Essex private in Palestine

[Pvte Lynch]

G'day,

My Grandfather served in the 1/7th Essex and was injured (shrapnel in the knee) whilst serving in Palestine. Family sources advise he was treated by a German doctor. However he was never a POW. My theory is that the injury occurred when they had the Turks on the run (after Gaza) amongst one of the many German settlements there at the time, and may have been treated by a local. Is this feasible? If not, please feel free to supply you own theories.

Thank you for your input.

Stephen

[michaeldr]

Stephen,

Welcome to the forum

I have seen photographs of German medics, who had previously been taken prisoner, treating British wounded. So if your grandfather was not a PoW himself, but was treated by a German army doctor, then the first possibility which springs to my mind is that it might have been the German doctor who was the PoW.

As you suggest, there were German colonists in Palestine at the time of the British advance from Egypt. In 1869 the German ‘Temple Society’ [an association of Pietists from Wurttemberg] took over the American Colony [millenarists from Maine] in Jaffo. Between 1869 and 1873 they founded other colonies in Haifa, Sarona and Jerusalem. In 1902 they founded yet another village about 15 kms from Jaffo, calling it Wilhelma in honour of the Kaiser.

During WWI the German army had a military hospital at the village of Wilhelma but the area was captured by the British in about November 1917 and as I understand it all the German colonists, who were by then enemy aliens, were sent to Egypt for the remainder of the war.

Regards

Michael D.R.

[Pvte Lynch]

Thanks Michael,

Obvious when you think about it I suppose (if the soldier wasn't a PoW, then it must have been the doctor). Could you confirm that if this was the case, where would a GERMAN doctor have most likely have treated a BRITISH soldier in this Theatre. I imagined that Pop would have been hospitalised back at the base camp in Egypt. Were there any hospitals closer to the front in Palestine that this German doctor/British patient scenario would have most likely played out?

Thanks again for your reply.

Stephen

PS:- Was the theory of a CIVILIAN German doctor treating a BRITISH soldier totally unfeasible?

[stevenbecker]

Mate,

Also there were many Jewish towns in Palestine where a European trained doctor could come from to treat him.

These towns are mentioned in all records of the ALH during the advance to Jerusalem.

S.B

[Pvte Lynch]

Steve,

Just to clarify. The town didn't necessarily have to be a German settlement for it to be a German doctor? And does you reply give credence to the possibility of a civilian treating a soldier? Could this have occurred after a Gaza Battle, when I thought all casualties would most likely have been sent to a British Army hospital?

Stephen