VAD

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Employer Monica Dickens
Quite early in 1940 (after a spell as a writer and another collecting scrap iron for armaments) MD joined the Red Cross as a VAD (that is, a Voluntary Aid Detachment volunteer nurse), then became...
Material Conditions of Writing Enid Bagnold
EB published her first book, A Diary Without Dates, an account of her work as a VAD at the Royal Herbert Hospital —a job from which she was dismissed on the book's publication.
The...
Occupation Enid Bagnold
EB joined the Red Cross after the First World War began, and became a VAD .
Sebba, Anne. Enid Bagnold: The Authorized Biography. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1986.
47, 50
Occupation Sarah Macnaughtan
SM was in Canada in August 1914 when the first World War was declared. She came back to England to sign on as a war nurse with the Voluntary Aid Detachment or VADs. She received...
Occupation Carola Oman
As a VAD—that is, a volunteer nurse with the Voluntary Aid Detachment —CO was stationed close to the lines in France. Here she worked for the British Red Cross until after the war ended.
“Obituary: Miss Carola Oman”. Times, 12 June 1978, p. 16.
16
Occupation Vera Brittain
VB left Somerville College at the end of her first academic year to work as a VAD .
Berry, Paul, and Mark Bostridge. Vera Brittain: A Life. Chatto and Windus, 1995.
81
Occupation Joanna Cannan
JC had early envisaged herself having a career as an artist, but her plans were disrupted by the First World War. In 1914 she joined the VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) to work as a nurse...
Occupation May Cannan
Before the war MC qualified herself as a VAD ; she took a number of exams under the auspices of the Red Cross and other organisations, and worked as a hospital volunteer. Before she was...
Occupation Agatha Christie
During her husband's wartime absence, AC at first worked for the VAD as a nurse. She also dispensed medicine for the Red Cross . According to Red Cross records, she worked 3,400 hours between October...
Occupation E. M. Delafield
Edmée de la Pasture (later EMD ) worked for the Exeter Voluntary Aid Hospital in Devon as a VAD worker, earning her first salary, at one pound a week.
Powell, Violet. The Life of a Provincial Lady. Heinemann, 1988.
32
Occupation Susan Tweedsmuir
During the First World War Susan Buchan served as a VAD and ran a day nursery in a poor area of London. After the war, living near Oxford, she founded a branch of the then...
Occupation Josephine Tey
While she was a student of physical education during the First World War, Elizabeth MacKintosh worked during vacations as a VAD at a convalescent home in Inverness (probably at Leys Castle Auxiliary Hospital), as...
Occupation Freya Stark
After a brief training period at a civilian hospital, FS was posted from London to Udine in Italy as a VAD nurse.
Izzard, Molly. Freya Stark: A Biography. Hodder and Stoughton, 1993.
276
Occupation Margaret Haig Viscountess Rhondda
She was the liaison between the ministry and the Women's Land Army , Women's Legion , Voluntary Aid Detachment and others. In her practice as well as in memoranda to Lord Milner , the Secretary...
Occupation Rose Macaulay
RM began six months as a VAD at a military convalescent hospital at Mount Blow, near Great Shelford; she found it very stressful.
Emery, Jane. Rose Macaulay: A Writer’s Life. John Murray, 1991.
152, 155
Babington Smith, Constance. Rose Macaulay. Collins, 1972.
78

Timeline

July 1910: Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs) were designated...

National or international item

July 1910

Voluntary Aid Detachment s (VADs) were designated a section of the technical reserve of the Territorial Force Association . They became a corps of amateur nurses, a field for women's work during both World Wars.
Ouditt, Sharon. Fighting Forces, Writing Women: Identity and Ideology in the First World War. Routledge, 1994.
11
Summers, Anne. Angels and Citizens: British Women as Military Nurses 1854-1914. Routledge and Keegan Paul, 1988.
253

October 1914: The first Voluntary Aid Detachment (under...

Building item

October 1914

The first Voluntary Aid Detachment (under Katharine Furse ) was sent to France, that is to the front, to feed and care for the wounded.
McLaren, Barbara. Women of the War. Hodder and Stoughton, 1917.
106
Marwick, Arthur. Women at War, 1914-1918. Croom Helm, 1977.
21, 84
Ouditt, Sharon. Fighting Forces, Writing Women: Identity and Ideology in the First World War. Routledge, 1994.
13
Summers, Anne. Angels and Citizens: British Women as Military Nurses 1854-1914. Routledge and Keegan Paul, 1988.
286

January 1915: Katharine Furse returned from France (where...

National or international item

January 1915

Katharine Furse returned from France (where she had headed the first detachment of VADs sent to the front) to set up the Voluntary Aid Detachment Headquarters at Devonshire House, London.
Ouditt, Sharon. Fighting Forces, Writing Women: Identity and Ideology in the First World War. Routledge, 1994.
13
Summers, Anne. Angels and Citizens: British Women as Military Nurses 1854-1914. Routledge and Keegan Paul, 1988.
286

Around 1915: Voluntary Aid Detachment volunteers (known...

National or international item

Around 1915

Voluntary Aid Detachment volunteers (known as VADs) began to be paid and housed by the military authorities.
Marwick, Arthur. Women at War, 1914-1918. Croom Helm, 1977.
84
Ouditt, Sharon. Fighting Forces, Writing Women: Identity and Ideology in the First World War. Routledge, 1994.
11, 13-15
Summers, Anne. Angels and Citizens: British Women as Military Nurses 1854-1914. Routledge and Keegan Paul, 1988.
264, 268

June 1916: The General Service Scheme broadened Voluntary...

National or international item

June 1916

The General Service Scheme broadened Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) employment for women to include medical workers such as x-ray and laboratory attendants, as well as clerks, cooks, telephone operators, and store keepers.
Ouditt, Sharon. Fighting Forces, Writing Women: Identity and Ideology in the First World War. Routledge, 1994.
15
Summers, Anne. Angels and Citizens: British Women as Military Nurses 1854-1914. Routledge and Keegan Paul, 1988.
269
Marwick, Arthur. Women at War, 1914-1918. Croom Helm, 1977.
84

November 1917: Katharine Furse, having resigned as head...

National or international item

November 1917

Katharine Furse , having resigned as head of the Voluntary Aid Detachment , established and became first head of the Women's Royal Navy Service (WRNS).
Summers, Anne. Angels and Citizens: British Women as Military Nurses 1854-1914. Routledge and Keegan Paul, 1988.
286
British Book News. British Council.
(1960): 857
Marwick, Arthur. Women at War, 1914-1918. Croom Helm, 1977.
92
Ouditt, Sharon. Fighting Forces, Writing Women: Identity and Ideology in the First World War. Routledge, 1994.
16, 220
Pugh, Martin. Women and the Women’s Movement in Britain 1914 - 1959. Macmillan Education, 1992.
31
van der Vat, Dan. “Commandant Vonla McBride”. The Guardian, 14 Aug. 2003, p. 27.
27

Texts

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