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Joseph Pierre Montgomery

Assistant Surgeon, 2nd Class, Indian Subordinate Medical Department (I.S.M.D.) – Punjab Frontier and Tirah Campaigns

Assistant Surgeon, 3rd Class, Indian Subordinate Medical Department (I.S.M.D.), Bengal Command – 69th Native Field Hospital/ 11th British Field Hospital - Anglo Boer War

1st Class Surgeon, No. 3 British General Hospital, Indian Medical Department, Basra – WWI

- IGS 1895 (2) Punjab Frontier 1897-98, Tirah 1897-98 (Asst. Surgn. J. P. Montgomery I.S.M.D.);
- QSA (3) Defence of Ladysmith, Orange Free State, Transvaal (Asst:-Surg: J. P. Montgomery. Ind: S. M. Dept.);
- KSA (2) (Asst: Surgn: J. P. Montgomery. Ind: Con: S.A.F.);
- 1914-15 Star (1Cl. Asst-Sgn. J. P. Montgomery. I.M.D.);
- British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. J. P. Montgomery. I.M.D.)

Joseph Montgomery was a fascinating man attached, for the Anglo Boer War, to a Medical Department about which little is known and less is written.

Born in Calcutta, India on 9 January 1868, he was the son of Robert Montgomery an Irish-born Engineer and his wife Rebecca Caroline (born Tuite.) He was baptised in St. John’s Church (Old Cathedral) in Calcutta on 23 February 1868. What determined a young Montgomery on a career in medicine is unknown but, having made that decision at a reasonably early age, he set about educating himself for that purpose, his date of election to the Calcutta College being 28 July 1881. Interestingly perhaps, his younger brother Charles Taylor Montgomery (born 2 February 1869) enrolled along with him. The family address at the time was given as Fyzabad.

After many years of studious toil, the Gazette of India, April 21, 1888, published a list of names under the banner “Indian Subordinate Medical Department”, amongst whom Montgomery appeared, with the comment, “The undermentioned military pupils having passed their final examination, are admitted into the service as Sub-Assistant Apothecaries, with effect from the 1st March 1888 – Montgomery had now mounted the first rung of the Medical Ladder.

Now that he had finished his formal studies he could turn his attention to matters of the heart – at Nowshera on 2 March 1891 he wed 17 year old Amelia Mary Clayton, daughter of Henry and Amy Clayton. He was a 23 year old Assistant Apothecary at the time of his nuptials.

Going about his business wasn’t all plain-sailing for Montgomery – the Madras Weekly Mail of 5 August 1896 carried the following article wherein he took centre stage:-

“A Court-Martial of considerable interest to members of the Subordinate Medical Service has been held at the European Military Hospital, Calcutta. The defendant in the case, who was represented at the trial by Mr. Bagram, Barrister, was Assistant Surgeon J.P. Montgomery, attached to the Hospital and the charge was “disobedience of the orders of a superior officer.” Mr. Bagram raised the question whether, as the orders in no way entered into the defendant’s military obligations, he was not justified in refusing to execute them.

Assistant Surgeon Montgomery he said, was a good painter and had done odd jobs in the Hospital, painting headings on direction boards, doors etc. One day he was asked to paint some words on several doors of the Hospital. The Senior Assistant Surgeon who made the request, said he had received orders to do so from the Principal Medical Officer. Mr. Montgomery replied that this was not his duty, but that he would do it if he were paid, even at Bazaar rates. This was reported to the Medical officer who sent for Mr. Montgomery.

Mr. Montgomery repeated his conditions and was immediately placed under arrest. After a long suspension from duty he has just been tried by Court Martial. The papers in the case have been forwarded to the Adjutant General, Bengal Army, but the decision of the court will not transpire for some time.”

What became of this storm in a military teacup is not known but, perhaps fortuitously for Montgomery, a matter of military import arose which required him and his attention to be elsewhere. This was the Punjab Frontier campaign and, in its aftermath the Tirah campaign of 1897 into 1898.

