The S.S. Drina - first ship to be converted for use as a Hospital Ship during WW1

HMHS "Drina" - the first Hospital Ship of The First World War

One of the first to be refitted as a hospital ship was the steamship S.S. “Drina”, built in 1913 by Harland and Wolff and run by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, Belfast sailing to Brazil and Argentina. Her sister ships of the line were the Steam Ships "Deseado", "Demarara" and "Darro".

"Drina" was the first hospital ship to be requisitioned by the Admiralty. The contractors for the conversion were H. & C. Grayson Limited of Liverpool, who became insolvent in 1921.  She was handed over to the Royal Navy for use as a Hospital Ship on 15th August 1914 and sailed the following day.  According to Lynn Isaac, some ‘Immobile patients were taken there to be unloaded quietly at the Pembroke Dock in Liverpool".

Prince Albert (who later became King George VI) was serving in the Royal Navy when war broke out, having trained at naval college then served aboard the Dreadnought Battleship HMS Collingwood. At that time he was not the heir to the throne.  He was mentioned in despatches at the Battle of Jutland - 31st May to 1st June 1916. 

Prince Albert was taken ill and treated aboard HMHS Drina. According to Andrew Wingrove, Prince Albert had been suffering from a stomach ailment from around the 15th May and had seen the ship's doctor. On 12th July 1916, he was transferred to the HMHS Drina for observation by Staff Surgeon Willan. He was given a diagnosis of “weakening of the muscular wall of the stomach and a catarrah condition.” A prescription of a careful diet and nightly medications was recommended. He was in fact suffering from a stomach ulcer and was operated on for that in November 1917. 

"Drina" had a refrigerated cargo hold for the transport of South American beef and coffee but had been fitted with 1,000 tones of sand as ballast when converted to a hospital ship.   There are conflicting reports as to the demise of "Drina", as she appears to have been taken out of service as a hospital ship for a journey to South America. One of the most interesting accounts is written by a diver who has dived down to the wreck - see link below - definitely worth reading.

In February 1916, the Hospital ship staff, many of whom were from Sutton in Ashfield, plus stores which had been loaded at the start of her service as a Hospital Ship, were apparently taken off. 

In 1917 S.S. "Drina" was returning to Britain from a voyage to Buenos Aires via Lisbon and Falmouth, carrying a cargo of timber, carbon and currency of some sort, plus meat and coffee. The ship had called in at Falmouth and was seaming up the Welsh coast when she was torpedoed and sunk by a German U Boat (possibly UC 65, commanded by Otto Stienbrink) near Milford Haven on 1st March 1917 - St. David's Day.   It seems there were many survivors, including the captain of the ship, C.V. Fletcher and Daniel Trimbel, the ship's butcher who was from Birkenhead.   

 

With many thanks to Lynn Isaac, who has dived to the wreck of the S.S. "Drina" and whose account is fascinating:

http://taffthehorns.com/One-Dive-to-HMHS-DRINA-Sadly-sunk-on-St-David-s-Day-1917-off-Milford-Haven-Rules-of-engagement-of-Civilian-Vessels-had-taken-a-sinister-cruel-change-

and Andrew Wingrove, who is writing a book about WW1 hospital ships and has a Facebook Page dedicated to the Hospital Ships of the Grand Fleet 1914 - 1918 - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hospital-Ships-Of-The-Grand-Fleet-1914-18/656242534446547?fref=ts

Both Lynn and Andrew kindly supplied me with a great deal of information as well as photographs.

Photo:  S.S. Drina in the River Mersey before conversion.

South Africa in WW1 - The South African Labour Corps

Through Derek Walker of the Facebook Group South African War Graves,  I discovered a "Forgotten Poet of the First World War" (Forgotten (male) Poets is another section of the project) - Samuel Edward Krune Mqhayi (1875 - 1945) - South African.  I also learned of the existence of the South African Labour Corps during WW1.

Derek kindly supplied the following information:  "The SANLC are a very neglected part of our military history. Basically volunteers who were employed to do the dirty work and who were not allowed to bear arms. Its a bit of an unsavoury part of our military history, and the loss of the Mendi was a tragedy, I dont have numbers or info on it all, but will see if I can dredge up some interesting reads about them. 

They also served in WW2 although I think they were then known as NMC (Native Military Corps), and did a fantastic job wherever they went.

http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/world-war-i-and-south-african-native-labour-contingent

Many thanks indeed Derek.

Famous people who lost sons in WW1 - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Connan Doyle was another member of J.M. Barrie's recreational cricket team.   Conan Doyle's son by his first wife Mary Louise, nee Hawkins, was born on 15th November 1892. He was called Arthur Alleyne Kingsley and was known as Kingsley.   

Kingsley joined the 1st/2nd Hampshire Regiment, receiving a temporary commission in 1915.  He was wounded at the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and died on 28th October 1918 after contracting influenza. 

"A Slice of WW1 Life" - a play at Cheltenham Library, Friday 27th March 2015 7.30 pm

For anyone living in the Cheltenham/Gloucester area, or able to get there, a play about the lives of Gloucestershire citizens during the First World War.

With thanks to the F.W. FW Harvey DCM Facebook Page.

Famous People who lost sons in The First World War - E.W. Hornung, writer

E.W. Hornung, the British writer, poet and member of J.M. Barrie's recreational cricket team, was the author of the "Raffles" stories. 

E.W. Hornung married Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's sister Constance in September 1893.  Their son Arthur Oscar (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's nephew) was killed on 6th July 1915.  Educated at Eton and then Cambridge University,  when war broke out Oscar, as he was known, volunteered and was commissioned into the Essex Regiment.  

Oscar was killed at the Second Battle of Ypres on 6th July 1915.   His father joined an anti-aircraft battery and then went to work as a YMCA volunteer running recreational huts for soldiers on the Western Front.

Flanders Poppies

It seems that the phenomenon of those Flanders poppies about which Canadian poet, artist, doctor and artilleryman Colonel John McCrae wrote has been evident after every battle in the area.

The British historian Lord Macaulay wrote in 1855 about the site of the Battle of Landen in the Province of Brabant. The battle took place in 1693, during the Nine Years War between the French and the English when William III was on the throne.  Landen is in Belgium and is approximately one hundred miles from Ypres.  The French lost 9,000 men and the English 19,000:

 "The next summer the soil, fertilised by twenty thousand corpses, broke forth into millions of poppies. The traveller who, on the road from Saint Tron to Tirlemont, saw that vast sheet of rich scarlet spreading from Landen to Neerwinden, could hardly help fancying that the figurative prediction of the Hebrew Prophet was literally accomplished, that the earth was disclosing her blood, and refusing to cover the slain."

John McCrae's poems:  http://www.gutenberg.org/files/353/353-h/353-h.htm

Macaulay's works are also available on Project Gutenberg.

Picture:  A painting entitled "Trenches on the Somme" by Canadian Artist Mary Riter Hamilton who went to paint the aftermath on the Western Front in 1919. Mary's paintings were commissioned by the Canadian War Amputees Association and can be viewed on www.collectionscanada.gc.ca

Famous People whose sons died in WW1 - Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling's only son John, who was born in 1897, was lost at Loos just six weeks after his birthday. He was eighteen years old.  

At the outbreak of war, John tried to join the Royal Navy but was rejected because he was short-sighted.  However his fiercely patriotic father, Rudyard Kipling the famous poet, had friends in high places and pulled some strings to get John a commission in the Irish Guards. After training John was sent to the Western Front which his father was visiting as a war correspondent at the time.  John was reported missing in action at the Battle of Loos in September 1915.

Photo:  John Kipling