Friends Relief Service

When the Blitz began on 7 September 1940 there was no official Quaker body capable of acting in response, nor any Quaker organisation through which British Friends could make any relief contributions. Two groups of concerned Friends from the Friends' Ambulance Unit (FAU) and the Bedford Institute Association, who were already in East London, began to offer aid in the bomb shelters and to assist in organising evacuations. The work was hampered, however, by a lack of formal arrangements to mobilise available resources. Representatives of the FAU, the Bedford Institute Association and other action groups met and made a request for the establishment of an official committee to take responsibility for the spontaneous Quaker relief action that they had started.[2]

After consideration, the Britain Yearly Meeting executive committee, Meeting for Sufferings, decided to establish an official Friends War Victims Relief Committee on the 1st of November 1940. It was the fifth committee of its kind established by Quakers, there had been previous civilian relief committees established in the Franco-Prussian War, the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) the First Balkan War and World War I.[3] They had their headquarters in an office at Friends House, Euston Road and appointed Roger Wilson as secretary.[4]

The first Friends War Victims Relief Committee meeting was held on 7 November 1940 at Friends House and was composed of 40 older Friends most of whom had experience of relief work that had been gained abroad in the past. This committee met monthly and had ultimate formal responsibility for the service, reporting to Meeting for Sufferings.

In January 1941 an executive committee was created, charged with responsibility for carrying out the decisions of principle that the main committee had made. It consisted of 13 members who met weekly, 10 of whom were actively involved in the service and three Quakers who were not. Additionally at this time officers were appointed to look after publicity and finance. From May 1941 substantial service departments were created to administer particular aspects of the work, including transport, works and equipment, hostels and a quartermaster's department, some of which were joint organisations with the FAU. In February 1942 the committee and the civilian relief section of the FAU were united as the Friends War Relief Service.

In September 1942 the first Representative Conference was held. This consisted of representatives from every level of the FRS. All members of the services were encouraged to bring forward their concerns through their representatives; no subject was barred. This became a regular six-monthly meeting to work out the constitutional procedure of the organisation and to consider the direction of FRS work.

Planning for the end of the war and the role of the service in its aftermath began at as early as February 1941. In the autumn of 1942, the British government's Board of Trade Relief Division summoned all voluntary societies that they thought might be interested in European post-war relief to a meeting. This resulted in the establishment of the Council of British Societies for Relief Abroad (COBSRA) in January 1943. The joint war organisation of the Red Cross and the Order of St John acted as the formal channel between members of COBSRA and the military.

Following all of these discussions, the Friends War Relief Service was redesigned, becoming the Friends Relief Service. The general administration continued as before, but the service was shaped into three sections:

• General Section - for all the work being done in Britain
• Refugee Section - incorporating the work of the Friends Committee for Refugees and Aliens
• Overseas Section - to handle all the short-term work abroad and then hand over to the Friends Service Council as emergency relief ended.

To pull the work of these sections together, a weekly "Ways and Means Committee" was formed, composed partly of members of the service and partly of outside Friends.

The call for civilian relief operations in Europe came before the work of the military forces was over. This posed several difficulties for FRS. As an official Quaker organisation, as a matter of conscience, they would not allow themselves to be involved in military operations. They also refused to wear a military uniform. Britain Yearly Meeting confirmed that they would not send members of FRS to any field of operations wearing khaki. Uniform had not been worn by FRS members working in the UK, members were identified by wearing the Quaker red and black, eight pointed Quaker Star.

The British Army had been issued a non-fraternization order, they were not permitted to have anything but formal relationships with Germans. This order was also applied to British relief workers in Germany. Quakers were well aware of the crimes of the Nazi regime, as the Friends Committee for Refugees and Aliens had been helping people to leave Germany and Austria since 1933, but they, and other members of the FRS, believed that to "draw distinctions on the basis of nationality" was wrong, and that they should be free to treat others as individuals and to use their own judgement.[2][5]

Compromises were made, FRS agreed to wear battle-dress style uniforms in grey, and it was agreed that they had the right to withdraw on the grounds of conscience and to deal with Germans as they saw fit. Although solved quickly, these ethical issues did cause minor delays in teams going into the field.

There were about 550 men and women in full-time service in FRS, dispersed over 50 working locations. Meeting for Sufferings asked that the proportion of Quakers to non-Quakers in the service be maintained at about 40%, in order to preserve the Quaker ethos in the work,[2] and in the end about half of the total number of workers were Quakers. Other workers were pacifists or those who felt happier using their skills in a Quaker environment than in a more formal organisation. Most were of military conscription age, with a few older pacifists who came out of retirement to help.

FRS workers underwent a rigorous selection process, only 10% of those who applied were accepted. Those working abroad were required to have the right language skills.[5]

Quaker relief training was a spiritual and social experience, designed to train relief workers to live adaptably in unforeseen circumstances. A sense of confidence in human relationships was given supreme importance. Workers were also trained in how to deal with uncomfortable living conditions, conditioned by physical exercise, given technical instruction on relief problems such as hygiene and feeding organisation, given language instruction where necessary, and taught courses on political, social and cultural conditions in Europe. Additional specialist training included refugee administration at Bloomsbury House, driving and midwifery.

The first relief workers were trained at 'Spiceland', a training centre consisting of the Spiceland Quaker meeting house and Blackborough House in Cullompton, Devon.[6] Training was also carried out at Selly Oak, Birmingham. New premises for training were found in 1943 at 'Mount Waltham' in Finchley, North London, and towards the end of the war training was also carried out in Swiss Cottage and Kensington.

