides nursing, includes cooking, storekeeping, and secretarial work, which are classed under the heading of General Service. This is the branch of work for which Mrs. Charles W. Furse, as Commandant-in-Chief of the V.A.Ds. of the Joint Societies, is now responsible. The posting of the V.A.D. nurses to hospitals at home and abroad also goes through her hands. Widow of the well-known painter, and daughter of John Addington Symonds, Mrs. Furse was for several years before the war one of the most interested and prominent of V.A.D. workers. When Sir Alfred Keogh’s scheme for the organisation of voluntary Red Cross workers came into being in 1909, Mrs. Furse was one of the first women to enrol. In 1912 she became Commandant of the first Paddington Detachment, London 128. During the next two years she encouraged enterprise among the members by organising classes in cooking, laundry, and hygiene, in addition to the study of first aid and home nursing. By this time Mrs. Furse had become a member of several committees dealing with Red Cross and V.A.D. work, and was already recognised as an authority on these subjects. On the outbreak of war her services were at once commandeered by the British Red Cross Society.
For the first months of war Mrs. Furse undertook the management of the Enquiry Department at Devonshire House, which became the headquarters of the V.A.D. In September, 1914, she submitted a scheme to the War Office for V.A.D. rest stations on the lines of communication. In October she was ordered to go to France with sufficient members from her own detachment to start this work, which has been much extended, and has met a great need.