Description
Object description
British private served with 1 /1st East Lancashire Field Ambulance, 42nd Div, in Egypt and Gallipoli, Turkey, 12/1914-12/1915
Content description
REEL 1: Aspects of period in GB, 1909-1914: joined Territorial Army, 1909; called up on outbreak of war and posted to Chorlton Road barracks, Manchester; marched to Bury; problem of barracks being full; description of accommodation in tents on farm; vaccinated; returned to Bury and entrained to Southampton; story of seeing captured German Uhlans coming off boat; embarked aboard horse ship, 9/1914; transferred to troopship; slept on deck; description of voyage to Egypt. Aspects of operations with 1/1st East Lancashire Field Ambulance in Egypt, 12/1914-8/1915: disembarked Alexandria; posted to Heliopolis and joined Lancashire Fusiliers on racecourse; moved to tented camp in desert; role in charge of stores; further vaccinations; posted to Ismailia and dug in with infantry; first casualties in unit; story of aluminium boat carrying water being hit by case shot; posted to Kantara; story of treating wounded Turks and Indian cavalry; duties as stretcher bearer; attitude to treatment of Turkish wounded by Indian troops; moved to camp in football ground; opinion of pay; rode on top of tram to save money; story about meeting fortune teller at pyramids; posted to Abbassia Barracks, Cairo; entrained to Alexandria; description of conditions on horse boat.
REEL 2 Conditions: Aspects of operations with 1/1st East Lancashire Field Ambulance in Gallipoli, Turkey, 8-12/1915: problem of horses not being fed or watered during voyage; story of putting oats into horse troughs; description of unloading horses with slings; disembarked from barge near Gully Beach under shellfire; moved up cliffs and occupied position in cemetery; collected wounded and dug trenches at Achi Baba mountain; problem of being in sight of Turks; moved to Clapham Junction sector; description of living conditions and weather; duties carrying wounded to boats on shore for evacuation; problem of treating Indian wounded; description of trench lines under fire; location of latrine; story of seeing Lord Kitchener during visit; description of evacuation of troops; reaction to being ordered to stay behind and look after wounded; sheltered in upright boiler on beach; story of being arrested by naval officer and taken aboard ship; returned to beach and taken aboard HMS Redbreast at night; sailed to Lemnos, Greece, 12/1915.