Roger Wilson described the work of the Friends Relief Service in Britain as "rendering personal service on a human level to those whose physical resources were fairly, or even quite, adequate but who for a variety of reasons were incapable of using them"[2] From 1940 to 1944 the FRS developed into a fairly large relief organisation in Britain, with 200 workers in the field and a transport system capable of linking together more than 50 centres throughout the country.

Prior to 1939, the British Friends Service Council had been working alongside the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) to provide relief to Spanish Civil War refugees on the southern French border. This work had been continued by the Americans, and then handed over to local people, who formed an organisation known as Secours Quaker. In 1944, the FRS decided that rather than begin their own operation in France they would instead offer workers and supplies to support the work of Secours Quaker. This enabled them to be the first British relief organisation to be granted visas to enter France and aided them in their relations with Allied forces, as well as allowing French control of the work going on in their own country.[2] FRS officially withdrew from France in June 1946, although British and American Quakers continued to work with Secours Quaker, sponsored by FRS, until the end of 1948.

The most extensive operations of FRS overseas took place in Germany. There were an estimated 60 million people in Europe that had been displaced by fighting, governmental policies on ethnicity and forced labour migration.[10] In 1945 large proportion of these people were in living in Germany and needed a lot of support in repatriation or resettlement. There were also many German civilians in need of relief.

The work in Greece was of a somewhat scattered nature, falling into three main sections.

Sydney and Joice NanKivell Loch, based in Thessaloniki, ran multiple schemes with the aim of raising the standard of living in local villages, which had been heavily impacted by the Axis occupation and the beginnings of the Greek Civil War. This included running a farm school, distributing livestock, running summer camps, establishing a girl's school and founding a maternity hospital that offered training in midwifery.[13]

An FRS team led by John Saunders worked on refugee transport and resettlement in the Aegean Islands. Many villages in the area had taken significant damage in the fighting, and those returning required help in finding accommodation and ways to support themselves.

A second FRS team, led by Norman Gilbertson, travelled to Thessaloniki in January 1946 and was attached to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration unit there. They distributed supplies to the villages and supported the care of children, particularly orphans.[2]

Poland was the site of significant Quaker relief work following the First World War. After the German invasion in 1939, the Friends Service Council sent a joint delegation with the Polish Relief Fund to help Polish refugees in Hungary and Romania. The Quaker workers concentrated on finding educational and work opportunities for the refugees.[14]

As the war progressed a number of these refugees moved first to Cyprus, and then to Palestine, accompanied by Joice and Sydney Loch, a couple who had been aid-workers for Quaker relief organisations since the First World War. Other Polish refugees travelled to Eastern Africa. This work came under the umbrella of the FRS in 1943. The Lochs and other workers continued to support education and work opportunities, encouraging the refugees to take on leadership roles and to start schools and clubs. They also liased with local officials and supported future planning. This work was largely wound down in 1946, with many of the workers involved going next to Poland.[2]

Poland's agriculture and medical facilities had been devastated by the war. It was decided that the FRS and the American Friends Service Council (AFSC) would form an Anglo American Quaker relief mission based in Warsaw. They distributed supplementary rations to children under the age of 7, who were not supported by school-based schemes. At its peak this feeding programme was distributing food to 11,000 children from 31 centres.[2] The mission also distributed clothing, transported building materials for rebuilding efforts and set up a clinic.

An important part of the work was promoting reconciliation amongst the different ethnic and religious groups in Poland, most particularly between those of German heritage and those of Slavic heritage. It wasn't possible to do this directly, but it was ensured that all organisational committees had representatives from each relevant group, encouraging dialogue and cooperation. The teams also put on multi-lingual nativity plays, ensuring children from all groups had parts, and set up sewing groups, which provided employment as well as opportunities for dialogue.[2]

The mission withdrew in May 1949.

The situation in post-war Austria was complicated, with a multitude of different jurisdictions and authorities. It was decided that FRS workers would be sent to work under the British Red Cross. Food was a dire problem, with the average rations being around 1000 calories per day in 1945/46. FRS began with a feeding scheme for older people working at Vienna University and for infant children. They also distributed clothing and ran a hostel for students.

Richard Rowntree, a former FAU member who transferred to FRS, ran the Distressed Persons Scheme. Austrians who had near relatives in Britain were entitled to get visas to join them. Rowntree helped all those accessing this scheme to arrange travel and transit visas, and co-ordinated with the FCRA in London who would meet them on arrival.[2]

• Charlotte Adeney (illustrator)
• Horace Gundry Alexander
• Mosa Anderson
• Bertha Bracey
• Aubrey Brocklehurst (horologist)
• Wilfred Brown (tenor)
• Charles Frederick Carter
• Nancy Catford (sculptor)
• Corder Catchpool
• Kanty Cooper (sculptor)
• Gerontissa Gavrielia
• Alastair Heron
• Lettice Jowitt
• Margaret McNeil
• Richard Stanley Peters
• Edith Pye
• Tessa Rowntree
• Cedric Smith (statistician)
• Hannah Stanton
• Roger Harold Metford Warner
• Peter Willmott (sociologist)
• Francesca Wilson

The archives of the Friends Relief Service are held at the Library of the Society of Friends, Friends House, London.