Balkan Hospitals in 1918

[jamon]

I am hoping some kind soul can help me with this question.

My Great Grand Uncle died in the Balkans in 1918, however I'm hoping somebody can help me to narrow it down a bit as the Balkans is a large area.

This is what I know about him.

His name was James McDonald Motion, Private in the 1st Battalion Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders service number 10090, he died from Pneumonia on the 9 Oct 1918 and is buried in Lembet Road Cemetery in Salonika. That's basically it, all I know, I can't seem to find his service record.

Can anybody tell me if he would have been treated in the field and where that would have been? Or would he have been taken back to base, again where? All the service return says is that he died in the Balkans, in fact on the service return there is 15 other death's recorded and only 1 died from wounds all the rest from illness mostly Pneumonia.

Any help to try and narrow down his place of death would be a huge help to me.

Cheers

Thank You

[Kate Wills]

Hello and welcome to the Forum.

James was in 27th Division, who spent most of their war in Macedonia, and he is buried in the large British section of the multi-national Lembet Road Cemetery. What a shame you didn't post this in September, when we were last there.

Follow this link for a resume of 27th Division's war service, though if you want to immerse yourself in all-things-Salonika, the Salonika Campaign Society is your best bet.

[keithmroberts]

Basically he was serving in the British force that fought in Macedonia. The main base for the army was Salonika, now Thessaloniki in Greece, and a very high proportion of the british dead were from illness. The battalion's war diary is here http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/Details?uri=C7361278 At present it is only available on a visit to Kew, but it might be available for download by February. Salonika was surrounded by military hospitals for British troops and your G/F almost certainly died in one of those hospitals.

Two books give the story "Under the devil's Eye" by forum member Alan Wakefield - still in print, and "the Gardeners of Salonika" by Alan Palmer currently I think out of print, but fairly easy to obtain second hand. It is worth reading both.

Keith

[Rockdoc]

I think those two books complement each other very well. Under The Devil's Eye is very much from a British POV, whereas Gardeners is broader so gives a background to many of the events, especially the complicated politics.

Keith