The Organisation

Below is a comprehensive summary of the history of the American Ambulance from its inception to its stand down, for more information about the people, vehicles, uniforms and day to day operations of the organisation visit our blog.

The Formation

The American Ambulance, Great Britain was formed in 1940 to provide aid to Great Britain on behalf of America in the form of an ambulance service. This service operated from stations all over the country using a variety of vehicles, all paid for by American donations and put at the Service of the Ministry of Health free of charge to help our war effort.

The formation and running of this organisation was down to The American Society in London. Formed in 1895 by a group of American businessmen and the American Ambassador with the aim of promoting “patriotic and social life amongst Americans residing in London”. The society, as well as being a key social group of Americans in Britain also set out with the aim of strengthening the friendship of the two nations in whatever way they could. When the Society met in early 1940 the American Ambulance was born. The following extract from a newspaper article tells how it came into being. 

“STORY BEHIND THE BLUE-GREY U.S. AMBULANCES”

“In the Spring of 1940 the American Society in London met to decide on the nature of the celebration to be held by American Residents on the Fourth of July, American Independence Day. For 42 years American residents here have marked their day with a banquet and ball. This time, however, a man of medium stature, herculean shoulders, and hair en brosse, got up at the meeting. He had a suggestion to make. To his mind anything in the nature of a celebration at this period would be out of place for although the Fourth of July was a day set aside by Americans to commemorate Independence Day, it also unfortunately marked a war between America and Britain. The thing to do, he thought, was for the Americans who had enjoyed the hospitality of Great Britain to make a worth while gesture of assistance to their foster-country. The American who made this suggestion was Mr. Gilbert H. Carr, twice chairman of the American Society in London, and at present honorary secretary. From his suggestion grew the American Ambulance, Great Britain, with its 260 motorised ambulances, surgical units and mobile first-aid posts.” – THE CITIZEN NEWSPAPER MARCH 29th, 1941.

Two members of the American Society were instrumental in the formation and running of the American Ambulance through the war. Their names; Gilbert H Carr and Wallace B Phillips.

With their business connections, Gilbert Carr and Wallace Phillips had no problems  being able to hastily co-ordinate the finances and logistics of setting up an organisation the size of the American Ambulance.

In June 1940 they asked the American Field Service to act as a U.S. agent to solicit donations for the vehicles of the American Ambulance. The AFS wasted no time in assisting and sent the first of the vehicles from America on July 3rd 1940. After the end of the war in France, the AFS had a large amount of surplus money that had been collected rather than solicited and had no project to spend it on so they were glad to help towards the purchase of vehicles. They even had a number destined for France which were donated to the American Ambulance. The AFS directly donated 149 of the 260 vehicles and helped co-ordinate the donation of others. They also provided the maintenance for all the vehicles in the early days of the organisation before they had staff with the skills to do it themselves.

Many prominent American organisations in Great Britain sponsored the American Ambulance, these included:

• The American Society in London
• The American Chamber of Commerce in London
• The American Club
• The American Women’s Club
• The American Golfing Society
• The American Legion, London Post No. 1
• America Lodge No.3368
• The American Universities Union
• Walter Hines Page Chapter, Daughters American Revolution
• American Overseas Memorial Day Association

A leaflet that was sent out to try and gain donations stated: “In the present emergency the need for every section of the community to give every possible assistance is very apparent” 

The British War Relief Society of America, previously the Allied Relief Fund also helped solicit a large amount of money from American Sources, this money mainly went on purchasing vehicles, equipment and of course towards the high running costs of the organisation. 

The BWRS and AFS donated £159,452 2s.9d. in the first year, a huge sum of money. Through the generosity of those they bought from everything was able to be purchased by the American Ambulance at cost. Of the donated money, £55,243 1s.6d. went towards the purchase of vehicles, £925 14s.10d. was spent on “Car and Ambulance Equipment”,  £196 8s.11d. was spent on office furniture and £590 15s.6d on “Stocks of Tyres and Car Accessories”

They also received a large amount of donations “in kind”. In total, during the first year a total of £27,700 worth of vehicles and £949 1s.6d. of equipment were donated. 

