List of ambulance drivers during World War I
Appearance
This is a list of notable people who served as ambulance drivers during the First World War. A remarkable number—writers especially—volunteered as ambulance drivers for the Allied Powers. In many cases, they sympathized strongly with the ideals of the Allied Powers, but did not want, or were too young or old, to participate in a combat role. For women, combat was not an option at the time. Several of the Americans on the list volunteered before the United States' 1917 entry into the war. Many of the American writers would later be associated with the Lost Generation.
Businessmen
- Tony Hulman[1] – American businessman, owner and operator of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and volunteer with the American Red Cross Motor Corps
- Ray Kroc – American entrepreneur of McDonald's Corporation fame – trained to become an ambulance driver, though the war ended before he saw action
Composers
- Maurice Ravel[2] – volunteer ambulance driver or truck driver
- Albert Roussel[3] – Red Cross transport driver
Filmmakers
- Julien Bryan – combat photographer, filmmaker and documentarian who volunteered with the American Field Service for the French Army in World War I, driving an ambulance in Verdun and the Argonne,[4] and subsequently wrote a book Ambulance 464 about his experience illustrated with his photographs.[5]
- René Clair[6] – served as an ambulance driver in WWI before being invalided out for a spinal injury. Clair was deeply affected by the horrors of war that he witnessed and gave expression to this in writing a volume of poetry entitled La Tête de l'homme, which remains unpublished.
- Jean Cocteau[7] – served in WWI with the Red Cross as an ambulance driver
- Walt Disney[8][9] – volunteer American Red Cross Motor Corps, but served after the armistice ending World War I was signed[10][11]
- William A. Wellman[12] – served as a driver with the American Volunteer Motor Ambulance Corps (a.k.a. Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps) in Europe. While in Paris, Wellman enlisted in the French Foreign Legion to serve as a fighter pilot becoming the first American to join Escadrille N.87 of the Lafayette Flying Corps.
Writers
- Robert C. Binkley – volunteer United States Army Ambulance Service
- Robert Sidney Bowen – volunteer American Field Service in France, also served as a fighter pilot in both the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the U.S. Army Air Service during the war
- Louis Bromfield[13] – volunteer American Field Service
- William Slater Brown[13] – volunteer Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps
- Malcolm Cowley[13] – volunteer American Field Service
- Harry Crosby[13] – volunteer American Field Service
- E.E. Cummings[13] – volunteer Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps
- Kati Dadeshkeliani – Russian Army ambulance driver
- Russell Davenport[14] – U.S. Army Medical Corps
- John Dos Passos[15] – volunteer Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps
- Dale Van Every[16] – volunteer, United States Army Ambulance Service
- Julien Green[13][17]- volunteer American Field Service
- Dashiell Hammett – U.S. Army ambulance driver who was attached to the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps and was subsequently afflicted with the Spanish flu
- Ernest Hemingway[13] – volunteer Red Cross Motor Corps in Italy
- Robert Hillyer[13] – volunteer Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps
- Sidney Howard[13] – volunteer American Field Service
- Jerome K. Jerome[18] – French Army ambulance driver
- John Howard Lawson[19] – volunteer Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps
- Desmond MacCarthy[14] – volunteer British Red Cross ambulance corps
- Archibald MacLeish[20] – U.S. Army ambulance driver, who later became an artillery captain
- John Masefield – served as hospital orderly in British hospital for French soldiers in France
- F. Van Wyck Mason[21] – ambulance corps volunteer, who later joined the French Army and then the U.S. Army; grandfather Frank H. Mason was Chairman of the Ambulance Committee of the American Hospital in Paris[22]
- Somerset Maugham[14] – volunteer British Red Cross ambulance corps
- Charles Nordhoff[14] – volunteer American Field Service
- William Seabrook[13][14] – American Field Service
- Robert W. Service[23] – British Red Cross volunteer
- Olaf Stapledon[24] – Friends' Ambulance Unit volunteer
- Gertrude Stein – volunteer in France
- Hugh Walpole – Red Cross volunteer in Russia
- Amos Niven Wilder[25] – American Field Service volunteer, later joined an artillery unit
Other notable people
- A. Piatt Andrew – American economist and politician who served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, who was the founder and director of the American Ambulance Field Service during World War I
- Brooks Benedict – American actor of the silent and sound film eras who served with the American Ambulance Corps and in the U.S. Army Air Service during the First World War
- Frank Buckles[26] – last American World War I veteran
- Marion Barbara "Joe" Carstairs – wealthy British power boat racer known for her speed and her eccentric lifestyle[27]
