'The Forgotten Service has been thoughtfully and
lovingly put together. It gives a picture for the first time of the thousands of
people, from a huge variety of backgrounds, who worked for very little pay and
almost no recognition doing a tough and difficult job. The courage of the London
Auxiliary Ambulance Service in reaching and helping civilians injured in the
great London raids of 1940-41 and then again with the 'doodlebugs' and rockets
of 1944 and 1945 is only matched by the appalling task they had to undertake to
recover the dead. The Forgotten Service illustrates in the documents, poems and
photographs what daily life and work was like. It also shows how much depended
not on technology but on each individual knowing and then doing the job.'
ROSEMARY DAY
Chairman London Ambulance Service 1995-1999
The role of the Auxiliary Ambulance Service during the Second World War in London and other cities is undocumented and forgotten. No other wartime service, from Bevin Boys to the Land Army, has been so totally ignored by literature and the audio-visual media.
From over 130 stations, an estimated 10,000 volunteers collected the injured, as well as mutilated and dismembered bodies in outdated commercial vans crudely adapted. These volunteers - most were women - coming from all social classes and career backgrounds, were plunged into a scenario as traumatic and horrific as anything encountered by any of the other Services.
This book uses much original and unpublished material to tell the story of Auxiliary Ambulance Station 39 situated in Weymouth Mews in the heart of London. Nearly all the records of the service were lost after the war so the material here is almost certainly unique and fills a gap in the history of wartime Britain.
At the core of the narrative lies the memories of Station Officer May Greenup who served at Station 39 for five and a half years. The structure of service is illustrated by an extremely detailed and thorough timetable May produced to instruct and inform on the minute by minute running of her station. Integral to the text are many photographs taken by May and her colleagues. These reflect not the hour by hour horror of their duties but the humour they searched for amidst the devastation.
ISBN 1 870067 25 8
SIZE 8¼"×8½"
144 PAGES
198 ILLUSTRATIONS
£14.95
CODE F045
FOREWORD
INTRODUCTION
FRANCES MAY TUCKWELL
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
WEYMOUTH MEWS
ACTION STATIONS
INCIDENT 707
PERSONALITIES
VICTORY CELEBRATIONS
POSTSCRIPT