Description
Object description
British officer served with Royal Army Medical Corps in GB, France, Egypt, Greece, East Africa, Malta and Germany, 9/1939-8/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Ireland and GB, 1912-1939: Anglo-Irish family ancestry; family; education at Tonbridge School and University of Cambridge; training at St Thomas' Hospital, London specialising in clinical medicine; story of joining civilian medical practioners section of Territorial Army, 1938; training; duties at Queen Alexandra Hospital, London; story of family's involvement in Easter Uprising, Dublin, Ireland, 1916; memories of Armistice Day celebrations, 11/11/1918; attitude towards prospect of war and British Government policy of Appeasement; relations with German women and sister's German fiancée. Aspects of mobilisation with Royal Army Medical Corps in GB, 8/1939-10/1939: call-up in Category C with Army Reserve, 5/1939; story of climbing holiday in French and Italian Alps, 8/1939; reporting for duty after return from France and mobilisation at Folkestone, 9/1939; obtained uniform; opinion of organisation of Royal Army Medical Corps services and fitness of recruits; opinion of commanding officer; issue of gas mask; training undertaken, 9/1939; posting to France, 10/1939.
REEL 2 Continues: Recollections of period as medical officer with Royal Army Medical Corps in France, 10/1939-5/1940: crossing English Channel, 10/1939; disembarking at Le Tréport; terrain; billeting on golf course; story of putting up tented hospital as 5th British General Hospital at Le Tréport; problem of lack of leadership; posting to 2nd General Hospital, Dieppe; location of medical block in hotel; opinion of organisation; opinion of military hygiene; types of diseases treated; amusing story of inspection; promotion to major, 12/1939; posting to 3rd British General Hospital in Normandy, 2/1940; problem of alcoholism among doctors; development of treatment for meningitis; attitude to use of gas; nature of journey in ambulance to Le Mans; sight of Rouen in flames; move into hotel at La Baule; use of hotel as hospital to receive casualties; move to 8th British General Hospital at Rennes; opinion of behaviour of senior officers; duties with Field Ambulance unit; description of air attack on ammunition train at Rennes and treatment of casualties.
REEL 3 Continues: opinion of efficiency of French Government authorities; problem of lack of medical supplies; evacuation from hospital to Saint-Malo and voyage aboard Danish merchant vessel to Southampton, GB, 6/1940. Aspects of period as medical officer with 8th British General Hospital in GB, 6/1940-8/1940: disembarking still covered in blood at Southampton; train journey to Leeds and joining 8th British General Hospital at Headingley Cricket Ground; accommodation; morale after Dunkirk Evacuation; issue of tropical kit, 8/1940. Aspects of voyage aboard HMT Andes from Glasgow, GB to Egypt, 8/1940-9/1940: duties in charge of troopship's sick bay; conditions on board troopship; training received in tropical medicine; shore leave in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Cape Town and Durban, South Africa; sailing from Durban, South Africa to Egypt; disembarkation at Suez, Egypt, 9/1940. Recollections of period as medical officer with Royal Army Medical Corps in Egypt, 9/1940-3/1941: initial posting to transit camp; deaths from heat stroke; train journey to Alexandria; turning former school into 1st Base General Hospital; daily routine and duties; sporting activities; posting to Casualty Clearing Station near El Alamein; duties at Casualty Clearing Station; role as temporary commanding officer; story of American liaison officer.
REEL 4 Continues: description of Casualty Clearing Station at El Darba; role of Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service nurses; problem of thefts and corruption amongst Egyptians; preparations for move to Greece, including learning Greek language. Recollections of operations with Royal Army Medical Corps in Greece, 3/1941-5/1941: voyage from Egypt to Greece, 3/1941 including taking shelter off Crete during storm; arrival in Athens; atmosphere under Metaxes regime; description of tented Casualty Clearing Station at Larissa; organising digging of latrines; story of Yugoslav officers; nature of military engagements with Germans and casualties; story of capturing German medical orderlies; evacuation of patients; reason for remaining behind; opinion of Martin Herford and Friends' Ambulance Unit during evacuation; retreat through Thermopylae; story of setting up roadside Casualty Clearing Station; move to Australian run Casualty Clearing Station at Delphi; return to Athens; story of marching Imperial Australian Force troops to railway station; train journey through Corinth and Argos and setting up medical facilities for evacuation.
