First aid was the focus of growing voluntary activity in the post-war decades. Despite the advent of the National Health Service in 1948, increased numbers of people volunteered to learn, teach, and administer first aid as concern about health and safety infiltrated new activities and arenas. In this article we use the example of the Voluntary Aid Societies (VAS, focusing in particular on St John Ambulance) to highlight continuities and change in the relationship between state and voluntary sector in health and welfare provision during the four decades after 1945. Though the state assumed vastly expanded health and welfare responsibilities after the war, the continuing vitality of the VAS suggests cultural continuities that the post-war welfare state did not eradicate. The article therefore builds on the insights of historians who argue that volunteering remained a vital component of British society across the later twentieth century, and that the state and voluntary sector were not mutually exclusive.

中文翻译：

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英格兰的急救和志愿服务，1945-85

急救是战后几十年不断增长的志愿活动的重点。尽管 1948 年出现了国家卫生服务体系，但随着对健康和安全的关注渗透到新的活动和领域，自愿学习、教授和管理急救的人数有所增加。在本文中，我们使用志愿援助协会（VAS，特别关注圣约翰救护车）的例子来强调 1945 年之后的 40 年间，在卫生和福利提供方面，国家与志愿部门之间关系的连续性和变化。战后国家承担了大量扩大的健康和福利责任，VAS 的持续活力表明了战后福利国家没有根除的文化连续性。