REPRINTED BY KIND PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR 21ST JULY 2020

 

The Friends’ Ambulance Unit in the First World War

​

By

​

Linda Palfreeman
International Relations and Graduate,

University Cardenal Herrera

Spain

Abstract:

 

The Friends’ Ambulance Unit (FAU) was created shortly after the outbreak of the First World War. It was an attempt to provide young Friends (Quakers) with the opportunity to serve their country without sacrificing their religious principles. However, it was considered by some members to be in direct opposition to the Society’s fundamental religious tenets, and thus remained a cause of internal conflict throughout the war. Nevertheless, the civilian relief work that was carried out by the FAU early in the war, in the region of Flanders, aligned the unit’s activities much more closely with the religious principles of the Society. The FAU assisted thousands of civilians trapped in the besieged and battered town of Ypres, working intensively in the containment and treatment of the typhoid epidemic that swept the region, locating sufferers, providing them with medical care, and inoculating people against the disease. It helped in the purification of the town’s contaminated drinking water, and distributed milk for infants and food and clothing to the sick and needy. It helped found hospitals and orphanages, made provision for schooling, and organised gainful employment for refugees.

Keywords: Quaker; ambulance; pacifism; humanitarian aid; volunteers; First World War; Ypres

 

1. Introduction

This essay documents the response of a particular section of British society to the outbreak of what would later become universally known as the First World War. The collective in question, mostly  young pacifists belonging to the Society of Friends (or Quakers), formed a voluntary ambulance unit
to take out to the war zones of France and Belgium. Despite its considerable achievements, there is a general paucity of scholarly publication on the work of what became known as the Friends’ Ambulance Unit (FAU). (For exceptions, see Meyer 2015; Wynter 2016b. See also Palfreeman 2017).1

 

Created at the beginning of August 1914, the unit was not a response to conscription. It was formed and began to operate long before military service became obligatory, with the intention of giving medical assistance to sick and wounded soldiers at the front—an objective that was seen by some to be in direct opposition to one of the Society’s fundamental religious tenets, and one that would cause internal conflict among its members.

Since its origins in the English Civil War, in the seventeenth century, the Quaker faith has been
defined by its commitment to peace. In a declaration to King Charles II of England in 1660, George Fox, founder of the Religious Society of Friends, states,

All bloody principles and practices we do utterly deny, with all outward wars, and strife, and fightings with outward weapons, for any end, or under any pretence whatsoever, and this is our testimony to the whole world [ . . . ] the spirit of Christ, which leads us into all Truth, will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons, neither for the kingdom of Christ, nor for the kingdoms of this world.2

 

However, throughout its history, there has been an ongoing struggle within the Society of Friends
regarding its response to warfare. The South African Boer War (1899–1902) saw the first serious
violation of the Quaker peace testimony, when a number of prominent Friends supported the British
Empire’s struggle against what they considered to be a cruel and inhumane people. Some of the
younger, firmly committed Friends reacted with outrage, prompting what became known as the
“Quaker Renaissance”, during which devotion to the peace testimony was reinforced as a central
tenet of Quaker faith (Kennedy 1984). A document entitled “Our Testimony for Peace”, approved
by London Yearly Meeting in 1912, underlined the rejection of war and violence as the fundamental
principle on which the Society was built, and would become the foundation for twentieth-century
Quaker resistance to war. Following the outbreak of war in Europe, in May 1915 the Yearly Meeting
created the Friends’ Service Committee (FSC) “to strengthen the Peace testimony among Friends of
military age” (Kennedy 2016). The committee made clear where the Friends’ loyalty lay:

Christ demands of us that we adhere, without swerving, to the methods of love, and therefore,
if a seeming conflict should arise between the claims of His service and those of the State, it is
to Christ that our supreme loyalty must be given, whatever the consequences. We should
however remember that whatever is our highest loyalty to God and humanity is at the same
time the highest loyalty that we can render to our nation.3

 

So, commitment to peace and love for fellow human beings were consolidated, once more, as central to the Christian beliefs of Quakers. But the advent of war in Europe would again provoke irreconcilable differences of opinion about what should be their response to war—differences that would lead to the Quakers becoming more sharply divided than ever. The Friends’ Ambulance Unit would be at the centre of this internal conflict.

Despite its name, denounced by some as misleading, the Friends’ Ambulance Unit was never
actually an official organ of the Society of Friends and though it gained the sympathy and support
of many of the Society’s members, its relationship with the latter remained somewhat ambiguous.
Later in the war, after the introduction of conscription, this relationship would reach breaking point.4

 

Here, however, the focus is upon the civilian relief work that was carried out by the FAU early in the
war, in the region of Flanders, and that, if only in the short term, aligned the unit’s activities much
more closely with the religious principles of the Society.

 

The sudden advent of war triggered some uncertainty about what had previously seemed
unshakeable religious beliefs. Here, we question how it was that young men with fundamentally
pacifist beliefs were drawn, voluntarily, into the European war. What prompted these men to offer their services on active military fronts, in apparent contradiction of their religious principles? By examining the nature of the work carried out by these volunteers, and the values upon which such work was based, it is hoped that the apparent incongruity may be lessened, if not completely resolved. With this aim in mind, a brief descriptive account is given of the activities of the FAU in France and Belgium, with particular focus on the work carried out in the devastated town of Ypres.5

​

1 Particularly noteworthy, whilst not focusing entirely on the FAU, is the “Whitefeather Diaries” social media project that tells the stories of individuals who were opposed to the war—some of whom became members of the Unit: http://www.whitefeatherdiaries.org.uk/ (Religious Society of Friends 2016).

2 Extract from a declaration to Quaker Organisation 1661. The full text of the original declaration is available at http://quaker.org/legacy/minnfm/peace/A%declaration%20to%20Charles%20II%201660.htm

3 From a statement presented to London Yearly Meeting by a committee appointed by young men of enlistment age present at Yearly Meeting 1915. Available online at

http://qfp.quaker.org.uk/passage/23-89/

4 For further discussion, see Wynter 2016a. Wynter focuses chiefly on the FAU Committee’s response to the threat and enactment of conscription and the effect this had upon the internal workings of the Unit and its personnel. Her work represents a vital contribution to an almost nonexistent academic historiography on the work of the FAU during World War I.

5 Flanders would become infamous as the field of the successive battles that took place in the Ypres Salient. The First Battle of Ypres took place from 19 October to 22 November 1914; the Second Battle of Ypres from 22 April to 25 May 1915; the Third Religions 2018, 9, 165 3 of 14

 

2. Methodology

​