The British Red Cross has been helping people during wartime for more than 150 years including the armed forces, civilians, prisoners of war and their families. As an impartial, neutral and independent body, its work remains as relevant today as it was in the 19th century.
Established in August 1870, in London, it was initially known as the British National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded in War. It is part of the International Committee of the Red Cross, which provides humanitarian protection and assistance during armed conflicts all over the world.
The organisation has a unique role under the Geneva Conventions, which means nations must allow ICRC representatives to visit prisoners of war. The British Red Cross also helps to search for missing persons and exchanges family messages, while providing medical aid and relief supplies wherever they are needed.
History of the British Red Cross
The origins of the Red Cross movement lie in Swiss businessman Henry Dunant's belief in the power of kindness. The humanitarian and social activist was upset by the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino, during the second War of Italian Independence, on 24th June 1859.
Many of the soldiers were simply left to die due to a lack of care. Thousands of men on both sides lost their lives, leading Dunant to suggest creating national relief societies. They would comprise volunteers who had been trained in peacetime to provide impartial help to relieve suffering.
The International Committee of the Red Cross was founded in Geneva, where the charter was drawn up in 1863. In July 1870, Colonel Robert Loyd-Lindsay called for a British national society to be formed, in line with other European nations who had formed their own societies.
A resolution was passed at a public meeting in London on 4th August 1870 to form a national society in Britain to aid wounded and sick soldiers during wartime. Bound by the rules of the Geneva Convention of 1864; the organisation gave aid to both warring armies during the Franco-Prussian War.
Volunteers were recognised and protected under the emblem of a red cross. In 1905, the society was renamed the British Red Cross. It was granted a Royal Charter in 1908 by King Edward VII.
World War I
More than 90,000 volunteers joined the British Red Cross during World War I to carry out many different duties, including providing nursing care for the wounded in temporary hospitals across the UK, driving ambulances in France and assisting refugees in Egypt.
The Red Cross also trained dogs to carry first aid supplies through the bombs and bullets of No Man's Land to help wounded soldiers on the battlefield. The idea of the Great War dogs came from former soldier Major Edwin Richardson, whose family had always kept dogs.
He recognised they were intelligent and brave enough to play a useful role during the war and perfected training techniques. The British Army didn't like the idea at first, but the British Red Cross realised the value of the war dogs and accepted Major Richardson's offer of help.
Specially trained dogs had excellent results and Army chiefs, realising their mistake, asked the major to set up an official war dogs' training school, leading to the use of four-legged first aiders at times of conflict.
World War II
During World War II, the British Red Cross and the St John Ambulance joined forces after the war was declared in September 1939, forming a Joint War Organisation, as they had during the Great War, to coordinate activities.
Working under the protection of the Red Cross symbol, the volunteers had many roles. They supported people in London who were affected by the Blitz; driving ambulances, carrying stretchers and rescuing victims from buildings that had been bombed.
They also ran first aid posts in the makeshift air raid shelters set up in the London Underground stations. The Red Cross supplied essential items including medical supplies, food, blankets and clothing to people in emergency rest centres, hospitals and town halls. A typical first aid kit contained safety pins, scissors, sticking plasters, antiseptic cream and sterile dressings. Written on the white box in red were the words: "British Red Cross First Aid Kit."
They also operated an ambulance service, supplying transport for the Army's sick and wounded at home and overseas, including in the days after the Normandy landings: the ambulances pulled up next to the planes carrying casualties, examined the patients and transferred them directly to hospitals or took them to the waiting ambulance trains.
During World War II, the Red Cross ambulances carried more than one million patients, covering 9.14 million miles.
Finding missing relatives
The Red Cross Wounded, Missing and Relatives Department helped people searching for information about military personnel who were missing in action or wounded. The volunteers checked with hospitals all over the world to try and locate men reported as missing and to check patients' progress to pass the news on to relatives.
The Red Cross Prisoners of War Department packed and despatched parcels to British POWs across the world. Their food parcels played a crucial role in keeping the malnourished prisoners alive. The British Red Cross sent more than 100,000 food parcels to the Channel Islands when they were occupied by German troops from June 1940 until May 1945.
After the notorious Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was liberated on 15th April 1945 by British and Canadian troops; five British Red Cross teams of doctors and nurses went over to staff the hospital, while welfare officers looked after the children, and cooks set up canteens to feed the liberated prisoners. They also set up first aid stations, provided fuel and clothing and transported patients from the concentration camps to hospitals.
Provision of medical supplies
Volunteers from the British, American and Canadian Red Cross worked together during the D-Day Normandy landings to provide tons of supplies and to evacuate the wounded and sick to England.
Some staffed beach first aid stations to help the wounded, providing treatment and blood plasma. Others distributed vital items to men who had lost everything during the landing operation. Red Cross nurses and hospital workers also staffed the evacuation hospitals, visiting the wards, providing first aid and serving coffee and chocolate to the patients, who also had recreation tents where they could socialise, play cards, talk and write letters to loved ones back home.
In modern time, the Red Cross has been actively involved in distributing personal protective equipment to those in need during the Covid pandemic including masks, gloves, hospital gowns and antiseptic gel. The charity said a global health emergency required a global response.
Sadly, hundreds of Red Cross volunteers have lost their lives while on active service, including 128 nurses who died during WWI: eight died when tending the wounded onboard the SS Osmanieh on 31st December 1917. The ship had been contracted by the British Navy, but tragically, it struck a mine planted by a German submarine, killing 199 people.
This year, Remembrance Day will be commemorated on Sunday 13th November. All over the world, people will be paying tribute to those who risked and gave their lives to save others in times of conflict. We will remember them.
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