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THE GALLIPOLI DOCTORSApril – December 1915
Rotary Club of Werribee21 April 2020
Lt. Cyril L VersoKilled in Action, Flanders
19 .9. 1917
Rotary ANZAC Centenary Peace TourApril 2015
The Gallipoli Peninsula
Anzac Cove, 1915
Anzac Cove today
Lone Pine
Shrapnel Valley Cemetery- 700 graves
ANZAC Dawn Service
at Gallipoli
The Australian Army Medical Corps
(AAMC) at Gallipoli in 1915
At Gallipoli in 1915, the Medical Staff didn’t have:
X Antibiotics
X Intravenous therapy
X Blood transfusions
X Anaesthesia (limited)
X Pathology (very limited)
X X-rays (very limited)
X U/S, CT, MRI
John Simpson Kirkpatrick“The Man with the Donkey”
THE
“MAN WITH THE DONKEY”
GALLIPOLI APRIL 25 to MAY 19,1915
IN COMMEMORATION
OF THE VALOUR AND COMPASSION
OF THE AUSTRALIAN SOLDIER.
Private John Simpson“The Man with the Donkey”
• Born in England as John Simpson Kirkpatrick
• Enlisted in Perth as Jack Simpson
• Stretcher bearer in 3rd FAB
• On 25 April 1915, Simpson landed with others
of his unit at North Beach.
• Used a donkey he called “Duffy” to carry
wounded men down to the Casualty Clearing
Station on the beach.
• Over 24 days he rescued over 300 men.
• Killed by a sniper 19 May 1915, aged 22.
• Recommended for V.C but never awarded.
1915
2015
The most visited grave at Gallipoli:John Simpson Kirkpatrick (1892 – 1915)
• Soldier-surgeon
• First Australian to win V.C.
• Only Australian doctor to win V.C.
• Mayor of Orange, NSW
• Senior M.O. at Anzac Cove
• Director of AIF Medical Services
• Knighted three times
• Member of Australian Parliament
• Minister for Defense, Health, Home &
Territories and Repatriation
• Died of pancreatic cancer, aged 67
Major General Sir Neville HowseVC, KCB, KCMG, FRCS
1863 - 1930
Casualty Clearing Station (CCS)• Cleared the ambulances of their casualties to allow
the bearers unimpeded traffic to & from the lines.
• Cared for all wounded until evacuation.
• Staffed by 8 officers & 77 other ranks.
• Not well sheltered & exposed to gun fire
1st Australian C.C.S at Anzac Cove, 2nd May 1915
Colonel Graham Butler DSO (1872-1949)
• RMO 9th Battalion
• On one of the first boats ashore on
25 April 1915.
• Only MO at Gallipoli to be awarded
Distinguished Service Order for his
work “without sleep or rest” from
25th to 28th April.
• Commanding Officer 3rd Australian
General Hospital in France &
Belgium 1918-1919.
• 1923-1943 Author of Official History
of the Australian Army Medical
Services 1914-18.
Regimental Aid Post (RAP)
Basic Medical Unit
• Accompanied infantry into battle.
• Consisted of the regiment’s doctor
(RMO), 2 orderlies & 16 stretcher
bearers (e.g. bandsmen…)
• Stretcher bearers brought
wounded to RAP.
• First Aid given; wounds dressed &
soldier returned to front if possible.
• If wounds or illness severe, soldier
evacuated to Field Ambulance Unit.
Captain Arthur Graham Butler DSO,
9th Battalion Regimental Medical
Officer (RMO) at Gallipoli.
The Official History of the Australian Medical Services
1914–1918 by Colonel A. G. Butler
Work of AAMC 1915
1. Treating disease on the first convoy(38 ships carried 29,185 ANZAC troops)
2. In Egypt:
▪ Establish hospitals
▪ Manage disease outbreaks
▪ Train nonmedical personnel
▪ Assess fitness to serve
3. At Gallipoli
▪ Treat wounds
▪ Manage disease outbreaks
▪ Manage sanitation
3. Run hospitals on Lemnos Island and in Egypt.
8. Learn from each other / ANZAC Medical Society
Sr. E M Paten, Captain Conrick (?), Sr. J M Hart, Capt. (later
Colonel) Arthur Graham Butler, (9th Battalion RMO),
Sr C M Keys, and Sr. B M Williams (seated).
