FLOE Shakespeare, who works as voluntary Friend in Residence at Airton Quaker Meeting House, has been researching Quaker and pacifist activity in Craven during World War One. Here she explores how pacifists demonstrated their patriotism during the conflict.

HOW can patriotic pacifists serve their country in wartime? This was the question most on the minds of six Quakers who met on August 6, 1914.

Their answer was to set up a voluntary civilian ambulance service which could operate in combat areas, helping soldiers and civilians. The Friends' Ambulance Unit (FAU) was born.

Quakers in Skipton, Settle and surrounding areas greeted the idea enthusiastically and began fundraising. At the end of October 1914, the first 43 trained volunteers set sail for Dunkirk.

At first, both the army and the Red Cross were dubious about working alongside a pacifist volunteer unit, but the FAU very soon proved its worth.

Although pacifists were regarded as wimps and traitors at home, many soldiers came to greatly respect the bravery of these intrepid volunteers.

As a voluntary organisation, they were less bound by rules and bureaucracy than the official services. Their unofficial motto was "Find work that needs doing. Regularise it later, if possible".

This attitude meant that workers could respond to any needs they saw in front of them and a large amount of relief work with civilians was done, alongside helping wounded soldiers.

Laurence Cadbury, one of the original six, got around in his much-loved car, nicknamed 'the Beetle'. Writing home at the end of 1914, he describes the situation of the Police Commissioner in Ypres.

Despite his house being repeatedly hit by shell fire, he had refused to be evacuated, no doubt because the remaining residents in the town had become increasingly lawless.

Laurence writes: "On Sundays, the bombardment is particularly fierce and lasts without intermission all day . As the Police Commissioner's wife would not come away permanently with the children, we persuaded him to let us take them away for the Sunday operations, so bundled them into the Beetle, two in the back hatch, and with six up jolted over the 'J.J.' shattered streets and at last out on to the [censored] road.

After the Conscription Act came into force in 1916, service with the FAU was sometimes granted as a condition of exemption from military service to conscientious objectors.

By 1918, the FAU had four hospitals in England, at York, Birmingham, and two in London. On mainland Europe, they staffed eight hospitals, ran ambulance trains and a hospital ship.

They helped to set up dental centres, orphanages, schools, crèches, milk stations, lace workshops to provide work and an income for refugees, and provided food and clothing.

A report in the Quaker magazine 'The Friend' in January 1916 mentions that "much of [our work] has been done under shell fire and within danger zones of war. Three men have lost their lives, and a considerable number have been wounded."

It was all almost entirely paid for from private fundraising by Quakers and others.

The official list of FAU members from Craven includes E Bibby, JR Bibby, JS Carr, George Cumberland, Stephen Cumberland, Edward Holmes, W Hutchinson and R Jackson from Bentham; Elizabeth Geldard, EH Horner, MT Horner, W Horner and B Hunt from Settle; and SD Lodge and T Lodge from Hawes. Quaker records also include Wilcock Whittaker and Howard Wilson from Bentham.

Elizabeth Geldard's future sister-in-law, Olga Wilson, also worked with the FAU in Dunkirk. Her scrapbook, including photos of the hospital, can be seen as part of the Craven and the Great War exhibition at The Folly.

The FAU continued work on mainland Europe, helping to clear up the devastation left by the war, until 1919. Disbanded after this, it was revived at the beginning of the Second World War.

Altogether, around 1,000 men and women worked for the FAU in Britain, and considerably more than this in Europe. Twenty-one are known to have died in action.

It is estimated that over half a million ill and wounded people were helped by these committed volunteers.

Now Floe is keen to hear from anyone whose ancestors were pacifists and/or conscientious objectors at that time.

The Museum of North Craven Life in Settle is creating an archive of Great War stories, and Floe, a Quaker, hopes that any information about local people can be included in this.

Floe can be contacted on 01729 830263 and The Folly in Settle at curator@ncbpt.org.uk or phoning 015242 51388.