Friends ' Ambulance Unit The Friends ' Ambulance Unit ( FAU ) was a volunteer ambulance service , founded by individual members of the British Religious Society of Friends ( Quakers ) , in line with their Peace Testimony . The FAU operated from 1914 – 1919 , 1939 – 1946 and 1946 – 1959 in 25 different countries around the world . It was independent of the Quakers ' organisation and chiefly staffed by registered conscientious objector s . History . First World War . The Unit was founded as the " Anglo - Belgian Ambulance Unit " at the start of World War I in 1914 and later renamed the Friends ' Ambulance Unit . Members were trained at Jordans , a hamlet in Buckinghamshire , that was a centre for Quakerism . Altogether it sent over a thousand men to France and Belgium , where they worked on ambulance convoys and ambulance trains with the French and British armies . It was dissolved in 1919 . Second World War and aftermath . It was refounded by a committee of former members at the start of World War II in September 1939 with the establishment of a training camp at Manor Farm , Bristol Road , Northfield , Birmingham ( the home of Dame Elizabeth Cadbury ) . More than 1 , 300 members were trained and went on to serve as ambulance drivers and medical orderlies in London during the Blitz , as well as overseas in Finland , Norway and Sweden ( 1940 ) , the Middle East ( 1940 – 1943 ) , Greece ( 1941 , 1944 – 1946 ) , China and Syria ( 1941 – 1946 ) , India and Ethiopia ( 1942 – 1945 ) , Italy ( 1943 – 1946 ) , France , Belgium , Netherlands , Yugoslavia and Germany ( 1944 – 1946 ) and Austria ( 1945 – 1946 ) . Two 12 - man sections with eight vehicles , FAU Relief Sections Nos 1 and 2 , landed at Arromanches , Normandy on 6 September 1944 from a tank landing craft . Attached to the British Army ' s civilian affairs branch , the FAU sections provided relief to civilians in Normandy . No 2 FAU was then posted to a newly liberated refugee camp at Leopoldsburg , Belgium , managing reception , registration , disinfection , catering , dormitories and departures . In November 1944 , in response to a request from 21st Army Group , a further five more sections were established and arrived in Europe at the end of 1944 . One new member was Gerald Gardiner , who subsequently became Lord Chancellor in Harold Wilson ' s Labour Party government of 1964 – 1970 . After a period in Nijmegen , assisting local civilian medical organisations during Operation Market Garden , No 2 FAU cared for a colony for the mentally ill near Cleves in Germany which grew to a population of 25 , 000 . By April , the main work had become the accommodation and care of displaced persons until they could return home . No 2 FAU was heavily involved with the care and support of inmates at the newly liberated Stalag X - B prisoner - of - war camp near Sandbostel , between Bremen and Hamburg in northern Germany in May 1945 . The FAU was wound up in 1946 and replaced by the Friends Ambulance Unit Post - War Service , which continued until 1959 . The work of the Friends ' Ambulance Unit was referred to in the 1947 award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Quakers worldwide and accepted by the Friends Service Council and the American Friends Service Committee . Purpose . The original trainees in the 1939 training camp issued a statement expressing their purpose : We purpose to train ourselves as an efficient Unit to undertake ambulance and relief work in areas under both civilian and military control , and so , by working as a pacifist and civilian body where the need is greatest , to demonstrate the efficacy of co - operating to build up a new world rather than fighting to destroy the old . While respecting the views of those pacifists who feel they cannot join an organization such as our own , we feel concerned among the bitterness and conflicting ideologies of the present situation to build up a record of goodwill and positive service , hoping that this will help to keep uppermost in men ' s minds those values which are so often forgotten in war and immediately afterwards . Records . Much archival material has survived and has been deposited at Friends House Library , Euston Road , London . The Library has produced Guides to the material :