Britain's Civilian Volunteers

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER The Fobmation Of V.A. Detachments IT could have been no easy matter to settle on the exact formation of a Detachment; but again, it is remarkable that the scheme has needed practically no alteration, and that in the printed papers first issued by the War Office the orders are almost identical with...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER The Fobmation Of V.A. Detachments IT could have been no easy matter to settle on the exact formation of a Detachment; but again, it is remarkable that the scheme has needed practically no alteration, and that in the printed papers first issued by the War Office the orders are almost identical with those which are in force to-day. The composition of men's De- 'tachments were: ? One Commandant One medical officer One Quartermaster One pharmacist Four section leaders Forty-eight men. The women's Detachments were considerably smaller, and had only one Commandant (man or woman), one Quartermaster (man or woman), one Lady Superintendent (preferably a trained nurse), and twenty women, of whom four should be qualified as cooks. V.A.D.'s form part of the technical reserve. No Detachment could be registered at the War Officeunless it had enrolled at least 70 per cent of the above complement. Detachments were invited to make a list of the equipment which they could promise to give in the event of necessity, and certainly a majority, if not all, had a certain amount of linen, beds, and hospital stores in reserve. In the beginning it was supposed that the Detachments would only be used for home defence, in exactly the same way as the Territorials were not supposed to be sent abroad; but we all know how these ideas have been flung to the winds, and how eagerly the men of the Territorial Force and the members of the Detachments have sought for the honour of going abroad, the one to fight and the other to succour the sick and wounded. In the event of mobilisation, each member of a Detachment, when called up for service, was to be provided with an identity certificate, and was to wear, fixed to the left arm, an armlet or brassard with a red cross on a white ground, delive..