What did H. S. mean?

[Guest tartan87terror]

What did "H. S." mean?

I think it is to do with hospitalisation. Suggestions are Hospital Ship, and Hospital Service.

[Ivor Lee]

H.S. - Home Service

If ony the online Medal Index Card and refering to a Labour Corps company.

[Guest tartan87terror]

Thanks, Ivor, but in my case it is my grandfather writing in his diary that he was nearly H. S. - and he was serving with R.H. & R.F.A. in Salonika. He was down with malaria at the time.

David.

[Kate Wills]

David,

Malaria casualties from the Salonika Campaign are quoted in the Official History as follows:

Hospital admissions: 162,517

Deaths: 787

Evacuated to the UK under the scheme of 1917-18: 34,762

I think I know what your next question is likely to be, so I'll take the Official History down for some bedtime reading.

[Guest tartan87terror]

Kate, Please don't think me cheeky or rude when Isay that at this moment I have no idea what my next question might be, so please lead on, yourself, and give me bothe the question and the answer.

I'm sure that sometimes when faced with a problem, one finds that the solution comes - almost by itself. In this case I'm hoping that what you are saying will get me past an obstacle which at present I can't even identify.

I'm having great difficulty in finding anything relating to where my grandfather served and the movements recorded in his diary. I just want to come as close as I can to 'reliving' his experiences (Is that normal with most of you guys readingthis, I wonder?).

By a mistake that I made a couple of weeks ago, I've borrowed a book from my local library, thinking that I'd struck gold in my search! Wrong, 'The NeglectedWar' by A. J. Barker, Faber & Faber, 1967, is about Mesopotamia, and all the action in it relates to land south of where my grandfather was. But, the story is so rivetting that I can't put it down! So, I'm reading in two theatres, I suppose?

I'm meandering quite a bit here, but I'm thinking of starting a topic on copyright and film rights for books such as this one.

[Guest tartan87terror]

Kate, how long areyou going to stay in bedreading?

I'm really keen to seeyour replyas promised earlier, to further my research on grandfather.

Please.

David.

[andigger]

USHS means United States Hospital Ship (ie USHS Comfort based in Baltimore). I am not sure if this gives you any clues in your search.

Andy

[Guest tartan87terror]

Yes, thanks, Andy, it seems that H.S. stood for Hospital Ship - and a quicker trip out of hell and misery at Salonika.

And, thank you for the wee thank you from you at 'What are you Reading". Nothing like appreciation at the beginning of a new day and a new week!

[Kate Wills]

David,

No, not in bed (aside from the weekend lie-in and usual long late breakfast with the Archers), but doing outdoor things in this lovely heatwave. One of the outdoor things I should have done is to photograph a page from the official history, but since Martin is complaining that he can't find the card reader, that would have been a fruitless exercise today anyway. However, I'll do a bit of copytyping and paraphrasing right now.

When you read Collinson-Owen you will come across reference to the 'Y Scheme'. Why it was called this, he doesn't say, but in short a world expert on malaria Sir Ronald Ross paid a couple of visits to Salonika to asses the situation, and the scheme was his.

From the Official History: Military Ops Macedonia vol 2 page 58:

(1917) The problem of malaria had now come to a head. Owing to the abandonment of evacuation by hospital ship in 1917, there had now accumulated some 15,000 chronic cases, "a population which did little but circulate between hospitals and convalescent depots with an occasional day or two of light duty. In Dec 17 Ross sent out to report...he telegraphed on 30 Dec that a minimum of 15,000 be sent home and replaced by drafts, to be completed before 1 May, because after that date the Taranto-Itea route would be highly malarial in Greece and Italy. In his opinion many thousands more required leave or transfer to a healthier front.

The scheme was put into force as fast as shipping from Itea to Taranto could be provided. By end Feb 5,000+ and by end April 9,000+ officers and men suffering chronic and relapsing malaria, or who had been severely affected mentally, nervously or internally by the disease, had been sent home, Owing to the German Spring Offensive the flow of drafts to replace these losses speedily dried up. However, the incidence of malaria declined in 1918, due to improved treatment and greater precautions. The removal of the 15,000 chronic cases may well have been the most important factor in the lowered rate of infection.

This makes no mention of the hospital ships in Salonika Harbour, and I'm sorry it doesn't give any direct answers about your grandfather, however, I hope it sets the scene.

If you want to treat yourself to a book on the Salonika Campaign, why not go for Alan Wakefield (a Pal) and Simon Moody's 'Under the Devil's Eye', to be published next month, but can be ordered now a special pre-publication discount? Alan and Simon relaunched the Salonika Camapign Society, which is invaluable if you are interested in that theatre. If you are not a member already, take a look at http://www.salonika.freeserve.co.uk/

I am always happy to talk Salonika (not that I know much) so if there is anything you would like looking up from my book collection here, just ask.

[Guest tartan87terror]

Kate, you've really come up trumps, thanks a heap! (Now, Kate, just think of me saying that aloud another couple of times). Hoorah! and Thank you!

I'll have to wait a bit and get the book at my library - on a pension here, and bankrupt as well (Can't have everything, eh?).

And particularly thanks for the website. I don't think I've visited that one previously - but, my memory being what it is . . . . .?

Kate, may you have a lovely time basking in the sun for a while. I really appreciate the amount of copytyping you've done for me.

David.