Army Blood Supply Depot: photographs

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A/C1 Old blood vehicle A/C3 Bristol's Transfusion Campaign 1944 A/C4 Collection team in wartime A/C5 Pinpointing the action on the map A/C6 A cup of tea under hardy conditions A/C7 The donor session - cramped conditions A/C9 Post-War - Harry Secombe gives a pint and drinks a pint A/C10 Harry Secombe in action giving a pint A/C11 Odd contraption - could be freeze drying A/C12 Very early needle sharpening RAMC A/C13 Technical glass blower makes individual parts for transfusion sets A/C14 Ladies of emergency service doing laboratory tests A/C15 Nurse - set assembly A/C16 	Looks like old alarm panel. The Silver Thimble - gift from the women of India A/C17 Collecting plasma A/C18 Plasma collection/drying A/C19 Collecting plasma into a Winchester A/C20 Siphoning plasma A/C21 Insulated wooden box A/C22 Army personnel handling red cross blood crates A/C/23 Placing crates into box. ABTS Army Blood Supply Depot Bristol A/C24 Old vehicle refrigeration A/C25 An Army box of blood destined for North Africa (Desert War) A/C26 Unloading blood A/C27 Red Cross and supplies in desert (North Africa) October 1942) A/C28 Sorting out the stock in the desert A/C29 Overseas despatch store at ABSD - Bottles of plasma. Loading or unloading Army supplies A/C30 Advanced Blood Bank - Blood on the move A/C31 Transfusion at front line A/C32 Field Transfusion Team details Jan 1960 A/C33 Two officers at No.3 Field Trans Unit A/C34 Colonel Whitby observes the dissection A/C35 Casualty on home front A/C36 Transfusion in field A/C37 Colonel Whitby inspects the FANYS A/C38 Santas ex Sanguine B85C Wartime tinned albumin A/C40 Unfiltered wet plasma decanted into a Johnny Walker whisky bottle - Alexandria, Egypt, 1941 
These titles were used by Mr Peter Howell when displaying the photographs prior to them being placed in the Harrison-Howell collection, which provides additional information, i.e. 
A/C1:	Old Blood Vehicle : Even the Commanding Officer's staff car was pressed into service for donor recruitment. Note the vampire bat on the passenger side door. Does anyone know where the George and Railway Hotel is? 
A/C3:	Bristol's Transfusion Campaign 1944 : An advertisement in the Western Daily Post on the 1st February 1944. This was part of a campaign to enrol 50,000 new donors in Bristol. The campaign was launched by the Lord Mayor and Sheriff, who were the first and second donors respectively. Wing Commander Guy Gibson of Dam Busters fame also donated a pint. A special message was sent by General Sir Bernard Montgomery expressing his gratitude to the British blood donors in which he said "The Blood Transfusion Service is a great battle-winning factor". Note: This photograph is used as Fig. 10-4 in Chapter 10: The Army Blood Supply Depot in Fifty Years of Blood Transfusion, Transfusion Medicine, Volume 6, Supplement 1 (1996), page 67, where it is labelled: 'Winston Churchill urges the citizens of Bristol to support the ABSD'. 
A/C5:	Pinpointing the action on the map : Mr. J.G. McCrudden, Head of the Donor Organisation Department, examines a map of the South West of England (MoH Region 11) showing 400 centres visited by the Army Blood Transfusion Service (ABTS) Donor Teams. 
A/C7:	The donor session - cramped conditions : A "Bleed" in progress in a church hall. Each nurse manages one couch. Note the 'Gramophone' shaking machine. 
A/C9:	Post-War - Harry Secombe gives a pint and drinks a pint : Harry Secombe raises a pint of Courage with soldiers from the Parachute Regiment, while Major Derek Robson (furthest on the right), 2 i/c of the ABSD, enjoys the joke. Note the slogan on the base of the cockerel "Give a pint and take a pint". 
A/C11:	Odd contraption - could be freeze drying : Drying high titre grouping serum in 2cc ampoules using the lyophile process. 
A/C12:	Very early needle sharpening RAMC : An RAMC technician sharpens transfusion needles in the transfusion set assembly room. 
Note: This photograph is used as Fig. 10-9 in Chapter 10: The Army Blood Supply Depot in Fifty Years of Blood Transfusion, Transfusion Medicine, Volume 6, Supplement 1 (1996), page 69, where it is labelled: 'An RAMC technician sharpening donation needles'. 
A/C16:	Looks like old alarm panel. The Silver Thimble - gift from the women of India : The control panel of spin-drying plasma plant which was capable of producing over 1,400 bottles per week. This plant was purchased in 1941 with funds donated by the Silver Thimble Fund of the Women of India. 
A/C18:	Plasma collection/drying : Unloading one of the large primary desiccators in the Plasma Drying Department. The two small cylinders are secondary desiccators in which the last traces of moisture were removed by vacuum and P2O5. 
