Voluntary Aid Detachment

Did You Know?

• The VAD system was founded in 1909 by the British Red Cross and Order of St John at the request of the War Office.
• 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.
• VAD nurse Violet Jessop had been a stewardess aboard the RMS Titanic when it sank in 1912 and was also aboard the hospital ship HMHS Britannic when it sank in 1916.
• Amelia Earhart, the American aviation pioneer, served as a VAD.

World War I

When the First World War began, members of the Voluntary Aid Detachment were keen to help. The British Red Cross, however, was hesitant to send civilian women—mostly from comfortable middle- and upper-class backgrounds with little experience of hardship or hospital routine—to work in hospitals overseas. The military also refused to let them serve at the front. At first, VADs were officially assigned to a single hospital, but as time passed they often worked, without official sanction and for just a few days at a time, at several hospitals in their local area. This could mean that when patients were moved between hospitals, the same VAD might provide some continuity of care.

In October 1914, Katharine Furse brought two VADs to France, but they were only allowed to work as canteen helpers and cooks. When they were caught in a sudden battle, they were pressed into emergency hospital service and did well. As the shortage of trained nurses grew, VADs began to find roles in military hospitals abroad. Furse became commander-in-chief of the detachments, and the earlier restrictions were lifted. Women over twenty-three who had at least three months of hospital experience could now serve overseas.

By 1916, military hospitals in Britain employed about 8,000 trained nurses for roughly 126,000 beds, while 4,000 nurses worked abroad with 93,000 beds. By 1918, there were around 80,000 VAD members: 12,000 worked as nurses in military hospitals, and 60,000 were unpaid volunteers in auxiliary hospitals. Some of these volunteers looked down on paid nurses. The VADs were an awkward fit in the military hospital system. They lacked the advanced skills and discipline of professional nurses and often criticised the nursing profession. Over time, relations improved: the VADs became more skilled and efficient, and trained nurses grew more accepting of their help.

During the four years of war, 38,000 VADs worked in hospitals or served as ambulance drivers and cooks. They served near the Western Front, in Mesopotamia, and in Gallipoli. VAD hospitals were set up in most large British towns, and later VADs were sent to the Eastern Front. Many received decorations for distinguished service. When the war ended, nursing leaders decided that untrained VADs should not be allowed onto the new register of nurses.