Henry Gray and John Fraser: Scottish surgeons of the Great War

Tom Scotland

doi:10.2218/resmedica.v24i1.2508

Abstract

Between 1914 and 1918, the British Expeditionary Force fighting in France and Flanders sustained 2.7 million battle casualties. Just over one quarter (26.1%) were never seen by the medical services. These were men who had been killed (14.2%), were missing (5.4%), or were prisoners of war (6.5%). Most of those who were missing had been killed and their bodies never recovered. Just under three-quarters of the wounded (73.9% or 1 988 969) were seen and treated by the medical services and 151 356 died.[i] The worst single day in British military history was Saturday 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, when there were 57 470 casualties, of whom 20 000 were killed or died from their wounds. In nearly a quarter of a million admissions dealt with by the medical services, 58.5% of wounds were caused by high-explosive shellfire, 39% by bullets (mostly from machine guns), 2% were caused by grenades, and 0.5% from bayonets.

Highlights

Between 1914 and 1918, the British Expeditionary Force fighting in France and Flanders sustained 2.7 million battle casualties
In 1914, filthy ragged wounds caused by highexplosive shellfire were often superficially disinfected and sutured in advanced dressing station (ADS) or main dressing station (MDS) doi:10.2218/resmedica.v24i1.2508
Accepted surgical practices in 1914 were based on experience derived from the Second Boer War (1899–1902), where most wounds were caused by bullets and few by shellfire

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Between 1914 and 1918, the British Expeditionary Force fighting in France and Flanders sustained 2.7 million battle casualties. Just over one quarter (26.1%) were never seen by the medical services These were men who had been killed (14.2%), were missing (5.4%), or were prisoners of war (6.5%). Just under three-quarters of the wounded (73.9% or 1 988 969) were seen and treated by the medical services and 151 356 died.[1] The worst single day in British military history was Saturday 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, when there were 57 470 casualties, of whom 20 000 were killed or died from their wounds. This was a medical facility located close to the front line It was composed of ten officers and 224 men, who either worked in a tent division or a stretcher-bearer division, each made up of three identical sections. The wounded were taken from regimental aid posts to these treatment facilities by stretcher bearers of the field ambulance

Musculoskeletal wounds

Wound excision

The place of antiseptics in wound management

Penetrating abdominal wounds

Findings

Hypovolaemic shock