With all these donations and purchases the foundation of the organisation was formed. On the 14th June 1940, the American Ambulance got their license from the Board of Trade and they were incorporated on the 19th June 1940. They were registered as an association  with limited liability but without the addition of the word “Limited” to its name. It was registered initially with seven “Directors or Managers” they were:

Wallace Batna Phillips	Chairman, Pyrene Co. Ltd.
Justin Robinson Weddell	Director, N.W. Ayer & Sons Ltd.
Bertram De Nully Cruger	Banker, Chase Bank
Royden Albert Rothermel	Managing Director, A.A. Rothermel Ltd.
Lawrence Leslie Tweedie	Partner, Baker Weeks & Harden Members N.Y. Stock Exchange
Gilbert Falconer Kennedy	American Counsellor at Law
Gilbert Harry Carr	Producers International Sales Association Ltd.

Ambulance No. 1 was presented to the organisation outside the American Embassy in London, it was handed over to Mr. Phillips by Joseph P. Kennedy, honorary chairman of the American Ambulance, as a gift from Mrs. Kennedy.A week later, on the 27th July 1940, just 43 days after their formation, the American Ambulance held a parade in Grosvenor Gardens, where “100 or so vehicles” comprising of Ambulances, First Aid Posts and Surgical Units lined the street with their drivers proudly standing in front of them.

At the event, Mr Phillips gave a speech saying: 

“We shall have a total of 260 vehicles within another four to five weeks. In order to provide this fleet, Americans in this country, American business firms and some of our good friends in the United States have all contributed very largely and most generously to this result. We are trying to do something, we are trying to do our bit for the country. Anything we can do we shall do and it is our aim to help the people of this country. Thank you sir.” 

Mr Malcom McDonald, Minister of Health replied: 

“Well Mr Phillips, on behalf of the Scottish Office and the Ministry of Health, I thank you and your colleagues for this large and timely reinforcement to our own service. And as for the vehicles and their staffs, I wish them good luck in the noble work which they are setting forth to do” 

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1940-1941

During their first year the American Ambulance, and those who created and ran it saw much success and demand for the service. At the end of June 1941 the American Ambulance had a total of 267 vehicles in operation, they had 361 drivers and operated from a network of 26 Stations and substations throughout the country, five of which were in London.

Their monthly running costs sat at approximately £2,000 a week. The officers and the Executive Committee gave their services without fee or expenses. The Counsel, Solicitors and Auditors also acted in an honorary capacity and they occupied their headquarters at 9, Grosvenor Gardens, S.W.1. free of charge courtesy of Mr Phillips and the Pyrene Company Ltd. Overall administrative expenditure for the year ending 30th June 1941 sat at around 2.5%.

29,770 Journeys Undertaken

81,386 Patients Carried

1,995,901 Miles Driven

In the first year the extent of their operations could be well gauged from the statistics. 

The work carried out was greatly appreciated by the Ministry of Health, The Rt. Hon. Ernest Brown, Minister of Health wrote in May 1941 “we are profoundly grateful to all who initiated and have been associated with the American Ambulance in this country, and to all those supporters in the United States of America through whose continuing generosity the organisation is able to maintain its great humanitarian service. “ 

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1941-1942

In their second year the organisation continued to grow. The American Ambulance continued to be entirely supported by voluntary donations from America, the total amount of cash being donated in the year was £85,239 2s.8d. Almost all of these donations were received through the British War Relief Society. 

At the end of June 1942 the American Ambulance had 296 vehicles in operation, 375 drivers and operated from a network of 27 Stations and substations throughout the country, these figures showed a small increase in the operational capabilities of the organisation. 

