Chilton Moor, Long Room

During the First World War the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St John of Jerusalem combined to form the Joint War Committee to raise and organise Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs) trained in First Aid and Nursing. The nurses were a mixture of qualified nurses and volunteers (mostly middle-class women). The organisation administered auxiliary hospitals and convalescent homes - many set up in large houses on loan to the Red Cross during the war. VAD hospitals received the sum of 3 shillings per day per patient from the War Office. The Long Room was run by the 9th Durham VA Hospital Unit. Now demolished.