The History of Voluntary Aid Detachment ( V.A.D.)

In 1914 there was no Ministry of Health and no one had overall control of the hospitals, however the British Red Cross Society, founded in 1870 linked up with the order of St John of Jerusalem in 1909 and formed the organisation known as the Voluntary Aid Detachment or V.A.D. for short.

Since 1909 many middle or upper class women became keen to give up their time to do some useful work, mainly in hospitals. However not all volunteers where upper class women and not all V.A.D. work was completed in hospitals. At the outbreak of war there were already a number of V.A.D. Auxiliary Nurses working in hospitals.

VAD Nurses on parade at a camp at Osborne As Great Britain declared war on Germany in 1914, the first effect of war was panic food buying, many local shops reported selling out completely. Once people stopped panicking the whole community rallied around to do everything they could to support the war effort. The war brought many changes and the lives of the Rotherham people would never be quite the same again. Before the outbreak of war some V.A.D. Nurses would do a short course to gain a certificate. Qualified nurses had three years training and soon became suspicious of the short V.A.D. courses. Inevitably quarrels broke out and from time to time there was open conflict. These disagreements were even printed in "Nursing Journals" reporting the V.A.D nurses as "ignorant amateurs".

As war broke out and more and more nurses were needed it was soon realised that some nurses had certificates and were well qualified and others were not, the value of these certificates was also questioned. The task of sorting out these difficulties fell to the joint war committee. The issue of registration had become a minefield of personal feuds and interests, this could only be broken by initiative from another source, and the war would go on to bring many changes.

In nursing itself old traditions had been shaken, nurses had to adapt to new conditions, and in spite of conflicts professionals and amateurs began to work together for mutual benefit. There had been a new spirit in which people accepted change for the sake of unity in the war effort. With remarkably clear vision the Joint War Committee set out to exploit this unity. With a proposal for a new type of nursing organisation. V.A.D. Nurses used social influence to get themselves to the conflicts in France to nurse the sick and wounded soldiers. This above all other matters carved out a clear role for the V.A.D. workers, they became very active in the war effort, assisting as nurses or orderlies in hospitals at home and in all the major theatres of war.

The novelist Agatha Christie, famously known as an English author of detective stories, was once a V.A.D. Nurse. The new spirit of war brought volunteer after volunteer to do what they could for the war. V.A.D. Volunteers also became fundraisers, cooks, kitchen maids, clerks, ward-maids, and ambulance driver's etc.