Hospital ships in the Great War - bibliography

[seaJane]

Evening (morning?) all,

 

I have been working on a bibliography of hospital ships in the Great War for an enquirer and thought it might be useful to some if I posted it here. It includes coverage of medical and surgical topics as well as administrative, historical and personal material.

 

Please note:

1. It consists of whatever I have been able to find in English or French on LibraryHub Discover and the JRNMS archive.

2. I have not included archival or image material from TNA or the Wellcome Institute.

3. I have not distinguished between Army or Naval hospital ships.

4. I have not read all of them.

5. I have provided links to articles where I have been able to find them, but have not checked older titles to see whether they are available on Gutenberg or Archive.org.

6. Inclusion does not guarantee quality! 

Enjoy...

sJ

Hospital ships during the Great War.pdf

Edited 26 May , 2020 by seaJane

[Dust Jacket Collector]

Thanks seaJane, that’s very useful. I’ve already ordered one of them.

[seaJane]

Missed an article, almost inevitably:

Lomas EC. Hospital ships. BMJ vol.1 no.2939 (Apr. 28, 1917); pp. 542-545.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2348413/pdf/brmedj07098-0012.pdf/?tool=EBI

 

[John Gilinsky]

Hi Jane.  

Any ideas where someone can find the war diaries and/or related materials such as nominal rolls, admission/discharge registers or books, standing orders, rules/regulations, staff and patient musters, etc...?

 

Where are the war diaries for the following Royal Naval hospital ships from WW1 :

 

Agadir

 

China

 

Drina        

 

Magic l l   

 

Plassy 

 

Queen Alexandra   

 

Rewa   

 

Sheelah  

 

Somali

 

Soudan

 

Tx again!

John

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[charlie962]

Thanks sJ

 

Charlie

[seaJane]

 

1 hour ago, John Gilinsky said:

Any ideas where someone can find the war diaries and/or related materials such as nominal rolls, admission/discharge registers or books, standing orders, rules/regulations, staff and patient musters, etc...?

 

Where are the war diaries for the following Royal Naval hospital ships from WW1 :

John,

• I haven't succeeded in tracking down war diaries if indeed the Naval hospital ships kept them.
• Medical Officers' Journals for various ships are in ADM 101; you would have to go through ship by ship to see if any for the hospital ships survive. There may be some elsewhere, but I am locked down/out of any work-based sources at the moment. Click here for 1913-1920 ADM 101
• Musters should be in ADM 102 but the GW ones do not seem to be at Kew
• The King's Regulations and Admiralty Instructions for the government of His Majesty's Naval Service 1913 & 1915. London, HMSO, 1914, 1916.
• Changes to individual medical orders were promulgated in the back of issues of the Journal of the RN Medical Service from 1915 (vol.1) for the rest of the war.
• Manual of Instruction for the Royal Naval Sick Berth Staff. London, 1914.
• Most of the ship-based records (as opposed to publications) that I know of are private diaries.

I do not know if you are working on looking for these sources long-term, but if so you may be duplicating the work of my enquirer and may prefer to wait for his article to come out.

 

Best wishes,

 

sJ

 

[charlie962]

There are a number (but nothing like enough) of sample war diaries that survive. Some have been discussed on this forum and are best found by searching for the ship name.  Discovery National Archives gives 88 hits if you search  ' WO95 Hospital Ship'

 

Admission Registers such as survive are probably only those that you find on FindmyPast  and Forces War Records.  HM HS  Assaye springs to mind as an example.

 

Overall they are few and far between. If you discover a trove............

 

Charlie

[John Gilinsky]

Thanks so much Jane and Charlie.  I have downloaded the TNA h.s which are a trove for a variety of reasons.  

   

[charlie962]

Hospital Ship war diaries like field ambulance diaries can reveal fascinating detail about individuals, sometimes. Their approach is also naturally different to a combat unit.

[John Gilinsky]

Agree absolutely Charlie.   The TNA hs war diaries are a great primary resource BUT they vary widely in content quality.  

[seaJane]

As they are filed in WO (War Office) rather than ADM (Admiralty) I am expecting them to be RAMC-staffed rather than RN Medical Service? That said, REWA was lent to the Army, staff and all, at one point - a surgeon RN grumbles about it in his personal diary.  

[John Gilinsky]

Inter - service envy/rivalry!  The overwhelming army purposed and / or intended hs does mean that logically administratively and archival the overwhelming number of primary especially hs generated materials should be with WO records and/or military medical archives or museums.  

 

Another frustrating research angle are the troop transports with official and extemporized casualty evacuation or treatment facilities and/or staff.  Where can one find these "ambulance transport", "black ship", etc...primary records including wad diaries?  TNA has some apparently but most if not all have not been digitized :(:(:(!

 

[seaJane]

You are not the first to ask that question....

[Borden Battery]

Here are two websites with information catalogued.  Borden Battery

 

Hospital ships in World War I – Wikipedia

Website provides 40 pages of general background on hospital ships in the Great War in standard Wikipedia format. Complimentary details also provided by The Regimental Rogue website (Canada) under [http://regimentalrogue.com/misc/great_war_hospital_ships.htm] [CEF Study Group - Sept 2020]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Hospital_ships_in_World_War_I

 

List of hospital ships sunk in World War I - Wikipedia

Provides background, list of hospital ships lost, photographs of most ships and terse details of each event.

[CEF Study Group - Sept 2020]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hospital_ships_sunk_in_World_War_I