Wooden crates with bottles of plasma, Army Blood Supply Depot, Southmead Hospital, Southmead Road, Bristol
Wooden crates with bottles of plasma at the entrance to a store room. Each crate held 14 pint bottles of plasma complete with giving sets, ready for immediate despatch upon demand. The Army Blood Supply Depot, based at Southmead Hospital, was established in 1938 and began collecting blood from local donors in summer 1939. During the campaign in France in 1940, the Army Blood Supply Depot provided nearly all the blood and plasma required. Donated blood could be exchanged between the civilian and military blood depots, but the two services drew blood from separate pools of donors. Britain’s blood depot, established during WWI, and its fully functioning transfusion service pre-war meant that the transfusion service of the British army was well-organised compared to other armed forces.
