List of ambulance drivers during World War I

Walt Disney, American Red Cross ambulance driver in France during World War I, and an ambulance decorated by him.

This is a list of notable people who served as ambulance drivers during the First World War. A remarkable number—writers especially—volunteered as ambulance drivers for the Allied Powers. In many cases they sympathized strongly with the ideals of the Allied Powers but did not want, or were too old, to participate in a combat role. For women, combat was not an option at the time. Several of the Americans on the list volunteered before the United States' 1917 entry into the war. Many of the American writers would later be associated with the Lost Generation.

Businesspeople

• Tony Hulman^[1] - American businessman, owner and operator of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and volunteer with the American Red Cross
• Ray Kroc - American entrepreneur of McDonald's Corporation fame - trained to become an ambulance driver, though the war ended before he saw action.

Composers

• Maurice Ravel^[2] - volunteer ambulance driver or truck driver
• Albert Roussel^[3] - Red Cross transport driver
• Ralph Vaughan Williams^[4] - Royal Army Medical Corps

Filmmakers

• René Clair^[5]
• Jean Cocteau^[6]
• Walt Disney^[7][8] - volunteer American Red Cross, but served after the armistice ending World War I was signed.^[9][10]
• William A. Wellman^[11]

Writers

• Robert C. Binkley - volunteer, United States Army Ambulance Service
• Louis Bromfield^[12] - volunteer American Field Service
• William Slater Brown^[12] - volunteer Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps
• Malcolm Cowley^[12] - volunteer American Field Service
• Harry Crosby^[12] - volunteer American Field Service
• E. E. Cummings^[12] - volunteer Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps
• Kati Dadeshkeliani - Russian Army ambulance driver
• Russell Davenport^[13] - U.S. Army Medical Corps
• John Dos Passos^[14] - volunteer Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps
• Dale Van Every^[15] - volunteer, United States Army Ambulance Service
• Julien Green^[12][16]- volunteer American Field Service
• Ernest Hemingway^[12] - volunteer American Red Cross in Italy
• Robert Hillyer^[12] - volunteer Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps
• Sidney Howard^[12] - volunteer American Field Service
• Jerome K. Jerome^[17] - French Army ambulance driver
• John Howard Lawson^[18] - volunteer Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps
• Desmond MacCarthy^[13] - volunteer British Red Cross ambulance corps
• Archibald MacLeish^[19] - U.S. Army ambulance driver, who later became an artillery captain
• John Masefield - served as hospital orderly in British hospital for French soldiers in France
• F. Van Wyck Mason^[20] - ambulance corps volunteer, who later joined the French Army and then the U.S. Army. Grandfather Frank H. Mason was Chairman of the Ambulance Committee of the American Hospital in Paris.^[21]
• Somerset Maugham^[13] - volunteer British Red Cross ambulance corps
• Charles Nordhoff^[13] - volunteer American Field Service
• William Seabrook^[12][13] - American Field Service
• Robert W. Service^[22] - British Red Cross volunteer
• Olaf Stapledon^[23] - Friends' Ambulance Unit volunteer
• Hugh Walpole - Red Cross volunteer in Russia
• Amos Niven Wilder^[24] - American Field Service volunteer, who later joined an artillery unit

Other notable people

• Frank Buckles^[25] - Last American World War I veteran
• Marion Barbara "Joe" Carstairs - a wealthy British power boat racer known for her speed and her eccentric lifestyle^[26] - Wealthy Anglo-American. Later known as a power boat racer and for her eccentric lifestyle
• Stafford Cripps - British politician
• Hélène Dutrieu^[27] - pioneering French aviator
• Florence Jaffray Harriman- socialite and member of Wilson's commission on labor unrest - director of the Women's Motor Corps in France, and organizer of the American Red Cross Women's Motor Corps of the District of Columbia
• Waldo Peirce^[28] - American painter - volunteer American Field Service
• Percy Toplis - notorious British deserter

