Description
Physical description
Lightweight pullover dress made of grey linen with short sleeves with a stand & fall collar, the points of the collar being rounded. There are two flapped patch pockets to the front skirts. A vertical pen pocket is sewn to the left upper breast and is very worn, the material torn top and bottom through use lines applied. To the right upper sleeve is a single vertical bar of red cloth.
Label
Worn as part of the Ward Dress uniform by VAD Kathleen Culling.
Voluntary Aid Detachments (VAD) were initially recruited from members of The Red Cross Society, St John's Ambulance Brigade, and St Andrew's Ambulance Association. Members were classified as either Mobile or Immobile, the former agreeing to serve overseas, the latter within reach of their homes. Mobile members were aged between 21-40 (later changed 19-45), whilst Immobile were 18-65. The role of these two respective groups was thus that Mobile members were to provide staff for Service hospitals, whilst their colleagues would be employed in Emergency Medical Services Hospitals.
Kathleen Cunning volunteered to serve with the VAD at Norwich in 1941, having being a member of The British Red Cross. She first served at The Royal Naval Auxiliary Hospital at Barrow Gurney, Bristol, and by April 1944 was employed at the Naval Health Office, Liverpool, where she met her future husband. Married in August of 1944, she resigned on becoming pregnant and was discharged from her duties in December of the same year.
The VAD would wear a grey/blue dress with white apron, an armband bearing the Mobile badge to the left arm, and a white veil gathered behind the head in a fashion unlike those worn by military nurses.
Inscription
A, K.J.CULLING
B, Frazerton adeless JOHN LEWIS Ltd. OXFORD STREET LONDON W.1.