Report of the work of the Edinburgh and East of Scotland South African Hospital / edited by David Wallace and Francis D. Boyd.

Date:
1901
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the work of the Edinburgh and East of Scotland South African Hospital / edited by David Wallace and Francis D. Boyd. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    25/320 (page 3)
    would call; and that instead of disembarking the personnel, and unloading the hospital material at Cape Town, they should be allowed to remain on board to go north by sea. To this he offered no objection, but pointed’ out that per-. mission to adopt this course had to be obtained from: the transport authorities. The chief of that department was accordingly seen, and sanction to remain on board was at once given. The Briton left Cape Town on the 14th of April and reached Port Elizabeth on the 15th. © On arrival the hospital equipment was unloaded into lighters, and from them trans- ferred into trucks on the quay. This occupied two days, during which time the personnel remained on board. Late on the afternoon of the 18th the men disembarked, and one night was spent at Port Elizabeth in tents at the Military Hospital. Arrangements had in the meantime been made with the R.S.O. that the personnel and material should go up-country by special train at 2 P.M. next day. When, however, the station was reached, it was found that the personnel were to go by one train and the material by another. The explana- tion of this was the large quantity of material, and the order of the Chief of the Staff, Lord Kitchener, that only supplies were to be sent up-country. After a thirty-six hours’ journey, Norval’s Pont was reached at 2 A.M. on 21st April, -and the men detrained. The morning was dark, but dry, and not very cold. The hospital was expected by- the authorities, but no special arrangements for the. men had been possible, as no tents were available, and it was neces- sary, therefore, to do as the troops generally did—lie on the ground without blankets or mackintosh sheets: Next day it was seen that the suggested site for the hospital was