Tanner, Tom (d. 1943)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1943 Mar 11 p. 3

Birth date:

text of obituary:

FRIENDS' AMBULANCE UNIT LEADER AND COMPANION REPORTED LOST AT SEA

London. — Many Americans who have known Tom Tanner or who have learned of the work of the Friends' Ambulance Unit, of which he was leader, will be grieved to hear of the reported loss at sea of Mr. Tanner and his travelling companion, Peter Hume.

Units under Mr. Tanner's direction have been active in many theaters of the war. At present the China unit is 80 strong, and is to be reinforced by 14 volunteers from America. Another unit has been operating in Ethiopia since last August, where medical facilities are virtually non-existent and the need prodigious. Another section is working behind the fighting lines in North Africa, while yet another is operating as a mobile hospital in Syria. Horace Alexander, an eminent Quaker authority on the Indian problem, gave up the wardenship of a Birmingham University college last year to lead the FA_U in Calcutta. This section has done pioneer work in organizing air raid precautions in Bengal.