Read more about the Friends’ Ambulance unit here
Links to the four audio interviews by the the Imperial War Museum with Lloyd Fox relating to his experiences with the Friends’ Ambulance Unit during WWl.
Source: Imperial War Museum
Note: There are delays and pauses at the start and during the recordings
Interviews Reel #1
Background in Wellington, Somerset, 1893-1914: family including Quaker beliefs of mother; education; employment; reaction to outbreak of war, 8/1914; story of attempting to enlist as dispatch rider and volunteering for Friends Ambulance Unit, 9/Sept. Aspects of period with Friends Ambulance Unit in GB, 1914-1917: description of training at HQ in London and at London Hospital; attitude to medical work; description of work in out-patients ward in East End of London; route marches; question of uniform; story of volunteering to care for typhoid patients and attitude to serving overseas; question of attending tribunal and attitude of local people in Wellington to pacifist beliefs; question of Christian and pacifist beliefs; story of contracting influenza and delay in going overseas; description of role as accountant at Friends Ambulance Unit HQ, London; opinion of efficiency of HQ staff; question of funding and pay for Friends Ambulance Unit personnel; effect of conscription on recruitment for Friends Ambulance Unit.
Interviews Reel #2
Recollections of operations with Friends Ambulance Unit on Western Front, 1917-1918: description of role as ambulance driver in Dunkirk and Nieuport area; description of conversion of vehicles into ambulances; role of ambulance service in Dunkirk area; further description of role as ambulance driver; problem of German shelling of munitions dump in Dunkirk; story of shelling from 21-inch German naval gun on docks and attending to casualties; opinion of efficiency of Friends Ambulance Unit; amusing story of Chinese labour camp; description of military and civilian casualties and role visiting medical depots with Colonel; story of accident with Primus stove; attitude of military towards Friends Ambulance Unit; story of being recommended for Military Medal and not receiving award; description of ambulances and capacity; problem of driving in wet weather; question of medical skills and treating casualties.
Interviews Reel #3
Amusing story of Cockney soldier; question of Quaker women serving in France; opinion of VADs; story of typhoid unit near Dunkirk; description of shelters in cellars and docks at Dunkirk; marriage; story of volunteering for front line service with French at Poperinghe, Belgium, 9/1918; description of driving ambulance in Ypres area; story of women and children gassed by Germans and problem of medical facilities for treatment in Courtrai, Belgium, 11/1918; question of selecting twenty civilians for treatment and how all eight hundred eventually died from effects of gas; question of lack of reporting of incident; memory of Armistice and celebration bonfire; story of British soldier accidentally killed by Verey pistol during Armistice celebrations; memory of winter 1918-1919 and problem of cold.
Interviews Reel #4
Description of activities in Courtrai area, Belgium, 1918-1919; description of living conditions in Dunkirk; question of pacifist beliefs and effects of war experiences; question of men claiming to be conscientious objectors to evade military service; assessment of role of Friends Ambulance Unit during war and reflections on period of service; story of brothers’ service with French ambulance convoys. Aspects of post-war life and employment: story of role as treasurer for Friends Ambulance Unit training camp during Second World War; question of class of Friends Ambulance Unit personnel; comparison of conscientious objectors in First and Second World Wars; effect of pacifist beliefs on social standing and reaction against family; reflections on nature of war and pacifist beliefs of children and grandchildren.