1st Northants casualty evacuation

[Geoffbr]

7879 Albert Taylor served in the 1^st Batn Northamptonshire Regiment.  He sustained a gunshot wound to his right arm on 1 Nov 1914 at Bodmin Copse, a short distance west of Gheluvelt.  The entry in his service record for this injury mentions Rouen, so it is assumed that he was hospitalised in that town.  Might anyone be able to suggest which CCS he would have passed through prior to being transported to Rouen, and how he got there?

 

Taylor also sustained a serious wound to his shoulder (which one is not known) on 9 May 1915 whilst attacking Aubers Ridge, an injury resulting in repatriation on 12 May.  Again, can anyone suggest the treating CCS and evacuation route he would have followed?

[TEW]

For the first injury things are a little uncertain. The ADMS staff did not keep a diary for that period but did reconstruct one in 1915 from the CO's private diary.

 

On 31st Oct the chateau being used as  DCS and HQ was shelled putting everything into confusion. They had been evacuating from DCS by train to that point. They also mention that 3 CCS also moved back to Ypres and one of the field ambulances took over the former 3 CCS site as a DCS.

 

1st Nov. Early morning they had around 275 wounded from 1st division and about the same number from other divisions. They only mention having private motor ambulances working the Ypres-Menin road, no other indication of evacuations given, nor in fact if these ambulances were evacuating wounded back or bringing wounded to the DCS.

 

2nd Nov. Similar figures as previous day. Instruction that No. 1 FA was to work as a casualty clearing hospital. NB. CCS's were known as hospitals in 1914.

 

Difficult to be precise here as although he was wounded 1st Nov he may have been evacuated 1st or 2nd. I'd suspect he was moved back to Ypres and maybe 3 CCH then Rouen by train.

 

Do you have a hospital admission date for Rouen?

TEW

[TEW]

A couple of corrections and additions.

 

The chateau that was shelled could well have been the one at Hooge, being used at the time as 1st Corps HQ. Shelled during a meeting with divisional staff and the ADMSs of two divisions. It may have doubled up as a DCS although White Chateau also gets a mention as a DCS. The shelling of the chateau at 1pm on 31st Oct caused all units to get on a rapid shift about to find new locations.

 

3 CCH was occupying 7 different buildings in Ypres until the 31st Oct when they moved to Hazebrouck. No. 1 FA took over St. Aloysius School & Convent in Ypres forming a temp CCH. Evacuations were by motor lorry, unknown destination.

 

No. 2 FA had been working the Ypres-Menin road but by 1st Nov were billeted in Ypres.

 

No. 3 FA. Based in L'Ecole de Bienfaisant outside Ypres. The school was being used as the DCS on 1st Nov when they had many wounded and had to shut down but evacuated all wounded by midnight, presumably back to No. 1 FA in Ypres.

 

TEW

[TEW]

For the second injury and I'm assuming he's still with same battalion?

 

9th May 1915. Nos. 2 & 3 FAs were based in Bethune, Ecole de Jeune Filles and Ecole Paul Bert respectively. 1 FA as dressing station taking in wounded, 3 FA on bearer work. No. 1 FA seem to have been all over the place, Locon, Hinges and La Coutre. Their diary has 3 pages and a map for 9/5/15. It describes not only their own work but also that of the other FAs. Worth the free download if TNA's working today WO95/1257/2.

 

DDMS 1st Corps has; 560 1st division wounded through Bethune by 9PM who were evacuated by 7 MAC and lorries from the sanitary section to No. 1 CCS at Chocques or No. 4 CCS at Lilliers.

 

Figures for those CCSs seem to be 1549 admitted to No. 1 and 67 to No. 4 on 9th May.

TEW

[Geoffbr]

TEW, you are a star Sir.