Casualties Union

The collection comprises material relating to the work of Casualties Union. There are papers regarding the formation of Casualties Union and its early years working as part of the Surrey County Civil Defence Rescue School, as well as governance and central administrative papers covering iterations of the Constitution, annual reports, financial matters and management meetings, including Council, Executive Committee and General Management Committee meetings.

The archive also comprises material regarding many of Casualties Union's activities, including the annual Casualties Union Day competitions, annual conferences and work providing casualty simulations for other bodies. There is material concerning the training of Casualties Union members, including Study Circle papers, training course materials and training resources and there are papers concerning the production of various publications, such as Atlas of Injury, the Casualty Simulation journal and various writings by the founder Eric Claxton.

The archive contains a significant amount of photographic material, primarily of casualty simulation activities and the application of injury make-up, but also of members enjoying social events. There are also film reels showing Casualties Union members participating in simulations.

The bulk of the archive comprises papers created by senior Casualties Union members - primarily Eric Claxton and Helen Nicholson - and maintained by subsequent senior members. These papers were then given to Wellcome by Casualties Union. Section E of the archive comprises papers created and kept by Dr Colin Dawson, an active member of Casualties Union for 49 years, who in that time held the various posts within Casualties Union. He deposited these papers directly with Wellcome.

Some files were originally numbered as part of a filing system used by Casualties Union in the 1940s., However the sequence is largely incomplete and so the decision has been made by the cataloguer not to replicate it in the archival arrangement. Where they exist, the numbers have been retained in file titles.

Original titles have been retained where known. These are in double quotation marks.

Casualties Union is a charity founded by Eric Claxton in November 1942 in order to provide casualties and patients for those who teach first aid, nursing and rescue. The charity's objectives are to advance for the public benefit education and training in first aid, the treatment of illness, nursing, rescue, accident prevention, care in the community and similar activities, particularly through casualty simulation.

Casualties Union evolved from the Surrey County Civil Defence Rescue School (SCCDRS), which was set up in 1940 to aid rescue operations after World War II bombings.

Many rescue workers had no training other than basic first aid, which was inadequate when dealing with the aftermath of a bomb blast. The initial training provided by Eric Claxton at the SCCDRS dealt with the practicalities of navigating through a destroyed building without causing greater damage or danger. They subsequently introduced real people to act as casualties, to demonstrate as vividly as possible the need for skill in reaching injured people, assessing and tending to their wounds, and handling them considerately, including dealing with their distress. This proved to be extremely popular and very effective.

Increasing publicity about the SCCDRS’s work led to interest from around the country and whilst there was increasing demand for skilled casualties to be used in training, there were only a handful of suitably trained and able volunteers. On 22nd November 1942 Eric Claxton organised a meeting of the Surrey Civil Defence Service to train and recruit additional casualty volunteers. The meeting included a rescue simulation followed by a demonstration of how the fake injuries were created and a talk about staging. Claxton assured everyone that they were fully insured, but also set out the risks of being a casualty. Volunteers often suffered bruising and cuts from the staging, plus there was a real risk that a trainee mistake could cause parts of the staging to collapse, and wreckage fall on the casualty. The meeting resulted in the formation of Casualties Union, with 120 people present at the meeting enrolling as trainees.

Early the following year the SCCDRS took over training Civil Defence Rescue Leaders from neighbouring counties, as well as military personnel from both the British and Canadian armies. In early 1944, the SCCDRS moved exclusively to training members of the Allied Armies.

The SCCDRS was wound down at the end of the war, and Casualties Union faced a period of uncertainty. However, it was encouraged to continue in order to provide peace-time first aid training using realistic acting, make up and sets to simulate casualty situations. Up until this point all members of Casualties Union were members of the SCCDRS, but now they were offered membership of a new, independent Casualties Union. Those that accepted became “founder members”, and the 110 people were announced at the 3rd annual reunion held on 1 July 1945.

Casualties Union was soon working closely with many UK voluntary aid societies such as the Red Cross and St. John’s Ambulance, with the Union’s training placing an emphasis on accident prevention as well as dealing with injuries. It also introduced a focus on youth programmes and worked closely with groups such as the Scout Association and Girl Guiding UK to train youngsters in first aid.

Eric Claxton was awarded an MBE in 1943 and OBE in 1964. He was the Chairman of Casualties Union until 1969 and then given role and title of Founder. He died in January 1993.

Today, Casualties Union works with a variety of civilian, government and military organisations in a diverse range of situations, including large scale terrorist attack scenarios. Typically, these exercises involve multiple agencies working together responding to a particular scenario and can involve decontamination procedures, the establishment of temporary mortuaries and mass evacuations.

Wellcome Collection holds two publications by Eric Claxton: More ways than one of fighting a war (Lewes: Book Guild, 1990) and The struggle for peace (Lewes: Book Guild, 1992).

This organisation's website has been archived as part of the work of the UK Web Archiving Consortium (UKWAC).