A/C19:	Collecting plasma into a Winchester : Pooling plasma (wartime) to absorb the agglutinins. 
A/C21:	Insulated wooden box : The "14 Bottle" wooden case used to transport plasma, its total weight being 60 lbs. Note each bottle has an accompanying transfusion set. Later the number of sets was reduced to 4 per case, because casualties were each given more than one unit of plasma. Dried plasma was sent to tropical theatres, whilst liquid plasma was used in temperate climates. 
A/C22:	Army personnel handling red cross blood crates : A load of Field Patten boxes being sent to the Army Medical Supply Depot at Ludgershall prior to D-Day. 
A/C23:	Placing crates into a transport box. ABTS Army Blood Supply Depot Bristol : A special Kapok lined insulated box, with ice insert in the lid. Each box held 2 crates (20 bottles) of blood. Each bottle is accompanied by a transfusion set. The blood in these boxes was kept cool for 8 hours and the total weight was 110 lbs. The "Dragon-fly" light aircraft could carry four boxes. 
A/C25:	An Army box of blood destined for North Africa (Desert War) : A complete Transfusion Box sent in support of the 1st Army Group in North Africa. It contains dried plasma "C", distilled water fro reconstituting the plasma "D", grouping anti-sera "E" and "F" and transfusion sets "under E" and "F". Note: This photograph is used as Fig. 10-7 in Chapter 10: The Army Blood Supply Depot in Fifty Years of Blood Transfusion, Transfusion Medicine, Volume 6, Supplement 1 (1996), page 68, where it is labelled: 'A transfusion set boxed ready for despatch'. 
A/C26:	Unloading blood : The Officer Commanding No.2 Advanced Blood Bank (ABB) of (? 26) Field Transfusion Unit (FTU), unloads blood "somewhere in Normandy" in June 1944. Note that the censor has obliterated the number of the FTU. This was done for reasons of security, on the original negative before prints were released to the press for publication. 
A/C27:	Red Cross and supplies in desert (North Africa) October 1942 : Boxes of dried plasma being unloaded from a De Haviland 86 by the staff of 1 Field Transfusion Unit (FTU) at Borg-el-Arab, North Africa in October 1942. 
A/C28:	Sorting out the stock in the desert : The "Empties" store at 3 Field Transfusion Unit (FTU), October 1942. 
A/C30:	Advanced Blood Bank - Blood on the move : A motor-cycle despatch-rider (Don R) being recruited to deliver blood from an Advanced Blood Bank (ABB) during the battle of El-Alamein, October 1942. Note: This photograph is used as Fig. 10-11 in Chapter 10: The Army Blood Supply Depot in Fifty Years of Blood Transfusion, Transfusion Medicine, Volume 6, Supplement 1 (1996), page 69, where it is labelled: 'A motor-cyclist delivers blood from an advanced Blood bank at the battle of El Alamein'. 
A/C31:	Transfusion at the front line : A blood transfusion is administered in a field hospital in (possibly) Italy. 
A/C32:	Field Transfusion Team details Jan 1960 : The Medical Equipment Scale (1.1248) for a Field Transfusion Team, January 1960. 
A/C33:	Two officers at No.3 Field Transfusion Unit : Keith Lucas, Officer Commanding 3 Field Transfusion Unit (FTU) greets a comrade in front of his tent. 3 FTU was attached to 10 CCS before the battle of Mareth in 1942. Note the vampire bat on the unit site. The "Bat" was the title of the ABTS magazine which was published intermittently throughout the war. 
A/C34:	Colonel Whitby observes the dissection : An animal transfusion experiment is conducted under the supervision of Commanding Officer ABSD, Colonel Lionel Whitby (1st on the left) and Captain W d'A Maycock (3rd from the left). 
A/C35:	Casualty on [the] home front : A casualty is removed from a bombed house in London during the Blitz. 
A/C36:	Transfusion in [the] field : A potential donor has his haemoglobin checked, whilst two donate a pint and two others recover. A field donor session - "Somewhere in France", Summer 1944 Note: This photograph depicts people giving blood donations and not people receiving a blood transfusion - therefore the title is actually incorrect and should be 'Donating in the field' - PL. 
A/C38:	Santas ex Sanguine : The badge of the Army Blood Supply Depot (ABTS), Aldershot - The Queens crown indicates that the unit is part of a Royal Corps (RAMC), the vampire bat has been the symbol of the ABTS since its inception in 1939; the caduceus is the symbol of healing and the motto means "Health from Blood". Note: This photograph is used as Fig. 10-12 in Chapter 10: The Army Blood Supply Depot in Fifty Years of Blood Transfusion, Transfusion Medicine, Volume 6, Supplement 1 (1996), page 71, where it is labelled: 'The badge of the ABSD'

Army Blood Supply Depot: photographs

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