TOPIC:

Thomas Gibson was born in Audlem, Cheshire in January 1881 to parents George and Emma (nee Bate,)Gibson.
Thomas attested to the R.A.M.C. at Chester on 19th November 1901, stating his occupation as a Labourer in the railway engine works. He was 20 years and 6 months of age at attestation.
HEIGHT: 5' 6 1/4".
WEIGHT: 122 lbs.
CHEST RANGE: 32" TO 34".
COMPLEXION: fresh.
EYES: blue.
HAIR: brown.
DENOMINATION: Church of England.

He spent the next 31 days of his service traveling to Aldershot for a short period of training and then onto the transport ship that would take him and his comrades on the voyage to the war in South Africa.
On arrival he was told off to a Field Hospital where he served as orderly.
He spent 278 days in theatre and a further 3 days on his return to Aldershot before his eventual discharge on 26th September 1902 having a total of 312 days service with the corps.
His character was described as "Good" and his intended residence on discharge was to be; 204 Walthall Street, Crewe, Cheshire.


Queens South Africa medal awarded to Private Thomas Gibson with clasps Transvaal and South Africa 1902.



In 1911, Thomas was still living in Crewe and working as a Labourer in the railway engine works.
Marriage to Bertha Ann Purcell in 1913 soon produced a single child Leslie.
Census 1921 finds him living in Monks Copenhall.
Sadly, Thomas Gibson was not to see "old bones," he died in 1926 at the age of 45.


When I purchased the medal to Thomas Gibson, it was accompanied by parchment discharge papers and a journal of his activities in South Africa, a page of which above in a very readable neat hand. Also within the same notebook is a section describing the duties of an Orderly in the Field Hospital. I should think being in a reasonable billet at the hospital, would allow a fellow to keep such a neat book.

So, despite his short life, by the modern average, he can claim to have left us a legacy in the form of this short journal.
I will add the contents to this post in due course, and hope that fellow forummers will find it of interest.

A very nice medal, Steve, especially with his journal, which is very legibly written.

THE JOURNAL OF 16528 PRIVATE THOMAS GIBSON: ROYAL ARMY MEDICAL CORPS




The neat handwriting at page one of the journal.

As I find myself with a bit of spare time, I would like to post here the above mentioned and hope that it may be of interest to those who take the time to read it through.

The first entry will be taken from Thomas's journal, which is written as a record of his experiences in South Africa rather than as a diary.
Another entry will follow this post in which Thomas notes the daily routine and duties of a medical orderly in a field hospital .

The text is copied over as it is written including punctuation, spelling and language considered acceptable at the time but no longer correct in our more enlightened times.

