The origins of the British Red Cross Society and the politics and practices of relief in war, 1870-1906
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/asclepio.2014.03Keywords:
relief work, militarism, Franco-Prussian War, British Red Cross Society, Geneva ConventionAbstract
This article traces the history of the British National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded in War (NAS), and its interventions in Continental and colonial wars of the late-nineteenth century. The NAS was founded on the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in August 1870. It went on to become one of the most important founding members of the British Red Cross Society (BRCS) when it was established in 1905. The aim of the article is to uncover the particular anxieties and aspirations that contributed to the foundation of the NAS. It demonstrates how these concerns –many of them related to the relative state of the British military– informed its subsequent practices and its relationship with the International Committee of the Red Cross. In tracing its emergence as a paramilitary corps adept at rapid-response emergency medicine, this article uncovers the rivalry that characterized attempts within the NAS and BRCS to lay claim to the “true spirit” of voluntary aid in war –a rivalry which eventually informed British insistence on a revision to the Geneva Convention in 1906.
Downloads
References
Arrizabalaga, Jon; Larraz-Andía, Pablo; Sánchez-Martínez, Guillermo (2013), "Between Medical Innovation and War Propaganda: The Irache Hospital during the Second Carlist War, 1873-1876", in Christopher Bonfield, Jonathan Reinarz and Teresa Huguet-Termes, Hospitals and Communities, 1100-1960, Oxford, Peter Lang, pp. 327-362.
Anderson, Dorothy (1986), The Balkan Volunteers, London, Hutchinson & Co.
Barnett, Michael (2011), Empire of Humanity. A History of Humanitarianism, Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press.
British National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded in War (1871) Questions on the Operations of the British National Aid Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded in War, and Replies Thereto, by Various Members of the Society's Staff and Others: Being the Result of Their Experiences in the Franco-German War, 1870-71, London, Harrison and Sons.
British National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded in War (1871) Report of the Operations of the British National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded in War During the Franco-Prussian War, 1870-71, London, Harrison & Sons.
British National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded in War (1877), Report of the Operations of the British National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded in War During the Servian War Against Turkey, 1876, London, J.M Johnson and Sons.
Forsythe, David P. (2005), The Humanitarians: The International Committee of the Red Cross, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511755958
Furley, John (1883), On the Carriage of Sick and Injured Persons, A paper read at the meeting of the Social Science Congress, Huddersfield, 1883, London, Spottiswoode and Co.
Furley, John (1885), "The Red Cross", Nineteenth Century, 18 (106), pp. 879-892.
Furley, John (1905), In Peace and War. Autobiographical Sketches, London, Smith, Elder & Co.
Gill, Rebecca (2013), Calculating Compassion: Humanity and Relief in War, Britain 1870-1914, Manchester, Manchester University Press.
Harris, Susan (1909), The Life of Major-General Sir John Ardagh by his wife Susan Countess of Malmesbury, London, John Murray.
Hutchinson, John F. (1995), "'Custodians of the sacred fire': the ICRC and the postwar reorganisation of the International Red Cross", in Paul Weindling (ed.), International Health Organisations and Movements, 1918-1936, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp. 17-35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511599606.004
Hutchinson, John F. (1996), Champions of Charity: War and the Rise of the Red Cross, Boulder, Colo., Westview Press.
Lechmere, Sir Edmund (1883), A Visit to the British Hospice and Ophthalmic Dispensary at Jerusalem, A Paper Read before the General Assembly of the Knights of the St John of Jerusalem, London, Harrison and Sons.
Lindsay, Harriet Loyd [Lady Wantage] (1907), Lord Wantage, V.C., K.C.B. A Memoir by His Wife, London, Smith, Elder & Co.
Longmore, Thomas (1866), On the Geneva Convention of August the 22nd 1864, A Lecture Delivered at the Royal United Service Institution, London, Harrison and Sons.
MacCormac, William (1871), Notes and Recollections of an Ambulance Surgeon. Being an account of work done under the Red Cross during the Campaign of 1870, London, J & A Churchill.
Moore, Sandford (1872), Notes with a Prussian Sanitäts Detachment in the Loire Campaign, 1870, London, Pardon and Son. PMid:20746737 PMCid:PMC2297020
O'Brien, D. P. (ed.) (1971), The Correspondence of Lord Overstone, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 3 vols.
Order of St John (1874), Report of the Chapter, London, Harrison and Sons.
Order of St John (1877), Report of the Chapter, London, Harrison and Sons.
Order of St John (1878), Report of the Chapter, London, Harrison and Sons.
Order of St John (1879), The English or Sixth Langue of the Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, A brief sketch of its history and present position London, Charles Cull & Son
Palmieri, Daniel (2012), "An institution standing the test of time? A review of 150 years of the history of the International Committee of the Red Cross", International Review of the Red Cross, 94 (888), pp. 1-26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1816383113000039
Pearson, Emma; MacLaughlin, Louisa (1877), Service in Servia under the Red Cross, London, Tinsley Brothers.
Régnier, Philippe (2011), "The emerging concept of humanitarian diplomacy: identification of a community of practice and prospects for international recognition", International Review of the Red Cross, 93 (884), pp. 1211-1237. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1816383112000574
Rodogno, Davide (2011), Against Massacre: Humanitarian Intervention in the Ottoman Empire 1815-1914, Princeton & Oxford, Princeton University Press. PMid:21030476
Rundle, Henry, FRCS (n.d.), With the Red Cross in the Franco-German War a.d. 1870-1, London, Werner Laurie.
Sandwith, Humphry [Edward Henry Stanley Derby, Earl of Sandwith] (n.d. [1876]), England's position with regard to Turkey and the Bulgarian Atrocities, Liverpool, D. Marples & Co.
Skinner, Rob; Lester, Alan (2012), "Humanitarianism and Empire: New Research Agendas", Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 40 (5), pp. 729-747. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03086534.2012.730828
St John Ambulance Association (1889), Report of the First and Second "Crusades" in the Northern Counties of Durham and Northumberland, London, Charles Cull & Son.
St John Ambulance Association (1895), Annual Report, London, Charles Cull & Son.
Summers, Anne (2000), Angels and Citizens: British Women as Military Nurses, 1854-1914, Newbury, Threshold Press.
Trim, D. J. B.; Simms, Brendan (2011), "Towards a history of humanitarian intervention", in D. J. B. Trim and Brendan Simms (eds.), Humanitarian Intervention: A History, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp. 1-24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511921292.001
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2014 Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
© CSIC. Manuscripts published in both the print and online versions of this journal are the property of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, and quoting this source is a requirement for any partial or full reproduction.
All contents of this electronic edition, except where otherwise noted, are distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. You may read here the basic information and the legal text of the licence. The indication of the CC BY 4.0 licence must be expressly stated in this way when necessary.
Self-archiving in repositories, personal webpages or similar, of any version other than the final version of the work produced by the publisher, is not allowed.
