Role of the Corps Rest Station?

[John_Hartley]

As far as I can work out, these were a sort of "coughs, colds and scratches" sort of unit to which a man might be sent off from the Field Ambulance if in need of some longer term treatment but not sufficiently serious to warrant evacuation to a Clearing Station of Base Hospital.

Is there a more official description of the role or have I pretty much got it?

John

[charlesmessenger]

John

Yes, that is about it. They were soemtimes also used for mild shell shock cases to get them out of the firing line for a bit.

Charles M

[jhill]

From what I can tell until early in 1916 there was a rest station for each Division, operated by one of that Division's Field Ambulances, but gradually during 1916 these were replaced by a single Corps station operated in turns by the Divisional Field Ambulances. This snippet is from the Diary of the Canadian Corps Deputy Director of Medical Services in September 1916. We see here that at this time things had evolved into a Corps Rest Station for lightly wounded, another for sick, and a third for officers. These would soon be combined into a single station.

There was an important purpose in having these stations. The medical services in the field were designed to move sick and wounded to the rear as quickly as possible. However, once a sick or wounded man stepped onto an ambulance train at a Casualty Clearing Station he was lost to the field army until he was perhaps returned as a reinforcement months later. If it looked likely that the man would be fully recovered in a week or two it was much preferable that he be somewhere in the Corps area where he could be simply discharged to his unit.

[Blue Dragoon]

I have a Soldier's Casualty Form with a serial dated 1st Feb 1917 that refers to 5th Corps Rest Station.  Any thoughts where this might be?