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Remembered Today:

Central Military Hospital C....... ?


David26

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I am trying to decipher the medical entries in the service record of 17936 Gunner John Thomas BOWKER who served in the RFA.  (The service record which survives is actually of his post-war service in the TF as a Private in 4th Bn Royal Welsh Fusiliers but it handily includes his wartime service too).

 

In the following extract two items are beating me and I wondered if anyone might be able to help?

 

855850883_Bowkersvcrec.PNG.1ef9110a5ca9a090ead314418c0d870b.PNG

 

On 19 October 1917 he was admitted wounded to a Central Military Hospital but I cannot make sense of the location.  It looks like it might be either Chatham or Charlton - the latter possibly in relation to the RFA facility at Charlton Park - but the LLT site on military hospitals in the UK only has one "Central Military Hospital" and that is in Cork.  Can anyone decipher the place name please?

 

The other thing eluding me is how the final entry in this extract starts and to what it refers.  It doesn't immediately look like a file reference but more might be a series of abbreviations possibly relating to furlough or other convalescent leave?

 

Any thoughts on either of these would be very welcome!

 

Happy Boxing Day to all,

 

David.

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1 hour ago, David26 said:

The other thing eluding me is how the final entry in this extract starts and to what it refers.  It doesn't immediately look like a file reference but more might be a series of abbreviations possibly relating to furlough or other convalescent leave?

 

 I read it as 'A(rmy) F(orm) W 3016 (Furlough Form) from 3/12/17 to 12/12/17 Class 1' (i.e. medical grade, fit for general service the grades A,B,etc were divided into 4 numeric Classes ) then, presumably his home address in Flint. So granted leave on those dates to that address.

Ken

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Fantastic - thank you Ken!  I can see that now. 

 

David.

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  • 5 months later...

Just looking up Chatham Military Hospital today in researching  gg-uncle Capt Carmel Samut MD  RAMC , who was a surgeon there , and his daughter Nella , who was a VAD.

The hospital was in Fort Pitt up to 1905 when a new hospital was opened not far away , on the site of the current Medway Hospital.

RNH Chatham 2.jpg

RNH Chatham.jpg

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Thank you pagius!

 

That's really interesting.  According to the hospital's website, the Royal Naval Hospital, Chatham was built on the site where the current Medway Maritime Hospital is and opened in 1905, while Historic England say that a hospital remained at Fort Pitt until 1919.  Neither mention the hospital being named the 'Central Military Hospital'.  Was there anything in Carmel or Nella Samut's papers that make explicit which was the Central Military Hospital? 

 

David.

 

 

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Hi David

 

Thank you for comments and links ...just what I'd hoped for when I posted my comment  following my first look into what Chatham Hospital would have been!  

And following through on your links , I see I made an erroneous conclusion in saying  RNH Chatham replaced Fort Pitt hospital in 1905.  It actually replaced the smaller Melville Hospital  (at the top of the triangle in my 'today'  view)  and  , yes,  Fort Pitt Hospital was active throughout WW1 and closed in 1919.   Furthermore RNH would have been for Naval casualties , whereas  Fort Pitt was for Army and , I read elsewhere, a VAD hospital.  I now think it more than likely that  Carmel Samut in the RAMC and his daughter Nella , a VAD, must have been at Fort Pitt Hospital ,  as your Gunner Bowker,  

 

You ask if there any relevant papers ...yes, there is a huge archive of some  300+  letters, news cuttings and photos from Nella's estate in the Worcester Museum which I've known about for sometime but have yet to see  (and maybe a while yet until we are able to move around freely and I can get over there from Hampshire).

 

I have 4 interesting characters mixed up in all this ,which is why I've only just homed in on Chatham as I pick up on a family history thread I started a while ago.

 

The Samuts are part of my Maltese Ancestry (via my grandmother Maggie Samut)  and Carmel Samut was one of 4 military brothers   Richard , Achilles (my g-grandfather), Carmel and Robert.      Carmel and Robert were RAMC surgeons  and Robert is famous for being the composer of the music for the Malta National Anthem!  

 

But the one I know least about is Carmel because he has no living descendants.   He had a son  Frederick Samut and daughter  Nella,  both born in Malta but educated at Catholic schools in England,

 

We've known for a while that  Frederick was in the Worcester Regiment  (don't know which Battalion yet)   and  Nella married  Philip Leicester , who was from a Worcester family (confusingly!) .  She lived in Worcester the rest of her life and died there in 1980.  Philip's family were well known in the  Catholic musical circle and were very good friends of Sir Edward Elgar , which is why Nella's archive is so significant.

 

So I've been trying to work how and why the Maltese Samuts ended up in a) the Worcester Regiment  b) marrying and living in Worcester! 

 

I now know that Philip Leicester was in the 11th Worcester's  and was wounded in Macedonia in Oct 1916. 

 

A newspaper item on Nella's marriage in 1919  (attached)  adds a lot of interesting detail.   Her father Carmel had died by then but I've yet to find a date or where he's buried (most likely Malta).    

 

I'm now surmising that  Philip Leceister ended up in Fort Pitt Hospital where he met up with Nella , who he may have already known because he was in the same place as Frederick at some point.   It's that piece of the jigsaw that I'm trying to find as well as more on what Carmel did as a Surgeon.

 

Probably gone on too long but putting all this out there in the hope that someone comes across a reference to  Lt F O Samut in the War Diaries , anything about Fort Pitt etc.

My interest has been re-sparked following a recent  enquiry from the War Museum in Malta  about Capt Frederick Oloff Samut.

 

Frederick and Nella had no children and I intend getting hold of the Nella  Archive asap.

 

best wishes

 

Peter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nella Wedding.jpg

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Hi Peter,

 

thank you very much for all that extra information (and for the PM) and glad that the links were helpful.  That's a very interesting family story you have there!  I do hope you manage to get to Worcester before too long so that you can see what was in Nella's papers and discover further details and insights,

 

all best wishes,

 

David.

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