A fleet of ambulances left Southampton for the front lines of The Great War 100 years ago this week

The cars, which carried a motif of entwined British and French flags, had been gathered from the four corners of England and equipped by the British Ambulance Committee in association with the French Red Cross.

In this Southampton Pictorial photograph taken 100 years ago, one of the cars can be seen prior to departure in the forecourt of Southampton’s Royal Hotel Yard with an assembly of some of the drivers who would accompany the ambulances on their journey.

The Ambulance Committee had provided two convoys of 30 cars, with each convoy comprising two staff cars and 25 ambulance cars, which could each accommodate between four and six patients.

The Daily Echo’s report of the time also revealed how each ambulance car was operated by two drivers while the staff cars were driven by a single driver, with the men needed to operate the cars being drafted in from the Red Cross and other similar organisations.

The doctors and nurses needed to equip the ambulances were to be provided by the French government as soon as the convoy reached their destination and entered service on the front line in France.

The equipment on board the ambulance cars was also described as “very complete” by the report, which also enlightened readers a century ago of the cars being ‘high powered performance’.

The French government sent over a transport ship in the first week of January 1915 across to Southampton to collect the ambulances, with the cars being loaded and stowed away in the ship over the weekend before returning to France the following week.

The Mayor of Southampton, Alderman Bagshaw, and the town clerk, Mr R Linthorne, made the short trip to the docks to visit the transport ship prior to its departure and wish Admiral Battaile, of the French Navy, and the remainder of the ship’s party good luck before commencing their journey across the channel.