By Sir Fred Bowerbank
(Harry H. Tombs Limited, The Wingfield Press, Wellington 1958)

(The following information was kindly contributed by
the Royal New Zealand Army Medical Corps Museum, Christchurch New Zealand)

MAJOR-GENERAL SIR FRED BOWERBANK K.B.E, E.D., M.D., F.R.C.P., F.R.A.C.P.

(Capt Fred Bowerbank was in charge of the Medical Division at Brockenhurst and he later became the Director General of Medical Services (Army and Air) during World War 2 and was knighted in 1946)

The following are extracts from the book showing early impressions of the beginning of the No.1 New Zealand General Hospital at Brockenhurst from the book "A Doctor's Story" written by Sir Fred Bowerbank who was a Captain whilst serving at No.1 NZ Gen Hospital and also the adjutant

".....Early in June instructions were issued for No. 1 New Zealand General Hospital staff and equipment to be prepared for departure overseas, though neither time nor destination was indicated. It was almost a year since we had arrived in Egypt, but we were all glad to be on the move because of a feeling, quite false of course, that the war in the East was to all intents and purposes finished...."

"....We had an uneventful voyage from Egypt to England, which we reached one glorious summer morning. As we steamed up Southampton Water, we could see, only a few hundred yards away, the Isle of Wight, where grassy banks ran down to the sea, smooth and green like trimmed velvet. Trees and hedges, so much a part of the landscape, made me realize, as never before, the verdant beauty of England, intensified after the monotony of the featureless wastes of Egypt....."

"....After an interminable wait (everyone had been up and packed since, dawn) instructions were given to board a train which had just steamed alongside our ship. Then, for half an hour, we ran through green fields and arrived at Brockenhurst station, in the heart of the New Forest, in Hampshire. Here the troops were paraded and marched up the hill to 'Tin Town', about a quarter of a mile away, while the officers and nurses followed behind and were taken to their respective quarters...."

"....'Tin Town', as it was popularly called, was originally the Lady Hardinge Hospital, built in 1915 as a general hospital for the Lahore and Meerut Indian divisions. It was constructed in the shape of a capital E, like the large country houses of the Elizabethan period. The perpendicular line contained the headquarters and administrative quarters; the two horizontal lines were corridors, each with its series of wards and side rooms. The small central horizontal line was a corridor leading to an operating theatre and to a large double cookhouse, as the sick and wounded Indian troops belonged to two religions, Hindu and Moslem, each requiring different diets...."

"....The officers' quarters were immediately to the left and in front of the hospital, and N.C.O.'s and other ranks on a slope to the left and below the main block....."

"....In the village itself was a public house, typically English, and two hotels which we took over—Forest Park Hotel, for officers, and Balmer-Lawn, for other ranks. Thus, we were able to complete our bed state of one thousand and forty beds...."

"....Brockenhurst was a sleepy little village in the New Forest, fourteen miles from Southampton and ninety miles from London, and in peace-time a popular holiday resort. It was an ideal site for a hospital, because it enabled both staff and patients to visit numerous places of interest. Only a few miles away was the famous Beaulieu Abbey and Lymington, a popular seaside resort, where we later took over a building as a convalescent home. To the west and only about fourteen miles away were Christchurch, with its beautiful priory and Bournemouth, a seaside resort famous in the Victorian age. Within reasonable distance was Winchester, with its famous cathedral and public school...."


"....Major R. H. Hogg, a well-known surgeon from Invercargill, was appointed to command the Forest Park Section of the No. 1 New Zealand General Hospital...."


"....The sister in charge of the officers' ward there told me that a young medical officer patient, one of a group which had been rushed through their final examinations at Otago at the beginning of the war, made a great fuss because there was no tray, teapot, or cakes when he was given his afternoon tea...."

"....Major George Home was appointed to command the Balmer-Lawn Section. Although a senior honorary surgeon at the New Plymouth Hospital, he had left with the main body as Regimental Medical Officer to the Wellington Battalion and was at the landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, remaining on duty there until the evacuation...."

"....On the evening of our arrival in Brockenhurst, some of the N.C.O.s and men were granted leave and were soon lined up in the bar of the village 'pub'. In Cairo a Danish lager beer had been the universal drink, consequently they did not realize the potency of English ale. The result had its amusing side for those who looked on. After closing time many of the men staggered back to the hospital in two's and three's, but it was necessary for one of the celebrants to be wheeled back in a borrowed barrow...."