Their monthly running costs continued to sit at approximately £2,000 a week. The officers and the Executive Committee continued to give their services without fee or expenses. The Counsel, Solicitors and Auditors also acted in an honorary capacity and they occupied their headquarters free of charge courtesy of Mr Phillips and the Pyrene Company Ltd. 

75,215 Journeys Undertaken

210,920 Patients Carried

4,644,035 Miles Driven

In their second year the statistics increased quite a lot, even in 1942 during what Mr. Carr referred to as “these comparatively quiet times”, the fleet was covering about 50,000 miles and transporting about 2,600 patients a week. 

Their work continued to get noticed by the Ministry of Health, The Rt. Hon. Ernest Brown, Minister of Health wrote in June 1942 “This is an impressive and splendid record  on which it is unnecessary for me to enlarge beyond saying that figures alone do not serve to convey the smooth efficiency with which the entire personnel of the American Ambulance carry out their task. To all associated with the American Ambulance and to everyone whose most generous interest on both sides of the Atlantic has enabled it to render us such great help, I can only once again express the Governments appreciation, and my own gratitude in particular.” 

In June 1942 a birthday parade was heard in Hyde Park, London in the presence of the Minister of Health and American Ambassador.

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1942-1943

On the 22nd June 1943, the American Ambulance were hosted by Her Majesty the Queen at Buckingham Palace who, in the company of His Excellency, the American Ambassador and the Rt. Hon. Ernest Brown, Minister of Health inspected a large detachment of vehicles and personnel. Mr. Carr said of the occasion “This well-deserved honour is a tribute to the outstanding courage and devotion to duty of all our personnel, and the Executive Committee wish to take this opportunity again to thank them for their loyal and efficient service.”

At the end of June 1943 the American Ambulance had 295 vehicles in operation, 362 drivers and operated from a network of 31 Stations and substations throughout the country. These figures showed a very small reduction in the number of vehicles and staff but showed that they had increased the number of stations that they were operating from.

Their monthly running costs increased and sat at approximately £2,150 a week. The officers and the Executive Committee continued to give their services without fee or expenses. The Counsel, Solicitors and Auditors also acted in an honorary capacity. They continued to use their headquarters free of charge courtesy of Mr Phillips and the Pyrene Company Ltd. 

128,315 Journeys Undertaken

377,783 Patients Carried

7,526,360 Miles Driven

During their third year the statistics increased considerably again, Mr. Carr continued to describe it as a quiet period however the fleet was covering about 60,000 miles and transporting about 3,700 patients a week. 

1943 – 1945

In the king’s birthday honours of 1944, His Majesty bestowed membership of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire to Senior Commandant Kathleen Elizabeth Farrar and Commander Margaret Isobel Watkins in recognition of their work with the American Ambulance.

In June 1944, Mr. Ernest Brown MP, Minister of Health commented “ The American Ambulance is a living symbol of the friendship and unity of purpose between our two great peoples. Your grey and red vehicles, with their emblem combining the Stars and Stripes and the Union Jack, have become a familiar sight throughout the country, they have won a real place in the hearts of our people . . . I believe the future of the world, when we have achieved peace, will depend on the close bond, spiritual and cultural as well as political, between the United Nations. This bond the American Ambulance Great Britain is playing a great part in forging to-day.”

By the end of June 1944 the American Ambulance had 296 vehicles in operation, 391 drivers and operated from a network of 29 Stations and substations throughout the country. These figures showed a further increase in the number of drivers working for the organisation, they had closed two stations.

193,631 Journeys Undertaken

565,971 Patients Carried

11,161,632 Miles Driven

Their monthly running costs increased and sat at approximately £2,400 a week. The officers and the Executive Committee continued to give their services without fee or expenses. The Counsel, Solicitors and Auditors also acted in an honorary capacity. They continued to use their headquarters free of charge courtesy of Mr Phillips and the Pyrene Company Ltd. 

