Great War (1914-1918): The Society and Culture of the First World War discussion

After the excellent tips for books regarding nurses I'm now looking for such written by surgeons, preferably British, preferably younger men working on the western front. Again the stress is on personal experiences.

That's a hard one 'Steelwhisper'. I can't think of any that I can recall so I hope someone knows of a few titles for you.

I'm filching archive.org for old titles and found a couple of highly interesting books on medicine and military medicine per se. But only 1-2 accounts of (very stuffy and older) surgeons. Though I must say what is amassed on that website is a real eyeopener!

Steelwhisper wrote: "I'm filching archive.org for old titles and found a couple of highly interesting books on medicine and military medicine per se. But only 1-2 accounts of (very stuffy and older) surgeons. Though I ..."

The British surgeons might have been similar to the American doctors in the Great War in that only a small percentage actually had a medical degree. The “practice of medicine” was just that, being a continuous on the job practice. Part of the lot were also veterinary surgeons. Typical to this day, most information on surgeons can be found in articles, quarterly digests and magazine journals rather than books. I did find one 1915 publication on a British Expeditionary Force surgeon titled: “A Surgeon in Khaki” by Arthur Anderson Martin. I’ll look for others.

Arthur Anderson Martin

Thanks!

One book that may offer some interesting information in a general way and also provide an interesting story not told before is this title:

by Stephen McGreal
Description:
It is often said "The first casualty of war is the truth" and there is no better example of this than the furore caused by the claims and counterclaims of the British and German Governments at the height of the First World War. Wounded allied personnel were invariably repatriated by hospital ships, which ran the gauntlet of mined waters and gambled on the humanity of the U- Boat commanders. For, contrary to the terms of the Geneva Convention, on occasions Germany had sunk the unarmed hospital ships under the pretense they carried reinforcement troops and ammunition. The press seized on these examples of 'Hun Barbarity', especially the drowning of noncombatant female nurses.

The crisis heightened following the German Government's 1 February 1917 introduction of unrestricted naval warfare. The white painted allied hospital ships emblazoned with huge red crosses now became in German eyes legitimate targets for the U-Boats. As the war on the almost 100 strong fleet of hospital ships intensified the British threatened reprisals against Germany, in particular an Anglo-French bombing raid upon a German town.

Undeterred the Germans stepped up their campaign sinking two hospital ships in swift succession. Seven hospital ships struck mines and a further eight were torpedoed. Faced with such a massacre of the innocents Britain decided her hospital ships, painted and brightly lit in accordance with the Geneva Convention, could no longer rely on this immunity. The vessels were repainted in drab colors, defensively armed and sailed as ambulance transports among protected convoys. Germany had successfully banished hospital ships from the high seas.

I know your looking for books on British surgeons but I figured I'd mention this book as its a first-hand account of a British nurse serving on the Russian Front during the Great War and it is supposed to be one of the best accounts around. I have a copy that I am yet to read.

by Florence Farmborough

Thanks, good suggestions. I just read A Soldier's Diary, nothing about surgeons, an engineer instead. But hell...

Just read , it contains a lot of useful information and some interesting anecdotes, but unfortunately is not as personal as I wished for. Still a satisfying read!

A good start at least, now to find something better eh!

I found several surgeon diaries at archive.org and downloaded those (in fact I downloaded over 100 personal accounts of the Great War) in the hope of gleaning eventually enough to give me an overall picture.

That sounds like a great resource you have found!

I will add them to GoodReads including their download URLs as I read them, so everyone should have access and an idea what they are about.

Good idea!