Following the end of the Boer War, there were concerns that, in the event of another war, the medical services wouldn’t be able to cope, so in 1909 the War Office produced a ‘Scheme for the Organisation of Voluntary Aid in England and Wales.’ This estabished male and female Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs).
The detachments were intended to staff auxiliary hospitals and rest stations for which they received no payment
They had to bandage, to do simple dressings, and to cover basic invalid cookery and hygiene and, in some cases stretcher duties and the transport of sick and wounded.
Before the war began, preparations were under way in Cambridge and the villages and a field day was held at Harston on 25 July 1914 and a the Cambridge Independent Press reported on 14 August that it was likely there would be a joint hospital for the Shepreth, Shelford, Harston and Trumpington detachments. In fact, there were hospitals at both Shelford and Shepreth.
The following from information on www.vad.redcross.org.uk/Volunteers-during-WW1 are the volunteeres from Harston:
Miss Alice Maud Ashby Miss Annie Ashby Miss Gladys Ashby Miss Helen Ashby Miss A Ashley Miss Agnes. A. Badcock Miss Bareham Miss Barkway Miss Dorothy Bliss Mrs Beatrice Chapman Miss Lillian Clark Mrs Margaret Collins Mrs Mary Ann Dilley Mrs. Lizzie Dowe Miss Winifred Elsden Mrs. Augusta Freeman
| Mrs Grace Gee Mrs Mabel L Gee Miss Helen Greene Miss Annie Hall Mrs Alice Hayden Miss Agneta Holben Miss E. Hunt Miss Kathleen Hurrell Mrs Elizabeth Lawrance Mr Frank Lawrance Mrs Louise Lawrance Mr Victor Lawrance Miss Signe Elfrida Laven Mrs Jane Legge Miss Fanny Levitt Mrs Harriett Mansfield
| Mrs. Emily Merriott Mrs Catherine Newling Mrs Rose Newling Miss Sarah Elizabeth Norden Mrs Alice Maud Payne Mrs. Hannah Points Mrs Jane Ransom Mrs Maud Rowley Miss Cicely Smith Miss Ethel Mary Smith Miss Winifred Smith Mrs Jannette Ward Mrs. Charlotte Wedd Miss Ada White Mrs Matilda Willers Mrs Elizabeth Wisbey |
The Harston Detachment was Cambs No24 VAD and its Commandant was Miss Ethel Mary Smith, daughter of Thomas Smith of Harston mill. The majority of Harstonites worked at Shepreth and Shelford with a few going to Cambridge and Royston. The Shepreth VAD hospital was in the village hall and the Shelford one at Mountblow, now Middlefield, off Hinton Way before moving to The Chestnuts, now Browning House, Tunwells Lane.
One person on this list, Signe Laven, probably visited more VAD hospitals around Cambridge than anyone else. An expert in massage, physiotherapy and other new medical treatments, she arrived from Sweden in 1909 for 2 months to treat Mary Greene of Harston House and remained in the village for the rest of her life.
She trained a War Emergency Massage Corps and supervised treatments of massage, galvanism, Faradism, radiant heat, hot, ionisation and exercise at all hospitals. Local press described her as ‘untiring in her efforts on behalf of the wounded ever since the outbreak of war.’
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