20 Con Camp – Location ??

[MERLINV12]

I have done the usual searches, but have come up with nothing, I am assuming that it is an abbreviation for No 20 Convalescence Camp, maybe someone can confirm or correct. Mainly looking for the location, also interpretation of the word in SR extract, which to me could be Freed or Field ??

For some context, the man embarked from Salonika to go there, and then embarked from there for demob, if that helps.

TIA.

[FROGSMILE]

1 hour ago, MERLINV12 said:

 

I have done the usual searches, but have come up with nothing, I am assuming that it is an abbreviation for No 20 Convalescence Camp, maybe someone can confirm or correct. Mainly looking for the location, also interpretation of the word in SR extract, which to me could be Freed or Field ??

For some context, the man embarked from Salonika to go there, and then embarked from there for demob, if that helps.

TIA.

I think the word is Field.  As for the location of “20 Con” can you provide any further context at all.  If it was from Salonika was he at any intermediate staging post according to that document or does it imply that 20 Con was at home?

[MERLINV12]

Thanks for the reply, attached is the relevant part of his SR, and shows his postings, it is all I have, not much help really, as he embarked for demob after con camp. assume it must have been abroad.

[FROGSMILE]

1 hour ago, MERLINV12 said:

Thanks for the reply, attached is the relevant part of his SR, and shows his postings, it is all I have, not much help really, as he embarked for demob after con camp. assume it must have been abroad.

That’s helpful actually.  He was first at Basrah (Mespot now Iraq), then Shujah** them to Basrah again and on to his unit 7th Oxf & Bucks LI, but within days he was at 30 Con, which had to be in the Middle East as he “embarked” from there for demobilisation [at home].  It suggests to me that 30 Con was near to, or in Basrah.

** Perhaps Kazar Shujah in the region of Bābil, which is a town located in Iraq - around 83 miles or ( 133 km ) South of Baghdad.

Edited 5 January , 2022 by FROGSMILE

[MERLINV12]

Thanks again, others including myself have read your Shujah as "HT Shuja" the troopship that embarked him from Basra to Salonika, where 7th OBLI has been throughout most of the war, so assuming 20 Con was in Salonika area ?????

However it is confusing as he appears to have embarked from Basra on 9/12/18 for the Salonika Force, but then embarked again on 3/3/19 to who knows where, arriving at "20 Con Camp" 10 days later, before embarking again for demob on 5/4//19, so as clear as mud 

[FROGSMILE]

1 hour ago, MERLINV12 said:

Thanks again, others including myself have read your Shujah as "HT Shuja" the troopship that embarked him from Basra to Salonika, where 7th OBLI has been throughout most of the war, so assuming 20 Con was in Salonika area ?????

However it is confusing as he appears to have embarked from Basra on 9/12/18 for the Salonika Force, but then embarked again on 3/3/19 to who knows where, arriving at "20 Con Camp" 10 days later, before embarking again for demob on 5/4//19, so as clear as mud 

Yes the Shuja aspect makes sense, I hadn’t spotted the HT (His Majesty’s Troopship) that preceded the name.  That certainly suggests that 20 Con must have been within the Mediterranean Theatre and so somewhere within a two week journey from Salonika.  I did learn that Convalescent camps were usually aligned with a Base, or Stationary hospital and for reasons of evacuation most of these seem to have been near to ports with deep water access. 
He received his posting on 1st Feb 1919 and embarked on 3rd March 1919 (presumably waiting for ship).  And so if he arrived at the convalescent centre after 10-days I’m wondering whether it might have been at Malta, which was the main medical hub before onward transit to Britain, which it had been for the Crimean War, and then again for the 2nd Anglo/Boer War. During WW1 there were a significant number of hospitals and other administrative establishments there.  He seems to have stayed for a month and then carried on back to a home port (probably Southampton).  I can only suggest that you corrobate that theory by researching the medical and associated infrastructure on Malta during WW1.

Edited 5 January , 2022 by FROGSMILE

[MERLINV12]

Thanks for the informative post and suggestion, will pursue that angle. 

[FROGSMILE]

4 hours ago, MERLINV12 said:

Thanks for the informative post and suggestion, will pursue that angle. 

I’ll be interested to learn how you get on.  A lot of the wounded from Dardanelles/Gallipoli were taken to Malta by hospital ship, so it became well set up by 1917.

[charlie962]

That last line of SVC record extract says Itea, not Field! Itea in Greece was the site of some rest camps 1918/19 probably including no40 convalescent.

Charlie

[MERLINV12]

Good spot , this is where prior knowledge helps to decipher things, I personally had never heard of Itea.

In our defence, Field was referring to the entry in the last but one line (above Itea).

Edited 6 January , 2022 by MERLINV12

[FROGSMILE]

8 hours ago, charlie962 said:

That last line of SVC record extract says Itea, not Field! Itea in Greece was the site of some rest camps 1918/19 probably including no40 convalescent.

Charlie

Brilliant!  Well spotted Charlie, it was the word above that was quoted as field I think, unless I misunderstood MERLIN, but I believe you’ve definitely cracked Itea as being the location of No 20 Convalescent Centre. 

 

 

 

 

Edited 6 January , 2022 by FROGSMILE