Over 90,000 people volunteered for the British Red Cross at home and overseas during the war.
Search for your family’s personnel records, and discover what Red Cross volunteers were doing in your local area 100 years ago.
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Agatha Christie, one of the world’s best-selling authors, volunteered for the Red Cross before publishing her first novel in 1920.
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The writer and peace campaigner is best known for her 1933 memoir Testament of Youth. It describes the devastating impact of war on a generation.
A novelist, essayist and critic, Forster was also a pacifist. Instead of fighting, he got a job with the Red Cross.
Mitchison was a Scottish novelist and poet, who wrote more than 90 books. She volunteered as a Red Cross nurse and was appointed CBE in 1981.
Daughter of wartime Prime Minister David Lloyd George and great-grandmother of historian Dan Snow, Olwen served as a cook on the front line.
Blackwood wrote hundreds of supernatural novels, plays and stories. His work was adapted for the musical The Starlight Express.
The Red Cross did everything from nursing and air raid duty to searching for missing people and transporting the wounded.
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90,000 volunteers worked at home and abroad between 1914 and 1918. They performed all kinds of roles from nurses to air raid wardens.
Our work during the war included running auxiliary hospitals and convalescent homes. These temporary facilities for wounded servicemen proved to be vital.
British prisoners of war (POWs) were in dire need of food and clothing during the First World War. They were also desperate for entertainment.
There are often First World War exhibitions and events where you can see a piece of Red Cross history - paintings, photos, uniforms and volunteers' trinkets.
Help solve the mystery of the unidentified volunteers. Browse our photographs and let us know if you spot someone you recognise.
The work on the First World War volunteers website is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 UK: England and Wales Licence, unless it says otherwise