Notes on hospitals on the Western Front during WW1

Initially those wounded at the front were taken to Casualty Clearing Stations (CCS), staffed by the Royal Army Medical Corps assisted by men from the Royal Engineers and the Army Service Corps.  Casualty Clearing Stations were near railway lines or canals. 

They were then taken on to Base Hospitals situated some way away from front line fighting. Base Hospitals in France and Flanders were near a coastal port to allow for evacuation of the more severely wounded to Britain by sea on Hospital Ships. RAMC personnel were assisted in their work at Base Hospitals by men and women from voluntary organisations such as The Red Cross.    

Diaries kept by medical personnel who served on the Western Front at that time tell us about the conditions and patients that doctors and nurses would have encountered. According to Lt. Col. John McCrae, the Canadian poet and Boer War Veteran who was both Artillery Officer and doctor, medical units were “required to keep and treat any patient who could be cured in a period of three weeks; to guard against complications and do everything possible to save the lives of the wounded or seriously ill; and to send to England all who could not get well in three weeks but were fit enough to travel on stretchers.  Those who recovered within the given period convalesced as helpers in local camps.”  McCrae was also horrified to discover that “Belgian farmers used manure in large quantities, the soil was thus rich in nitrates, potash and bacteria.  If not sterilized immediately, wounds would become infected.”

Artists Rifles Exhibition

There is to be an Artists Rifles Exhibition at the Willis Museum in Basingstoke, Hampshire from July  until the end of September 2014.

The Artists Rifles was a volunteer infantry regiment formed in London in 1859 to help when Britain was under threat of invasion by the French.  They were founded by Edward Sterling who was studying art.   Members were painters, artists, architects, musicians, actors, writers, poets - anyone with a creative streak.  One of their most famous members was Wilfred Owen, who later transferred to the Manchester Regiment.

The Artists Rifles were deployed in the Boer Wars and in the First World War.  During WW2 they were used as an officers' training unit before being disbanded in 1945.

The Regiment still exists today,  having been re-formed in 1947 and its full title is now 21 Special Air Service Regiment (Artists) (Reserve).

Source:  Wikipedia and Google Images

For details of the exhibition please see the Willis Museum website:

http://www3.hants.gov.uk/hampshire-museums/willis-museum/willis-museum-eventdetails.htm?id=211474

Did Wilfred Owen visit Rossall School when he was in Fleetwood?

My grateful thanks to Deputy Headteacher of Rossall School, Anton Maree, who researched poetry written by pupils of The Rossall School during WW1.   The results are fantastic and I will process the poems and prepare panels of them for the forthcoming exhibition to be held at the Marine Hall, Fleetwood in August 2014.

Mr Maree asked me whether I knew if Wilfred Owen had visited the school when he was based at the Gunnery School, the firing ranges of which were on Fleetwood Golf Links with the HQ in the North Euston Hotel in Fleetwood.

Mr Maree gave me a list of Rossall Poets with biographical details and examples of their poetry:

F.W. Harvey - Frederick William Harvey, born 26th March 1888.   Harvey left Rossall in 1905 to study law.  He enlisted in the Gloucester Regiment in 1914 and was in action in France by August 1915.  Harvey was captured by the Germans while on a reconnaissance mission on 17th August 1916 and his first collection of poems was published a few days later by Sedgwick and Jackson under the title "Gloucester Lad".  He was a Prisoner of War for the remainder of WW1.   Harvey died on 13th February 1957.

J.R. Ackerley

Ackerley was a sportsman - he played hockey for his House at Rossall School and became Captain of the school's shooting team.   He left school in 1914 and was commissioned into the East Surrey Regiment straight from Rossall and took part in the First Battle of the Somme on 1st July 1916.  Taken prisoner by the Germans, Ackerley was sent to an internment camp in Switzerland in December 1917 after six months in hospitals and prison camps.   His brother, Peter Ackerley, also a Rossallian was killed on 17th August 1918.

Rossallians who were killed on 1st July 1916 - at the First Battle of the Somme:

G.W. AYRE - aged 25 - Anchor House
J.D. BOAZMAN - aged 26 - Rose House
C.C. CRAGGS - aged 28 - Crescent House
J.S.M. GAGE -  aged 23 - Anchor House
H. LIVESEY - aged 34 - Crescent House
D.S. ROSS - aged 21 - Pelican House
D.D. WILSON - aged 38 - Mitre House

Mr Maree also gave me a copy of a poem written by a master at Rossall School during WW1 - K.A.R. Sugden of Fleur de Lis House.


The Captain of Fleur de Lis House, N.F. McCarthy compiled a list of all former members of the House who were serving their country.   McCarthy joined the Yorkshires and was killed near Flers in Belgium - his housemaster K.A.R. Sugden wrote the following poem about McCarthy.


"NFM

Serene and smiling, sunny and self-possessed,
it seems but now he worked with us and played,
And though we knew that Death's fierce cannonade
Was taking toll of dearest and of best,
We felt that even death, before his zest
For living and his clean light-hearted blade,
Must surely flinch and slink away dismayed:
And now he's passed untimely "to the west."

The voice we knew is hushed, the eye
Is darkened, silenced is the laughter glad:
Not slow, this son of Britain's line, to die;
And as he passed, pale death the victor had
For him no triumph-sting, no victory;
But oh, my friend, our hearts are very sad."