THE JOURNAL: PART ONE
"I Thomas Gibson, on the 19th day of Nov 1901, was examined,and passed at Chester for service in South Africa, with the Royal Army Medical Corps; I left Chester that day for Aldershot, the depot of the squad corp; I was stationed there for one month for training and then proceeded on the 20th day of December on H. M. Hospital Ship Simla for the Cape. We had a rather rough passage in the Bay of Biscay, I was seasick for one day, and quite enough for me; we spent our Christmas Day on board, we had a very substantial dinner provided for us, which consisted of roast meat, and vegetables, and plum duff, and then for a special tea, we had a hard boiled egg each, nothing more of interest happened until we arrived at Las Palma's for coal on the 27th inst. Las Palma's is a very pretty place to look at from the ship; nearly all the buildings are white; and the natives are chiefly Spaniards, or Portuguese; as soon as our vessel arrived in the harbour; we were seen from the shore, and dozens of natives, in their little boats laden with fruits and all sorts of things (which the English Santa Claus my bring) to sell to the troops on board; we had some rare sport with them; they could not speak English much; no more than we could talk their language, so we very often made a mess of it, when we were driving bargains with them; which would very often end with some of us getting them into a heated argument, while some of the others tilted their baskets over on the deck, and then we had a general scramble for the contents, of which the native did not seem to enjoy the fun as much as we did; he would usually bolt of and leave the baskets and their contents for the troops; we left that evening; and the natives thinking we had treated them badly; prepared for the parting shot. They all drew their boats up in a line, and as soon as our ship began to move off; they began throwing oranges at us with all their might, and they can throw I can tell you; of course, all wounded went downstairs disabled; so we returned their hot fire of oranges; with lumps of coal, and then the fight began in Ernest; while this was going on; two or three of there boats got upset, and there was about 20 of them struggling in the water, until they could get into some of the other boats; I may say; that about six of our fellow went on shore there; one came back with his head knocked in; and another with his arm broke, so I think we were getting our own back; of course, the fight proved very satisfactory for both sides; we got plenty of oranges to eat; and they got plenty of coal to burn; if the coal had hit them; their faces being nearly black, they would not see where it had hit them; I hear from good scourse (source) ; that we are getting no bars for this engagement; our next calling place is Capetown; to disembark some troops; in the meantime, our training began; we were up at six o'clock every morning hours drill before breakfast; and then to clean our wards; for Commanding Officer's inspection; at 11 o'clock; also we paraded at same hour; and then we were free for the day; there was various kinds of games going on all day; but my chief amusement was; either reading; or watching the fish, they came very close to the ship; we could see a few whales, and sharks, at a distance sometimes; then there was porpoises, and flying fish, they came very close to the ship; then we could see other vessels pass us sometimes; but it was a dry game seeing water for days and days and no land; we had very good weather all the way to the Cape; we were in dock there one day, and then proceeded to Durban, a port farther up the coast, we had a gale blowing all the way, but it was by far the best route we had been on; for we kept in sight of land all the way, we could see all the ports, East London, and others; We had some very good concerts on board, given by the officers, nurses and men, of which I have programmes, and one day for sports for the men, we arrived at Durban, our vessel being too big to go right into the harbour; we were taken off in a tug, and landed on the dock, with a train close by to take us up country. There was a train load of boer prisoners next to our train, so we soon got our first view of the boers; We got dinner then which consisted of a huge slice of bread with some bully beef between it, and 1 pint of coffee a man; We got into the train after our dinner, the train was coal trucks, or open wagons; you see plenty of fresh air being neccessary; and we got it too, we were 4 days, and nights in reaching our destination; on our way up; the journey proved very interesting, we could see where different battles had been fought, bridges blown down, armoured trains wrecked, and all the horrors of warfare: I saw Lord Roberts sons grave at Chieveley; and where Gen. Buller lost his guns at Colenso; the position of the guns were marked outwith white posts ; then we went over the Tugela River, into Ladysmith, it is quite a different place than what you would imagine it to be it is not very big, and lies in a hollow, with hills all around it, Long Tom, the boers big gun, was situated on these hills ; looking right over Ladysmith; we had tea there; biscuits and jam , and one pint of tea, being the fare; Then we proceeded through Glencoe; upto Standerton, where we picked up some boer prisoners; going to Pretoria for trial, There was a Commandant Erasmus, A Capt. of the State Artillery; and two field cornets. On our way we got a good view of Majuba Hill, and Spion Kop, in the distance; I may say this, that the Dutch people in Natal were very good to us; Natal being a big fruit growing colony; they brought us baskets of pineapples, bananas, and other fruit to eat, going up country,We arrived at Elandsfontein at 11:30 at night; the weather was very bad then; it was raining in torrents; and no one to show us the way to the hospital; we were in a pretty mess then; so we ploughed on, and found our own way up; we weere wet through to the skin, the men at the hospital wanted us to pitch a tent; at that time of night; we would not so they gave us a blanket or horse rug; and told us we should have to sleep in the ambulance wagons for the night; there was several wagons; but there was so many of us, that we had no room to lie down, we all sat up, with the blankets around us, and when we got out in the morning; we were all that stiff; we could hardly walk, and very hungry too; we got our breakfast down at 11 o'clock that morning, laundry morning it was then; we set to and erected a tent for us all, and toi cook our own dinners, we were stationed here attached to number 8 Bearer Company for 4 days, doing nothing only amusing ourselves, and then we were detail off for duty at No. 16 General Hospital, We were taken down to the wards and told our work; and then they left us to find out how to do it the best way we could so long as the work was done; the first month was a very hard time for us; with not knowing how the work was done, we were bothered a bit; but after that we were alright; I was in enteric, and dysentry wards, all the while I was doing duty, we got some very bad cases sometimes, and othe times, we should get a good lot in, and not much work; I was put in dysentry wards first, then there came about 130 enteric cases in altogether, then I was put in enteric wards, for about 4 months, afterwards to dysentry, and I finished uyp on dysentry wars; I could generally get off in the afternoon, unless I had some bad patients in, to play at football, or go long walks on the veldt, visit Kaffir villages, or go to see the old blockhouses, they had used in defence of the town, We had a football team at the Hospital, they called themselves the Lily Whites, I played with them on several occasions, both at home and away, and we saw some very good matches, with the Camerons, Argylls, Yorks, Artillery, S.A.Police, and other regiments that were stationed around there."

PART 2 TO FOLLOW.......

