An ordinary meeting of the Society was held on 4th November 2020 on Zoom. The President, Dr Alex Freeman, was in the chair. The minutes of the previous meeting were approved. The President then introduced the evening’s speaker Brigadier Peter Fabricius, former Colonel CommanderRAMC, who spoke to the title ‘Duty Called and Called Me to Obey, the relevance today of two doctors and four VCs”.
Brig. Fabricius explained that the title was a quote from a letter, dictated on his deathbed, by Noel Chavasse one of the two double VC doctors he wished to tell us about.
He started with the story of Dr Arthur Martin-Leake VC and bar. He qualified from UCH in 1893. At the outbreak of the second Boer War he resigned from his position at Hemel Hempstead Hospital and joined the Hertfordshire Yeomanry as a trooper. He survived his year of service and joined the South African Constabulary as a Surgeon Captain. He was attached to the 5th Field Ambulance RAMC. On 8th February 1902 he went out, under fire from 40 Boers only 100 yards away, to treat two wounded soldiers and whilst attending to the second was shot three times. He continued treatment until exhausted. Long term he suffered an ulnar nerve palsy and was discharged from the army. During his recovery he studied for and passed the FRCS and was appointed as a Chief Medical Officer in India. In1912 at the start of the Balkan War he joined the British Red Cross and was awarded the Order of the Montenegrin Red Cross for his services in battle and then returned to India. At the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 he knew he would not be able to rejoin the RAMC if he tried to do so in England, due to having been discharged as medically unfit due to the severity of his wounds in1902, so he decided to travel to a recruiting station in Paris where he assumed that recruitment would be less scrutinised. Indeed he was accepted into the RAMC there and posted to the 46th Field Ambulance. During the First Battle of Ypres he was awarded a bar to his VC for treating and rescuing a large number of wounded men whilst under heavy fire near to the enemy trenches. He became the first man to win a second VC. He was also mentioned in dispatches later in the war. He was a great leader and also a keen photographer producing a portfolio of war photos. He returned to India after the war and retired in 1937. He then served again in the Second World War. He died in 1953.
The second double VC was Noel Chavasse. He was the most highly decorated soldier in the First World War. He qualified with a first from Oxford and then winning the Derby Exhibition in his finals at Liverpool. He was an identical twin and came from a remarkable family. Amongst other achievements were 2 doctors, 2 bishops, and with his twin, 2 Oxford Blues and 2 Olympic athletes. In 1913 he joined the RAMC and at the start of the war was doing medicals on new recruits. Frustrated because he thought he should be helping the fighting soldiers he pulled strings to get an active post and was posted to the Kings Liverpool Regiment about to depart for France. Our speaker showed a regimental photo taken before departing for France and by the end of June of 1914 everyone in it was either killed or wounded. In 1915 he was awarded the MC. His first VC was in 1916 at Guillemont when he spent 2 nights and 2 days in view of the enemy lines searching for and tending the wounded. In one case he and a stretcher bearer carried a wounded man 500 yards back to the lines during which he received shrapnel wounds. He was always concerned for his men. If he thought someone was beginning to show signs of shell shock he would consign them to light barrack room duties until they improved. He organised 800 pairs of socks, primus stoves for the men to cook on and gramophone records to keep them content. He was strict about hygiene and sanitation and sharp on infectious diseases. Every night he would go out with the stretcher bearers to look for wounded men in Nomans Land. His twin brother, who was an army chaplain, was wounded at Passchendaele and never found. Noel was devastated. He was awarded his second VC in 1917 in Belgium when although severely wounded in the abdomen when the dugout he was in was hit directly, he continued to search and care for wounded soldiers.He had a large abdominal wound and insisted the soldiers were looked after first until he collapsed. He was taken to a nearby dressing station where he died of his wounds. It was in a letter he dictated to his fiancee that the quote in the title of the talk was written. The relevance to 2020 is to remember that the doctors in the Great War gave up their plans for the future and put their lives on the line for the soldiers they cared for. Leadership, team work and moral courage. Doctors have continued to risk their lives similarly in Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, and also in the Ebola outbreak and now in the NHS in the pandemic. There have been 3 VCs awarded since 2005. Brigadier Fabricius said that Armistice Day is about remembering those who gave their lives but, he added, we must never forget those who also survived and never got over it. Finally he wanted to dedicate this talk to all the hospital staff who during the pandemic served the sick.
The President thanked the Brigadier for his inspiring and moving talk. There being no other business the meeting was closed.