Hadfield-Spears Ambulance Unit - Re-grouping and Re-equipping in Britain

Re-grouping and Re-equipping in Britain

Mary Spears wished to continue with her work, and had the support of some of her original volunteer nurses and MTC drivers. However, Sir Robert Hadfield was dying at a country house near Epsom; Lady Hadfield was cut off at her villa in the south of France. There was accordingly no question of more help from the original sponsors but, through her contacts in America, she tapped into funds which had been donated in America by a charitable organisation known as the British War Relief Society, whose initial donation of £25,000 was enough for her to consider that their financial worries were over. The name of the new unit would remain unchanged, but its organisation and Anglo-French character would be identical to that of her two previous hospitals. These conditions – including the proviso that Mrs Spears would exercise complete control over the female personnel – were accepted in writing by General Charles de Gaulle, who was by now leading the Free French Forces from his headquarters in London.

The unit's next posting would be overseas and there would be a requirement for heavy trucks and 30 men who could not only drive but also act as orderlies. De Gaulle was unable to provide this manpower from his forces, but drivers were forthcoming from the American Field Service, and hospital orderlies from the Friends' Ambulance Unit in London – the latter all conscientious objectors. Vehicles, tents, beds, cookers and ward equipment were purchased from the War Office. The vehicles included 15 3-ton Bedford trucks, and the same number of 15-hundredweight trucks, as well as five Ford V8s to transport the nurses and officers. De Gaulle's, Free French had few medical officers and it took months to assemble a team of four doctors who would be led by Colonel Fruchaud. The Mechanised Transport Corps provided 12 drivers.

The equipment and vehicles left Cardiff by sea for Port Sudan at the beginning of February 1941. The personnel sailed on 23 March from Greenock on board the Orient Line liner SS Otranto.