During their third year the statistics increased considerably again, Mr. Carr contributed this to “the recent invasion and increase in flying bomb attacks” this meant that the fleet was covering around 110,000 miles and transporting about 5,300 patients a week. 

Funding Issues

In 1943 the American Ambulance would, unbeknown to them, face a rocky future ahead. The British War Relief Society had decided to withdraw their support for the organisation, this would ultimately lead to a new partnership with the Ministry of Health.

On the 8th of October 1943, a representative of the Minister of Health met with a Sir Robert Appleby, following this meeting he wrote:

“I called today, at his request, on Sir Robert Appleby, British War Relief Society, to discuss the future of the American Ambulance. 

Sir Robert said that, as Mr. Minor, President of the Society, had indicated to the Minister in conversation with him at the luncheon on September 29th, the B.W.R.S. had reached the conclusion that they could not continue to maintain the American Ambulance Corps indefinitely and they had it in mind, at some convenient date, to close it down and present the vehicles to the British Government. He explained that, with the entry of America into the war the B.W.R.S. thought that, as a matter of policy, they must utilise their limited funds for relief work purposes and must not expend it on services which were the proper function of the Government concerned. The maintenance of the American Ambulance had entailed a very heavy drain on their funds and the expenditure had been adversely criticised in some quarters in America on the ground that, valuable as the services of the Ambulance no doubt were, it services should be provided for by the British Government, and that it was wrong in principle that money subscribed in America for relief work should be expended on an Ambulance Service which, if the American Ambulance did not exist, would be provided out of British funds. He went on to say that there had also been some criticism of the fact that the American ambulance drivers received a higher wage than the drivers of  A.R.P. ambulances. On this I pointed out that drivers of A.R.P. ambulances were paid at Civil Defence rates and the analogy with the drivers of the American ambulances was not really quite fair, and that, he had every reason to believe that the American Ambulance was run both efficiently and economically.”

Sir Robert B Appleby was a representative in the United States of a London banking concern. At the outbreak of war he took the lead in establishing in America an organisation known as the British War Relief Society of America to provide aid for Britain primarily through the British community in U.S.A. Almost simultaneously Mr Winthrop Aldrich, a prominent American, founded another organisation for the same purpose, called the Allied Relief Fund. Eventually the two organisations were combined into one body under the title of the British War Relief Society of America Incorporated, of which Mr. Aldrich became President. Sir Robert (then Mr.) Appleby and others previously associated with the original British War Relief Society became members of the General Committee (i.e. the governing body) of the new organisation under the agreement between which the two organisations came together.Sir Robert was an important figure within wartime aid from America and someone who the American Ambulance needed to have on side. This would however prove to be a problem as Sir Robert seemingly had little support for the organisation, potentially putting its future into question.

On the 11th October 1943, Mr. Carr met called in to see Mr. Ainsworth from the Ministry of Health, Mr Ainsworth wrote:

“Mr. Carr asked me to meet him today. I assumed that this was a sequel to your talk with Sir Robert Appleby, but was astonished to find that Mr. Carr did not know of this and had heard nothing concerning it from Sir Robert before his departure to America with Mr. Clark Minor yesterday.”

“I can only report without comment what Mr. Carr proceeded to say. He stated that Sir Robert Appleby had left England yesterday not only without seeing him, but also after deliberately avoiding (in his view) any chance of privately discussing the A.A.G.B. during his visit. Two appointments which Mr. Carr had planned with this object were cancelled by Sir Robert at the last minute: and as recently as Friday evening Sir Robert cancelled an arrangement which would have meant Mr. Carr seeing him on Saturday. Mr. Carr said he could only explain this by reference to the fact that ever since the merger of the Allied Relief Fund (Sir R. Appleby’s original organisation) with the B.W.R.S. under Mr Winthrop Aldrich, Sir Robert has consistently tried to induce the B.W.R.S committee in New York to have done with the A.A.G.B. , But has never carried his point because of strong opposition led by Mr. Aldrich, who has regarded the value of the A.A.G.B. in strengthening relations between the two countries as outweighing the consideration that it is a service which the British Government might be expected to run for itself (which Mr. Carr says the B.W.R.S. would hold to be true in one degree or another of much else that it does). He stated that this question was fought out about two years ago (without Ministry’s knowledge) and that it is being raised now not as new issue dictated by the present financial position of the B.W.R.S. – about which Mr. Clark Minor has told the B.W.R.S. people on this side he has little apprehension – but as a revival of the old question by Sir Robert Appleby now that Mr. Aldrich has left the scene and he finds himself more able to influence the views of the new President.”

