Robert Adair, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, wounded at Festubert

[Robert McMillann]

Where would I find casualty medical records for the battle of Festubert? 

[clk]

Hi Robert,

Welcome to the forum.

30 minutes ago, Robert McMillann said:

Where would I find casualty medical records for the battle of Festubert? 

Surviving WW1 records can be somewhat 'patchy'. Are you looking for someone/something specific?

Regards
Chris

[PRC]

36 minutes ago, Robert McMillann said:

Where would I find casualty medical records for the battle of Festubert? 

Hi @Robert McMillann and welcome to the forum.

The short answer is that "you won't", the longer answer is can you be a bit more specific about what you are looking for - an individual, a unit, overall casualties, etc, as forum pals may then be able to think of ways to come up with the information you seek.

Cheers,
Peter

[Robert McMillann]

1 minute ago, PRC said:

Hi @Robert McMillann and welcome to the forum.

The short answer is that "you won't", the longer answer is can you be a bit more specific about what you are looking for - an individual, a unit, overall casualties, etc, as forum pals may then be able to think of ways to come up with the information you seek.

Cheers,
Peter

Thanks. Looking for my wife's great grandpa who was an inniskilling fusilier and was wounded at the battle of Festubert. 3409 pte Robert Adair.  We have most of his history except the wound that saved his life. Thanks again. Rab 

[Robert McMillann]

3409 pte Robert Adair inniskilling fusiliers wounded at the battle of Festubert.  Looking to find what was his wounds that ultimately saved his life. Thanks .rab

[Michelle Young]

Please keep all replies on this thread which I have split from an existing thread. 

[PRC]

3 minutes ago, Robert McMillann said:

Looking for my wife's great grandpa who was an inniskilling fusilier and was wounded at the battle of Festubert. 3409 pte Robert Adair.  We have most of his history except the wound that saved his life.

A soldiers medical records would be kept with his service records on completion of his service. I've had a quick look but Private Adairs' service records appear to be amongst the majority that went up in flames in WW2 when German bombs hit the London Warehouse where they were being stored.

After the fire attenpts were made to partially replace the records where possible with copies of the extracts that had been taken previously in the twenties and thirties for pension and medical purposes, but again not seeing anything on FindMyPast or his Medal Index Card to indicate he received a Disability Pension. However Ancestry and its sister site Fold3  tends to be better for that area.

Next step would be to look at the medical evacuation chain for his unit from the battle area. 5% of the Medical Admission and Discharge registers for Military Medical units were retained for statistical purposes, and subsequently handed over to the National Archive. If your man's evacuation route ran through one of the units included in the 5% sample - Field Ambulance, Casualty Clearance Station, Ambulance Train, Hospital in France, Hospital Ship, Hospital in the UK - then it will include a very brief decription of the Wounds, ("G.S.W". R.Leg sort of thing). The pages themselves can be seen on FindMyPast, with transcripts on Forces War Records. I'm not seeing any matches on FindMyPast for Private Adair but there are a lot of clerical errors in the original documents, as well as transcription errors, hence the advice to try to establish the likely evacuation route.

Finally at this stage I would also suggest local papers, starting with online sources like the British Newspaper Archives. I know FindMy Past have a level of subscription that includes newspapers and periodicals, and I believe Ancestry have something similar - but in both cases they are effectively a portal to the British Newspaper Archive. Unfortunately not only is there a limited selection of titles, but the software used to transcribe the images into text is, to put it mildly, quirky. I don't have a subscription but from what cane seen in the publicly available search of the Irish newspapers on FindMyPast these are typical of the kind of results you will get - but at least you can then go on to look at the images.

Can I suggest you edit your title, (use the three dots top right corner of your first post) to make it something more relevant to the man, his unit and where he came from, as those are the sorts of things that are likely to attract a wider response. Your current title  - "First World War Soldiers` Medical Records - Festubert" is unlikely to do that as there is no separate source of medical records and information isn't stored by battle.

Hopefully that will get the ball rolling,

Peter

[Robert McMillann]

Thanks very much

[TEW]

He's in an official Casualty List which was printed in The Times 23/6/1915. There is a Report received date of 6/6/1915. I would start with the unit diary around 1/6/15 and look for any casualties up to 6/6/15.

This list won't have any other details on his injury. It may have other men from his battalion that were wounded at the same time.

If so you could look for their records and hope a pattern emerges which you can then apply to Adair.

I'll take a look and see what there is regarding the planned medical evacuation.

I see he was wounded about six weeks into his arrival.

TEW

 

 

[Robert McMillann]

Brilliant mate cheers 

[TEW]

His medal roll for the pair gives his units as 2nd RIF then 7th RIF. The usual suggestion is that he would have transferred to 7th Bn. after his injury while with 2nd Bn. 2nd Bn. were 2nd Division troops who were withdrawn from Festubert circa 19th May due to their casualties.

An injury mid-May 1915 seems more likely rather than my earlier suggestion of early June.

TEW

 

[TEW]

Well, it's not straight forward in terms of defined medical evacuation.

The period for 2nd Division at Festubert is 15th-20th May 1915 although it's not impossible he was wounded later. 2nd Division had 3,560 wounded ordinary ranks in this period. If you like statistics that's 6.83 wounded men for each man killed!

I've not plotted where the 2nd RIF were for this period and there are a lot if references to the RAMC bearer posts/ relays across I Corps which equates to nine field ambulances. Luckily all dressing stations for I Corps are in Bethune. 2nd Division 5 FA are in the Ecole Jules Ferry, Bethune and 6 FA in the Seminars St. Vaast,  Bethune. Either of these two are the most likely first dressing station for Adair.

The plan was to evacuate wounded from Bethune to the CCSs at Choques #1,  Lilliers #4 & #51 with Merville coming into play 19th May.

With the numbers of wounded things got a little out of hand. Ambulance trains, motor ambulance convoys and ambulance barges were utilised to evacuate from Bethune.

Emergency trains were also ordered up as were additional ambulance convoys.

Just to give a further indication of the work involved #1 CCS at Choques admitted 1000 wounded 17th May. The previous day they evacuated by three ambulance trains and a MAC 1080 wounded.

Two of these ATs (#8 & #9) took 578 wounded to Boulogne. Other wounded went to St. Omer.

Boulogne had eleven hospitals at that time. 17th May 995 wounded were shipped back to the UK via three hospital ships.

There were two more CCS involved with multiple ambulance trains and MACs evacuating from those back to other possible bases although EG. #2 AT moved 372 wounded 17th May to Boulogne.

Overall for 15th - 20th May there were three CCSs involved each evacuating by multiple methods to bases each day.

TEW