Description
Object description
British medical orderly served with 3rd (South Midland) Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, 48th (South Midland) Div on Western Front, 1916-1918
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Bristol, GB, 1897-1914: family; education; employment. Aspects of training as medical orderly with Royal Army Medical Corps in GB, 1914-1916: enlistment with 3rd (South Midland) Field Ambulance in Bristol, 9/1914; lectures and training; church service; attitude to war and conscription; reaction of parents to enlistment; stretcher drill; opinion of organisation; composition and personnel in 3rd (South Midland) Field Ambulance; use of horse ambulances and motor transport; transfer to Northampton, 1/1915; training at Northampton General Hospital; exercises carrying men on stretchers; further training at Danbury; amusing story of sentry duty; question of not drinking or smoking; incident of spraining ankle; further training in Brentwood; move to Salisbury Plain, 1916; inspection by King George V and death of man from heatstroke; refusal of soldier to be vaccinated.
REEL 2 Continues: importance of vaccinations; problem of diptheria; use of gas masks and precautionary drills; question of preparations for Western Front; journey from GB to France, 1916. Recollections of operations as medical orderly with 3rd (South Midland) Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, 48th (South Midland) Div on Western Front, 1916-1918: sight of troops throwing postcards and pennies to French dockers; description of baths; nature of duties in Neuve Chappelle area, France; description of various aid posts and medical facilities; use of splints and method of setting broken bones; use of compressed bandages; story of Regimental Aid Post at Thiepval Wood, France; problem of mud; incident of refusing to move wounded man; role as nurse and nature of responsibilities; sleeping on petrol cans; care of walking wounded; use of anaesthetics and injections; question of receiving medical supplies; amusing story of girls' names; sight of tanks on Somme, France, 9/1916; incident at railway station.
REEL 3 Continues: story of being caught out of bounds; dental treatment on active service; question of rest for Field Ambulance personnel; treating wounded man with wood-louse in ear; treating shell-shocked man; artillery box barrage and effects on troops; attitude to shell-shock cases and treatment; contracting tonsillitis; problem of shortage of Field Ambulance crew; incident of gas shell landing in Regimental Aid Post and long-term effects of gas on health; location of Regimental Aid Posts; carrying wounded men through lines at Cambrai, France, 3/1918; story relating to staff sergeant; sleeping on ground and problem of cold; question of exhaustion.
REEL 4 Continues: opinion of doctors and their competency; medical treatment of French civilians; relations between doctors and medical orderlies; meeting brothers serving on Western Front; sterilisation of instruments; problem of contaminated ground and use of Eusol disinfectant; venereal disease and treatment; duties as stretcher-bearer; question of medical teams being fired on; sight of balloon being shot down; problem of injuries caused by recoil of guns.
REEL 5 Continues: story of death of young soldier; question of prioritising wounded; problem of treating rheumatism; memories of various stretcher-bearers; attitude to danger; story relating to senior officer's chauffeur; question of treating wounded quickly; amusing story of Castor Oil; crossing pontoon bridge; story of heavy railway guns; shrapnel and bullet wounds; story relating to chaplain; nature of operating facilities in front line; question of self-inflicted wounds; period of leave in GB.
REEL 6 Continues: further comments on leave and demobilisation, 1919; memories of winter 1916-1917; treatment of various ailments including skin infections, impetigo, ulcers, boils, carbuncles, dysentery, diarrhoea, constipation and coughs; problems of lice and rats; trench foot and treatment with whale oil; question of personal hygiene; memories of Lieutenant-Colonel George Williamson; problem of Spanish Influenza epidemic, 1918; sanitary facilities; assessment of efficiency of medical services and Field Ambulances.
REEL 7 Continues: description of various Field Hospitals; reputation of Royal Army Medical Corps; description of landscape; German Offensive, 3/1918; memories of Australian troops; opinion of Imperial German Army troops; effects of gas and treatment of casualties; living conditions and sleeping arrangements; opinion of rations; reaction to news of Armistice and demobilisation. Post-war life and employment: reason for not pursuing medical career; reflections on period of service; memories of Americans entering First World War, 1917.