- Stafford Cripps – British politician
- Hélène Dutrieu[28] – pioneering French aviator
- Florence Jaffray Harriman – socialite and member of Wilson's commission on labor unrest, director of the American Red Cross Women's Motor Corps in France, and organizer of the Women's Motor Corps of the District of Columbia
- Pyotr Kapitsa - Russian (later Soviet) physicist, served on the Polish front
- Rotha Lintorn-Orman - British fascist
- Cathleen Mann – British artist
- Olive Mudie-Cooke – British artist
- Waldo Peirce[29] – American painter, volunteer American Field Service
- Alice B. Toklas – American member of the Parisian avant-garde of the early 20th century, and the life partner of Gertrude Stein
- Percy Toplis – notorious British deserter
- Harcourt Williams – English actor and director who served with the Friends' Ambulance Unit
People who served the Allies in a related capacity
- Algernon Blackwood – British Red Cross Searcher, trying to identify dead or lost soldiers, British author
- A.J. Cronin – Royal Navy surgeon, Scottish novelist
- Fr. Teilhard de Chardin, SJ – French stretcher bearer, Jesuit priest, paleontologist, geologist, theologian, author
- Fr. Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli – stretcher carrier and chaplain in Italian Army, later elected Pope John XXIII
- Marjory Stoneman Douglas – American Red Cross volunteer, eminent American conservationist
- Dorothy Canfield Fisher – volunteered to help blinded Allied soldiers, American social activist and author
- E.M. Forster – interviewed wounded in Egyptian hospitals, English novelist
- Peter Grant – volunteer driver/mechanic[30]
- Anne Green – volunteer work, author and translator, sister of aforementioned ambulance driver and author Julian Green
- Frederick Leney – British Red Cross Searcher, 1914–1916
- Alexander H. Rice Jr. – volunteer physician, explorer in South America
- Gertrude Stein – volunteer driver for French hospitals, American poet, playwright, feminist
- Ralph Vaughan Williams - stretcher bearer in France and Greece, British composer[31] – Royal Army Medical Corps
- Edmund Wilson – American literary critic
Ambulance drivers who served in other conflicts
- Patrick Barr[32] – English actor who served with the Friends' Ambulance Unit in Africa during World War II. Barr also helped to rescue people in the Blitz in London's East End.
- Jean Batten – pioneering New Zealand aviator who made a number of record-breaking solo flights across the world, including the first solo flight from England to New Zealand in 1936. After she unsuccessfully applied to serve with the Air Transport Auxiliary during the Second World War, Batten joined the short-lived Anglo-French Ambulance Corps before it was disbanded when Germany conquered France.
- John Boulting – British filmmaker who served as an ambulance driver with the Spanish Medical Aid Committee during the Spanish Civil War and later as an officer in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.
- Charles Fernley Fawcett – actor, filmmaker and professional wrestler who served in both Section Volontaire des Américains of the French Ambulance Corps and the American Ambulance Corps during WWII. Also during the war, Fawcett served in the Polish Army, helped Holocaust survivors escape while serving as a secret agent with the French Resistance, served in the Royal Air Force as a fighter pilot, and fought with the French Foreign Legion. Before the war, he served in the U.S. Merchant Marine. After WWII, he fought against the Communists in the Greek Civil War and later co-founded the International Medical Corps, a humanitarian aid organization that provides emergency medical services, healthcare training and capacity building to those affected by disaster, disease or conflict.
- Mahatma Gandhi – created the Indian Ambulance Corps for use by the British as stretcher bearers during the Second Boer War (1899–1902). The famed Indian lawyer and political ethicist also led the Corps during the Zulu rebellion in South Africa in 1906.
- Robert Montgomery – Academy Award-nominated actor who drove ambulances with the American Field Service in France during World War II until the Dunkirk evacuation. He later served as a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy and was decorated for bravery in combat during the Battle of Normandy.
- Kenneth More – BAFTA Award-winning British actor who drove ambulances (driver #207) in preparation for the outbreak of World War II. More later received a commission as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy and saw active service aboard the cruiser HMS Aurora and the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious.
- Patrick O'Brian[33] – English author of Master and Commander who served as an ambulance driver during the Blitz in WWII. O'Brian also served in the Royal Air Force prior to the war.
- Robert Whitehead – Canadian theatre producer who served as an ambulance driver in North Africa and Italy during WWII.
References
- ^ Indianapolis Star (11 April 2001). "The Hulman Family". The Indianapolis Star. Gannett Co. Inc. Archived from the original on 10 July 2012. Retrieved 27 June 2012.