Hospital ship
H.M.H.S. Gascon
Australian General Hospital (AGH)
• Largest medical unit of AAMC
• Equivalent of a major city civilian hospital.
• Various departments (medical, surgical, laboratories)
• 520 beds (grew to 3500 in Cairo)
• 21 doctors, 43 nurses, 143 other ranks
Nursing staff, First A.G.H. in Cairo
Lemnos Island▪ 60 miles (95 kms.) from GallipolI (4 hours by sea)
▪ Australians established 3 large hospitals
- No. 3 A.G.H.
- No. 1 A.S.H.
- No. 2 A.S.H.
▪ 2 smaller British hospitals, 2 Canadian hospitals and
an Indian hospital also set up.
▪ 97,000 patients treated August to Nov. 1915
Dr Thomas Henry Fiaschi DSO (1853- 1927)
• Italian surgeon, wine maker, patron of arts
• Educated at Universities of Pisa and Florence
• Honorary Surgeon, Sydney Hospital 1884-1927
• Pioneered various surgical & anaesthetic
techniques
• Established Tizzana Winery at Windsor, on the
Hawkesbury River.
• Commanded the 3rd Australian General
Hospital at Lemnos, 1915
• Developed beriberi (thiamine deficiency) and
evacuated to England.
• Retired in 1921 as Brigadier-General
• Died of pneumonia in 1927, aged 73.
The Truce to bury the dead, 24 May 1915
Sir Charles Snodgrass Ryan(a.ka. “Plevna” Ryan, 1853–1926.)
▪ Surgeon at Melbourne Hospital 1878-1913
▪ Served with the Turkish Army at siege of
Plevna against the Russians in 1978-79
and honoured.
▪ Author of “Under the Red Crescent”
▪ 1914 Assistant Director of Medical Services,
First Division, AIF.
▪ Served as a surgeon to AIF in London
▪ August 1917 appointed honorary surgeon
- general, Australian Military Forces.
▪ Many honours, C.B. (1916), C.M.G. and
K.B.E. (1919).
▪ Died 1926, aged 73.
KILLED IN ACTION
DIED OF WOUNDS
WOUNDEDTOTAL
CASUALTIES
AIF 5833 1985 19,441 27259
NZAF 1904 495 4852 7251
AAMC 33* 35 225 293
Deaths from enemy action at Gallipoli
* 13 doctors were killed or died in 1915
Medical Officers of the AAMC and the RAMC following a lecture by
Sir Victor Horsley on “First Aid in Head Injuries” given at Gallipoli on 5th October 1915.
• 270 doctors served at Gallipoli or on Lemnos.
• Treated 21,326 wounded (1985 died)
• Cared for 63,649 sick (569 died)
• Many suffered from the same diseases.
• 13 doctors were killed or died in 1915.
• Awards: 2 awarded DSO, 3 Military Cross and 34 Mentioned in Despatches
N.B. All received the gratitude of the soldiers for whom they had cared.
France:
• Fromelles
• Pozieres
• Bullecourt
• Villers-Bretonneux
• Le Hamel
• Mont St. Quentin
Belgium:• Messines
• Ypres
• Menin Road
• Passchendale
Australians on the Western Front, 1918-1918
The Spanish Flu 1918 - 1919 “The greatest medical holocaust in history”
❖ Unusually deadly influenza pandemic
❖ Emerged at the end of the WW1
❖ Infected 500 million people (27% of world population at the time)
❖ Killed 50+ million people
❖ Caused by the H1N1 subtype of the Influenza A virus. (H1N1 also caused the swine flu in 2009).
