From the archive: The hospital train
The Allied autumn offensive on the Western Front began towards the end of September 1915. More trains were required to transport the increasing numbers of wounded from the Front. The Friends Ambulance Unit's work was expanding and reported in the Friend
In late 1915, a development in the work of the Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU) had been the staffing of a British Red Cross ‘hospital train’ in France. Some forty FAU members were involved, most of whom were trained at the Oxhey Grange Camp in Hertfordshire. The Friend carried a detailed report of the train in the issue of 17 September 1915.
The train, which has been constructed by the Birmingham Railway Carriage Company, and has been pronounced by a high military authority “the finest hospital on wheels ever constructed,” consists of fourteen coaches, including an ordinary brake-van at each end.
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