Royal roots
British Red Cross volunteers sorting supplies for East Coast flood victims, 1953
SINCE BEING AWARDED A SUPPLEMENTAL ROYAL CHARTER 100 YEARS AGO, THE BRITISH RED CROSS HAS WORKED TIRELESSLY TO HELP THOSE IN NEED
Can you imagine a British Red Cross without most of its UK services? Without its natural disaster emergency response? A British Red Cross that doesn’t operate 365 days a year, every year? What you’re picturing is much closer to how the charity worked when it was first founded in 1870. Only operating during wartime, the organisation provided vital relief to those affected by conflict around the world. But as time went on, it became increasingly clear that even more could be done. During the First World War, more than 90,000 men and women volunteered with the British Red Cross, providing support
across the UK and beyond. Then, in the winter of 1918/19, just as the war had come to an end, the Spanish flu epidemic spread rapidly across the world, killing around 50 million people – nearly three times the number of people that had died during the war.
BEYOND THE WAR
The Spanish flu was a stark demonstration that the biggest threats to humanity do not always come from conflict. In 1919, the British Red Cross saw the great potential of its volunteers – tens of thousands of whom had completed first aid and other training during the war – to continue to help those affected by crises now that the war was over. On 12 December 1919, King George V awarded the British Red Cross a supplemental Royal Charter, extending its objectives to include “the improvement of health, the prevention of disease and the mitigation of suffering throughout the world”. The Charter forms the basis for most of the work the British Red Cross still does today, especially in the UK. Everything from mobility aid loans and first aid training and response, to emergencies like floods and natural disasters at home and around the world, is part of what the British Red Cross does because of that one, very important, document.