A pre-war story is brought to mind by my purchase in Cambridge of a French postcard, from Jules and Fernand to their baby brother "Le petit Boucher". Carroll Carstairs will be well-known to WW1 students for his book "A Generation Missing" from which this extract is taken.
Where is this?
We recently acquired this postcard of a group of patients; published by a firm in Lewisham, SE London, it refers to the "Bhoys" of E Block. for a hospital to have five blocks implies it was big; it might well be one of the big London general hospitals, but then why the Irish reference? Interesting, in passing, to note it was taken at 11.27am on a late summer day (there are lupins in the flower vase by the window)
WW1 medical photography
David Cohen possesses the splendid painting below, of a group of men in hospital blues disembarking from a pleasure boat. David was unsure of the site, so I asked Len Webb of the Thames Valley Branch of the WFA if he could help. Within days he reported that Paul Cob (and ex-WFA Committtee member) was quite certain that it was painted on the Thames between Marlow and Maidenhead - at Cliveden, where there was of course a Canadian hospital.
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Dame Ethel Walker: return from a pleasure cruise |
A sad holiday tale
HMS Formidable was a battleship serving with the Royal Navy in the Channel. It had a crew of 780 men. On New Year’s Day, 1915, the fleet was returning from firing exercise. Six battleships and two cruisers were sailing in line through Lyme Bay. HMS Formidable developed engine trouble and was last in the line. Unknown to the navy the fleet was being shadowed by a German submarine. At 2.30am, in bright moonlight, HMS Formidable was torpedoed. Nearly 600 men were drowned or died of cold in the freezing waters. The survivors were rescued and brought to the nearby town of Lyme Regis. One sailor, Able Seaman James Cowan, was thought to be dead but miraculously recovered.
While on holiday at Chesil Beach we visited the beautiful semi-tropical gardens of Abbotsbury, where I found this unusual war grave.
I would also commend to War Memorial enthusiasts a visit to the small town of Beaminster. The Memorial is carved onto the churchyard wall and appears to have been repainted recently. I am kndly informed by the Curator of the Beaminster Museum that it shows all the men from the town who served - important, as otherwise the effect on such a small and close-knit rural community would have been truly devastating. Today there is an agricultural machinery contractor in the town named Francis Bugler, but a glance at the image below, showing just four of the 28 panels, shows only too clearly how a single town could lose, in only for the duration, such a large number of men. One wonders what memories the survivors brought back.
Images of injury
Most of the combatant nations produced photographs of injured men; some were for propaganda, some as official records, some in books or magazines (the Manchester Guardian "History" has a whole series spread across its 11 volumes) and some were personal photographs which might be sent home to encourage relatives that their loved ones were well, and in good company. My Turkish contact Mesut Uyar has been hunting for Turkish versions and, as he has found a few, I have compiled a multinational gallery appended here.
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The UK: A "happy hospital" scene from an album; possibly the Cambridge Military Hospital - but not Sidcup! The baby is an unusual addition to such an image |
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France: A typical posed "patriotic" card, although one doubts whether the recipient would have their sprits lifted by such an image |
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Australia: An extremely rare colour image of the Australian Army medical Corps in Egypt (from the AWM archive) |
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New Zealand: One of a set of Wills cigarette cards depicting transport facilities and including a number of medical vehicles. Some of them seem somewhat fanciful... |
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Canada: A postcard depicting a cheery bunch of wounded men bound for England |
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Germany: The striped dressing gowns worn by patients here seem less practical than the UK "hospital blues" |
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Hungary: This man has a rather startled air. Perhaps the waxed moustache does not help. The reverse of this postcard indicates it was sent home by the subject to reassure them that all was well |
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Austria-Hungary A rare portrait of a medical unit (thanks to Patrick Gariepy for the attribution) |
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Turkey:
Postcard depicting arriving casualties |
Casualty tags
Douglas Bryant kindly donated photographs of his grandfather's casualty tag from the Great War and was sad to see that pressure of space had elbowed it off the "Picture of the Week" page! So here it is again. Note that it represents a "Blighty" wound, as the transfer is from the 8th Stationary Hospital, Wimereux to the hospital ship "St Patrick".
Below that is a rarity from our WW2 archive; a penicillin tag from the front in Italy. Penicillin had been introduced only weeks before this patient received his - and survived the serious infection.
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