RT Article
T1 The Maternité Anglaise: A Lasting Legacy of the Friends’ War Victims’ Relief Committee to the People of France during the First World War (1914–1918)
JF Religions
VO 12
IS 4
A1 Palfreeman, Linda
LA English
PB MDPI
YR 2021
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1756952280
AB After the outbreak of war in Europe in 1914, the British government’s call to arms caused a moral and religious dilemma for members of the Religious Society of Friends (Friends or Quakers), whose fundamental principle was (and is) the rejection of war and violence. Many Friends sought means of reconciling their duty to God with their duty to their country, and the prospect of helping to alleviate the suffering of the civilian victims of the fighting provided them with an acceptable alternative. Together with fellow Friend T. Edmund Harvey MP, Dr Hilda Clark set about rallying the support of Friends and sympathisers willing to go out to France to administer humanitarian aid to non-combatants. The committee adopted the name used by the distinguished organisation that had administered relief in the Franco-Prussian War—the Friends’ War Victims’ Relief Committee (FWVRC). Extensive and multifaceted aid work was carried out in much of northern France by the FWVRC’s general relief team. The following essay, however, examines more closely the medical assistance provided under the leadership of Hilda Clark. In particular, it focuses on the maternity hospital created and run by the FWVRC in Châlons-sur-Marne, which became a lasting legacy of the Friends to the people of the Marne.
K1 First World War
K1 France
K1 Friends’ War Victims’ Relief Committee
K1 Quakers
K1 humanitarian aid
K1 maternity hospital
K1 medical assistance
DO 10.3390/rel12040265