"....On my first morning in Brockenhurst, when I opened a cupboard in my office, I found two boxes, each measuring about six inches by nine inches by five inches. The lids were screwed down and on each was a silver plate bearing the name and rank of an Indian soldier and an inscription in Urdu. Sergeant-Major W. M. Duncan unscrewed the lids and found that these boxes contained the ashes of two Indian servicemen who had been cremated so that their ashes might be sent home and cast on the sacred water of the Ganges. We dispatched the boxes to the War Office in London, for action...."


"....As far as the equipment was concerned it was the familiar story of taking coals to Newcastle. Throughout the war, by an arrangement between the respective Governments, New Zealand supplied manpower, meat and dairy products, but Britain supplied munitions, as well as hospital, medical, and surgical equipment. At that time there were only a few drug houses in New Zealand and they imported practically everything from Britain, the United States, or Germany. During the first fortnight after our hospital was opened, we admitted two hundred and eighty patients, and for the next six weeks admissions averaged one hundred to a hundred and twenty a week, the majority being New Zealand sick and wounded who had been evacuated from France to English hospitals before our arrival. In September 1916, the majority of the convoys from France arrived by sea, via Southampton. It was the beginning of the great Somme offensive, the first convoys bringing three hundred and eighty sick and wounded from that theatre. They arrived during the first week in October, by which time the three hospitals housed more than twelve hundred patients. Thereafter there was a gradual fall until November, then a rapid rise during December and January 1917, after which admissions fell away during the rest of the winter...."


"....In one respect this rapid fluctuation in numbers resembled the first six months at Pont de Koubbeh, but the sick and wounded casualties were totally different. Each patient, whether a stretcher case or walking wounded, had attached to his tunic a waterproof envelope containing a buff slip (A.F.W. 3210) and a field medical card (A.F.W. 3118). These indicated the field dressing station and general hospitals through which he had passed, as well as a short note indicating the man's symptoms and treatment. This information was most valuable, as in Egypt it had been the exception rather than the rule. My observations are in no sense a criticism, as the conditions in each area were so totally different. Colonel Wylie was most punctilious about each patient, on discharge, being medically boarded, and that he should be accompanied by all relevant documents. I mention this because in certain instances after the war, when a returned soldier applied for a pension for a disability, which he claimed was attributable to or aggravated by service overseas, medical notes were scanty or missing. I can only surmise that they were mislaid before arrival in New Zealand....."

"....Here I would like to revert to the difference in the disabilities of soldiers who served in France and Gallipolli. In France there were several which were quite new and, as the months went by, became a source of great concern to the Army Medical Service. These were gas poisoning, trench fever, trench nephritis, shell shock, and D.A.H. (Disordered action of the heart.)...."

"....After the Somme offensive there was a fall in the weekly admissions to Brockenhurst and a sudden and marked rise in December 1916 and January 1917. It was a most severe winter in England that year, but much worse in France, and the marked rise was due to the high incidence of respiratory diseases, especially among the New Zealand troop. The various types admitted to No. 1 New Zealand General Hospital consisted chiefly of what had been diagnosed as acute bronchitis, bronchitis and broncho-lneumonia due to gas poisoning, acute lobar pneumonia and pulmonary tuberculosis......"

By this time an invaluable and well-organized Bacteriological Department had been set up by Captain Armitage and a well-equipped Dental Department under Captain E.H. Rawson who was the son of a well known medical practitioner in Wellington. He later applied to join the Royal Flying Corps and was transferred in December 1916..

A Radiology Department was also functioning under Staff Sergeant A.R. Otway, primitive by the then modern standards it was extremely useful in the diagnosis of injuries to bones and joints and for finding bullets and shrapnel in all parts of the body.

Ear, Nose and Throat was also catered for by the appointment of Major A.C. Purchas who practiced as a specialist in Auckland.

The catering was good for the patients but the officers N.C.O.s, and other ranks that served the hospital were on a strict ration. It was amusingly put around that the sergeants had first choice of the meat, the medical orderlies second choice and what was left went to feed the officers.

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