Norfolk Then . . .

The original Norfolk Lions Club ambulance is parked in front of Town Hall in this photograph, probably taken soon after the Lions Club was organized in January of 1951. Unlike the modern ambulance, ambulances at this time were not outfitted as mobile hospitals and provided only transportation to local hospitals. That would soon change. On October 8, 1952, a horrific train wreck in London known as the Harrow and Wealdstone Rail Crash killed 112 people and injured 340 others. Many of the dead may have been saved if the necessary equipment was on scene. The Norfolk Lions Club has provided free volunteer ambulance service 24 hours a day for almost the whole period of its existence.

—Ann Havemeyer

Photo courtesy of the Norfolk Hidstorical Society