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the passing of the Local Government Act, 1929, the service had 14 stations in
commission, with 20 ambulances and a total staff of 165.
Or 1st April, 1930, the Local Government Act, 1929, came into operation and
resulted in the transfer to the Council of the powers of the former Metropolitan
Asylums Board and of the 25 Boards of Guardians. With these transfers came the
ambulance services previously maintained by these authorities. Six large ambulance
stations, 107 vehicles and a staff of about 270 became absorbed into the Council's
service and as a result the General Section of the London Ambulance Service, as
distinct from the Accident Section, came into being. The Accident Section was
transferred from the Fire Brigade to the Public Health Department.
In 1931 another accident station was opened at Streatham and yet another at
North Kensington in 1932. The work of the service steadily mounted and in 1938
the Accident Section received a total of 56,318 calls, while the General Section
conveyed 217,908 patients to hospitals, etc., and carried 102,520 patients' relatives,
staff, etc., a total of 320,428 persons. At the outbreak of the war in 1939, the
strength of the service stood at:—
6 General Ambulance Stations
16 Accident Ambulance Stations
About 200 vehicles (including 20 ambulance-buses)
422 operative staff including Superintendents and Station Officers
Local
Government
Act, 1929
When war came the London Ambulance Service formed the nucleus of the
London Auxiliary Ambulance Service, which was created to deal with the conveyance
of air raid casualties, and the development of the auxiliary service was a
remarkable example of the adaptation of a peace-time organisation to war-time
needs and conditions. Recruiting had already begun in 1938 and by September,
1939, the number of enrolled volunteers available for duty was about 5,000, of
whom about half were women. The six general ambulance stations were supplemented
by the establishment of some ll2 auxiliary stations and by 1940, just
before the bombing of London began, the number of vehicles in commission had
increased to about 900 ambulances and 700 motor cars for " sitting." cases.
The personnel numbered 7,000 and eventually reached a maximum of 8,500.
Operational control of the auxiliary service was decentralised to the metropolitan
borough councils but operational control of the regular service remained
centred at the Headquarters at County Hall, where a reserve switchboard was
installed in a basement for use in the event of damage to the main Control Room.
Another emergency switchboard was provided at one of London's underground
railway stations but it so happened that the former was utilised only on one or two
occasions and no recourse to the latter was necessary.
During the period of the war the service conveyed 48,709 war casualties to
hospitals and first-aid posts. The ambulance stations themselves bore their share
of the damage caused by enemy action and 14 members of the staff were killed and
85 injured while on duty. Ambulance auxiliaries earned 3 George Medals, 11
British Empire Medals and 5 Commendations.
War-time
service
With the cessation of hostilities and the disbanding of the auxiliary service
came the task of continuing the pre-war development of the regular service.
Additional facilities were made available to the people of London and by 1948 the
work undertaken by the service, in addition to the conveyance of casualties and the
removal of patients being admitted to or discharged from hospital, included the
conveyance by accident ambulances of analgesia apparatus for use by midwives in
attendance upon parturient women being confined in their own homes; the conveyance
of the emergency obstetric units provided at certain hospitals to deal with
cases in which complications arise during childbirth at home and the transport, by
a special vehicle reserved for the purpose, of resuscitation ("iron lung") apparatus
in cases of emergency.
Post-war
development