On duty in the hospital. A few patients in. Not much doing.
Tag Archives: Hospital
7 December 1916; Thursday
6 December 1916; Wednesday
Up about 7 o’clock. Drew rations from billet. Packed kit and marched off at 9.45. Arrived at Beaval1 about midday. Had some coffee and was called away to help to set up a hospital. Worked until after tea. Slept in the barn. Had potato chips at the hospital for supper2.
Marched from Hem-Hardinval (A) to Beauval (B). ↩
“Potato chips”: Probably something more akin to French fries than to crisps. See note on 30 June 1915. ↩
21 October 1916; Saturday
On duty in the cellar of the hospital. Felt pretty seedy but managed all right.
The bearers went up the line.
Temperature ran up at night.
20 October 1916; Friday
Up in the morning. Captain MacCombie† turned up and he marked me to attend. I helped them in the ward in the afternoon.
19 October 1916; Thursday
Felt a good bit better and was up part of the day. Corporal Chapman went out. A Canadian next to me. A lot of Canadians in the hospital. Most of them funny. One or two cheeky.
18 October 1916; Wednesday
Felt a bit under the weather in the morning and paraded sick with a temperature of 1001. Sent to bed in hospital instead of as orderly as I wished. Lay in bed all day. Felt pretty rotten. Corporal Chapman next to me.
100°F is about 37.8°C. ALL was evidently still running a slight fever, though we don’t know why. ↩
5 October 1916; Thursday
Up at 6.30 and on duty as usual. The 111th Ambulance1 came to take over in the afternoon. I spoke to a few of the old Hillsborough lot. A third bomb accident at night2.
Bought a lace collar at night from the Belgian refugee people.
The 111th Field Ambulance was at this time with the 16th (Irish) Division. ↩
The diary makes no reference to a first or second bomb accident, and offers no clue about the nature of any of these accidents, but Mills bombs (hand grenades) were sometimes used in ponds or watercourses to kill or stun fish (for eating), and their time-fuses could be unreliable. ↩
4 October 1916; Wednesday
Up shortly before 7 o’clock. On duty as usual. Not so busy. Billy Truman a bit better. Wet day. Off at night and went to Bailleul. At the concert and it was very good. With Holman. Called at the house of the Belgians and bought a piece of lace to be sent to Marmie.
3 October 1916; Tuesday
Kept busy all day. Another bombing again after dinner and 2 stretcher cases and two walking cases through it. Paid at 4 o’clock. A bit of a commotion through Billy Truman having got bed wet and a man upstairs having a touch of diphtheria.
Another Zeppelin brought down near London1.
“Zeppelin brought down”: This probably refers to the destruction, on the night of 1-2 October 1916, of Zeppelin L31, which was shot down by an aircraft from No. 39 Squadron and crashed near Potters Bar, killing its entire crew of 19 including its very experienced captain, Heinrich Mathy. L31 had previously taken part in the raid on London of 23-24 September (noted by ALL in his diary entry of 26 September) during which L32 and L33 had been shot down. ↩