The Volunteer Medical Staff Corps, Ambulance and First Aid Movement in Britain

Date:
1880s-1954
Reference:
MS.7936
Part of:
Cantlie, Sir James, F.R.C.S. (1851-1926)
  • Archives and manuscripts
  • Online

Collection contents

Available online

Contains: 265 images

In copyright

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Credit

The Volunteer Medical Staff Corps, Ambulance and First Aid Movement in Britain. In copyright. Source: Wellcome Collection.

About this work

Description

Comprises of the following miscellaneous loose papers (originally found grouped together):

  • MS.7936/1: printed page listing names of a deputation from the Volunteer Medical Organisation (including Cantlie), dated February 1884.
  • MS.7936/2: letter from Buckingham Chandos, Chairman, Executive Council, International Health Exhibition London 1884, asking Cantlie to write the handbook on 'Accidental Injuries: their prevention and first management', dated April 1884.
  • MS.7936/3: memoranda from the Medical Department, War Office, requesting names of persons suitable to command the new Volunteer Medical Staff Corps and appointing Cantlie as Surgeon-Commandant, dated March 1885.
  • MS.7936/4: print of ink drawings of stretcher bearers of the Volunteer Medical Staff Corps, by "Algy: Newark", dated 1886.
  • MS.7936/5: ticket admitting "Mr Brown and friends" to inspection by Lord Wolseley, of Charing Cross Hospital Ambulance Co, 5 Jul [no year], at St George's Barracks, Trafalgar Square, dated 1880s.
  • MS.7936/6: invitation to Mr and Mrs Cantlie to opening ceremony of the New Head Quarters of the London Companies Volunteer Medical Staff Corps, Calthorpe St, Gray's Inn Road, dated 1880s.
  • MS.7936/7: printed circular to raise money for the Volunter Medical Staff Corps by Sir Guyer Hunter, K.C.M.G., Surgeon-General, Hon. Commandant Volunteer Medical Staff Corps, and James Cantlie, Surgeon-Commandant, dated mid-late 1880s.
  • MS.7936/8: 1 set of illustrations (8ff) of stretcher-bearing, cart ambulances, operating tents, based on Cantlie's ideas and work, dated 1880s-1914.
  • MS.7936/9: two black and white photographs of a review of the Volunteer Medical Staff Corps, dated 1880s-1914.
  • MS.7936/10: Cantlie's ts./MS. draft account of the history of the Volunteer Medical Service Corps and his role in its raising, 1 ts./MS. 126ff: preface 2ff., "chapter I" 24ff., "chapter III" 45ff., "chapter IV" foliated 25-81 with 37 missing, 55ff, dated 1891, Hong Kong.
  • MS.7936/11: course programme of the Volunteer Ambulance School of Instruction, December 1896.
  • MS.7936/12: programme for an inaugural Smoking Concert given by the members of the Cantlie Club (3rd London (City of London) Field Ambulance), February 1903.
  • MS.7936/13: annotated ts., probably by Cantlie, on the importance of first aid knowledge and training for the general public, 1 ts. 3ff.., dated c.1900-1910.
  • MS.7936/14: programme of songs for a reception at Marlborough Houseon. On the back of card is written "Queen Alexandra, Princess Christian, Princess Beatrice and Princess Victoria received and shook hands with the members of the Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachments. We went and Hamish was especially introduced", dated July 1903.
  • MS.7936/15: programme of British Red Cross Society Surrey Branch, Chertsey Division, Field Display, Brooklands Race Course, Weybridge, (in the presence of H.M. Queen Alexandra and H.I.M. the Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia) with letters of congratulation from Henry Streatfield, G Locke King and Frederick Treves, 1 pamphlet, 3 letters, dated June 1914.
  • MS.7936/16: letter from F.E.G. Ponsonby, Privy Purse Office, Buckingham Palace, to Sir Frederick Treves, thanking him for arranging a British Red Cross stretcher party from the railway carriage to ambulance and ambulance to the Palace. [King injured in France. Cantlie had removed rank, medals, etc. to serve as stretcher bearer], dated November 1915.
  • MS.7936/17: a collection of letters and Christmas cards from the Princess Royal, Princess Mary, including thanks to Cantlie for his lectures on first aid at Buckingham Palace, 1917, for birthday and other gifts, and for an invitation to become President of the College of Ambulance in place of the late Princess Christian, 1923 (turned down due to other commitments), 12 items, dated 1917-1926.
  • MS.7936/18: MS. record of a talk on the War work of the London 110 (V.A.D) and training at the College of Ambulance from 1914, by Mabel Cantlie, Commandant, 1 ms. 6ff.., dated c.1918.
  • MS.7936/19: appeal for the College of Ambulance in Vere Street to become a national institution: annotated ts., printed proof, and off-print of appeal published in The Times , dated 21 October 1919.
  • MS.7936/20: recruitment notice of the 3rd London (City of London) Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, Territorial Army, 56th (1st London) Division, for a new peace time establishment, dated c.1919.
  • MS.7936/21: College of Ambulance, programme of Classes and Lectures, Spring Term 1922.
  • MS.7936/22: British Red Cross Society, printed minutes of statutory meeting of council including number of Red Cross training manuals sold to date, dated May 1903.
  • MS.7936/23: letter from Sir Srthur Stanley, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the British Red Cross Society, thanking Cantlie, on his retirement, for his services as teacher of the Red Cross Ambulance Classes, and asking him to remain on the Council and Executive Committee and post as an examiner in ambulance work, with copy of Cantlie's reply, (first page only, end seems missing), 2 letters, dated August 1925.
  • MS.7936/24: New Year greeting card from Cantlie, asking his friends to "further the cause of First Aid by becoming Good Samaritans during 1926", featuring photograph of a tablet of honour sent from Canton in 1911 thanking Cantlie for helping to secure the liberation of Sun Yat Sen from detention at the Chinese Legation in London, dated 1926.
  • MS.7936/25: letter from British Red Cross Society Vice-Chairman, to Lieutenant General Sir Neil Cantlie, K.C.B., K.B.E., M.C., Ch.B., F.R.C.S., thanking him for loan of a reprint of address by Cantlie to a meeting of the Polytechnic, Regent Street, London, 9 September 1914. Prior to the Polytechnic's decision to set up a fund for the foundation of the College of Ambulance and Humanitarian Corps to render "First Aid to those in Need", in recognition of Cantlie's life-long devotion to Ambulance work, 2 copies of address attached, dated December 1954.

    • Publication/Creation

    1880s-1954

    Physical description

    46 items

    Biographical note

    £100,000 was required for refurbishment of new premises in Queen Anne Street (MS.7936/19); this is the detachment which had grown out of Cantlie's original V.M.S.C. detachment from London Hospital volunteers (MS.7936/20).

    Finding aids

    Database description transcribed from Richard Aspin and Christopher Hilton's typescript supplement to S.A.J Moorat's Catalogue of Western Manuscripts

    Where to find it

    • LocationStatusAccess
      Closed stores

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