4th Row: Nos.1 – 12 Royal Army Medical Corps PRIVATES
Royal Army Medical Corps Privates. General Military Hospital, Colchester. July 1918.
‘Private’ is the most junior rank in the Army.
4th Row: Nos. 13-59 : BRITISH RED CROSS MEMBERS
British Red Cross and/or St. John’s Ambulance members. General Military Hospital, Colchester. July 1918.
All women in the images above (dark hatted/numbered) are standing in the 4th Row of the 1918 Colchester Military Hospital photograph. Regardless of hat style, it is believed that all these women are members of the British Red Cross. Nationwide, when talking about the British Red Cross Society and St. John Ambulance during WW1, about three-quarters of such women volunteers were BRCS members and about a quarter St. John. The fact that the two organizations combined during WW1 (under the new Joint War Committee) did not dilute a woman’s identity – she either belonged to one or the other, as opposed to considering she was a Joint War Committee member. All members were trained in first aid and some trained in nursing, cookery, hygiene and sanitation.
British Red Cross members. General Military Hospital, Colchester. July 1918.
All the Hospital’s British Red Cross Society members have the British Red Cross Society badge on their head-gear; several members wear a County/Branch badge on their chest; and some (e.g. Nos. 46; 50; 53) wear a BRCS tie pin.
4th Row: Nos. 60 –73 Royal Army Medical Corps PRIVATES
Royal Army Medical Corps Privates. General Military Hospital, Colchester. July 1918.
‘Private’ is the most junior rank in the Army.
Military Hospital, Colchester, Essex, England 