War Diaries Talk

Field Ambulance

  • Maria64 by Maria64

    Hi guys,
    I am covering diaries from 3 CAVALRY DIVISION: 6 Cavalry Field Ambulance and have a couple of questions here for your consideration please. I’ve had 3 different O.C.s in the last 6+ months and there have been gaps of a couple of months on the same diary page.

    1. D.R.S. is a Divisional Rest Station where the sick are being admitted. As with Casualty Clearing Stations etc., I don’t know if any part of my unit is working there so should I tag this as a unit or a place or as medical?

    2. NO OF SICK ADMITTED TO D.R.S. FOR WEEK ENDING 28 1/16, (28/1/1916), 51 O.R.
      NO OF SICK ADMITTED TO D.R.S. DURING MARCH 2 OFFICERS 206 MEN

    This new O/C has listed the no. of sick by the week as in the first example and then has listed a total no. of sick for the month. I don’t know if these men were all sick, or some wounded or where they came from as there are no names or units mentioned.

    I feel like I should list the numbers but where? Do I just apply the medical tag from Army Life or use the end of month total as 'Not Specified' in Casualties or both? I think the numbers for the month are quite low so could they be from just my unit after all?

    Any advice gratefully received. 😃
    Best wishes, Maria.

    Posted

  • HeatherC by HeatherC moderator

    Hi Maria

    1. The DRS. From your second question 2 where you quote numbers of sick "admitted" rather than numbers of sick "sent to" the DRS, it does sound as if your FA is running it? Apparently it was usually run by one of the Div's FAs when not in the line. Does this sound right for your unit? If so then use the "unit activity - casualty treatment" tag.

    2. The casualty numbers. No way are those numbers coming just from your own Unit! They are the numbers being passed up or down the casualty chain from other units. Bear in mind this is just those being admitted to the DRS so excludes all the ones who went on to the CCS or back to units. So how do you tag them? Honestly I don't think you can other than with the "Unit activity - Casualty treatment" tag. You shouldn't use the Army Life - Medical tag, that's for things like foot inspections and local MO activity in Units. You also should most definitely not add them to the casualty figures in the Casualties tag - this is for the Unit's own casualties and if you add these figures (which will be from all different Units) then they will be double counted as they are already included as Casualties when they left their own Units.

    We can't record everything... 😉

    Hope that makes sense

    Heather

    Posted

  • Maria64 by Maria64

    Hi Heather,

    Thanks for your reply. To be honest, I don't really know what they're up to - as I said, they've had 3 different C.O.'s and there was a diary page that had a gap of a few months! I have been researching them and the areas they're in as well as the R.A.M.C. but nothing obvious came up.

    In the entry 24th January, 1916 on the page linked to my query, he says that he received orders to send N.C.O.s, light ambulance etc. to be attached to M.O. i/c of 3rd D. Guards to bring sick to Torcy each morning.

    And further down on the 24th, there's another reference saying an order received to send a light ambulance to Torcy to meet an ambulance from 3rd Dragoon Guards and bring sick to D.R.S. So yes, that does sound as though they're running the D.R.S.

    Previously he had written, sent to D.R.S. as well as admitted to D.R.S. However. it's only his second or third page and I just get the feeling that there's been some kind of re-organization because the last few pages have been so haphazard in content. I'm sure they'll make sense soon.

    Thankfully, I haven't recorded them as Casualties because I don't know where they came from and the Medical tag didn't fit either so I'll continue using the Casualty Treatment tag. As you say, we can't record everything and I know you've got to be so careful making sure casualties aren't counted twice.

    Thanks again, Heather. 😃

    Best wishes,
    Maria.

    Posted