Indian Ambulance Corps

[GrenPen]

There is a bit of a meander here, which I hope I will be forgiven for, to mention Gandhi, and the circumstances that led to the creation of the entity named in the original post.

Mohandas Gandhi, accompanied by his wife Kasturba, travelled back to India from South Africa, albeit making a stop off in the UK. When he arrived aboard S.S. Kilfauns Castle at Southampton on 6 August 1914, he discovered that war had been declared. Having served as a non-combatant during the Boer War, he set up the Indian Ambulance Corps. 

In spite of his non-violent demeanour, it is my understanding that Mohandas Gandhi supported the war, sending a letter to the Under Secretary of State for India, pledging loyal cooperation with the wartime British government.

Does anyone have any further information about this organisation? Did it become embodied within the main Indian Army Hospital Corps, or did it continue as as independent non-military entity like the Friends Ambulance Service? I presume they have a Medal Roll, but it is somewhere within the Indian archives?

The following is of interest, from a biography of Mrs Kasturba Gandhi, written by her grandson Arun Gandhi:

 

Quote

Mohandas spent much of September [1914] encouraging the ambulance corps volunteers in their medical training at Regent Street Polytechnic. Meanwhile, he and Kasturba together enrolled in a hospital training course for nurse's aides. Then [in October?] an attack of pleurisy brought on by a weak physical condition and soggy English weather confined Mohandas to his rooms, kept a worried Kasturba at his bedside, and dampened the enthusiasm of the ambulance corpsmen. When the young Indians were sent on to an Army hospital for their military training, they were reluctant to accept orders from anyone but Mohandas. Their feud with their officers would ultimately be defused only when the first British wounded began to arrive from France, requiring everyone's complete attention.

 

Kasturba tried valiantly to keep up with changes in his self-prescribed diets, and to follow instructions given by the English doctor he finally consulted - a confirmed vegetarian who, besides recommending frequent oil massages and the consumption of quantities of uncooked vegetables, advised his patient to bathe in tepid water, and to keep all windows open twenty-four hours a day. Kasturba tried leaving the French windows in their rooms open wide, but it rained in; Mohandas decided to open them only a crack and break several of the small glass panes to let in the fresh air. The experiment failed. Kasturba came down with a bad cold that left her feeling miserable while Mohandas became sicker than ever.

 

An India physician was called in, and his advice left no room for argument: if they remained in London, with winter coming on and colder weather ahead, Mohandas's pleurisy could not be cured. It was time, at last, for the Gandhis to go home [on 19 December 1914].

 

On January 9, 1915, when the S.S. Arabia steamed into Bombay harbour, a huge crowd was waiting patiently in the midday sun.

Is there evidence that either Mohandas or Kasturba actually tended to any sick troops? I get the impression they were afflicted with illness during October before this could occur.

A quick trawl of The Newspaper Archive brings up the following:

 

Quote

Sheffield Daily Telegraph page 6

2nd October 1914
India's Loyalty. Ready to shed "her last drop of blood".

The loyalty of Indians to the Empire was emphatically worded by the Agha Khan in a speech delivered at a meeting called by the Indian Volunteers Committee at the Polytechnic, Regent Street, yesterday. [Not being ill] Mr. M. K. Gandhi occupied the chair, and the meeting was well attended. In its course, the Chairman announced a donation of £200 from H.H the Agha Khan, and the Gaekwar of Baroda wrote wishing the meeting success, and expressing the hope that the committee "will be able to help the British Government in some way.”

 

His Highness the Agha Khan said it would be the proud privilege of most of the students present to go to the front to minister to the medical needs of soldiers of their own nationality, engaged for the first time in history in fighting on European soil for the great Empire to which they belonged.

 

Quote

Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer Page 4

28th October 1914

Notes and Comments

In India and among Anglo-Indians in London, much pride is taken in the gallantry displayed by the Indian troops, who charged the enemy last week the neighbourhood of Lille. As the result of that action, the first wounded Indian soldiers have been brought to Netley Hospital. The native Indian Ambulance Corps, which has been in training in London, was ordered to Netley at the end of last week. An illustration of the effect of the war, in the way of reconciliation in all the Empire, is seen in tho fact that the chief organiser of the Ambulance Corps is M. Gandhi, who was the most active and persistent passive resister on behalf of the Indians under the Union Government of South Africa.

