Description
Object description
British civilian conscientious objector with Friends' Ambulance Unit in GB, Egypt, Palestine and Dodecanese Islands, Greece, 1942-1946
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Redcar, GB, 1920-1941: family; education; family's political beliefs; father's service in First World War; employment; development of pacifist beliefs. Recollections of period as conscientious objector with Friends' Ambulance Unit in GB, 1942-1944: joining Friends' Ambulance Unit; attending tribunal in Liverpool, 20/4/1942; family reaction to her joining Friends' Ambulance Unit; training at Barmoor; class origins of organisation's members; attitude towards Quakers; welfare work in air raid shelters in London; relations between male and female members of Friends' Ambulance Unit; awareness of Bethnal Green Underground Disaster, 3/3/1943.
REEL 2 Continues: work with Family Service Units in Liverpool; volunteering for overseas service; training at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London; uniform. Aspects of period as member of Friends' Ambulance Unit in Egypt and Palestine, 1944-1945: journey to Egypt; in transit camp at Maidi Camp, near Cairo, Egypt; move to Palestine; work with refugees from Greek Islands in Musarat Camp, Palestine; attitude of Greeks towards Germans; relations with British military personnel. Recollections of period as member of Friends' Ambulance Unit in Dodecanese Islands, Greece, 1945-1946: move to islands; living conditions on islands; presence of German prisoners of war on islands; Greek island culture.
REEL 3 Continues: opinion of importance of work of Friends' Ambulance Unit on islands; merging of Friends' Ambulance Unit with United Nations Relief and Rehabiliation Administration; improvement in conditions on islands; degree of awareness of Greek Civil War; Greek culture on west coast. Reflections of period with Friends' Ambulance Unit, 1942-1946: question of effects of military mind; difficulties for men in organisation; relations between organisation members; attitude towards war and peace issues, 1989; impact of Friends' Ambulance Unit experience on life; impact of Second World War on female emancipation; position of women in Friends' Ambulance Unit.