The Icelandic connection - 01.06.2014, Síða 18

160
ICELANDIC CONNECTION
Vol. 66 #4
After Archie was wounded, he was
taken to No. 30 Casualty Clearing Station
located in Aubigny-en-Artois, located
nineteen kilometers from the Front. Wade
Davis in his recent book Into The Silence:
The Great War; Mallory and the Conquest of
Everest6 says this about Casualty Clearing
Stations:
Located out of immediate threat of shell fire,
yet as close to the Front as possible, the CCS
was both a hospital and a clearinghouse.
There the medical teams, generally eight
surgeons working around the clock, two
to a six hour shift, separated by triage
those strong enough to be immediately
evacuated by rail to the base hospitals from
those whose injuries necessitate immediate
surgery. A third cohort comprised those
so severely wounded that there was no
hope. These were tagged in red and placed
in a moribund ward where they might
be sedated and bathed, and comforted by
nurses who did what they could to shield
the ladsfrom the inevitability of theirfate
[...] The stress on the medical officers at a
casualty clearing station was intense and
unrelenting. [..] Their smocks drenched in
blood, with the nauseating scent of sepsis
and cordite and human excrement fouling
the operating room, they cut and sliced
and sawed and cauterized wounds of a
sort that they never would have known in
ordinary practice.
No. 30 CCS was a British facility.There
was a Canadian CCS which had recently
relocated in Aubigny from Bailleul, but it
may have already had a full complement of
patients. Since writing was a challenge for
Archie, caregivers did their best to contact
Elisabet for him, and to comfort her to the
extent that they could. The following letter
from Chaplain W. E. Bates of No. 30 CCS
took several weeks to reach the family.
* * *
6/4/17. Dear Mrs Poison
Pte. Poison your son wishes me to write
and tell you that he is lying here in Hospital
wounded. He is very brave and bears his pain
manfully. Unfortunately he has lost his right
arm but is confident that he will get well,
and hopes that you will not worry over much
on his account. He is lying at present in No.
30 Casualty Clearing Station, from which
he will in all probability be moved shortly.
As soon as he is settled
(he hopes in England) he
write and acquaint you, so
that you may write to him
there. Pm sure you will
like to know the above in
order that you may pray
for his speedy recovery.
I am, Yours Truly,
Wm. E. Bates (Chaplain
to the Forces)
Archie may not
have had the benefit
of anesthesia when his
arm was amputated. A
Canadian anesthetist
who treated wounded
soldiers at the Battle of
the Somme has been
GEORGE METCALF ARCHIVAL COLLECTION / CANADIAN WAR MUSEUM
A wounded man being unloaded from an ambulance at a
Casualty Clearing Station.