Hospital Ship VITA Nominal Roll

[PJS]

I have transcribed the war diary of the Hospital Ship VITA for the period June 1, 1917 to January 6, 1919. If you are interested, you can download it here: https://chilp.it/90e5784

 

From it I have created a nominal roll which is at the end of the transcription. However, I could not find any information on the following people who were listed. If anyone can shed any light on any of them I would very much appreciate it.

 

INDIAN MEDICAL SERVICE:
Capt.    R    E    DADACHANJI
Sub-Assistant Surgeon    C    K    KESAVELUNAID
Sub-Assistant Surgeon             NALDU

 

ROYAL ARMY MEDICAL CORPS:
Capt.    W        C    SMITH    
Pte.    I        H    CRISS*    
Cpl.    I              DWYER    46268

*Probably transcribed wrong, see below:

 

A.A.N.S. Nurses:
Sister            CHAPMAN*
*I found at least four possibles but no definitive link to the right one.

 

Q.A.M.N.S.I. Nurses:
Sister               OVER
Sister    M        McINTOSH
Sister    D        HUNT

(There is a separate forum thread on these ladies)

S.A.M.N.S. Nurses:
Probationer Nurse Miss L FINLAYSON

 

St John’s Ambulance Nurses:
Temporary Nurse PINTO

 

Unclassified Nurses:
Nursing Sister        E        BELSTON
Staff Nurse    Miss    E     BERT
Temporary Nurse    Mrs   ANDERSON
Temporary Nurse        N  FITZGERALD

 

Army Chaplains:
Father            COULES
Father            GENTILIS
Reverend Capt.    H    WILLINGTON

 

St John’s Ambulance Personnel:
Pte            TWIDALE
Pte            POWER
Pte            TURNER

 

 

Peter

Edited 4 August , 2019 by PJS

[alf mcm]

Very interesting.

 

Chaplain H Willington is Henry Wellington, Church of England C.F.

Father Coules is Rev. T.F. Coules, Roman Catholic C.F. 4th class {possibly Thomas Coules, Priest in West Ham, Essex, in 1911 census}.

 

Regards,

 

Alf McM

[PJS]

5 minutes ago, alf mcm said:

Very interesting.

 

Chaplain H Willington is Henry Wellington, Church of England C.F.

Father Coules is Rev. T.F. Coules, Roman Catholic C.F. 4th class {possibly Thomas Coules, Priest in West Ham, Essex, in 1911 census}.

 

Regards,

 

Alf McM

 

Thank you Alf.  Where did you find them? 

 

I went through this on Ancestry but didn't see either of them (which doesn't mean they're not there).

 

Peter

 

[alf mcm]

Sub Assistant Surgeon Naldu is probably Senior Sub Assistant Surgeon R.G. Naldo {from 1918 Indian Army List}

 

Regards,

 

Alf

[alf mcm]

I have a copy of lists of Chaplains from various Army Lists from 1914-1918 {1 list per year}. Can't remember where I got it from, but it's very useful and easy to read.

 

Regards,

 

Alf

[alf mcm]

Peter,

Sister Chapman is Nellie Rain Morrice Chapman, according to her service records.

Private I.H. Criss looks like J.H. Cross. Can’t find a J.H. Cross in the medal rolls, but there are a few J. Cross’s.

Regards,

Alf

[PJS]

44 minutes ago, alf mcm said:

Peter,

 

Sister Chapman is Nellie Rain Morrice Chapman, according to her service records.

 

Private I.H. Criss looks like J.H. Cross. Can’t find a J.H. Cross in the medal rolls, but there are a few J. Cross’s.

 

Regards,

 

Alf

 

 

Alf,

 

Where did you see VITA in Sister Chapman's Service Record?  I looked through them here and couldn't see anything definitive. Page 27 seems to indicate that she was in London around the time the VITA logs show that "Sister Chapman" left the VITA (July 14, 1917). The log implies that she was being treated here, (which is quite interesting in itself).

 

I tried Criss, Cross, Cruss and since none of them worked out, I just left it at Criss. You're probably right that it's Pte. J Cross. I will update it in the document.

 

Peter

 

[charlie962]

 

Indian Army List Feb 1917

 

He is Rustim Edulji Dadachanji MB, made temp Captain wef 21/8/16 (Indian Medical Gazette Sep 1918)

 

 

Not to be confused with RK or KK Dadachanji !

Edited 5 August , 2019 by charlie962

[PJS]

Thank you Charlie.  Did you find that on FMP or archive.org?

 

Peter

[charlie962]

I've tweeked post and put link to Indian Medical Gazette

 

KESAVELUNAID

Cannot see this man - are you sure of spelling ?

Edited 5 August , 2019 by charlie962

[alf mcm]

Peter,

  I seem to have mis-read the record you mention above, apologies for this. On page 8 {and 27}, in the last row I have mistaken 'Retd' for 'Vita'. In the row above 'Deta' is mentioned, which I assumed was 'Delta', mentioned in the war diary. She was certainly bound for Cairo/Bombay as shown in the row above. It's difficult to reconcile her service records with the war diary, but there seems to be a lot of co-incidences.  I found 2 other possible nurses, Eva Helen Chapman and Agns Craig Chapman, but their service records rule them out.

  I wonder if the date she was admitted to Southwell Gardens was 25/7/17. I must admit I don't quite understand the maeaning of the dates and comments under 'period of service in each rank'. The Southwell Hospital details are interesting.

 

Regards,

 

Alf

[PJS]

1 hour ago, charlie962 said:

I've tweeked post and put link to Indian Medical Gazette

 

KESAVELUNAID

Cannot see this man - are you sure of spelling ?

 

Thanks for the tweak!

 

I think it's actually KESAVELUNAIDU but you can see for yourself below:

 

 

 

Peter

[PJS]

1 hour ago, alf mcm said:

Peter,

  I seem to have mis-read the record you mention above, apologies for this. On page 8 {and 27}, in the last row I have mistaken 'Retd' for 'Vita'. In the row above 'Deta' is mentioned, which I assumed was 'Delta', mentioned in the war diary. She was certainly bound for Cairo/Bombay as shown in the row above. It's difficult to reconcile her service records with the war diary, but there seems to be a lot of co-incidences.  I found 2 other possible nurses, Eva Helen Chapman and Agns Craig Chapman, but their service records rule them out.

  I wonder if the date she was admitted to Southwell Gardens was 25/7/17. I must admit I don't quite understand the maeaning of the dates and comments under 'period of service in each rank'. The Southwell Hospital details are interesting.

 

Regards,

 

Alf

 

Alf,

 

I do agree that there are a lot of coincidences with her record and you may very well be right about the dates, I will take another look at her record.

 

The 3 other nurses I found were:

Agnes Craig Chapman

Eva Helen Chapman

Joan Olive Isabel Chapman

 

But each of them seem to be disqualified:

Agnes Craig Chapman:   Page 10

Eva Helen Chapman:      Page 11

J. O. I. Chapman:            Page 13

 

 

Peter

 

[PJS]

Possibly Nurse PINTO of St John's Ambulance (from one of my GF's photo albums, caption on the Photo is "SJA Native Section" ):

 

 

 

Also, I updated the PDF based on all the input above this post.

 

Peter

[frev]

 

Peter - the AANS Nurse was Agnes Craig Chapman - she was transferred to the hospital ship Vita for temporary duty on the 10/5/1917:

 

 

 

Cheers, Frev

 

[PJS]

Excellent. Thank You.

 

Obviously, I should have kept going to page 32 of her service record. PDF has been updated.

 

Peter