As 1944 continued, the potential problems facing the funding of the American Ambulance continued. In August 1944, The American Ambassador wrote to the Ministry of Health raising his concerns.

It became clear that the American Ambassador was certainly on the side of the American Ambulance, he recognised the contribution and importance of their work and was concerned about their uncertain future. A week later the Minister of Health replied, an extract of his letter reads.

“Although, of course, the American Ambulance became associated with the Ministry of Health long before my time as Minister, I can fully assure you, from all that the responsible officers of the Department have told me, that no assistance could have been more valuable or timely than when the services of this organisation were so generously places at the Ministry’s disposal in 1940. The stress of emergency at that time, to which you allude, was great, and the advent of the American Ambulance went far to relieve anxiety about meeting the needs of ambulance and other medical transport in connection with the Emergency Hospital Service.The great contribution which the American Ambulance made so opportunely at that time continued to be no less valuable as the war has progressed through varying phases and as the Emergency Hospital Service has has to be developed and adapted to changing circumstances. A notable feature of the American Ambulance, indeed, has been the flexibility with which it has met every call upon it with sustained efficiency and reliability. In recent weeks, when our hospital services have had to deal not only with a steady flow of service casualties due to the fighting in France, and also a fresh wave of civilian casualties caused by the flying-bomb attacks, the American Ambulance has been of more help to us than ever and I have no hesitation in saying that its assistance will be no less valuable until the end of hostilities in Europe is reached. If, unhappily, this assistance were withdrawn before that time, I fear that at this stage of the war there would be the greatest difficulty in creating an alternative organisation capable of maintaining the essential, and to a large extent specialised, functions which the American Ambulance performed with such a high standard of competence.”

The Ministry of Health had, by their own admittance quite a large problem on their hands. At the time the American Ambulance were covering over 100,000 miles a week and the number of patients they were carrying was considerable. During such a late stage of the war they would not have been able to find and equip a new service quickly enough to fill the gap if the work of the American Ambulance was to end in 1944. The Ministry considered that it would be likely that the services of the American Ambulance would be required for at least three months after the end of hostilities.

In September 1944 the Ministry started to consider the possibility of funding the American Ambulance themselves under the Emergency Hospital service. This idea was put forward to H.M. Treasurer for their consideration however the Ministry stressed that this was a worst case option. They were hesitant to announce the possibility of them funding the American Ambulance in case it caused the BWRS to pull funding earlier than they may have otherwise.

The Ministry of Health wrote to all of their Senior Regional Officers around the county to gauge the importance of the work of the American Ambulance within the regions. They received replies from all of the regions and concluded:

“The general attitude of the Regions towards a reduction in the number of American ambulances and general service cars is that at present and so far as can be seen for the duration of the war and six months afterwards no reduction will be possible.In many cases the Region makes a point of saying how fully ambulances are being used. This is to some extent due to cuts in Civil Defence ambulances (Regions 2 and 10). The very small reduction offered by Regions 4, 6 and 7 do not materially affect the matter,”

On the 7th of November 1944 the Ministry of Health received a reply from E Hale of The Treasury, he agreed that the work of the American Ambulance could not be replaced easily and that it was the right decision to take on the funding of the organisation. They agreed to take on the cost of the American Ambulance and would provide them with £10,000 a month for the remainder of hostilities and then up to three months after that.

