An ordinary meeting of the society was held on the 2nd November 2005. The President was in the chair. He introduced the evening’s speaker Mr M K H Crumplin FRCS, Honorary Curator of Instruments at the Royal College of Surgeons, who spoke to the title The Death of Lord Horatio Nelson and Surgery during the Peninsula War. Preceding the talk Mr Crumplin had laid out his personal collection of instruments, letters, diaries and other artefacts from the period which extended around the room for the Members to peruse. Being the bicentenary of the death of Nelson he commenced his talk with a brief description of the battle of Trafalgar and the moments leading up to the wounding and gradual death of Lord Horatio Nelson. He said that there was a general misunderstanding as to why Nelson was wearing full dress uniform: this was not abnormal at that time and would help to distinguish him as leader in the melee and smoke during the battle.
He said that Nelson’s death certificate stated he died from haemorrhage but he has reviewed Dr Beattie’s PM report in detail and noted that very little blood was found in the chest cavity. He showed the passage of the bullet through the lungs and into the spinal canal. The great vessels were intact.
This had caused a transection of the cord with the physiological consequences that Nelson would have been profoundly hypotensive and would have lost all sensation below the transection level. Furthermore as all records point to him being nursed in a sitting position the hypotensive effect would have been compounded. He concluded therefore that the cause of death would have been due to shock consequent upon transection of the spinal cord. This re-analysis had not been done before.
Mr Crumplin then proceeded to describe medical care in the peninsula war. In the battle of Corunna 28,000 were wounded and 6,000 died. This was consequent upon the long retreat from Zaragossa during which 50% of the army lost its shoes and started the battle with foot injuries. Under the circumstances there were no base hospitals and there was a big alcohol problem. Any nursing was done by the motley army of hangers on.
After Wellington took over and created the stronghold of Torres Vedras things were more organized with regimental first-aiders who after initial treatment sent the wounded back for treatment. This involved probing wounds, amputations at 4 an hour, drawing out sepsis etc. For severe injuries such as bowelinjuries and severe head and chest injuries not much could be done. In fact only one in five died as a result of injury. There were 30% of soldiers off sick at any one time which was a massive problem for a mobile fighting army.
The President then thanked Mr Crumplin for his graphic descriptions of the conditions at that time and describing the unthinkable stoicism of our soldiers.
The President then informed the members that Mr John Miller had agreed to become a trustee of the Society. He also requested for volunteers to become trustees of the Prudential Bond that the society held.
There being no other business the meeting was closed at 10pm.