VADs

[nlcrosbie]

Hey, does anyone have any information on any vad's who would have worked in any of the north london hospitals during ww1?

[Sue Light]

Tasha

It seems a shame that you are not getting any replies to your numerous threads, but the questions you're asking are so specific that I think it's unlikely that anyone will be able to give you anything but the most basic answers. There's little published material about VADs, and I'm sure the way forward is for you to be out there doing some original research. In an earlier thread someone left a link to a list of VAD units that were operating in North London, and this link is to the home page of the same site, the work of Hazel Basford, and where there are a lot more ideas for researching VADs and their hospitals:

Kent VAD

Although a lot of the site refers to Kent, the same principles can be used anywhere. By the way, the site doesn't work very well in Firefox, so Internet Explorer needs to be used.

There are many places that hold a wealth of unpublished sources relevant to your area of study including:

British Red Cross Society Archives

Museum of the Order of St. John

Imperial War Museum - particularly their 'Women, War and Society' Collection

London Metropolitan Archives

Camden Archives

Local newspapers of the area you're interested in

First Aid Nursing Yeomanry Archives - link was left in one of your other posts

All these can be found quite easily on an Internet search. There are very, very few surviving records of VAD units and hospitals - those that are out there are probably hidden away in local archives. Newspapers are a really good source to get started - browsing local papers for the months of August to December 1914, for instance, should give details of hospitals opening, together with names of Commandants and perhaps some of the staff. London is a much more difficult place to research (in my opinion) than smaller towns and villages - there was so much going on that it had to be really important to get a mention, but any work you do should add greatly to the current tiny amount of detail that's known.

Sue