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‘Everybody’s
got to go’
St. John Ambulance men instructed their
fellow citizens in air raid precaution.
By the time Britain declared war, people
all over the country knew what to do.
In the Blitz, Ambulance men—despite
depleted numbers—led stretcher
parties and ambulance convoys. On the
home front, the men gave their all to
defend and care for civilians. |
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How did you become
involved?
DEREK FENTON:
"
Hitler was in power and  countries were feeling
very nervous. The letters ARP were ominously
brought home to the public. St John became closely
involved with the first aid training. By the
middle of [1939], it looked as if war was inevitable.
 THOMAS HURST:
[The Council] appointed me District First
Aid Superintendent. Three days before the
war actually broke out, [they] phoned me up
and said, `Mr Hurst, will you come full-time?'
My own boss, Teddy Sear, who was still butchering,
said, `Yes, by all means Thomas, because it
looks as though everybody's got to go.'
"
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What
did you do?
DEREK FENTON:
“During the early part of  1939, I became more and more involved. There were many first aid classes attended by large numbers of the public. Although I was only eighteen years old, I was the senior demonstrator and the Class Secretary of a First Aid Class for pharmacists. In those days we were lucky if we got a full night’s sleep—as well as long days, we also had interrupted nights.”
GORDON GEARD:
" In 1941, I joined the St. John Ambulance [Brigade] at Montacute, because groups had started in villages on first aid, fire-watching, fire service, and Home Guard. We had quite a nice group at Montacute, and I found it very interesting."
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Any special memories?
MR. CARDY:
"
People talk about lady  drivers, but I have a
great admiration for them. I was with them when
they had to drive [our ambulances]. They were
large cars and carried four patients a time.
They were not easy to drive I can tell you.
When you're driving in convoy on a dark night
and going fairly fast, and your front light's
got just a tiny little headlight…who would
want to do it? I had the greatest admiration
for them girls. "
THOMAS HURST:
" Some
of the [air raid]  cases were pretty ghastly.
On [one] occasion a house had been demolished.
The stretcher party and the rescue parties
were still there, and I went down to see what
was going on. The roof had collapsed, and
they could hear the cry of somebody in amongst
the ruins.
After digging still a bit further they managed
to find and uncover a lady sitting in a chair
with a baby in her arms. Next to her was a
Singer sewing machine, and the cry was coming
from underneath the Singer sewing machine.
The woman was obviously past help and the
baby [too]. After a while the stretcher party
managed to extricate this laddie of about
ten years old. He was pinned down underneath
the machine. It was the machine frame that
really saved that boy."
GORDON GEARD:
"One night I was asked
to a fracture of a femur. [The doctor] stood
by my side, watched everything I did, never
said a word. By the time I finished I turned
round to him and I said, `All right Doctor?'
He never said anything. He went down through
every nut, and he nodded as he walked away.
I knew everything was all right then."
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FACTS
From 1935 the British Red Cross and St. John Ambulance were asked by the
government to run Air Raid Precautions training classes. They ran classes for
both Civil Defence workers and the general public. By 1939 St. John Ambulance
alone had trained 61,738 civilians in anti-gas measures. Find out more about
these classes. Find out more about Civil Defence Training.
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FACTS
The JWO provided 249 ambulances, employing 360 drivers and carrying 681 531 patients over the course of the war. Their ambulances travelled nearly 6 million miles! Find out more about JWO Transport.
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FACTS
During the Blitz the people who lived in large towns and cities had to cover
their doors and windows with special ‘blackout’ material. This stopped any light getting through that might be a target for a German bomber. Anyone who didn’t do this could be fined. As well as this, car headlights were banned, which made driving ambulance difficult and dangerous, especially when the roads were covered in debris. Up to 600 people were killed every month as a result of the blackout, mostly through road accidents.
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