The May 1915 edition of Rossall School Magazine "The Rossallian" featured a poem written by a pupil during WW1.

I am indeed grateful to Mr Maree for the time and trouble he took.

I hope to bring you more poetry written by schoolboys during WW1 as my research progresses.

Poem "For Johnny" written by John Pudney

I was asked by a British Army Veteran if I could possibly trace a WW1 poem about feeding Johnny's children.   I managed to find it yesterday with the kind help of one of my Facebook Friends.  The poem was not in fact written during WW1 but it is almost certainly about a WW1 soldier so I thought I would share the information with you.

"This is almost certainly the poem 'For Johnny' by John Pudney, from his collection of poems 'Dispersal Point' published in 1942. 

The relevant lines read:

'Better by far 
For Johnny-the-bright-star,
To keep your head, 
And see his children fed.' "

from Patrick Villa, 28th June 2014

John Pudney was a British journalist and writer born on 19th January 1909 in Langley Marsh, Berkshire. His parents were Henry William Pudney and Mabel Sleigh Pudney

Pudney was educated at Gresham's School, Holt, Norfolk, where his contemporaries were W.H. Auden and Benjamin Britten.  

Pudney's first published volume of his poems was called "Spring Encounter" and came out in 1933 and brought him into the literary circle of Lady Ottoline Morrell.

During WW2 Pudney was commissioned into the RAF where he worked at the Air Ministry's Creative Writers Unit.  The poem "For Johnny" was written during an air-raid in 1941 and was first published in "The Daily Chronicle" and was featured in the film "The Way to the Stars".  Pudney married the daughter of A.P. Herbert in 1943 and the couple had two children.   "For Johnny" was published in Pudney's collection of poems entitled "Dispersal Point and other Air Poems" published in 1942.   Pudney died on 10th November 1977 so the poem is still officially in copyright however you can read the whole poem here http://www.love-poems.me.uk/pudney_for_johnny.htm

Many thanks indeed Patrick.

The Treaty of Frankfurt, 1971

For students of the First World War, here is an interesting fact. According to Mildred Aldridge, the American writer who retired to a village near the River Marne in France in July 1914 - hoping for some peace and quiet after the bustle of the French capital - after the signing of the Treaty of Frankfurt which ended the Franco-Prussian War, all the chauffeurs of Paris Department Stores were German.  

That meant that they knew the country surrounding Paris extremely well and also knew the names and addresses of the most important, rich and influential people in France.

With thanks to Peter Parsley in Belgium for sharing this with me:

Australia Great War NOTE: this Sunday 29 June will be entirely Banjo Paterson themed! Thanks everyone for your positive responses to this post. – Jamie, #AGW #AusGreatWar #AustraliaGreatWar

Poets in the Great War - "We're All Australians Now" is the title of Banjo Paterson's 1915 poem and open letter to the Anzacs then fighting at Gallipoli: http://ow.ly/ysHON

Australia takes her pen in hand,
To write a line to you,
To let you fellows understand,
How proud we are of you.

From shearing shed and cattle run,
From Broome to Hobsons Bay,
Each native-born Australian son,
stands straighter up today.

The man who used to "hump his drum",
On far-out Queensland runs,
Is fighting side by side with some
Tasmanian farmer's sons.

The fisher-boys dropped sail and oar
To grimly stand the test,
Along that storm-swept Turkish shore,
With miners from the west.
The old state jealousies of yore
Are dead as Pharaoh's sow,
We're not State children any more
We're all Australians now!

Our six-starred flag that used to fly,
Half-shyly to the breeze,
Unknown where older nations ply
Their trade on foreign seas,

Flies out to meet the morning blue
With Vict'ry at the prow;
For that's the flag the Sydney flew,
The wide seas know it now!

The mettle that a race can show
Is proved with shot and steel,
And now we know what nations know
And feel what nations feel.

The honoured graves beneath the crest
Of Gaba Tepe hill,
May hold our bravest and our best,
But we have brave men still.

With all our petty quarrels done,
Dissensions overthrown,
We have, through what you boys have done,
A history of our own.

Our old world diff'rences are dead,
Like weeds beneath the plough,
For English, Scotch, and Irish-bred,
They're all Australians now!

So now we'll toast the Third Brigade,
That led Australia's van,
For never shall their glory fade
In minds Australian.

Fight on, fight on, unflinchingly,
Till right and justice reign.
Fight on, fight on, till Victory
Shall send you home again.

And with Australia's flag shall fly
A spray of wattle bough,
To symbolise our unity,
We're all Australians now.

Nenette and Rintintin

A huge thank you to Richard Speed of the Knitting Group who are based in Lincolnshire and are knitting WW1 commemorative items. When I told Richard the story of the two French cartoon characters who became popular during WW1 as good luck charms, he immediately came up with these.

Today a large parcel of Nenette and Rintintins arrived - Richard - they are awesome - thank you so much.  I will take photos and post them here as well as sending them to you and sharing them with everyone else.  They will accompany the exhibition panel we've produced to explain how the American film star Alsatian dog got his name - see posting on 13th May 2014.

To find out more about the WW1 Knitting Group please see: https://www.facebook.com/groups/524134037679638/?fref=ts