The Cornhill Magazine (vol. XLI, no. 244 new series, October 1916)Various
General
The Cornhill Magazine (vol. XLI, no. 244 new series, October 1916)
Various
England -- Periodicals; English literature -- Periodicals; Short stories, English -- Periodicals
I was most kindly treated at this station, and the D.C.L.I. officer soon
had me sent away on a stretcher towards the Ypres road, and it was with
a feeling of relief that I left this infernal charnel-house, and found
myself gradually entering a safe zone. We stopped at a farm building
by the roadside, where I was laid on some straw in the open courtyard.
Darkness was now coming on, and for some time I received but scanty
attention. At last some medical men came and questioned me, and I told
them my name and regiment; they seemed interested, and asked me if I was
Lord Armstrong’s son. There were very few ambulances, and by mistake I
was not put into one of them. When the officers discovered this they had
me taken down by stretcher to a dressing station near Ypres where I was
well attended to, and received an injection of morphia to deaden the
pain. It was probably here, unless it was at the first field dressing
station, that I received the anti-tetanus serum, and was given a Tommy’s
greatcoat. I slept here apparently for several hours, and Major Wright,
also wounded, remembers seeing me here. Eventually I was placed in an
ambulance which brought me to Poperinghe, several miles from the front.
We had gaily marched through this town only a few days before.
In the meantime my battalion was unaware that I had been rescued, and
Sergeant Renwick, who, as I stated, had gone to get help, came back with
a party only to find that I had disappeared. Company Quartermaster Turner
also went out to look for me, and I understand that all betrayed great
anxiety on my behalf and feared the worst. Major Mackay, who displayed
the greatest gallantry in attending to the wounded throughout the battle,
and who has since been awarded the C.M.G., was also very upset in being
unable to find me.
On arriving at Poperinghe, I was taken with others and placed in the
church, which had been turned into an emergency hospital. Before
recounting my experiences in the church, however, and those that followed
on afterwards, I must finish off the account of the battle of St. Julien.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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