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First aid and home nursing

When Voluntary Aid Detachments began in 1909, they were intended to provide trained assistance to the medical services of the Armed Forces. First aid was the basis of every member’s training.

In peacetime, members worked towards the improvement of health within their local communities. Members of British Red Cross detachments had to take a British Red Cross first aid course. Women had to obtain a further certificate in Nursing. St. John Ambulance members had their own courses they had to complete.
Before the establishment of the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948 there was no centralised health service, thousands died of infectious diseases such as diptheria, tuberculosis, polio and pneumonia and infant mortality was high. Added to this was the problem of accidents in the workplace at a time when most people worked in an industry.
In just three months in 1873, 315 people were killed and 2,000 injured on the railways. In 1885 alone, 1150 people were killed in accidents in mines.
The two organisations’ courses were not just useful for its members. Before the NHS was founded treatment, by a doctor was too expensive for many people.
St. John Ambulance first aid courses began in 1879, with home nursing and hygiene courses being introduced in 1880. British Red Cross first aid and nursing courses started in 1910. Hygiene and sanitation was added in 1914. New qualifications were regularly introduced, such as tuberculosis in 1929.

Anyone could take these courses. They equipped huge numbers of the population to be aware of what to look for in diagnosing and treating illnesses, how to prevent illness and how to treat injuries. These skills could be used anywhere.
After the First World War both organisations also set up first aid posts on busy roads. The British Red Cross were involved in providing Hop-Pickers’ dispensaries in Kent and dressing stations at Yarmouth for the girls involved in the herring industry, and St. John Ambulance had divisions in industry, for example at the Bourneville factory in Birmingham.