THE JOURNAL: PART 2

"Sometimes it would be very hard duty, getting only two nights in bed a week, all the rest on duty, either bringing in men from the ambulance trains, or on ward duty, then you was always supposed to be on duty, with some bad case just brought in; Hospital life is not all sweet; I can tell you, We had alot of Kaffirs attached to our Hospital; and we could get some rare fun out of them; giving us some of their war dances, or watching them cook their meals; they do a way such things as frying pans, or saucepan, they just drop their meat into the fire, all amongst the ashes and then all of them sit around it gabbering in their lingo, all the while it is blazing, then they snatch it out; then they rub it in the sand to clean it they say, but I don't know so much about that; I think I should prefer mine without sand, or dropping it in the fire; then they are a very musical race of people; you would think so if you heard them, there was one in particular, he had got a concertina from somewhere, and he was playing it from morning until night, only stopping for meals; I don't know about playing it, he was making some sort of a noise on it, I t would freeze ??????, we were so sick of hearing it, that we tried to pinch it many a time, but never succeeded; I believe that n****r's playing yet, that's if he has not stopped, nothing only scoff would draw him from his music; I could get on very well with them, I had many an hour of amusement by myself, I picked up a bit of their language, enough to make them understand me; they could speak just a little English, and very proud of it they were those who could speak a bit. Then our Hospital broke up, they did away with it altogether, and then when we had pulled all of the tents down and cleared everything away, we were sent down to join No. 81 Bearer Company, to await orders for home; and avery dreary time we spent, doing hardly anything and it was too hot to play football, or cricket, or any games; we were there one month, and then we got order to proceed down at least to Port Elizabeth, for embarkation to England and jolly glad we were to get the orders, we obeyed them to the letter smartly; We left Elandsfontein on 22nd August for Port Elizabeth, it was a different route from the one we came up on, it was a very interesting route. We were drawn up in a line at Elandsfontein Station against a train of wagons, and told to get in, we weere to have the ground floor, and leave the top storey for visitors, it was very frosty at nights, but very hot in the day; we would wake up in a morning and our blankets all over frost and ourselves too: then we were to run off to the engine, and get some hot water to make some coffee for breakfast with biscuits and jam; if you have never seen any of these biscuits, just look as you pass any shop that sell Spratts dog biscuits, you can hardly tell them from our biscuits and hard is not the word for them; I should think as they was garunteed not to break under the pressure of a ton, but after all they were very nice eating. Then we find ourselves in a beautiful valley in which there would be boer farms, ostrich farms, Kaffir villages, beautiful scenery of all sorts; then we would be rushed between the mountains on either side of us, we used to think we should never get out of them ; but a hour or two after this we found we were climbing over these in some low place , and leave them behind altogether; it being only a single line down there (not married of course) we very often had to wait for other trains to pass us and this waiting very often lasted to as much as ten hours; then we used to get out, and have a good game at football on the veldt, for we had brought the ball with us: Then there is blockhouses all along the line, about 1/2 a mile apart, and very nice they looked too: the men had wrote the names of the regiments that were doing duty there in white stones, then we used to drop them newspapers, and books, to read. They would grab at them like drowning men would at a straw, although the paper and books might be months old, We passed over the Orange River, There is a fine bridge over the river, I can't remember much about the Orange River Colony, We arrived at Port Elizabeth about midday, but we had to stay there for the night in a detail camp, and go on the ship the next morning, there were the Dublin Fusiliers, Munster Fusiliers, the Cheshires and several regiments there that were going on the same boat as we were ; all of us were there for just the one night, they let the men get as much beer as they wanted, and that very soon caused some rows in the camp, they began fighting, singing , and making a noise generally; it was nothing to have two or three fellows being sick over you; and kick you about a bit, with getting into their tents, and through it all we passed a very peaceful night I can assure you, I was glad for morning to come for one, I was never in such a rough shop it all my life before: At six o'clock the next morning, we proceeded down to the harbour, and were taken on a tug boat out to the Union Castle Line steamer Galician, on which we were to proceed to England: nothing much of interest happened on the way home it was rather a dull journey. I suppose we all wanted to get there too quick, Only at Las Palmas we had another bit of fun with the natives, they were not allowed to come on board this time, but one of them climbed up the side of the ship, with a rope , and we got him on deck and then threw him over again into the water, a sight he did look when he came out again; he looked like a half drowned rat, he stood on one of the boats waving and gabbering something but we could not understand him so it passed off at that; Then we made sail for Southampton were we arrived on the 25th September 1902 and proceeded by train to Aldershot getting our discharge there on 26th September and jolly glad to get it we were
Thus ended my brief military career."

"THE LIFE OF THE HOSPITAL ORDERLY" to follow shortly......

And now I post the final part of the journal of 16528 Private Thomas Gibson: R.A.M.C.

