Greater London Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service Records
Production date
1933-1972
Description
Quarterly Circulars: October 1933 - January 1939; October 1949 - January 1954; July 1954 - January 1959 (incomplete). Newsletter January 1972. Leaflets (1963, 1969). Notes on the Oliver Memorial Fund by Frank Hanley (n.d.).
Collection Type
Archives
Level of Current Record
series
History
British Red Cross involvement with blood transfusion services began in October 1921. Percy Lane Oliver (1878-1944), Honorary Secretary of the Camberwell Division of the British Red Cross Society (BRCS) London Branch, received a telephone call from King’s College Hospital, asking if he could find a volunteer to donate blood for a seriously ill patient. A suitable match was found and the patient’s life was saved. As a result, Percy Oliver decided to form a panel of donors from which volunteers of the required blood group could be quickly supplied to any hospital. Blood transfusion techniques at this time required fresh blood.
The service was known at first as the London Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service. Mr Oliver became the Honorary Organising Secretary and ran the service from his own home. In 1926 the BRCS took responsibility for the service as the British Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service and by 1939 more than 50 donor panels were in operation around the country.
In 1932 the Voluntary Blood Donor Association was set up to bring donors into closer touch by means of social functions, meetings and a quarterly journal.
Early in the Second World War the Ministry of Health developed the Emergency Blood Transfusion Service, which quickly became the National Blood Transfusion Service, to take permanent responsibility for providing blood and blood products and the equipment needed to take, group and store these items. The Red Cross service, known from 1945 in the London area as the Greater London Blood Transfusion Service, continued to assist when donors of fresh blood were required.
A summary of the role of the British Red Cross within the Blood Transfusion Service is given in the 1947 BRCS annual report:
“The Society’s activities during 1947 were ancillary to the government’s. Their Blood Transfusion personnel worked in close liaison with the Regional Blood Transfusion officers of the Ministry of Health. The main functions performed were enrolling and maintaining donor panels and in calling up the donors for bleeding. In this connection, donors were dealt with, and it was found that the personal touch of these voluntary workers was most valuable in helping to maintain an adequate panel of donors. In addition, many members assisted technically at bleedings and some worked in the laboratories of the Blood Transfusion Service”.
The Greater London Blood Transfusion Service ceased operation in 1986, due to the decline in requirement for donors to attend at hospitals to give fresh donations and the increased need for more detailed screening of blood and processing to give several products from each blood donation.
The service was known at first as the London Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service. Mr Oliver became the Honorary Organising Secretary and ran the service from his own home. In 1926 the BRCS took responsibility for the service as the British Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service and by 1939 more than 50 donor panels were in operation around the country.
In 1932 the Voluntary Blood Donor Association was set up to bring donors into closer touch by means of social functions, meetings and a quarterly journal.
Early in the Second World War the Ministry of Health developed the Emergency Blood Transfusion Service, which quickly became the National Blood Transfusion Service, to take permanent responsibility for providing blood and blood products and the equipment needed to take, group and store these items. The Red Cross service, known from 1945 in the London area as the Greater London Blood Transfusion Service, continued to assist when donors of fresh blood were required.
A summary of the role of the British Red Cross within the Blood Transfusion Service is given in the 1947 BRCS annual report:
“The Society’s activities during 1947 were ancillary to the government’s. Their Blood Transfusion personnel worked in close liaison with the Regional Blood Transfusion officers of the Ministry of Health. The main functions performed were enrolling and maintaining donor panels and in calling up the donors for bleeding. In this connection, donors were dealt with, and it was found that the personal touch of these voluntary workers was most valuable in helping to maintain an adequate panel of donors. In addition, many members assisted technically at bleedings and some worked in the laboratories of the Blood Transfusion Service”.
The Greater London Blood Transfusion Service ceased operation in 1986, due to the decline in requirement for donors to attend at hospitals to give fresh donations and the increased need for more detailed screening of blood and processing to give several products from each blood donation.
Catalogue Number
345