Blood Transfusion Record Acknowledgment Card, England, 1935

Blood Transfusion Record Acknowledgment Card printed for the British Red Cross. Transfusion Case No. 1935/1102.

The British Red Cross Society Blood Transfusion Service printed this acknowledgment card. It was issued to a Mr R. S. Martin in 1935 in recognition of his blood donation. Donors were receiving such cards just over a decade after the Red Cross voluntary donations service was instigated. The cards documented precisely how their blood was being used. It states that Martin donated nearly a pint of blood which was given to an amputee with infection and inflammation of the bone marrow. Unfortunately, the patient passed away after initially recovering.

Blood donations are now stored in a national blood bank. The donor has no way of knowing who receives their gift. The first British blood bank was set up in Ipswich, England, in 1937. However, the National Blood Service was not established until 1946.