Relationship between units and hospitals/ccs etc

[Albert157]

I am trying to establish the relationship between units and their personnel in hospital/CCS/dressing stations.  Private George Mawdesley, 1 Bn Scots Guards, married my great, great aunt Hannah Finney in 1911.  He died on 7 Oct 1914 and is buried in Vendresse church cemetery. An officer wrote to Hannah stating:

'that the officers and men of the battalion were extremely sorry at losing him. He was of a type they could ill afford to lose. Mrs. Mawdesley would have the satisfaction of knowing that her husband was a brave soldier. Mawdesley was a fine, stalwart young man, just turned 24 years of age, and although it is some comfort to the bereaved ones to know that he died the death of a soldier, it is sad to think of the promising life suddenly cut off so young.'  

This implies that he died where he was in contact with his officer but would this have been on the front line or via a report from Vendresse dressing station with him dying later from his wounds?

[Ron Clifton]

His unit would have been advised of his death, and the officer who wrote to his widow would probably have known him before he was wounded. Officers had to write many such letters and their object seems to have been to help soothe the pain of bereavement without going into much detail about how they died. For those who died in hospitals, chaplains often wrote similar letters, though George may well have been visited in hospital by someone from his unit.

 

Ron

[Albert157]

Ron.  Thank you very much.  The officer's letter is very touching.  As an aside, is there any evidence of templates being used?

[Ron Clifton]

I don't know of any formal use of templates (which after a major attack might be self defeating if several families got identical letters) in respect of officers' letters to next of kin. The formal War Office notifications were on pre-printed letters which I think began "It is my painful duty to inform you..."

 

Ron