The American Red Cross Bulletin (Vol. IV, No. 4, October 1909)American National Red Cross
History
The American Red Cross Bulletin (Vol. IV, No. 4, October 1909)
American National Red Cross
American National Red Cross -- Periodicals; Red Cross and Red Crescent -- Periodicals
Sir Alfred Keogh has so planned his proposals that no one in future
will be able to say that he or she can not assist in the duties of the
Territorial Force. He takes the village as a unit. In each he places
a Red Cross detachment, in which both men and women may share. The
commandant may be some one of leading in the place, and the women’s
portion of the detachment will have a lady superintendent, a position
which, it is hoped, some one of note will always be ready to fill.
_Details of the Scheme._
Every voluntary aid detachment will be so arranged as to admit of
dividing into two complete half detachments, thus:
Men—Commandant, medical officer, quartermaster, pharmacist, assistant
pharmacist, under officer and 12 men; assistant commandant, medical
officer, quartermaster, pharmacist, assistant pharmacist, under officer
and 12 men.
Women—Commandant (medical officer), quartermaster, lady superintendent,
ten women (including one trained nurse); assistant commandant (medical
officer), assistant quartermaster, lady superintendent, ten women
(including one trained nurse).
Under the commandant will be two sections, each commanded by an officer,
who ought to be the village doctor. Their under officers will again be
the chemist and his assistants. The men of the sections will be made up
of tradesmen and workmen. Each will have an assigned duty. The carpenter
and the smith would train to convert the church and the school into a
hospital, make ready carriages and carts to convey wounded and sick, and
fit up railway wagons, coal trucks, and the like for a similar use.
Others would prepare in peace time, so that when mobilized they could go
to a house here or a house there, obtain beds promised beforehand, and
fit them up in the temporary hospital, procure tables for operations,
lay in the necessary food and fuel. Under the lady superintendent is to
be the trained nurse, and her associates are to include those who have
volunteered as cooks, and others who will look after the cleanliness of
the hospital, wash clothing, and do all those thousand and one tasks
which make for the comfort and the restoration to health of ailing men.
In the larger towns and cities there may be dozens of these splendid
organizations for making less terrible the dreadful results of war.
The Red Cross detachments have no place in our regular service. Because
our forces serve over seas the War Office itself provides the necessary
chain of hospitals and communications for bringing the wounded to the
base. But the Territorial Forces are created only for service at home,
and the hope is that those who can not for any reason join its ranks may
at least render valuable assistance as members of their local Red Cross
detachment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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