Friday, April 1, 2016

RAHS Day Lecture: The Red Cross and the Liverpool Field Hospital – Hope and Despair during 1915

The Red Cross and the Liverpool Field Hospital.
At its inception in 1914 the priority of the Red Cross in Australia was the care of sick and wounded soldiers under the inspired leadership of Lady Helen Munro Ferguson. The paper will examine Red Cross work at the Liverpool Field Hospital where the military were overwhelmed in the early months of the war. The Red Cross stepped in to assist at the field hospital. Questions were asked in Federal Parliament about the atrocious camp conditions and the Rich Royal Commission was set up in mid-1915.

While the Red Cross did not escape criticism, conditions at the camp gradually improved by the end of 1915. Much of the work of the Red Cross was groundbreaking in nature and received little recognition at the time or since.
April 6 @ 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm