London VAD Detatchment 150

[Trenchrat]

Hi,

Can someone tell me the number of ladies in a typical VAD Detachment? Did VAD Detachment 150, cover just one location or say a specific district in London? Thanks in advance for your help.

[Sue Light]

John

Pre-war the detachments were set up locally, but in most ways were 'virtual' units - they trained, but didn't have any real life unit to work in. Originally [1909] the female detachments were intended to have 1 Commandant/Medical Officer [not necessarily interchangeable], a Quartermaster, 2 Superintendents, and twenty women, of whom one or two were trained nurses.

But during war time the number of detachments increased, and on the whole were set up to staff one hospital per detachment. So London 150 would have referred to one single hospital, possibly two. As all the hospitals were of different size, the number of staff needed, and the proportion of trained/untrained members would have varied greatly. They also had to take into consideration the constant coming and going of nurses due to normal wastage, or as they were employed by the War Office for overseas service. As the numbers increased, some women would still have been employed locally, while others allocated to Hospitals from Devonshire House - the numbers dealt with must have been vast.

Sue.

[Trenchrat]

Hi Sue,

Thanks for the information. Winifred Griffin was a VAD with this detachment from the time she went into the service in June 1916, till she was discharged in August 1917. So from what you say, would it be safe to assume that London Detachment 150 referred just to Rosslyn Lodge Auxillary Military Hospital? By the way the Red Cross Archives mentioned that's where Winifred was assigned to. It was only about ten minutes from her house,so it must've been real nice and easy to get to except in bad weather.