- ^ Biography. "Maurice Ravel Biography". Maurice Ravel. 8notes.com. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
- ^ Wright, David C.F (2002). "Albert Roussel" (PDF). wrightmusic.net. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
- ^ Capturing Warsaw at the Dawn of World War II Edwards, Mike (November 2010) Smithsonian Magazine via Internet Archive. Retrieved October 28, 2021.
- ^ "AMBULANCE 464" Encore des Blessés Bryan, Julien (1918). New York City, Macmillan Publishers via Internet Archive. ISBN 1-110-81075-X. Retrieved October 28, 2021.
- ^ Amengual, Barthélemy. "René Clair". the Encyclopædia Britannica. the Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
- ^ Fowlie, Wallace. "Jean Cocteau". the Encyclopædia Britannica. the Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
- ^ "World War One Walt | the Walt Disney Family Museum". Archived from the original on 2014-10-27. Retrieved 2014-10-26.
- ^ ""Over There": Walt Disney's World War I Adventure | the Walt Disney Family Museum". Archived from the original on 2014-10-27. Retrieved 2014-10-26.
- ^ "The American Flag | the Walt Disney Family Museum". Archived from the original on 2014-10-27. Retrieved 2014-10-26.
- ^ "National World War I Museum's Ford Ambulance in Kansas City | the Walt Disney Family Museum". Archived from the original on 2014-10-27. Retrieved 2014-10-26.
- ^ Silke, James R. "Fists, Dames & Wings." Air Progress Aviation Review, Volume 4, No. 4, October 1980.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Carr, Virginia. Dos Passos – A Life. Doubleday, 1984, p. 127.
- ^ a b c d e Ruediger, Steve (22 August 2009). "Literary Ambulance Drivers". firstworldwar.com. firstworldwar.com. Retrieved 17 June 2012.
- ^ Carr, Virginia (1984). "Dos Passos in the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps". Our Story. Retrieved June 13, 2012.
- ^ Bradley, Edwin M. (2004). The First Hollywood Musicals: A Critical Filmography of 171 Features, 1927 through 1932. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. p. 124. ISBN 9780786420292. Retrieved 2014-07-21.
- ^ "Julien Green (1900-1998)". The New Georgia Encyclopedia. the Georgia Humanities Council and the University of Georgia Press. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
- ^ Steven, Andrew (2009–2012). "Jerome K Jerome the man". The Jerome K Jerome Society. The Jerome K Jerome Society. Archived from the original on 11 February 2012. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
- ^ Carr, Virginia. Dos Passos – A Life. Doubleday, 1984, p. 124.
- ^ Poets.org (1997–2012). "Archibald MacLeish". Poets.org. Academy of American Poets. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
- ^ Dictionary of American Biography, Supplement 10: 1976-1980. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1995.
- ^ American Committee (31 August 1915). "American Hospital In Paris Annual Report 1915". \. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
- ^ Webmaster (21 July 2003). "Biography". Robert W Service, The Original Homepage. RobertWService.com. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
- ^ Gilster, Paul (28 November 2011). "Star Maker: The Philosophy of Olaf Stapledon". Centauri Dreams – The News Forum of the Tau Zero Foundation. the Tau Zero Foundation. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
- ^ Robertson, Hamish (25 January 2011). "Amos Niven Wilder (1895-1993), Brother". the Official Website of The Thornton Wilder Family. The Wilder Family LLC. Archived from the original on 23 April 2012. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
- ^ "Frank W. Buckles – America's Last Survivor of the First World War". frankbuckles.org. 15 June 2012. Retrieved June 15, 2012.
- ^ Book Description (22 May 2012). "Book Description of The Queen of Whale Cay: The Eccentric Story of "Joe" Carstairs, Fastest Woman on Water by Kate Summerscale". Amazon.com. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
- ^ Cooper, Ralph. "HÉLÉNE DUTRIEU 1877-1961 AKA Héléne Dutrieux". earlyaviators.com. earlyaviators.com. Retrieved 27 June 2012.
- ^ Gallagher, William (January 2002). "Waldo Peirce – Brief life of a vibrant artist: 1884-1970". Harvard Magazine. Harvard Magazine Inc. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
- ^ "The Queen's Park Men Who Served And Survived As At October 2016 – Appendix 2" (PDF). p. 6. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
- ^ Documents Online (2001–2004). "Famous names in the First World War – Ralph Vaughan Williams". The National Archives. The National Archives. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
- ^ Friends' Ambulance Unit, 1939-1946, and FAU Post-War Service, 1946-1948 : register of members' names and addresses University of Leeds. Retrieved September 12, 2022.
- ^ "Patrick O'Brian". The Daily Telegraph. 7 January 2000. Archived from the original on 8 January 2010. Retrieved 19 February 2019.