#51 Where did the symbol for the Red Cross come from?

I learned this today. The symbol of the Red Cross is the Swiss flag reversed.

The Red Cross was started by a Swiss businessman called Henry Dunant. He was born in 1828 and died in 1910. Dunant had started a business that operated in French-occupied Algeria, but the local government was not very helpful. Dunant decided to travel to see Emperor Napoleon III to ask for his help.

France was fighting a war against Austria at the time because Austria had captured most of Italy. When Dunant travelled to see Napoleon III in 1859, he arrived at the end of the Battle of Solferino. This battle scene had such an impact on Dunant that we might not have the Red Cross if he hadn’t seen it.

The battle was an attempt to stop Austria moving into Italy. Italy had yet to be unified and it was divided between France, Spain, Austria and some Italian states. At the battle, 130,000 Austrian soldiers faced 140,000 French soldiers with their allies.

The battle lasted over 9 hours. 2,386 Austrian troops were killed and 10,807 wounded. 2,492 French and their allies were killed and 12,512 wounded. The losses were significant, and Napoleon decided to put an end to the war. Italy became an independent kingdom in 1861. That is obviously significant, but another wonderful thing came out of this battle.

Henry Dunant arrived just as the battle was ending. At that time, it was quite common to leave the wounded on the battlefield unless there was an easy way to get them off. When Dunant arrived on the battlefield, close to 30,000 wounded were slowly dying and there was nothing to be done for them.

Most people would feel sorry for the wounded, and that would be the end of it. Not so with Henry Dunant. He was moved to action. He gave up the idea of finding Napoleon and asking for support. Instead, he went to the local town and rallied the citizens. They spent days helping the wounded on the battlefield. They made temporary hospitals and provided aid where they could and comfort where they couldn’t. This was an amazing humanitarian act, but what made it even more impressive was that they offered their aid irrespective of which side the wounded had fought on.

When he came home to Geneva, he wrote a book called “A Memory of Solferino”. He paid for the book to be published in 1862 and sent it to as many political and military figures as he could. He pushed for the creation of a voluntary aid organization that would help wounded soldiers in a war and treaties that would guarantee the safety of those volunteers.

In 1863, Henry Dunant designed the symbol that we all instantly recognize today as the Red Cross. He was Swiss, living in Switzerland, and Switzerland had a reputation for neutrality. He wanted his organization to be completely neutral and to be able to help combatants on both sides of a conflict, so he decided to base it on the Swiss flag. He simply inverted it. The Swiss flag is a red cross on a white background. The Red Cross flag is a red cross on a white background. As red on white is a highly visible color, it was a lucky coincidence.

Over the next 14 years, Durant worked tirelessly towards his goal. In 1863, he managed to hold an international conference that was attended by delegates from 15 different governments and organizations. They agreed that his idea was a necessity. In 1864, a conference of 16 countries adopted the 1^st Geneva Convention. (Not the 1949 one that we all know.) This set out rules and treatment of wounded soldiers in the field.

Slowly, more and more societies were formed in different countries and the red cross symbol became synonymous with the work that the group was doing. In 1876, the committee started to call itself the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The Red Cross started to spread across the world, but it was World War 1 that really put it into the public’s eye. The Red Cross’s humanitarian work and their ability to help sides by keeping neutral struck a chord with people. They were able to work with POWs on both sides and they managed to transfer 20 million letters from prisoners to their families. Since then, the ICRC has gone from strength to strength, but without Henry Dunant and the battle of Solferino, it might not exist today.

So, the Red Cross symbol is the inverted flag of Switzerland. It was chosen because Switzerland is a neutral country and Henry Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross, wanted to make an organization that could help soldiers on both sides of a conflict. Today, the red cross on a white background is instantly recognizable. And this is what I learned today.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Committee_of_the_Red_Cross

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Dunant

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Solferino

https://www.history.com/topics/19th-century/red-cross