The idea to create the Red Cross originated in 1859 on the Solferino battlefield, where a young Swiss businessman, Jean Henri Dunant, gathered the wounded and organized an impartial relief group to help the victims of the local villagers.

Back in his hometown of Geneva, a young Swiss author wrote a book called "The Memory of Solferino", the last chapter of which called for the establishment of impartial volunteer assistance groups in other countries. The book was published in 1862, and the idea of ​​creating the Red Cross was born.

As early as 1863, the Red Cross Committee met in Geneva, which a year later adopted the First Geneva Convention Relating to the Wounded in the Field of War. Today, the Red Cross is the world's largest voluntary charity, with 14 million volunteers worldwide.

The statutes of the Estonian Red Cross, compiled by Hans Leesment, were approved by the Government of the Republic of Estonia on February 24, 1919. This day is considered the birthday of the Estonian Red Cross.

Hans Leesment (1873 Abja parish - 1944 Tallinn) had graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Tartu in 1899. He participated as a military doctor in the Russo-Japanese War and World War I. He took part in the War of Independence as a doctor in 1 division. Worked in Pärnu, St. Petersburg, Tartu, Pensa and since 1908 in Tallinn as a gynecologist. He was the President of the Estonian Red Cross in 1919-1940, and from 1933 also the Major General of Sanitation.