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Remembered Today:

Hospital facilities at Amara in December 1915


Old Cove

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Captain Northcote of 2nd Norfolk Regiment was wounded at the Battle of Ctesiphon on 22 Nov 1915 and is buried in the cemetery at Amara (died 4 December 1915). 'Battles on the Tigris' refers to the serious lack of medical facilities with the expeditionary force at that time and indicates that wounded from the battle were evacuated by river down to Basra. But the CWGC site notes describing the Amara cemetery say that Amara was a hospital centre from the time of its first occupation in June 1915. I wonder if anyone tell me, please, what hospital facilities there were at Amara at the end of 1915 and what the evacuation route was generally for soldiers wounded at Ctesiphon? Were the seriously wounded generally taken all the way down river to Basra or did the facilities at Amara play a significant role?

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The best source by far is the Official History, Medical Services, Volume 4, which goes into enormous detail. Some time ago Mike (skipman) posted links to online versions of the whole series here:

 

I think you need to read from about page 164 onwards - quite lengthy and complex.

Sue

(at least, that's the page number in the reprinted version of the original)

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Thanks very much Sue. I have located the reference and down-loaded a PDF version (the joy of big disks!). As you say, a detailed and complex read, but it does record that there were medical facilities at Kut, Amara and Basra, and that the wounded from Ctesiphon were evacuated by river without being specific about where they were evacuated to - presumably this depended on the nature of the wounds. I have looked at the CWGC database to see where (British) deaths occurred after the Battle of Ctesiphon through to the end of the year. Many were at Kut and the first death with burial in the Amara War Cemetery occurred on 3 December with more, including Capt Northcote, over the following days. There are very few deaths in this period with burials in the Basra War Cemetery - preumably only the less seriously wounded made it that far down the casualty evacuation route.

Thanks again for your guidance.

Roger

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if you wish to read a very good account of the early medical facilities in Mespot I can recommend "Surgery on Tresles" by Begg

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