VAD’s and FANY’s and WLA

[larneman]

I was reading an essy on WW1 and women.The following :-

"Being a voluntary organization the VAD’s did not have a whole lot of medicine they only had two painkillers which was a huge inconvenience. They had aspirin and morphine; and the morphine had to be mixed with water and sucked into a needle because it came in tablet form after it was in the needle the morphine had to be injected into the wounded soldier somewhere near the wound.

It is so great to see women volunteering to such a good cause even though they do not get paid; but most of them came from a background where not getting paid was not an issue. "

---Were VAD’s allowed to give injections, as they were not trained nurses?

"The FANY’s had a much harder job says Antonia Gamwell a former FANY. She remembers how she had to drive her family’s car as an ambulance to disinfect and scrub out rooms where the wounded soldiers would stay. Occasionally she would even have to get rid of bodies from the hospital. But FANY’s was just not nurses they ran soup kitchens and helped organized baths for some soldiers who had time off from the front line."

---Was this organisation in Europe or just in the USA?

"Back home in America women started another organization called the “The Women’s Land Army (WLA)” it was to keep the harvests coming in with all the men away at war. "

----Was there WLA in Britian in WW1?

----Last but not least but how many womens organisation served in Europe.

Liam

[Chris_Baker]

There wasn't one WLA - there were lots of them!

See http://www.1914-1918.net/women.htm

[larneman]

Thanks Chris, was just the information I was looking for.

Liam

[Sue Light]

Liam

I have no idea who wrote the essay, but I feel compelled to make some answer, in case anyone might think it accurate.

In hospital morphine was [and still is] only prescribed by a doctor for an individual patient, and administered either by a doctor, or a trained nurse. When not in use it was [and still is] kept in a locked cupboard, and the key kept in the possession of the sister or nurse in charge of the ward. During the war members of Voluntary Aid Detachments were working in recognised hospitals; military, civilian, Red Cross, and private facilities approved by the War Office, and would have been bound by strict rules. There just wasn't a wide range of analgesics at that time. An aspirin was about as good as you were going to get - no Ibuprofen, or Tramodol, or DF118.

There were a very small number of trained nurses among members of VADs, but the vast majority were untrained, and should never have been in a position where they were allowed to give drugs by injection to patients. Of course, wartime did provide conditions where rules were broken, and there are many accounts of bad practice happening. I'm sure there are many occasions when a soldier received this type of treatment from the untrained nurse, often because they were ordered to do so by a superior under pressure, and sometimes because they found ways to take part in more than their regular duties.

And it was NOT necessary to give this type of injection [with a needle AND as syringe] into an area of the body near to the wound. It was given into a large muscle, normally the upper outer quadrant of the buttock, or the outer aspect of the thigh.

By the way, all VADs working in military hospitals, both at home and overseas, did get paid at regular rates.

Sue

I've referred only to areas where VADs would have been working - obviously other working practices were used in units nearer the front manned by RAMC staff.

Edited 7 March , 2005 by SueL

[larneman]

Hi Sue,

Thanks for answering my question. The essay was part of a large lot of WW1 related Word Documents and photographs that I was sent in a large zip file by my brother. He came across it on the Net. So the source is not known. I think the person was given a speech by a VAD and a FANY nurse and this is what they had understood.

Liam

[royalredcross]

the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) were mostly drivers, apart from the early part of the war when they ran a hospital at Lamarck. They were few in number, no more than about 2or 3 hundred serving in France and Belgium. Until 1916 they worked with the French and Belgians, but then began driving for the British as well in a joint FANY/VAD convoy. They received a number of Military Medals. In WW2 they also served as a cover for women agents sent to France. They still exist - the last time I talked to them they had headquarters in the King's Road Chelsea.

[TD60]

details here:

http://www.fany.org.uk/

and one (the one ?) of FANY gravestone in France:

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/tanneguy.desplanqu...rvices/fany.htm

Best Regards