World population:
• 1.8 billion in 1919
• 7.9 billion in 2020
The Death Toll from Pandemics
The Spanish Flu in Australia❖ In Australia, 40 % of population of 5 million fell ill
and 15,00 died.
❖ Australia’s death rate of 2.7 per 1000 of population was one of the lowest recorded of any country
❖ Mortality rate of 50% in some Aboriginal communities.
The Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne was transformed into a Spanish Flu hospital between March and August 1919. 4000 people
were treated in the 6 months, 392 of whom died.
Origins of the “Spanish Flu”
▪ Not from Spain▪ Probably started in military camps in USA in 1917.▪ In France, it was detected in the British, French, US, Australian &
German Armies from May 1918 onwards and quickly spread.▪ Example: In October & November 1918, the No. 3 Australian General
Hospital in France admitted 2500 influenza patients and 214 died. ▪ World War One Armistice declared 11 November 1918▪ Homecoming soldiers wreaked havoc by spreading the deadly influenza.
Australia’s response to the “Spanish Flu”
❖ From 17 October 1918, all ships, including the troopships, were quarantined.
❖ On 10 January 1919, the first cases of the virulent disease appeared in Melbourne.
❖ Quickly spread to Sydney where it hit hard.
❖ Gauze masks were made compulsory when people were out and about.
❖ Meetings of 20 or more people were prohibited.
A public health poster drawn by children's illustrator and
author May Gibbs in 1919. It features a gumnut baby
and a kookaburra sitting on a branch, with eucalyptus leaves being used as surgical masks.
❖ Public events such as the Sydney Royal Easter Show were cancelled.
❖ Schools, theatres, & churches were closed
❖ In Melbourne, the Exhibition Building and 34 schools were converted into fever hospitals.
Hullo ! How are you?
Masked patrols roamed Sydney’s streets in 1919, trying
to assist sick people in their houses.
Australia’s response to the “Spanish Flu” Sydney Morning Herald, 28 January 1919:
“Australia must now face the fact that the scourge which has taken so heavy a toll from the rest of the world has invaded her own frontiers.”
Inoculation parade against influenza at an AIF camp
in Wiltshire, UK prior to repatriation. March 1919
❖ Commonwealth Serum Laboratories (CSL) was established during WW1 to alleviate Australia’s dependence on imported vaccines.
❖ In 1918, prior to pneumonic influenza reaching Australia, CSL developed an experimental vaccine.
❖ The cause of influenza was unknown then.
❖ The vaccine targeted the secondary bacterial infections that commonly caused death.
❖ Between October 1918 and March 1919, CSL produced 3 million free doses for Australian troops and civilians.
❖ It later evaluated the vaccines to be partially effective in preventing death in inoculated individuals.
Vaccinations against the “Spanish Flu”
Medical staff wearing protective masks while
vaccinating patients in Hyde Park, Sydney.
Returning soldiers and the “Spanish Flu”
❖ Unusually, men aged 25 – 40 were the most likely age group to die, so soldiers were hit hard.
❖ Longest serving soldiers seem to be less prone to influenza.
❖ At end of WW1 there were 167,000 Australians serving overseas.It took nearly a year to get them all back home.
❖ Most of them had to go intoquarantine camps on their return and were not happy.
The Spanish Flu in Australia
❖ Quarantining all shipping kept the Spanish flu out of Australia from October 1918 until January 1919 and lessened its impact overall.
❖ Two waves of Spanish flu: 1. Between January and April 2. Between June and July
- a more lethal surge
❖ Cases tapered off in second half of 1919. Why?
❖ Fewer cases per head of population than most countries
❖ But still 15,000 people died making it the worst epidemic in Australia’s history.
Sculpture commemorating the Australian doctors who served in WW1
AMA House, Royal Parade, Parkville.
Lest We Forget
General Sir Brudenell White:
“The success of the Medical Service in the AIF became famous because it was composed of a rare set of men
to whom duty and self-sacrifice were second nature and by reason
of their marked efficiency and common sense.”
