Much relates to the development of the civil and military voluntary medical services prior to and during the First World War.
Subjects covered are: work of the British Red Cross Society, including ambulance and field hospital demonstrations at Brooklands motor racing track, Weybridge, and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 1914, recruitment, training, first aid manuals, formation of Voluntary Aid Detachments (V.A.D.s) pre-First World War, and nursing services; work of St John Ambulance Association; recruitment of women into the voluntary nursing services during the War; raising of an Indian Students Field Ambulance Corps in 1914 organised by Mahatma K Gandhi and trained by Cantlie and formation of the Indian Voluntary Aid Contingent upon outbreak of hostilities between England and Germany in August; foundation of the College of Ambulance in 1914; early First World War battles in which the London Scottish took part; conference on Public Morals, Jul 1910; Cantlie's views on the physical deterioration of Londoners and degeneration of the national physique, fitness and health, children's and adults' clothing especially the benefits of kilts for young boys; Cantlie's experiences in Egypt as part of the medical mission against the cholera epidemic in 1883; Cantlie's work in Hong Kong including raising of the Hong Kong Volunteers and ambulance training, activities at the College of Medicine for Chinese and on the new Sanitary Board in Hong Kong; bubonic plague epidemic in Hong Kong 1894; political events in China including the health of the Chinese Emperor, the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty in Feb 1912, the new Republic of China and its first President Sun Yat Sen; reviews of Cantlie's book Sun Yat Sen and the Awakening of China 1912; first aid for tropical ailments; Cantlie's invention of a protective face mask for gas attacks; Canadian Cantlie cousins, particularly Lieutenant-Colonel George S Cantlie D.S.O., V.D. who led the Canadian Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) in France during the First World War; statistics of plague mortality in India 1913.
Also contains tributes to Cantlie and Order of Service, 1 Jun 1926.