Caring on the home front

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Uniform

Uniforms are very important to organisations like St. John Ambulance and the British Red Cross. They are durable, easy to clean and are suited to the type of work the person wearing them is doing. They can also encourage pride in an organisation.
Uniforms are also very important as a way of recognizing people and telling which organisation they belong to, or identifying a department or area in an organisation. This is often done through badges, both cloth and metal and armbands, like in the photographs below. This was very important for the Joint War Organisation, because most members would have worn the uniform of either the British Red Cross or S.t John Ambulance, depending on which they belonged to.

Uniforms will often have badges and rank markings on them that can tell you what position someone has in an organisation and how long they have served.

Uniforms are also very practical. They meet the needs of the person that is wearing them. This is shown very clearly in the uniform that Joint War Organisation welfare workers who were sent on overseas commissions wore. The uniform is very military in style, because they were right on the frontline, and they had a helmet to protect their heads, as did the nurses working on mobile units during the Blitz.

VADs wore either a British Red Cross or St. John Ambulance uniform depending on which organisation they belonged to. For their indoor uniform they had to have: three dresses, 12 aprons, three belts, six collars, three pairs of cuffs, four caps, two pairs of black shoes, and six pairs of stockings. Added to this was a greatcoat, hat, gloves, jacket and skirt, blouses, tie, belt, cardigan, waterproof, towels and a suitcase, all part of the outdoor uniform.
St. John Ambulance and British Red Cross uniforms were quite similar, as you can see in the pictures below, with both having the cross of their organisation emblazoned on the front of their aprons. British Red Cross nurses’ dresses were blue, and St. John Ambulance were grey, unless they were officers, when it would have been striped black and white.

During the war clothes were rationed just like food and people had a limited number of coupons they could use. Members of organisations like St. John Ambulance and the British Red Cross who needed uniforms had to have a uniform permit. This also helped make sure only people who were supposed to be in uniform were so. Members had to pay for their uniform, although they received a grant and a certificate that meant they did not have to give up any clothing coupons.