The Home Service Ambulance Committee was set up in 1919 as one of the new departments under the Joint Council of the Order of St John of Jerusalem and the British Red Cross Society. It aimed ‘to provide a means of transport for the sick or injured throughout the country.’ [Oliver, The British Red Cross in Action, p.309] Following demobilisation and the closure of the Transport of Wounded Department all motor vehicles remaining in France and England were transferred from the Motor Ambulance Department to the newly formed Home Service Ambulance Committee.





In addition to ambulance transportation, in 1922 the mobile x-ray unit was set up and provided a much-needed service, especially during the Blitz, when hospital x-ray departments were destroyed overnight by air raids.





The Ambulance Department continued to function throughout the Second World War, transporting the civilian sick. Some of the Department’s ambulances were commandeered by local authorities. Following the Second World War the War Organisation transferred its ambulances to the Ambulance Department. At this time the Joint Committee assumed direct control over the assets of the old Joint Council and the Ambulance Department and its Committee became an integral part of the Joint Committee. The Joint Committee voted a substantial grant for the continuance of the work of the Ambulance Department.





In 1963, it was generally recognised that the operation of an ambulance service was a national responsibility, not of primary concern to a charitable organisation. The Joint Committee decided to invite the London County Council (LCC) to take over the Ambulance Department on mutually satisfactory terms. The Ambulance Department closed down in 1964 and its assets were transferred to LCC.