VOLUNTARY AID DETACHMENTS

As well as serving at home, VADs were sent abroad  to France, Italy and Russia. 

One of their important tasks was to make essential hospital supplies such as bandages, splints, swabs and clothing.

At transport hubs like railway stations, VADs provided food and supplies for soldiers who, having arrived by ambulance train, were waiting to be transported to local hospitals. 

VADs  also served on the hospital trains in France which carried 461,844 patients during the war; they also served on hospital ships and barges when they were used to transport patients. 

VADs were also required for air raid duty in London.

Service during WWII was more extensive than in WWI, mainly because actual war came to Britain, mainly from the air. Many people were displaced by the Blitz, a nine-month period of exceptionally heavy bombing in London and other cities, and these people needed support.

From village halls to private mansions, all types of buildings were used as recovery homes and places of additional support for hospitals. These were usually staffed by VADs.

Tasks concerned with the repatriation of prisoners of war and welfare services for disabled former service men and women were also done by VADs and other charitable organisations. 

So, whether at home or abroad, VADs cared for the sick and wounded, prisoners of war and civilians needing relief.

Families back home in Britain must have been constantly on tenterhooks waiting for letters from their men, wherever they were serving on duty. Inevitably there were times when service personnel were wounded or reported missing. 

The families would worry; were they still alive...were they wounded...which hospital were they in...had they been taken prisoner? All these questions needed answers.  It was the VADs operating the search service in hospitals who tried to find the answers. They would speak with patients about men who had been reported missing to try and build up a picture of what had happened to them in the hope that they could be found.

VADs would also write letters for wounded servicemen at home and abroad. 

Hostels for relatives of servicemen were also run by VADs.