By Michelle Fordice, Volunteer Contributor
The approach of the 100th anniversary of World War I
causes many of us to reflect on the impact of that conflict. The war was a
formative one for the Red Cross. Though the organization celebrated its 50th birthday just a few weeks after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, there
was no assurance that the humanitarian zeal of its leaders and volunteers would
be enough to alleviate the suffering of the war that was about to rage through
Europe and the world.
In an August 15, 1914 circular to the national Red Cross
societies, Gustave Ador, president of the organization, remarked, “From today,
the Red Cross is called to an intense labour of a kind never seen before.” Yet, despite setbacks, challenges and even
failures, the Red Cross rose to the occasion.
Here are 5 things you might
not have known about the Red Cross in World War I.
The Red Cross Supported
a Massive Information Gathering Campaign for Displaced Civilians and Prisoners
of War
When President Ador instituted an international agency to
respond to inquiries about prisoners of war, as dictated by the 1907 Hague
Convention, he staffed it with nine members of the International Committee, two
boy scouts and a student. Their first list of prisoners of war arrived with 29
names. Soon they realized that the changed nature of warfare meant that
displaced civilians would also need to be found, and added that challenge to
their mission.
Word of their efforts soon got out and within two months
they were receiving 3,000 inquires a day from families. By the end of the war,
for French prisoners of war alone, they would fill 228 volumes, each 400 pages,
with information about individual soldiers and their whereabouts. By 1918,
120,000 people had arrived in person looking for assistance.
In spite of these staggering numbers, the most inspiring
part of this story is the people who were involved. Many of the first
volunteers for the agency were travelers who had been stranded in Geneva by the
fighting. These bankers, teachers and homemakers
took up the call to help. Eventually 1,200 volunteers would work in shifts
around the clock to answer the calls of families looking for their loved ones.
From Comic Books to
X-Ray Machines, the Red Cross Provided a Vast Amount of Services and Material
during the War
The Red Cross provided more than you might think during the
war. The Danish Red Cross quickly amassed 20,000 books for prisoners of war,
soliciting comic books in particular so that the soldiers would not “forget how
to laugh.”
The American Red Cross brought enough bandage material to Italy to
“provide a five-and-three-quarter girdle of gauze around the world,” and some British
medical units in the field came with their own mobile x-ray machines.
In August
of 1916 one of these x-ray teams reported that they had examined, “not only 49
heads, 58 thorax, 8 abdomen, 27 pelvises, etc. but 2 horses and a mule.” Canteen
units supplied troops with necessities and comfort items.
In a single month in
1918, the Red Cross in Vichy distributed free items that included, “78,278
packages of tobacco, 7,480 tubes of toothpaste, 7,650 toothbrushes, 3,650
combs, 3,460 so-called comfort bags (small cloth bags filled with treats and
necessities), 2,850 packages of chewing gum, 1,650 cakes of soap, 1,245 bars of
chocolate, and 1,200 sticks of shaving soap.
Other gifts for the troops
included pencils, matches, shaving brushes, cards, washcloths, sweaters, razor
blades, checkers and other games, thread, pipe cleaners, drinking cups, gloves,
canes, socks, pajamas and underwear.”
During the battle at St. Mihiel, Red
Cross volunteers served over 160,000 gallons of hot cocoa. Across the war zone
Red Cross volunteers hosted holiday celebrations, wrote letters for injured
soldiers, delivered mail, arranged funerals and recorded the gravesites, tended
the sick and wounded, and more.
Activities Surrounding
World War I Caused the Red Cross in the United States to Blossom
When the war began, the American Red Cross only had 107
chapters. American Red Cross members did respond to the war from its outset,
sending mercy ships and fundraising, but they were outpaced by their European
counterparts. Yet, when Congress voted for war in April of 1917, Americans
embraced the cause and turned out in droves to support the Red Cross. By the
end of the war, the American Red Cross had 3,864 chapters and nearly a quarter
of the country’s population—28 million people— were members.
Americans
supported a variety of Red Cross operations as old services expanded and new
ones were added, such as the motor corps and canteen services. Even President
Wilson grazed sheep on the White House lawn and auctioned off the wool for the
cause.
Red Cross Supporters
Got Creative with Their Fundraising
Like fundraisers today, Red Cross volunteers were faced with
the challenge of needing to raise huge sums money to meet their goals. They
often approached this problem in creative ways. In Britain, Lady Northcliffe
called on the women of the British Empire to donate their pearls. She collected
3,597 pearls and had forty-one necklaces made. They sold at auction for
£84,000.
Others followed her example of organizing auctions. By the end of the
war, Christie’s auction house hosted seven sales that raised £322,000. American
Red Cross President, Henry Davison convinced Wall Street bankers to turn out
their pockets and Henry Ford to donate 5,000 Model Ts. Harry Gardner, the
‘human fly,’ scaled a New York skyscraper in a white suite with a large red
cross painted on his back to draw attention and draw in funds.
Even the average
volunteer got in the game: An Ohio woman donated a hen and a dozen eggs that
was auctioned for $2,002.
The Red Cross
Sponsored a Project to Create Masks for Disfigured Soldiers
After receiving support from the Red Cross, sculptor Anna
Ladd began creating realistic portrait masks for soldiers with faces marred
from shrapnel, burns and other wounds. Ladd custom-made pieces for each
soldier, recreating noses, ears, and jaws. Each mask consisted of a thin copper
form covered with hard enamel painted to match the wearer’s skin tone. Even
mustaches were recreated with real hair fastened to the mask. These masks allowed the men to feel more
comfortable in public.
Ladd wrote, “People get used to seeing men with arms and
legs missing, but they never get used to an abnormal face. And so these men are
the object of aversion to almost everyone. A man who is repulsive to look at
cannot get a job which will bring him in contact with the general public, and
so it is so much harder for these men, who have already given so much, to earn
their living.”
With their self-esteem
bolstered, these men went home ready to start over. They sent letters back to
Ladd reporting of how they found new jobs and got married. One man, who had not
wanted his mother to see his face, finally returned home after two years. By
1918, Ladd’s studio had produced 185 masks. It seems a small drop in the bucket
against the estimated 20,000 facial casualties of
the war, but for those men it was an invaluable service.
Want to learn more? This article referenced the following
materials:
Alexander, C. (2007). Faces of War: Amid the horrors of
World War I, a corps of artists brought hope to soldiers disfigured in the
trenches. Smithsonian Magazine.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/faces-of-war-145799854/?all
Gavin, Lettie. (1997). American
Women in World War I. Niwot, Colorado: University Press of Colorado.
Martin, I. (2002). 'When Needs Must': The Acceptance of
Volunteer Aids in British and Australian Military Hospitals in World War I. Health and History, 4(1), 88-98.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/40111424
Morehead, Caroline. (1998). Dunant’s Dream: War, Switzerland, and the History of the Red Cross.
New York, New York: Carroll & Graff Publishers, Inc.
Woolley, A. (1986). A Hoosier Nurse in France: The World War
I Diary of Maude Frances Essig. Indiana
Magazine of History, 82(1), 37-68. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27790948
Zeinert, Karen. (2001). Those
Extraordinary Women of World War I. Brookfield, Connecticut: The Millbrook
Press, Inc.
