Over the next two years the Library of the Society of Friends will be cataloguing the WW2 & early post war archives of the Friends' Ambulance Unit & the Friends Relief Service to make them more accessible to researchers. Creating a world without war cataloguing project begins
That is great news. I was drawn by the history of these units in both wars. I stumbled upon their activities a while back when looking into British and American involvement in China before Pearl Harbor.
I have a original copy of The Friends Ambulance Unit 1914-1919 some good info in the book, has a list of the members who served with this unit. Keith
I had a quick look through my files and it was the following file at TNA that I read through a few years back. It was very interesting: Internal Affairs, Associations and Societies: Friends' Ambulance Unit. | The National Archives
Friends Ambulance Unit 1939 - 1943. Published 1993. The personal recollections of Martin Lidbetter published in 1993. Covers experiences in Finland, Norway, Sweden, Egypt and Greece, where he was captured and sent to a POW camp in Germany. Mike
This will be good as my sister in laws father was with them in China and there is very little about them around at the moment TD
TD, I have read a book about FAU which includes activity in China. I probably borrowed it from the library of a local Quaker meeting house. I have Quaker friends (not a pun). Mike
Excerpts from The Wartime Letters of Lt H N Beadle Re: Friends Units West Mersea January,1941 Incidentally, talking of faith and so on I had a letter from Jack recently. As you know he joined The Friends Ambulance Unit and has been doing social services work in blitz’s here, there and everywhere in the country. Reading between the lines, I imagine he has had a pretty tough time as an ambulance driver, canteen organiser and cook; all the time working in the big shelters in London’s East End, Birmingham and other smaller industrial places “under fire” as it were. He tells matter of fact tales of hospitals being blown up while he was male nursing and of houses crashing across the road while he was driving his canteen. And he still believes this is far different from a soldiers job or even a civil defence post. No amount of argument will shake his belief that he’s right in what he’s doing. Tunisia October 1943 Nor can I trace Jack. I imagine he’s still in the rear somewhere attached to one of the hundreds of hospitals that are broadcast scattered amongst the olive groves from Tripoli to Algiers. Another letter from Jack B. who’s Eighth Army Vampires were tantalisingly near me on my travels. But I just couldn’t manage to see him. He sent me a picture of a hospital he used to work in at Sousse which turned out to be the same one in which I recovered from jaundice. One photo even showed the windows of my room! Bari Italy January 1944 I am at last warm on the trail of Jack whose “Eighth Army Vampires” or Blood Transfusion Unit are not a hundred miles from here. That does not mean that I will find it easy to contact him but at least we’re on the same continent and I know where he is. They never did manage to meet up.
Following on the previous post, being a conscientious objector was not an easy option. A decade ago I had a long talk with a fellow who was not Friends Ambulance but a Quaker objector. He started working in hospitals in the UK where the work was hard but not dangerous. He then went to the Netherlands and was involved in relief work with Dutch civilians. On occasions he had to go in advance of the troops to evacuate civilians to a place of safety before offensive operations began in the area. After the armistice he worked in concentration camps and then with refugees. A large part of the latter work was disinfestation (delousing). Interestingly he said that he was always treated with respect and courtesy by the troops. Mike
An update, and good news. Always remember, never forget, Jim. Creating a world without war: project completed