"THE LIFE OF THE HOSPITAL ORDERLY DURING THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR"



"First we will deal with were he lived and how he lived on active service; They all live under canvas or tents, five or six in a tent, and there is not much room for them either; The food they get is not of the best; for breakfast they usually get bread sandwitches or bread between bread, they get butter now and then and a little cheese or bacon sometimes; The amount of butter allowed is one ounce for the day; and the cheese; it would be about half an inch thick and about two inches long there is about two mouthful altogether; Then for dinner they would get a general mix up in a large pot. What it was they hardly ever could find out; it had either climbed trees or drawn wagons; Well they could see where someone had hit it when it was first climbing the tree and knocked it down again. For tea they get the old favourite (jam) if they had not got any butter or cheese left from morning; They got jam and bread for about a month and nothing else; they soon get out of the habit of having tea at all; And supper they would get none unless they pinched some from somewhere; They are something like the cat (watch and catch) but them they get to everything in time and they get used to that. It was no use grumbling because it would make it no better maybe worse if anything so they kept their mouths shut as regards food; thats more than the women could do I'll bet, now then no rude remarks: The Hospital had 500 beds in it and divided into different sections for different diseases; The sections were made up of lines, A.B.C.D.E. being the five names for them, and each line had five large tent consisting of seven beds to a tent; Their was A.B.C.D.E. medical lines for all wounded cases wounds of every description, Then there was A.B.C.D.E. venereal lines; and A.B.C.D.E. enteric lines for enteric fever, A.B.C.D.E. Dysentry Lines for all dysentry cases, then there was some spare tents for general use; each orderly was was told off for a certain section, and to which he go every morning, until he got shifted; There was two orderlied for each line; They had to be on parade for six o'clock every morning sharp; on the last note of the bugle; The men were inspected on each parade, as to their personal cleanliness; after parade, they proceeded to their wards for the day's duty, First thing they would do would be to open the tents to allow some fresh air to get in, and then they had to draw the bread and butter, if they had a patients on solid food; if not they would get some water and wash those patients who could not wash themselves; and make their beds, by this time the patient's breakfast would be ready; at the Patient's Cookhouse; the men who were on solid food got tea, and the others got cocoa, and when nthey had got this served out they would go to their own breakfast of which I have described; They paraded again at eight o'clock got dismissed and go down to their wards again; to clean the wards well through; and clean the lines up all round the tents and empty all bedpans they get plenty of that to do ( sometimes as many as 130 in one day) ready for the Medical Officer at 9 30; The day nurse comes on duty at 9 o'clock; and give the patients their medicines, brandy, castor oil, or whatever the doctor may prescribe for them; Then she would do alot of bossing about; generally at the orderly, and they would wish them far away; nothing very attractive about a Hospital Nurse I can tell you; Then she would wait untilthe doctor came and go round the line with him; The orderly stood smartly to attention and saluted upon the doctor entering the ward; each patient had a diet sheet which the doctor would write what he thought was good for the man each day; the orderly would goo round with the doctor, and hand him the diet sheet for each man in their turn as the doctor got to them, and take any orders he might give regarding the patients; then salute him again when he finished his line; Then the orderly would give each man's diet in to their respective Wardmaster; the non-commissioned officer in charge of the section; And by this time the milk would be ready; and then beef tea, or bovril at 11 o'clock, they then would have to draw what they called the patient's extras such as whisky, port, wine, brandy, champagne, stout, soda, water, ****** food, jellies or anything in that line; and by the time they had got back from drawing these the patient' s dinner would be ready; that would be about 12 o'clock; they would draw the dinners which consisted of chicken, and potatoes, mince chicken and potatoes, or roast meat and vegetables, or boiled rice in milk, or just the plain milk just whatever their patient diet might be ; after they had got this served out they would go to their own dinners; and parade again at 2 o'clock for inspection; It is rather a busy morning, but the afternoon is much better, they have only to draw the rice, or sago puddings or custards, first thing after parade; and then they are done till tea at four; unless they had some bad cases in; then they would have plenty to do; They could usualy get the afternoon off unless they had bad cases in; to go where they liked or do what they liked; they went off duty at six o'clock at night; and were allowed out till 9 o'clock; When a Corporal would come round to each tent; and see that each man was in and report to the Sergeant Major if anybody was absent."

And so ends the transcription of the journal in it's entirety. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the contents therein, as I have merely been the recipient and transcriber of the document.
I hope that this has been of interest to anyone who has read Private Gibson's experiences in South Africa right to the end, and would welcome any comments from the forum.

Thank you for taking the time to transcribe and posting his diary; it's always enjoyable being transported back in time; it was a great read.