Description
Object description
British private served with 2/1st London Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps on Western Front, 1916-1918
Content description
REEL 1: Background in London, 1896-1914: education; employment with council; story of outbreak of war and enlistment, 8/1914; story of grandfather's role as doctor at Battle of Waterloo; reason for volunteering and question of patriotism; opinion of pacifists; reaction of parents to enlistment. Aspects of training with 2/1st London Field Ambulance Royal Army Medical Corps in GB, 10/1914-1916: opinion of lectures at Royal College of Surgeons; description of training at Crowborough, Maresfield Park, Richmond Park and Bury St Edmunds including carrying stretchers and drill; attitude to army life and discipline; opinion of accommodation and food; relations with local civilians; further training in Ipswich; role in finding billets; description of Ipswich workhouse and conditions for inmates; amusing story of throwing workhouse master into pond; memory of dancing with nurses.
REEL 2 Continues: story of friendship with local girl; story of loading horses aboard ship at Southampton; description of voyage to France and arrival at Le Havre, 2/1916. Recollections of operations with 2/1st London Field Ambulance on Western Front, 1916-1918: accommodation and problem of lice; attached to 56th London Div; description of kit and equipment including medical supplies; question of morale; moved to Arras area and description of medical facilities; daily routine; story of German attack with lachrymatory gas shells during concert; effects of gas; memory of Big Bertha gun firing at night; moved to billets in sugar refinery in Dainville and German artillery bombardment; memory of Royal Engineers replanting trees at night to deceive German artillery.
REEL 3 Continues: question of casualties and medical facilities; attitude to casualties and memory of fainting at sight of first serious casualty; story of truce with Germans to collect bodies in Somme area; memory of bombardment prior to Somme offensive, 7/1916; opinion of Chinese labourers; description of role at Hebuterne Dressing Station, Gommecourt Wood, during Somme offensive; story of encountering tanks; accommodation in barns and problem of rats; question of preparing for heavy casualties; description of various stages of medical care for casualties.
REEL 4 Continues: story of padre and question of religious beliefs; rum ration; daily routine and nature of medical duties; problem of barbed wire; question of Red Cross protection; casualties in Field Ambulance unit; question of morale during Somme offensive; description of periods of leave in Nice, France and GB, 1917; question of morale in England; attitude to white feathers and opinion of conscientious objectors.
REEL 5 Continues: story of doctor; story of setting up aid post; role as sergeant; description of operating theatre; problem of gangrene, trench foot and tuberculosis; question of assessment and treatment of walking wounded; attitude to cases of self-inflicted wounds and question of punishments; description of effects of gas and treatment; problem of venereal disease (VD).
REEL 6 Continues: description of living conditions in and out of line; accommodation; problem of lice and rats; opinion of rations; memory of receiving parcels from home; cigarettes; problem of foul smells and scarcity of water; safety razors; rum ration; recreational activities including concert parties; amusing story of football match; description of Christmas celebrations; methods of transport for unit; communications with home including Field Post Cards; question of censorship of mail; story of Gurkhas and special dietary requirements; opinion of Portuguese troops.
REEL 7 Continues: comparison of Portuguese and British troops; opinion of French troops; question of treating German casualties; story of German surgeon; relations between officers and other ranks and question of discipline; opinion of senior officers; memory of visit by King George V and Haig; opinion of Haig and strategy during Somme offensive; story of receiving news of Armistice, 11/Nov/1918; story of death of horses in fire; attitude to French civilians eating horsemeat; story of role in repatriating British POWs, Mons, Belgium, 1918-1919. Reflections on period of military service.