Appeal for Women Volunteers

Group of nurses of the Voluntary Aid Detachment Bedford No.2, c.1914-1916 [Z1306/12/10/3]

Tuesday 12th March 1918: Lady Ampthill, head of the Voluntary Aid Detachment, has appealed for more women to prepare for hospital service. She says:

 “We want women not only for France, but for Salonika, Malta, and Egypt, and for the nursing of the wounded we want the very best type of woman. It is not essential that she should have a first aid certificate; if she is the right sort she will readily be accepted and trained. The friction that existed to some extent between the trained nurse and the voluntary helper has died, and they are working together today in the happiest spirit.

We can place about fifty cooks a week, and the cook of forty-five or fifty is just as welcome as the younger woman. Special cookery courses are provided for members to give them a knowledge of hospital needs. We have 300 V.A.D.s driving transports and ambulances in France, and we should be very glad to get more drivers, only they must have had at least six months’ experience. There is an opening for women as laboratory assistants; we give them the necessary training.  

We hope that some of the women discharged from munition works will come to us. The care of the wounded is surely the finest work women can do – the general service member helps in the task no less than the actual nurse. We need a steady flow of recruits during the coming months.”

Source: Bedfordshire Standard, 15th March 1918