Which hospital ship?

[thegrove]

 

This is an extract from the service record of Charles Percy Hill, 42460, 10th Sherwood Foresters. He was gassed on 15 Aug 1918 and returned to England. The key points I can interpret are: 53 CCS, 2 Gen Hospital but what is the name of the hospital ship he travelled on?

 

Would it be reasonable to assume that men from the same unit who were injured in a similar way on the same day followed the same route home? 

 

Where did this ship sail between from France to England?

 

Thanks,

 

Graham

[TEW]

Looks like HS Panama to me. 2 GH was in Le Havre so I suspect it sailed from there.

 

Quote

Would it be reasonable to assume that men from the same unit who were injured in a similar way on the same day followed the same route home?

 

Probably not a good idea to assume that, it may be the case but there would be other factors to consider EG they may only be able to only evacuate a certain number. The overflow could be sent to another port or await another ship or be kept back in France.

TEW

[RaySearching]

Here is a link to a thread on the Hospital ship Panama 

 

Hospital Ship Panama and HMHS Maine

 

 

Ray

[thegrove]

Thanks TEW and Old Sweats. I also found this outside the forum which confirms the Le Havre - Southampton service.  http://www.roll-of-honour.com/Ships/HMHSPanama.html 

 

The original problem that I did not explain, was that the serviceman I really wanted to trace was wounded by gas/shell along with over 400 others from the same battalion (on 15 Aug 1918) but his service record does not survive so I have been browsing the records of the other casualties. All seem to have been attended to by 51st Field Ambulance then to by either 53 or 55 CCS which were in the same location at Vecquemont. Then it gets more complicated as the few I can find went to 2, 3 and 6 General Hospitals at Le Havre, Le Treport and Rouen and to England at various dates and vessels.

 

All I know is that when he was back in the UK he was hospitalised in Scotland as there is a family reminiscence of being on a Scottish loch, allegedly Loch Long but I have no evidence.

 

Graham

[TEW]

I think with 400 gas cases going to 2 different CCSs the problems are going to be;

Disparity in amount of gas taken in.

Practises in each of the CCSs.

Lightly gassed may be moved out to a hospital the same day. Worse cases retained for 24/36 hours and then put on next train to another hospital. CCSs request trains to move men out but don't control where the train goes.

The OC of each CCS may have differing interpretations for treatment so 2 cases with identical gas intake at different CCSs could be retained or transferred at different times. The further along the evacuation chain the more variables come into play.

TEW

[thegrove]

I picked up again trying to piece together more of my grandfather's evacuation route. From another post I was alerted to the fact that No .2 General Hospital's admission and discharge registers survive. No. 2 General was a prime candidate for me to search, as it was from Le Harve to Southampton that I believe he returned to England. he was received and discharged from 51 CCS on 15th August but we are not told where to, but I have found colleagues who were gassed on the same day whose records survive that have taken that route. The surviving MH106 Admission and Discharge books plus many other registers, like operation and x-ray logs are also in the series. They are now on FindMyPast but are only as browsable images so you have to do your own searching. I went through the August 1918 book but did not find my man, so will have to look at the other General/Stationary hospitals that also survive. The last few pages in each monthly book detail the operations performed on those that it looked like might recover and return to the lines. Those that were returned to England were despatched on the following vessels (which confirms our discussion about the 'Panama').  

• H T Gloucester Castle
• H T Essequibo
• H T St Andrew
• H T Panama
• H T W Australia

Was it ever the case that CCS's took the decision to repatriate rather than send them to a hospital down the line? In which case I won't find my man in the hospital records of course.

[TEW]

Repatriation would be decided on at a base hospital following any instructions issued by the DDMS of that base. For example, if the DDMS suspected vast numbers of wounded could be expected 'next week' he would want as much bed space as possible.

The task at CCS was to clear the wounded back to base ASAP. I can't see a CCS having the authority to make decisions other than to keep a man at CCS or load him on a train.

I was under the impression that any MH106 books that FMP have are searchable, although it may not be perfect.

You can browse them via a different method.

They have 1,335,419 records of men and 56,922 medical records to browse.

Their blurb says:

If you want to search for an individual by name, search British Armed Forces, First World War soldiers' medical records.

TEW

[thegrove]

4 hours ago, TEW said:

I was under the impression that any MH106 books that FMP have are searchable, although it may not be perfect.

 

I must have just been unlucky with the couple I checked. I suppose all one can conclude is that if your man is not in the hospital records that have survived, he must have been in one of the others!

Thanks.