To celebrate the 80th Anniversary of VE Day, join Curator Rebecca as she discusses St John Ambulances involvement in both the Second World War, and the festivities that followed.
Victory in Europe Day celebrates the formal acceptance of the surrender of Germany forces on 8 May 1945, and is what we might understand as the end of the Second World War in the West. St John played an enormous role in the Second World War, and continued to provide support and care as the nation took to the streets to celebrate.
In 1939 the Joint War Organisation was established with 24 members from both the Order of St John and the British Red Cross. They came together to ensure that neither organisation was duplicating effort, and that they could be utilise their volunteers across the UK, and the world, more efficiently. They organised Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADS) who were trained in first aid as well as hygiene, sanitation and cooking. They were closely tied to the war effort and often worked in field hospitals near battlefields as well as in longer-term places of recuperation back in Britain.
St John were also active on the front lines, especially when those front lines were brought to the streets of London through aerial bombing. Training civilians in how to perform vital lifesaving first aid was especially important when they were the ones often caught up in the attacks.
The First World War came as somewhat of a surprise, but preparation for another global war began in the second half of the 1930s. In 1935, St John was asked to provide first aid and anti-gas training to the public. By 1940, 298,343 certificates had been issued to those who has successfully completed the appropriate training courses.
The Joint War Organisation organised 249 ambulances for the war effort, in total travelling over 6 million miles and carrying over 680,000 patients. They started with a fund of £2000, but following the sale of flags, the making of clothing, the throwing of fundraising events like sales and raffles and stopping production of metal medals and pendants, by the end of the war over £50 million had been raised for the fund.
Everybody involved with St John got stuck into the war effort, and volunteers travelled from across the country to the capital where they manned first aid posts set up in the tube stations where people took refuge. Others worked as ambulance drivers, a particularly difficult job when driving in the complete dark over roads covered in holes and debris.
There is no question as to how incredibly important the efforts of St John Ambulance volunteers were during the Second World War, both to providing training as well as direct medical services to both civilians and soldiers. But how did they support VE Day at the culmination of these 6 years of war?
The actual VE Day itself on 8 May 1945 was a spontaneous celebration where people took to the streets. Although the allied forces had been planning for victory, with the term ‘VE Day’ existing as early as 1944, the actual day wasn’t a formal organised affair; approximately one million people burst outside after an announcement by Prime Minister Winston Churchill where they celebrated with friends, family and neighbours across the country.
Mass crowds appeared in Trafalgar Square and up The Mall to Buckingham Palace where King George VI and his wife and daughters appeared on the balcony alongside Winston Churchill. Churchill then moved on to celebrate at Whitehall where he addressed an even larger crowd saying “God bless you all. This is your victory. In our long history, we have never seen a greater day than this. Everyone, man or woman, has done their best.”
How St John celebrated this day, we’re slightly unsure of. It’s likely volunteers were swept up celebrating with their friends and family themselves.
However, it wasn’t until 13 months later, on 8th June 1946 that official celebrations began, and this is where St John’s involvement with supporting the celebrations really begins. A committee was put together in November 1945 by Prime Minister Clement Attlee in order to properly celebrate the allied victory. The following ‘Victory Parade’ included a military parade through London, finishing with a fireworks display. A column of allied vehicles drove from Regent’s Park to Tower Hill and back again, and the marching column walked from Marble Arch to The Mall to Hyde Park Corner.
In the 1945 First Aid Journal, it is reported that at least 3,000 members of St John Ambulance would be needed to help with Victory Day, with 59 first aid stations lining the extensive route. During the event, 4,127 persons needed medical attention and 65 were taken to hospital, mainly from the strain of waiting for long hours in the rain to see the parade. In true British fashion, apparently it was pouring with rain, but that didn’t dampen the nations spirit.
Two members of the St John Ambulance Brigade from Malta (an Ambulance Sister and an Ambulance Sergeant) marched in the Victory Parade in London. Allied forces from around the world took part in the celebrations, and it was particularly important to have Malta there as it was the most intensively bombed country in the war. Between 1940-42, Malta faced relentless aerial attacks by the German Luftwaffe and the Italian Air Force. In April 1942 alone, Malta received more tonnage of bombs than London received during the entire Battle of Britain. It was an important island to the Allied war effort as it provided a base to disrupt Axis supply lines and could supply British armies in Egypt. German and Italian high commands were also concerned about a British stronghold so close to Italy.
In the May 1945 First Aid Journal, there is quite an extensive essay by Sir Henry L. Martyn, a senior surgeon involved with St John. Edits to the journal had to be completed before the 8th of the month, but in the May 1945 edition Sir Henry suggests that by the time we are reading his words, it’s likely that war in the West will have drawn to a victorious conclusion. He speaks rather pessimistically, but perhaps with reality, that just because the war is over, it doesn’t mean the country won’t continue to face hardships. He notes that it appeared that the government were looking to create a permanent Civil Defence, and that Rescue Services and First Aid Posts were a vital component of that. He says that ‘the need for every possible encouragement for the continuation, intensification and modernisation of First Aid training remains a policy to which the Government are already giving the most energetic encouragement’.
Being a surgeon, he also comments that while medical advancements were a silver lining of war, they are only effective if they are first treated with First Aid. St John provided an immense amount of aid and support during the war, but as Henry says here, it is vital that their work continues after the war, in times of both conflict and peace.