REEL 5 Continues: further details of evacuation of Greece; opinion of New Zealand Army and Australian Imperial Force troops; voyage from Greece to Alexandria, Egypt via Crete; opinion of Royal Navy. Recollections of period as medical officer with Royal Army Medical Corps in Egypt and East Africa, 5/1941-2/1944: move to 2nd British General Hospital; story of contracting typhoid and treatment; moved to 6th British General Hospital at Ismailia, Egypt, 7/1941; role in charge of medical inspection room; Axis bombing raid on airfield and hospital; opinion of female nurses; problem of Cypriot malingerers during sick parades; story of acting as prisoner's friend at court martial; move to 19th British General Hospital at Geneifa, Egypt, 7/1942; opinion of staff and facilities at hospital; problem of bed bugs; range of illnesses treated; moved to Asmara, Eritrea .
REEL 6 Continues: duties in former Italian military hospital at Asmara. Eritrea; visits to Italian prisoner of war hospitals; state of health of Italian troops; hygiene problems in Eritrea; attitude to United States of America entering war, 12/1941; story of six British officers; posting to 19th British General Hospital in Egypt, 2/1943; question of equal treatment of German prisoner of war patients; opinion of German military doctors; study of typhus cases; story of identifying first cases of smallpox and plague; opinion of German military hygiene.
REEL 7 Continues: Recollections of period as medical officer with Royal Army Medical Corps in Malta, 2/1944-9/1944: promotion to lieutenant-colonel and taking charge of Medical Division on Malta; duties; opinion of commanding officer; physical condition of Maltese civilians; opinion of Yugoslav Partisans; story of meeting Lord Gort; morale on island after lifting of siege; description of damage witnessed in Valetta; importance of conversing with patients in own language; opinion of standard of medical care; return to GB on leave, 9/1944. Recollections of period as medical officer with Royal Army Medical Corps in GB and Northern Ireland, 9/1944-9/1945: description of wartime London; reunion with family; reaction to death of younger brother Flight Sergeant Richard Crofton, serving with 88 Sqdn, RAF, 28/9/1942; German VI Flying Bomb and V2 Rocket raids; story of cousin killed during Operation Market Garden; story of hearing Prime Minister Winston Churchill speaking in Houses of Parliament; attitude to civilian rationing; posted to Bangor Hospital, Northern Ireland; duties with sick troops.
REEL 8 Continues: giving lectures on tropical medicine; story of meeting future wife Eileen Mercer; reaction to death of President Franklin D Roosevelt, 4/1945; educational work with Royal Army Medical Corps; reaction to Labour Party victory in General Election, 7/1945; journey from GB to Germany, 9/1945. Aspects of period as medical officer with Royal Army Medical Corps in Germany, 9/1945-11/1945: description of work in Lüneburg General Hospital; problem of Displaced Persons; contacts with former concentration camp victims; reaction to visiting Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Poland; story of attending performance of Beethoven's opera Fidelio; story of seeing Gestapo report on opposition groups; story of treatment in Scotland of tuberculosis patients from concentration camps; story of seeing former commandant of Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp commandant Josef Kramer in dock during trial; second hand story of Martin Herford taking a Royal Army Medical Corps Field Ambulance into Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp; research into effects of starvation; story of visit to Schutzstaffel (SS) prisoner of war camp; story of sister's marriage to German fiancée.
REEL 9 Continues: demobilisation, 11/1945; story of being injured in road accident; opinion of efficiency of demobilisation process. Reflections on experiences with Royal Army Medical Corps during Second World War: post-war medical career; comparison of standard of leadership in 1939 and 1945; recognition of psychological effects of war; advances in drug treatment; attitude to role of National Health Service.