Cross, which has reached over $30,000,000, had their schemes also. In
time of war they are controlled by the War Office and Admiralty. The
Red Cross had, since 1909, organized Voluntary Aid Detachments to
give voluntary aid to the sick and wounded in the event of war in home
territory. There were 60,000 men and women trained in transport work,
cooking, laundry, first aid and home nursing. St. John's ambulance had
the same system of ambulance workers and V.A.D.'s to call on.

As the war proceeded it was quite clear that the nursing staffs,
though we had secured 3,000 more trained nurses through the Red Cross
in the first few weeks of the war, would be quite inadequate, and it
was found necessary to use V.A.D.'s and to open V.A.D. Hospitals,
most of them being established in large private houses lent for the
purpose. Within nine months there were 800 of these at work in every
part of England, Scotland and Wales. The V.A.D.'s suffered a little
at first from confusion with the ladies who insisted on rushing off to
France after taking a ten day's course in first aid. We had suffered
a great deal from that kind of thing in the South African War and
were determined to have no repetition of it, so they were firmly and
decisively removed from France without delay.

[Illustration: FIRST AMBULANCE ON DUTY IN THE FIRST ZEPPELIN RAID ON
LONDON]

To get more trained nurses, rules were relaxed and the age limit
raised. Many nurses, retired and married, returned to work, but very
quickly it was perfectly clear our trained nurses were inadequate in
number for the great work before us, and in less than a year in most
hospitals every ward had one V.A.D. worker assisting who had been
nominated by her Commandant and County Director, and in March, 1915,