Soldiers successfully treated at Casualty Clearing Station 54 1915 - 1919

[nicola m jackson]

I am particularly interested in those successfully treated at CCS 54. I am also particularly interested in the Casualty Clearing Stations around Merville as the Germans overwhelmed the town in April 1918. I have many biog details for those who died and lie in the cemeteries associated with the CCSs. Not so easy to chase up names/biog details for those who survived! Any thoughts most welcome. 

[RussT]

Welcome to the Forum

The Admission and Discharge Registers, which contained the name, Regimental details, ailments and length of stay for the vast majority of the RAMC Medical Units were destroyed.

A select, supposedly, representative sample of A&D Registers were retained and are available in the so-called MH106 series, which have also largely been digitised and available from some subscription sites. Unfortunately, I don't think 54/CCS was amongst those retained.

The War Diary for the 54/CCS is available but at best that will only detail the number of admissions, deaths and evacuations.

See here an incomplete list of those RAMC unit A&D records which are available - go to the National Archives for the complete list:

Hospital admissions and discharge records - The Long, Long Trail (longlongtrail.co.uk)

Regards

Russ

[kenf48]

43 minutes ago, nicola m jackson said:

I am also particularly interested in the Casualty Clearing Stations around Merville as the Germans overwhelmed the town in April 1918.

As noted in the war diary (free to download), which I assume you have read, 54 CCS  closed for admissions on the 24th March 1918, all patients were cleared by the 27th and the CCS reopened on the 30th having abandoned the huts and reverted to tented accommodation. The first 100 new patients admitted at their new location on the 30th.

[TEW]

There are another 29 patients mentioned in another series for 54 CCS from MH106 held by The National Archives. These are the Medical Sheets and Cards.

These cannot be downloaded but the description given by TNA online can sometimes be informative or provide a start point.

The Sheets or Cards may have been retained on the basis of the man's unit, his condition or the medical units he attended.

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_cr=mh106&_dss=range&_ro=any&_q="54+casualty"

TEW

 

[nicola m jackson]

Absolutely thank you and I was standing on those sites just a month ago. What I am looking for is the names of any survivors who were successfully  treated at CCS54. TNA records do not have medical record cards for CCS54  that I can find - the sample kept does not seem to include those. Many thanks though for all thoughts!

[nicola m jackson]

Huge thanks for the latest post also - I will look at those at Kew asap. I see you kindly refer to "another 29 patients" - have you found others for CCS 54? Greatly appreciated.

Regards

 

Nicola

[nicola m jackson]

And many thanks Russ - i did look but will do so again. Much appreciated.

[TEW]

Just now, nicola m jackson said:

I see you kindly refer to "another 29 patients" - have you found others for CCS 54? Greatly appreciated.

Regards

Nicola

I'm afraid not, sorry if that misled you. I was thinking 'another 29' on top of any you may find in the Diary.

CCS diaries do sometimes report on wounded men up to mid 1916, perhaps unusual cases etc. Other CCSs may just give a table of totals moved through the unit.

Looking at my TNA link it looks like a lot of the entries were Artillery men which were part of the retained sample. You may possibly find service or pension records for these men.

TEW

[nicola m jackson]

Many thanks again and the 29 TNA records are proving very helpful and as you say,  I am sure will have further follow up. Much appreciated. 

[kenf48]

 

3 hours ago, nicola m jackson said:

What I am looking for is the names of any survivors who were successfully  treated at CCS54.

Not sure if these names are what you are looking for but on the 1st February 1919 the war diary records '37 convalescent venereal patients arrived for duty'.

These men were, apparently, transferred from 4th Stationary Hospital and are listed by name and unit and date of transfer to 54 CCS in the Admission Register for that Hospital in MH 106

Here on FMP  if you have access.

Whether or not they were 'successfully treated' is not recorded.  Their 'convalescence' was no sinecure, one policy recommendation arising from studies during the war recommended weekly treatment for chronic gonorrhoea should be administered at the CCS. (Medical Diseases of the War Volume 1 p159). I assume as they are listed as 'V.D.G.'this was what they were suffering from.

In the meantime their duties at the CCS were probably the most menial.

 

 

[TEW]

I couldn't help thinking of other ways to ID patients from 54CCS at Merville. I realised that the TNA list of 29 men treated at 54CCS may not be while they were at Merville. You also mentioned I am also particularly interested in the Casualty Clearing Stations around Merville. This would include 3, 6, 7, 51, 54 and Lahore CCSs (possibly others as well).

I wasn't sure if 54 CCS was your focus or Merville.

The diary for 3 CCS WO95/251/1 has an appendix for April 1915 at Merville for the use of a new type of antiseptic. They have a list of seven patients used as Guinea Pigs. There's a further nine men with details of their injuries and treatment for April and May 1915 before 3 CCS left Merville.

I think you'd do well to download all the dairies (3, 6, 7, 51, 54 and Lahore CCSs) and see what they have for their respective Merville periods.

I see that 3 CCS does have admission and discharge register in MH106, you could also repeat the search in MH106 for Medical Sheets/Cards for each of the CCSs.

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_cr=mh106&_dss=range&_ro=any&_q="54+casualty" Replace 54 Casualty for EG. 7 Casualty, you'd still have work to do to filter for non-Merville results.

There are also 'Sick & Wounded Lists' which include Progress Reports from CCSs. This is an ongoing topic that runs to 100 pages and in the region of 11,000 lists!

The link below takes you to page 9 of the topic and 2/3rds of the way down the page is a progress report for 57173 Channel HE Dangerously Wounded and at 54 CCS Merville.

https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/89635-casualty-lists/page/9/

There are in the region of 900 progress reports, mostly for hospitals but CCS ones do exist. I'm afraid it's a case of manual trawling the topic although there is a spreadsheet that may help. https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/296431-casualty-lists-an-index/?do=findComment&comment=3301736

TEW