 

Quote

The Scotsman page 11
Saturday 19 December 1914
Indian Leader and conditions in South Africa

Reuter's representative yesterday had a conversation with Mr M. K. Gandhi, the Indian leader, who since his arrival in this country from South Africa has been engaged in organisation of the Indian Ambulance Corps . With his wife he sails today on the Arabia. He would have returned to India immediately after seeing Mr Gokhale, but has been detained by the serious illness of his wife and himself.......

At a meeting of the Indians of London last night to bid farewell to Mr and Mrs Gandhi, who are returning in ill-health to India , Mr Roberts, Under Secretary for India, spoke of the prominent part Mr Gandhi had played in South African affairs, and thus endeared himself to his fellow countrymen and others who appreciated his work. He has lately rendered most valuable help in connection with the Indian Volunteer Corps.

Mr Gandhi said he was disappointed at not achieving all he desired, but hoped his return to India would restore his health, and enable him again to undertake the work on which he set his heart.

 

[MaureenE]

The early days of the Indian Ambulance Corps are mentioned in "Empire’s Soldier: Gandhi And Britain’s Wars,1899-1918" by Goolam Vahed and Ashwin Desai from page 8.

http://www.academia.edu/11458855/Empire_s_Soldier_Gandhi_and_Britain_s_Wars_1899-1918

States it was called the Indian Field Ambulance Corps from 30 September 1914

 

https://books.google.com.au/books?id=RgGSCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA282

Page 282 from  The South African Gandhi: Stretcher-Bearer of Empire by Ashwin Desai, Goolem Vahed

States the Corps was being trained and "was to serve with the Indian Army in Europe"

 

https://books.google.com.au/books?id=KpBy6BCupe4C&pg=PA82

Page 82 Gandhi's Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi by Stanley Wolpert

A different version of Gandh's resignation.

 

I cannot see  any information as to whether or where the recruits actually served.

 

Cheers

Maureen

[DavidOwen]

For what it is worth, Wiki has this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Ambulance_Corps

No mention of ww1.

Plenty on Indian Field Ambulance at TNA.

Edited 17 November , 2018 by DavidOwen

[GrenPen]

Thanks for the replies. I would assume that it is also covered in the recent book from George Morton-Jack. (The Indian Empire at War - From Jihad to Victory, The Untold Story of the Indian Army in the First World War)

In the mean time, I have been made aware of the following publication which is likely to cover the subject:

The Morale Builders: Forty Years with the Military Medical Services of India

(OCoLC)602961753

Authored by Colonel Daya Ram Thapar

Published in 1965 by Asia Publishing House

I believe that he joined the Indian Ambulance Corps when he was a medical student at Edinburgh University, and spent some time at Netley, which ties in with the Yorkshire Post article in the original post.

[GrenPen]

The book and the article by Desai and Vahed makes reference to the complete works of Mahatma Gandhi. All 97 volumes of his correspondence can be individually downloaded here
http://gandhiserve.org/e/cwmg/cwmg.htm

[Sepoy]

I have a WW1 Medal Group where the British War Medal is named to the Indian Volunteer Ambulance Corps. It was awarded to a London based Indian Student who had initially served in the Haden Guest Unit in France during 1914.

My notes (completed years ago) include the following:-
The Indian Volunteer Ambulance Corps was possibly formed by Ghandi, with Indian Student Volunteers, in England to service Hospitals in England and France. It was disbanded on the departure of the Indian Corps from France.
Soon after the outbreak of war, some 281 Indian students in Great Britain came forward and were formed into the Indian Volunteer Ambulance Corps to work in these hospitals. They were medical students and men who were studying law, engineering and commerce.

Regretfully, I failed to make a note of where I obtained this information.

Sepoy

[GrenPen]

I wonder if he appears on the Red Cross medal rolls of the War Office, or whether he would have been on an India Office medal roll, wherever they may be?

[GrenPen]

In a recent article for the BBC, George Morton-Jack did make reference to Gandhi's wife serving as an auxiliary volunteer nurse. An eyewitness account of her service at Netley is given on page 10 of the aforementioned book "The Morale Builders". This was reproduced in Morton-Jack's article but not in his book. His article mentions she was working in English war hospitals on the south coast (names of all of these hospitals is not forthcoming) during 1914-15 but this is not correct, as she left the UK in December 1914.