In August 1914, the Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU) was established by Quakers, a faith group with firm pacifist principles. The FAU operated under the authority of the Joint War Committee of the British Red Cross and the Order of St John, but these parties were just two of those the corps worked with. Over the next four-and-a-half years, the FAU had to negotiate with governments, armies, local authorities, faith organisations, wealthy and philanthropic Belgian women, farmers, and with Quakers who objected to frontline service. This paper will explore how the FAU attempted to keep the peace in the middle of war in order to work effectively. In the centenary year of the 1916 introduction of conscription in Britain, it will also consider how members of the FAU coped with the conflict that consciences brought, as well as the influx of a new sort of less-privileged recruit.
Dr Rebecca Wynter (University of Birmingham)
Venue: Conference room of the Town Hall (2nd floor), Cloth Hall, Grote Markt 34, 8900 Ieper.
In Flanders Fields Museum, Gateways to the First World War and the University of Kent organize a series of eight seminars, accessible to all. Full details of all the seminars are available here.