People who served the Allies in a related capacity

• Algernon Blackwood - British Red Cross Searcher, trying to identify dead or lost soldiers - British author
• A.J. Cronin - Royal Navy surgeon - Scottish novelist
• Marjory Stoneman Douglas - American Red Cross volunteer - eminent American conservationist
• Dorothy Canfield Fisher - volunteered to help blinded Allied soldiers - American social activist and author
• E.M. Forster - interviewed wounded in Egyptian hospitals - English novelist
• Anne Green - volunteer work, author and translator - sister of aforementioned ambulance driver and author Julian Green
• Gertrude Stein - volunteer driver for French hospitals - American poet, playwright, feminist
• Edmund Wilson - American literary critic

References

1. Indianapolis Star (11 April 2001). "The Hulman Family". The Indianapolis Star. Gannett Co. Inc. Retrieved 27 June 2012.
2. Biography. "Maurice Ravel Biography". Maurice Ravel. 8notes.com. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
3. Wright, David C.F (2002). "Albert Roussel" (PDF). Albert Roussel. wrightmusic.net. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
4. Documents Online (2001–2004). "Famous names in the First World War - Ralph Vaughan Williams". The National Archives. The National Archives. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
5. Amengual, Barthélemy. "René Clair". the Encyclopædia Britannica. the Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 22 June 2012. line feed character in |work= at position 4 (help)
6. Fowlie, Wallace. "Jean Cocteau". the Encyclopædia Britannica. the Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 22 June 2012. line feed character in |work= at position 4 (help)
7. http://www.waltdisney.org/storyboard/world-war-one-walt
8. http://www.waltdisney.org/storyboard/over-there-walt-disneys-world-war-i-adventure
9. http://www.waltdisney.org/storyboard/american-flag
10. http://www.waltdisney.org/storyboard/national-world-war-i-museums-ford-ambulance-kansas-city
11. Silke, James R. "Fists, Dames & Wings." Air Progress Aviation Review, Volume 4, No. 4, October 1980.
12. Carr, Virginia. Dos Passos - A Life. Doubleday, 1984, p. 127.
13. Ruediger, Steve (22 August 2009). "Literary Ambulance Drivers". firstworldwar.com. firstworldwar.com. Retrieved 17 June 2012.
14. Carr, Virginia (1984). "Dos Passos in the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps". Our Story. Retrieved June 13, 2012.
15. Bradley, Edwin M. (2004). The First Hollywood Musicals: A Critical Filmography of 171 Features, 1927 through 1932. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. p. 124. ISBN 9780786420292. Retrieved 2014-07-21.
16. "Julien Green (1900-1998)". The New Georgia Encyclopedia. the Georgia Humanities Council and the University of Georgia Press. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
17. Steven, Andrew (2009–2012). "Jerome K Jerome the man". The Jerome K Jerome Society. The Jerome K Jerome Society. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
18. Carr, Virginia. Dos Passos - A Life. Doubleday, 1984, p. 124.
19. Poets.org (1997–2012). "Archibald MacLeish". Poets.org. Academy of American Poets. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
20. Dictionary of American Biography, Supplement 10: 1976-1980. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1995.
21. American Committe (31 August 1915). "American Hospital In Paris Annual Report 1915". \. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
22. Webmaster (21 July 2003). "Biography:". Robert W Service, The Original Homepage. RobertWService.com. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
23. Gilster, Paul (28 November 2011). "Star Maker: The Philosophy of Olaf Stapledon". Centauri Dreams - The News Forum of the Tau Zero Foundation. the Tau Zero Foundation. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
24. Robertson, Hamish (25 January 2011). "Amos Niven Wilder (1895-1993), Brother". the Official Website of The Thornton Wilder Family. The Wilder Family LLC. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
25. "Frank W. Buckles - America's Last Survivor of the First World War". frankbuckles.org. 15 June 2012. Retrieved June 15, 2012.
26. Book Description (22 May 2012). "Book Description of The Queen of Whale Cay: The Eccentric Story of "Joe" Carstairs, Fastest Woman on Water by Kate Summerscale". Amazon.com. Amazon.com. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
27. Cooper, Ralph. "HÉLÉNE DUTRIEU 1877-1961 AKA Héléne Dutrieux". earlyaviators.com. earlyaviators.com. Retrieved 27 June 2012.
28. Gallagher, William. "Waldo Peirce - Brief life of a vibrant artist: 1884-1970". Harvard Magazine. Harvard Magazine Inc. Retrieved 15 June 2012.