Summary: British medical services on the Western Front, 1916-18.
Description: (Reel 1) "Stretcher bearers" (most probably a wiring party) crossing no man's land. An RAMC doctor in a shellhole attends to two heavily bandaged patients. Wounded, some walking and some on stretchers, are brought into the trenches. One blinded soldier is helped across the battlefield by a chaplain. Wounded, including some Germans, pass through trenches. Walking wounded of the Australian 2nd Division. RAMC men try to manoeuvre a stretcher across a wide dugout while a soldier in the foreground tries to sleep. A stretcher party crosses a narrow canal by footbridge. Wounded troops at a forward dressing station. Wounded being transported by wheeled stretchers. A medical corpsman joking with a wounded German prisoner. Walking wounded at a dressing station are attended to by a doctor. A man on a stretcher dictates a letter to a chaplain. Men of the Australian 1st and 2nd Divisions on stretchers being loaded into an ambulance. Ambulances driving to a Casualty Clearing Station. A doctor at work in the CCS. The patients are labelled and taken out to a hospital ship. (Reel 2) Other patients are loaded into a Red Cross train, some of them walking, others on stretchers. Scenes of the Princess Louise Convalescent Home for Nurses in France with its matron, Lady Gifford. A VAD ambulance convoy at work at Etaples in June 1917. "The two women of Pervyse", Baroness T'Serclaes (previously Mrs Elsie Knocker) and Mairi Chisholm, at work with Belgian troops. A hospital train being unloaded and wounded being taken on board a hospital ship (number E 8106) by members of the RAMC and FANY. The ship then leaves harbour.
Production Details: Ministry of Information (Production sponsor)
Topical Film Company (Production company)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: Gifford (Lady) (person)
T'Serclaes, Elsie de (person)
Chisholm, Mairi Lambert Gooden (person)
Belgian Army (regiment/service)
British Army, Royal Army Medical Corps (regiment/service)
British Army, First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (regiment/service)
Australian Army, Australian Imperial Force, 1st Division (regiment/service)
Australian Army, Australian Imperial Force, 2nd Division (regiment/service)
Keywords: buildings, British - institutional: convalescent home (object name)
buildings, British - military: casualty clearing station (object name)
medical, British military - emergency: [+] (object name)
medical, British military - movement: [+] (object name)
prisoners of war, German - movement (object name)
casualties, British wounded - battlefield (object name)
casualties, Australian wounded - battlefield (object name)
casualties, German wounded - battlefield (object name)
casualties, Belgian wounded - battlefield (object name)
ships, British auxiliary - assistance: hospital ship (object name)
transport, British military - rail: hospital train (object name)
religion, Christianity - military, British (object name)
01/3(4-15) (event)
Princess Louise's Convalescent Home for Nurses, Étaples, Pas-de-Calais, France (geography)
Pervijze, West Flanders, Belgium (geography)
no man's land (concept)
Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W
Sound format: Silent
Soundtrack language: None
Title language: English
Subtitle language: English
Technical Details: Format: 35mm
Number of items/reels/tapes: 2
Footage: 1853 ft; Running time: 32 mins
