Under Fire: The work of the London Auxiliary Ambulance Service in the Blitz

Naomi Clifford


Region:
London
Notice Period:
Short (maybe less than one month's notice)
Type:
Professional
Fee:
Paid: £80 per talk (online or in person)
Category:
History
Updated:
17th September 2025

What was it like to drive an ambulance through the London Blitz? Who joined up and why?

The volunteer ambulance service has been called 'the forgotten service'. I explore the reasons for this and look at the lives of some of the people who joined up.

Views: 40 | Enquiries: 0

About Naomi Clifford

Hello there!

I am Naomi Clifford, a history writer with a particular interest in the lives of women, especially those neglected by posterity. Although my focus is on the late Georgian and Victorian eras I have also strayed into the 20th century.

The subjects of my talks include: Ugly as Sin: women, criminality and photography in the 19th century; Mrs Meredith’s Mission: convict laundries in South London; The Spectacular Fall of the Golden Boy of the Metropolitan Police; Under Fire: the work of the London Auxiliary Ambulance Service in the Blitz; By Her Own Consent: rape culture in the Georgian era.

My talks are interesting, well researched and beautifully presented, and suitable for a general audience. The slides are image-led (no weighty text!).

When I am not giving talks, I write non-fiction and historical crime fiction. Under Fire tells the wartime story of a debutante and London volunteer ambulance driver; Women and the Gallows looks at the lives and crimes of the ‘unfortunate wretches’ hanged in England and Wales between 1793 and 1837; The Disappearance of Maria Glenn reveals the behind-the-scenes machinations of a notoriously disputed elopement; and The Murder of Mary Ashford re-examines an 1817 killing that led to a change in English law.

My debut historical crime novel 13 Park Lane, an Amazon #1 best-seller, centres on a notorious real-life London murder of 1872.

I am happy to travel anywhere in the Greater London area and I am comfortable with online presentation for audiences across the world.

I am an editor of vauxhallhistory.org, an online magazine of history articles about the South London district, chair of the Friends of Stockwell War Memorial and Gardens, for whom I wrote These Are Our Sons, a compendium of the life stories of over 500 men named on the memorial, and a past presenter of The Door History Podcast. I regularly give talks for Lambeth Readers and Writers Festival and Lambeth Heritage Month events, as well other local history groups, U3A and the Women’s Institute.


Send a message to the speaker

If you are interested in this talk and wish to contact the speaker, please complete the following form:

 
Please provide your contact name
 
Please provide the name of your group
 
Your phone number so that the speaker can contact you
 
Your email address so that the speaker can contact you
 
Give details about the event, time of day and location
Prove you are human please.
Use the slider to drag the puzzle so that the top and bottom are aligned , or use an alternate text based challenge by clicking here.
Question: Is water wet?
 

Site Search

Search across all speakers, topics and tags. Put your search term in the box and press enter or hit search

Use quotes around exact multiple word searches, eg "winston churchill".