Poignant war diary by member of Royal Army Medical Corps

He told me of his grandfather, Austin Hartley, of Devonshire Street, Keighley, who served with the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) and had left a journal that the family were largely unable to read. Written in pencil, it was smudged and partly illegible. I was sent a copy of the diary and set to... eight months later the work was completed, transcribed and annotated from other records, now amounting to some 39,000 words.

This was the war diary of a young man who certainly saw the worst (and sometimes the best!) aspects of the Great War. Here is Austin’s story: The diary begins in January 1917, with Austin returning from Christmas leave, having just celebrated his 21st birthday. He returns to Dartford War Hospital where he’s an RAMC ward orderly. Austin rarely mentions his patients - maybe no surprise as they were wounded German prisoners of war. Occasionally he’d accompany his friend ‘Shako’ (Pte Shackleton) in an ambulance or rides out ferrying patients. These were very happy times for Austin with his friends, including best friend Frank Hague. Local church people opened their homes to these RAMC orderlies far from home, providing meals and the company of other young people. One such family was the Brain family, their descendants have been traced and a copy of Austin’s diary has gone to them too. Austin had a wide circle of friends and there were plenty of opportunities for concerts, parties, visits to local cinemas and more.

Dartford War Hospital, where Austin was a Royal Army Medical Corps ward orderly. Pic: David Whithorn

However in May 1917, things changed. Austin, along with a batch of fellow RAMC orderlies, was sent to one of the main RAMC training camps south of Blackpool. Here he had his first real taste of Army life, living in tents, daily training, drill, familiarity with using gas masks, long periods of sentry duty, all designed to toughen up for France.

RAMC training at Blackpool, where Austin had his first taste of Army life. Pic: David Whithorn

On June 14 Austin and his friends left by boat to Rouen, where they joined the 101st Field Ambulance. A few weeks later Austin was sent to make up numbers in a draft of stretcher-bearers from 19th FA on a fatigue. He was then transferred permanently to 19th FA, forced to leave his friends. The next months were lonely for Austin, finding new friends among ‘regular’ troops. However as 101st FA and 19th FA were linked, they would sometimes be close enough for Austin, Frank and other old friends to get together.

In addition to Austin’s diary entries, I was able to add substantial background information from the 19th FA RAMC war diary to provide greater detail in his story. Within days he was in the front lines at an Aid Post, in the thick of things. Each Field Ambulance took turns in the Forward area, providing an Advanced Dressing Station, then a Rear Area for drill, fatigues and training. In August 1917 Austin was on the Belgian Coast ready for an Allied offensive up the coast to clear German submarine pens, an offensive that would never come. Instead, Austin played his part in ‘Third Ypres’ from September 1917 to the end of the battle around the village of Passchendaele in November.

Not even Austin described the terrible conditions for a stretcher-bearer in that muddy morass. On September 24 he wrote: ‘Spent the five hottest days in my life here. Hellish. Being relieved tonight. Dead tired’. The 19th FA war diary in this same period revealed stretcher cases: ‘50 officers and 500 Other Ranks, 20 Germans’.

Stretcher-bearers in mud up to their knees at Passchendaele in 1917. Pic: Imperial War Museum

Austin and the 19th FA spent the winter in and around the devastated Ypres Salient, based at Tyne Cot on the Passchendaele Ridge, then a filthy forward Aid Post and today, the Cross of Sacrifice in the centre of the world’s largest British military cemetery.

The Cross of Sacrifice at Tyne Cot cemetery

In March Austin went home for 10 days leave. His diary reveals he had a sweetheart back in Keighley, Rita. Austin’s leave was centred on her. There was a visit to a jewellers in Oxenhope with his sister, on his penultimate day’s leave. Austin met Rita for just half an hour that last morning. No mention of a marriage proposal or any outcome; we’re left only to guess. Austin and Rita continued to correspond for the remainder of the war.

Austin’s return to 19th FA coincided with the beginning of the German Spring offensive on the Somme. By April/May 1918, another massive offensive began to the south of Ypres, around Kemmel, known as the Battle of the Lys. At times this became almost chaotic, with rapid moves at short notice to avoid the Field Ambulance being overrun and maintain the flow of casualties. Both Austin’s and the 19th FA’s diary entries are short, named locations just map references.

By June things had quietened down; the Germans had been held (just). Austin was still in the Ypres area, and spent a summer in the villages of Vlamertinge and ‘Pop’ (Poperinghe) building up RAMC facilities. After a year at the Front, he was an experienced RAMC stretcher-bearer, with new friends as well as old ones. They made the most of nightly entertainments in ‘Pop’ through that August...

However, the war had turned its final corner by September 1918; the Allied counter-attack that began the previous month was gaining momentum. Austin and the 19th FA moved to the Cambrai area as the Allied advance continued. Field Ambulances each took turn at providing an Advanced Dressing Station near the front line. But the advance was so rapid it became difficult to organise this, particularly with the requirement for stretcher-bearers; those squads containing Austin and Frank Hague. They worked full-time, serving whichever Field Ambulance was in the line. This tripled the risk of danger such men would face.

l See the T&A next week for the second part of David Whithorn’s feature, revealing a very personal discovery that he made in Austin Hartley’s diary.