CEF attestation papers

[Guest geoff501]

I've just noticed on a Canadian Attestation papers from 1915 that question Number 8 'Are you willing to be vaccinated or re-vaccinated?' was answered with NO. Was this optional?

What vaccines were available, I've read somewhere Typhoid and Tetanus (after wounded). Any others?

[CROONAERT]

I've just noticed on a Canadian Attestation papers from 1915 that question Number 8 'Are you willing to be vaccinated or re-vaccinated?' was answered with NO. Was this optional?

What vaccines were available, I've read somewhere Typhoid and Tetanus (after wounded). Any others?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Austrian soldiers had 3 vaccinations: Typhus, Cholera and "Blattern" (what's that? - I don't have my German dictionary to hand).

Germans were innoculated against Typhus,Cholera and Smallpox.

I don't know what Italians had but they had 2 doses of it anyway, and the British and Empire soldiers had the "T.A.B" (Mixed Typhoid, Paratyphoid A and Paratyphoid B ) and Cholera (sometimes 2 doses) innoculations.

Hope this helps,

Dave

[Doc2]

Austrian soldiers had 3 vaccinations: Typhus, Cholera and "Blattern" (what's that? - I don't have my German dictionary to hand).

Germans were innoculated against Typhus,Cholera and Smallpox.

I don't know what Italians had but they had 2 doses of it anyway, and the British and Empire soldiers had the "T.A.B" (Mixed Typhoid, Paratyphoid A and Paratyphoid B ) and Cholera (sometimes 2 doses) innoculations.

Hope this helps,

Dave

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

As best my non-native German can make it out, "blattern" is smallpox. Doc2

[John_Hartley]

Was this optional?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Possibly. There may have been religious objections from some groups.

John

[CROONAERT]

As best my non-native German can make it out, "blattern" is smallpox.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks.

I suspected as such , but was uncertain seeing as the German papers list "Pockern" (which I presumed was smallpox) whereas the Austrian ones list "Blattern". Are these two different diseases, or is it simply a dialect thing and they are the same?

Cheers,

Dave.

[Lost in Tilloy]

Trawl for 'Blattern' on Google seems to suggest German word for either Pox or Small Pox

LIT

[Alan_J]

Thanks.

I suspected as such , but was uncertain seeing as the German papers list "Pockern" (which I presumed was smallpox) whereas the Austrian ones list "Blattern".  Are these two different diseases, or is it simply a dialect thing and they are the same?

Cheers,

Dave.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Most probably the same. In 1914 there weren't a great many vaccines available anyway.

And also, vaccination today in the armed forces as I understand it, remains optional (at least for UK forces)!

Alan

[Borden Battery]

Here are the only references I can find regarding the CEF and vacinations. Other than the specific reference to typhoid innoculations I cannot find a specific reference. However, I would expect the Canadian and British requirements would be very similar if not identical.

Though most of the 1500 officers assembled at Valcartier had qualified for their ranks at military schools of instruction, there was a wide diversity in the men's standard of training. The requirements prescribed in the lettergram of 6 August had not been met; many were without military training or experience. Yet the Minister's desire to send the contingent to England as quickly as possible limited the time for training at Valcartier, and this was further shortened by frequent interruptions. Having arrived with no unit organization, the men had to be medically examined, inoculated and attested, and issued with clothing and equipment - the last a protracted affair dependent upon deliveries from the manufacturers. All these processes played havoc with training programmes, which were further disrupted by repeated changes in the composition, location and command of the units to which the troops were assigned. All arms and services engaged in elementary squad and foot drill and rifle exercises. Route marches and physical training began the necessary hardening process.

p 23 Official History of the Canadian Army in the First World War - Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1919, Colonel G. W. L. Nicholson, C.D., Army Historical Section

They lined up for vacinations - which were compulsory - and typhoid innoculations - Hughes insisted were voluntary.

p 17, When You Numbers Up, Desmond Morton, Random House of Canada, 1993