Red Cross volunteers who made their mark on WWI at Essex nursing homes

And this was very much the case during the First World War when it came to those looking after the many injured soldiers - and Colchester and the surrounding areas of North Essex was just one of those playing its part.

Historian Heather Johnson has a particular interest in the First World War and has thoroughly researched the role of the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St John at that time.

She explains at the outbreak of the conflict these two organisations joined together to form a joint war committee to help organise volunteers, known as VADs.

The majority of VADs gave their services free but, occasionally, a fee was paid.

“The medical services were provided by local General Practitioners, who generously gave of their time,” says Heather.

Every establishment, large and small, relied on these volunteers who came from every walk of life and every class and included highly trained Doctors or Matrons to labourers and parlour maids.

Many of them, women in particular, were already members of local Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachments, when the war broke out.

• Proof - Agnes Johnson in her uniform

Heather adds: “These had been set up in 1909, after the Boer War, to be ready and waiting in case it was necessary to provide voluntary nursing services for military personnel in any future conflict.

“VAD members, of which two thirds were women, had to study for certificates in Home Nursing and First Aid during their first year as a pre-war V.A.D. member.”

As a result of this auxiliary hospitals were set up in a number of different building and run by Voluntary Aid Detachments.

These includes Ardleigh’s Vicar’s rooms, the Village Hall in Earls Colne and a number of large private homes which includes Gostwycke in Colchester, Thorpe Hall in Thorpe-le-osken and Guisnes Court in Tolleshunt D’Arcy.

They were all affiliated to Colchester’s Military Hospital.

• Uniform - Daisy Johnson dressed for work

Among the voluntary nurses in Colchester researched by keen historians like Heather are Daisy and Maud Johnson, Gladys Wade and Gertrude Worger, who before she got married had been an actress.

Heather explains: “By the end of November 1914, she had volunteered.

“She was a VAD nurse at the ‘Gostwycke’ Red Cross Hospital.

“Husband Sidney was killed in 1916 and is commemorated on the Essex and Suffolk’s War Memorial Dedication Tablet, which is now installed in Colchester Town Hall.

“Like many of both sexes, Gertrude was awarded a Red Cross Medal for her War services."

Patients at local auxiliary Home Hospitals, on the whole, had been sent for convalescence or continuing straight forward treatment from military hospitals like the Military Hospital and Essex County Hospital.

They all took casualties directly from the trains.

• Gostwycke - nurses and soldiers during the First World War

Heather says it is reported the military patients preferred the auxiliary hospitals to the military hospitals because they were less strict.

With ordinary people caring for them, like aforementioned Gertrude, it is not surprising the auxiliary hospitals were preferred to the regime of military ones.

“That said, auxiliary hospitals were extremely well run by VAD members – they had to be.”

And for any amateur historians, or those researching their family, many volunteers are listed on the British Red Cross Society’s webpage www.vad.redcross.org.uk/Volunteers-during-WW1.

“f you think a relative of yours may have been a volunteer, it is worth taking a look.

“However, it is advisable to search using variations of any person’s name e.g. with or without Mr/Mrs/Miss; giving initials and full names or a mixture of the two; or nicknames, if you don’t find someone straight away.

“It will all depend on the person writing the card, as to facts given.”

But many names will not be there - because official evidence does not exist for them.

• Nurse - the back of Gladys Wade's Red Cross card

This is the case for sister Daisy and Agnes Johnson, who were both head teachers when not nursing.

Only Daisy has a Red Cross Service card on record, explains Heather.

“The only evidence Agnes was a VAD is a family photograph in her uniform.”

The volunteer cards can provide a lot of information about a person’s service - Gladys Wade’s, for example, says she did all the cooking at Guisnes Court Auxiliary Hospital.

The Home Hospital continued to be in use after peace was declared in November 1918 - many were still recovering and there was also a flu epidemic well into 1919 so it is fitting, a century on, to be looking back at the part they and their volunteers played.