4. Conclusions

The undertaking of any service auxiliary to warfare was (and is) against Quaker religious principles. Thus, from the outset, the Friends’ Ambulance Unit encountered opposition from within the Society of Friends. However, in its relief work among the civilians of Flanders, the FAU found renewed support from those at home. Far from aiding the machinery of war, the volunteers were practising the fundamental tenets of their Quaker religion—as well as preserving life in such extreme and unhappy circumstances, they were bringing the spirit of love to those in desperate need, caught up in the conflict through no fault of their own. The FAU brought not only momentary relief to these  unfortunate people but also renewed hope—hope for a future less terrible than the living hell in which they had been entrapped. It would be difficult to find a finer example of devotion to the Quaker
religion. The Unit’s creator, Philip Baker, explains in typically unassuming terms the reasons for its
practical success:

[A]ll this work was achieved . . . because of our strict adherence to the principle of doing
what was needed, and what was not being done, whether or not we had expected to do it,
whether or not it happened to suit our plans, and whether or not we wanted to undertake
that work at that particular moment.29

 

Young volunteer Charlie Dingle also spoke of the Unit’s work in the region of Flanders, during those
dark days of war. He expresses the religious value of its achievements—a sentiment echoed in the
testimonies of many of those who played a part:

 

How thankful I felt that I had been enabled to become one of the Friends’ Ambulance Unit;
time has only increased that thankfulness, and after nearly two years of service I honestly
feel that the existence of such a Unit has been, and is, of incalculable benefit to me and to
the world at large. It seems a wonderful thing that a Unit, having as its ideals peace and
brotherhood, should have been able to work for so long in the zone of war with its attendant
denials of Christian principles 30.

 

Conflicts of Interest: The author declares no conflicts of interest.

​

29 Extract from a speech at Headquarters by Philip Baker, dated 2 May 1915. In documents of Rowntree n.d.

 

30 Charlie Dingle, interview with Peter Liddle: LIDDLE/WW1/CO/024, Dingle, Charles Frederick. Brotherton Library Special Collections, University of Leeds.

References

 

British Red Cross. 2014. British Red Cross Register of Overseas Volunteers 1914–1918. Available
online:

http://www.findmypast.co.uk/articles/world-records/full-list-of-united-kingdom-records/armedforces-and-conflict/british-red-cross-register-of-overseas-volunteers-1914-1918 (accessed on 20 April 2018).

Catchpool, Corder. 1940. On Two Fronts: Letters of a Conscientious Objector. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd.

 

Greenwood, Ormerod John. 1975. Quaker Encounters: Volume 1: Friends and Relief. York: William Sessions Limited.

 

Harrison, Cyril A., and Cyril Young. 1919. A Train Errant: Being the Experiences of a Voluntary Unit in France and an Anthology from Their Magazine. Hertford: Simson and Co. Ltd.

Kennedy, Thomas C. 1984. The Quaker Renaissance and the Origins of the Modern British Peace Movement, 1895–1920. Albion 16: 243–72. [CrossRef]

Kennedy, Thomas C. 2016. A Body Divided: British Quakers, Patriotism and War, 1899–1919. In Quaker Studies. Available online: https://online.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/abs/10.3828/quaker.2016.21.2.3 (accessed on 20 April 2018).

Lidbetter, Hubert Martin, and N. Monk-Jones. 1919. SSA 14, Section Sanitaire Anglaise Quatorze 1915–1919. An Account of the Activities in Belgium and Northern France of a Section of the Friends’ Ambulance Unit. Manchester: J. Ellis Benson.

London Yearly Meeting. 1914. To Men and Women of Goodwill in the British Empire: A Message from the Religious Society of Friends. London: Plowshares Digital Archive, Earlham College, Friends Collection. Available online:

http://replica.palni.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ecplow/id/24374 (accessed on 4 April 2018).

​

Meyer, Jessica. 2015. Neutral caregivers or military support? The British Red Cross, the Friends’ Ambulance Unit, and the problems of voluntary medical aid in wartime. War and Society 34: 105–20. [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Palfreeman, Linda. 2017. Friends in Flanders: Humanitarian Aid Administered by the Friends' Ambulance Unit During the First World War. Eastbourne: Sussex Academic Press.

Pearson, Arthur, and Gordon Pearson. 2015. Friends Ambulance Unit in World War I and World War II. Dublin:Original Writing Ltd.

Pettifer, Ernest W. 2014. My Small Share: A Quaker Diary from WWI. Milton Keynes: Author House UK. Ltd.

Quaker Organisation. 1661. From a Declaration to Charles II Entitled ‘A Declaration from the Harmless and Innocent People of God, Called Quakers’. Available online: http://www.quaker.org/peaceweb/pdecla07.html (accessed on 2 April 2018).

Religious Society of Friends. 2016. Whitefeather Diaries. Available online: http://www.whitefeatherdiaries.org.uk/dont-help-war (accessed on 28 April 2018).

Rowntree, Colin. n.d. One Family at War. In Rowntree, Colin. Available online: http://www.guise.me.uk/articles/familyatwar/colin/index.htm (accessed on 3 April 2018).

Rubinstein, David. 2015. A Quaker Dilemma: The Rowntree Family and the Great War 1914–1918. York: Quacks Books.

 

Stapledon, Olaf. 1935. Experiences in the Friends’ Ambulance Unit. In We Did Not Fight 1914–18: Experiences of War Resisters. Edited by Julian Bell. London: Cobden-Sanderson, pp. 359–74. Web edition published by eBooks@Adelaide. Available online: https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/s/stapledon/olaf/friends/ (accessed on 24 March 2018).

Tatham, Meaburn, and James E. Miles, eds. 1920. The Friends’ Ambulance Unit, 1914–1919: A Record. London: the Swarthmore Press Ltd.

Wynter, Rebecca. 2016a. Conscription, Conscience and Controversy: The Friends’ Ambulance Unit and the ‘Middle Course’ in the First WorldWar. Quaker Studies 21: 213–33. [CrossRef]

Wynter, Rebecca. 2016b. Keeping the Peace: Working Relationships and the Friends’ Ambulance Unit in the First WorldWar. Ieper, January 14.

Young, GeoffreyWinthrop. 1915. A Story of the Work of the Friends’ Ambulance Unit. London: Newnham, Cowell and Gripper.

Young, GeoffreyWinthrop. 1953. The Grace of Forgetting. London: Country Life Ltd.

​

​

​