The American Ambulance wrote to the Ministry confirming the arrangements and agreeing that from the 1st January 1945 they would be paid by the British Government. Mr Carr said “It is our desire and intention to furnish you with a service on the same basis with the same degree of efficiency and watchfulness of cost as we have done all through the period of four years…”

Going into 1945 the American Ambulance continued their to break their own records, aided by the financial support of the Ministry of Health. While their support had meant the American Ambulance could keep operating it bought its own set of challenges, they were now under more scrutiny with regards to their spending and often had to justify spend or confirm the amount of work they had done. The Ministry issued a letter to all the regions detailing some of the costs of the American Ambulance.

During 1945 the American Ambulance produced monthly reports detailing the number of stations, staff, vehicles and mileage and these give an interesting insight into the final months of the organisations work. As agreed by the treasury the work was constantly reviewed with the aim of ensuring money was not wasted this saw the total number of stations fall from 30 in January 1945 to 27 in September however generally speaking the service was not reduced under the Ministry’s control. These monthly reports also show that in March 1945, the American Ambulance moved their headquarters to 44 Lower Belgrave Street, London, S.W.1.

On Tuesday the 8th May 1945, the war in Europe ended. Since the American Ambulance had been under the financial control of the Ministry of Health they had pre agreed to continue their work for a period after the end of hostilities. Interestingly enough this didn’t seem to wait for victory in Japan. On the 23rd May Mr. Carr sent a letter to the Ministry that said:

“With reference to our recent conversation regarding a closing date for American Ambulance; although as you know our original idea, expressed at the time we entered into our present arrangement with the Ministry, was to discontinue within three months from the cessation of hostilities, we should be glad to continue for a slightly longer period if it is the wish of the Ministry to have us do so. 

As you will understand, it would not be at all appropriate for an Organisation of this character to peter out, and it is therefore highly desirable that we have a definite “stand down” date. We suggest October 15, 1945, and if you agree to this we shall be glad to have your confirmation.”

The Ministry agreed that this would be a good date to end adding that they were “most grateful for your willingness to continue up until that date”

Ever grateful of the continued work of the American Ambulance the Ministry were keen to see that some sort of stand down parade could be held. At the start of August the Minister of Health wrote to Buckingham Palace enquiring as to whether they would be able to hold another parade, in a similar manner to the one held in 1943 for the American Ambulances third anniversary. Her Majesty has been staying in Balmoral in early October so it took a while for them to decide when the parade could be held which caused some anxiety at the American Ambulance due to the planning involved.

Eventually, Buckingham Palace gave two possible dates and working alongside the American Ambulance, the Ministry agreed that the organisation would be inspected on Wednesday, October 24th at 15:00.Throughout July and August, local newspapers published articles about the important work that the American Ambulance had done, one such article.

NO STRESS of WORK or WEATHER DAUNTED THESE WOMEN

It was in July 1940, that “The American Ambulance Great Britain,” came to Leeds. Dunkirk was sharply fresh in our minds, and as the country prepared for the expected invasion, even the sight of the blue-grey ambulances, with the crossed flags of the United States and Britain painted on the sides was heartening. For a little while longer shall see the same ambulances still on the job, but in the early autumn they will go, and the regional depot in a Leeds garage will close down. American money provided the ambulances; British women have driven them, maintaining, with untiring readiness, a 24-hour service, week-ends included. They are women whom no sort of work or weather daunted. In the early days there were eight vehicles stationed in Leeds with 12 drivers, but the numbers soon grew to 19 vehicles and 32 drivers.

