Power of Humanity

Ninety four years ago today the Australian Red Cross was formed in Melbourne.

The Australian Red Cross website describes its establishment :
Australian Red Cross was formed as a branch of the British Red Cross at Government House, Melbourne on 13th August 1914 by Lady Helen Munro-Ferguson, wife of the Governor-General, exactly nine days after the outbreak of World War I. Lady Munro-Ferguson had been a member of the British Red Cross in Fyfe, Scotland and she was acutely aware of the important role the organisation enjoyed in Britain. At the same time she called on the wives of each State Governor to form a local committee in each capital, which they readily agreed to do, and so Australian Red Cross was born. The main task of the first Australian Red Cross volunteers was to supply care parcels containing soap, toiletries, special food and games for sick and wounded troops.
Within weeks of formation, the Branch was providing clothing (flannel shirts, cardigans, socks and gloves), medical supplies and equipment. Soon Australian Red Cross expanded its services by shipping items such as mosquito nets, hospital clothing and materials, as well as more food parcels. It commenced the Voluntary Aid Detachments (VAD), whose members cared for the sick and wounded in hospitals, on trains during transport and in convalescent homes.
Australian Red Cross was responsible for providing assistance to the survivors of the Battle of Gallipoli, the soldiers who fought in Egypt, the blind and those suffering from the effects of war.
In 1915 the Transport Service commenced, driving soldiers who had returned on the hospital ships to their homes or convalescent facilities. By the end of 1916 the total number of cars was 2,500 with more than half abroad, providing transport on the battlefields of France, Italy and East Africa.

Vera Deakin, the youngest daughter of the Australian Prime Minister Alfred Deakin, volunteered her services establishing the Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau of the Australian Red Cross in Cairo, Egypt in 1915.

Photo: Vera Deakin [AWM P02119.001]
This photo has been reproduced with the permission of the Australian War Memorial

The Australian War Memorial describes the work of the Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau of the Australian Red Cross: The aim of the bureau was to provide information for relatives of Australian soldiers who had been listed by the army as either wounded or missing, killed or a prisoner of war. It was the official link between prisoners and their families and also maintained full casualty lists for each state. The War Memorial has the records she and her helpers in the Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau created during 1915-1919.

It was from these records that Lambis Englezos gathered vital information about the burial of the missing diggers from the Battle of Fromelles. Vera Deakin was awarded an OBE in 1919 for her services as head of the Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau of the Australian Red Cross.