At first, the ambulances were engaged mainly on civilian work, as was intended. The unit was kept hard at work transporting, patients under emergency hospital arrangements, meeting trains to take sick evacuees to hospital, transferring aged and infirm people to safer districts, and other jobs of the kind. When America came into the war, the position changed The ambulances were free to be used for military journeys, and there appears to be no end to the list of nationalities they have carried. From D-Day onwards they were helping with the wounded from Normandy and when flying weather was bad, they took blood plasma for the transfusion service from Leeds to Bristol and other places, then to be flown to the battlefields. They have carried it through snow, ice and fog, starting in the very early hours of the morning. They have met planes in at the airfields, and taken wounded men to hospital, and they have taken surgical specialists from Leeds as far as Newark to operate on a wounded member of an air crew. With the specialist went his assistants, and all his equipment, including an operating table. Calls have taken ambulances from Leeds to the North of Scotland, and as far south and ‘west as Newquay. In fact, they have covered the whole of Great Britain. 

The average weekly mileage is between 5,000 and 7,000. In their busiest week they did 9,452 miles, and carried 399 stretcher cases and 338 sitting cases. “We did 206 journeys that week, with 15 vehicles,” said Miss Cooling, who holds the rank of captain and is in charge of the depot, “and at that time we had only 16 drivers.” Now, having gone full circle, they are taking aged and infirm evacuees back home.Only to-day a woman of 97 was taken from Huddersfield back to her home in Suffolk. A large percentage of the American ambulance drivers have been trained at the Leeds station by Captain (Miss) Stephenson, who is in charge of-the Hull sub-station; there is another sub-station at Sheffield. One of the drivers comes from Malaya, another from Jamaica. The rest are from the British Isles. The junior member of the maintenance staff of two, Lieutenant (Miss) E. Fawcett, is a Yorkshire-woman; her senior officer is Captain (Miss) C. Haig. They have travelled from station to station through the country, looking after the vehicles, and between them have tested the en-tire fleet of the American ambulances in Britain. 

Two of the women took a man dying of tuberculosis from a Leeds suburb to Swansea. They got the call on arriving back from Liverpool. It was somewhere about 10 p.m. Weather conditions were foul. Roads were snow covered, and there was fog. They drove all that night and right through the next day, reaching Swansea about 9.30 p.m. But not all their stories are or endurance tests. They still get a laugh about the two drivers who took  an outsize woman from hospital to a Yorkshire hamlet. She was so large they couldn’t get the stretcher through the house door, so they put her back in the ambulance and took a window out. That done, back they went for the patient, and got her through the window and on to the bed that had been prepared for her down-stairs, As they were starting up to return they heard a voice calling from the doorway. There was the “helpless ” patient. She had got out of bed and walked to the door to wave them off. One thing more; their ambulances are models of cleanliness inside and out. There are no laundry bills; for the women do all the ambulance equipment themselves, as well as their own chores, and cooking their own food. The Americans who provided the vehicles would be proud of the way their gifts have been used, and the condition in which the drivers have kept them. 

On the morning of the 24th October, a letter was received at American Ambulance headquarters from Aneurin Bevan, Minister of Health, thanking the American Ambulance for their work.

Later that day, drivers from all over the country arrived at Buckingham Palace for their final inspection.

The Queen Reviews 200 Girl Drivers

Two hundred girl drivers of the American Ambulance were being reviewed today by the Queen at a stand-down parade at Buckingham Palace. 

The service will be disbanded on November 3. Among the drivers, representing units from all parts of England and Wales are girls with whom the Queen talked during her tours of the bombed cities’ with the King. The service was formed in 1940 with funds raised among Americans living in Britain. Later it was supported by the British War Relief Society of America at a cost of more than £2000 a week. Its fleet of 300 ambulances have covered a total of 17 million miles. 

Following the parade at Buckingham Palace, the executive committee of the American Ambulance hosted a cocktail party in the Ballroom of Grosvenor House “to say goodbye to the personnel of the Ambulance”. Many supporters of the American Ambulance attended the event including the Minister of Health.

American Ambulance stations held local celebrations up and down the country to mark the end of their service. And so it was, on the 3rd of November 1945 the American Ambulance ceased to be. It was reserved for the fond memories of those who served, who they helped and all the people they made an impact on.

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