In 1897 a particular crisis flared up when most of the Afridi tribes on the Punjab frontier, who had for sixteen years been receiving subsidies to guard the Khyber Pass, rebelled at the same time as the Mohmand tribes beyond the Pass began a raiding campaign. Because of the number of men available to the Afridis and the stretched demands on British forces it was some time before a response could be coordinated, but towards the end of 1897 a campaign was begun, with one force proceeding to secure the forts around the city of Peshawar, and the other dealing with those in the Tirah area. The latter column, due to shortage of water and the extreme cold of this Himalayan region, ran into great difficulties and beat a fighting retreat, costly to both sides, until they could join forces with the Peshawar column. This combined force managed to secure the Khyber forts over Christmas 1897 and peace was secured the next year.

Precisely what role Montgomery and his comrades with the Indian Medical Subordinate Department played can only be surmised. The campaign was costly in terms of injuries and illnesses, quite apart from the normal wounds and related issues that a war involving muskets and spears brings. He and his surgeon’s knife would have been hard at work ministering to the sick and wounded. Additionally, having been trained as an Apothecary as well, he would have been hard pressed keeping up with the demand for drugs, potions and other remedies required by an army on the march.

In his book The Campaign in Tirah 1897-1898, Colonel H. D. Hutchinson wrote that:

“Amid the clash of arms, the hum of camps, the commotion of marches, and the turmoil of retreats, the great Military- Medical Services, British and Indian, are apt to receive scant notice. The earnest, patient, self-denying work of those whose business it is to bind up wounds and tend the sick go unnoticed. But where so many pages have been devoted to telling the story of the fighting in Tirah, and of the pluck and endurance of the troops in many situations, it is only in accordance with the fitness of things that some reference should also be made to the Medical Department during this arduous campaign, whose work has been performed with as much zeal and devotion to duty. Few people, probably, outside the Department, have any conception of the strain and responsibility devolved on the Medical Services, not merely during the continuance and stress of active operations, but also in the preparations necessary before an army is ready to take the field. Here figures may be of use to help the imagination.

Twenty-three field hospitals altogether were mobilised for service in Tirah. Each of these could accommodate 100 sick men, and was fully equipped with supplies and comforts for three months. In addition, base hospitals were formed at Rawal Pindi, Nowshera, and Kohat, in which beds were provided for upwards of 3000 men. These figures will give some idea of the scale of the organisation. But the wild, roadless country in which the operations were conducted enormously increased the difficulties with which the Department had to contend in making arrangements for the care and treatment and transport of the wounded and sick. From Bagh in Tirah to the advanced base at Shinauri is about thirty five miles by a track traversable only by mules and ponies, or on foot. For these thirty-five miles those who were too ill or too weak to ride, and there were hundreds such, had to be carried in doolies (palanquins) and stretchers, and strongly escorted all the way, for the road throughout was in hostile territory, except the last few miles. From Shinauri wheeled ambulances were available for seventy-five miles, until the railway was reached at Khusalgarh, whence it was a run of eighty miles to Rawal Pindi. It may easily be believed that the work of carrying the wounded, and transporting them to the base hospitals, was a very real difficulty.

923 wounded men were treated in the Field Hospitals in Tirah.-' Of these the Gordons contributed 70, the Dorsets 80, the K.O.S.B’s. 34, the Northamptons 55, the Derbys 35, the Yorks 42, the 3rd Sikhs 28, the 15th Sikhs 48, the 36th Sikhs 72, the 2nd Gurkhas 66, and the 3rd Gurkhas 40. These were the principal figures. Other corps made up the balance.”

For his efforts Montgomery was awarded the Indian General Service Medal (1895) with the Punjab Frontier and Tirah 1897-98 clasps. This medal was authorised by Army Order 77 June 1898 and awarded for service between 10th June 1897 and 6th April 1898. It was granted to those that defended Shabkadr Fort on 7th August 1897; The Mohmand Field Force under Major General E R Elles CB which operated from 15th September to 4th October; The Tirah Expeditionary Force under Lt General Sir W.S.A. Lockhart KCB, KCSI between 2nd October 1897 and 6th April 1898; the Malakand Field Force under Major General Sir Bindon Blood KCB; which was a punitive expedition sent to deal with the aftermath of the relief of Malakand; and the Tochi Field Force under Major General Sir G Corrie Bird for service between June and October 1897.

Peace for the moment prevailing, Montgomery found himself back in Bengal but trouble was brewing on a continent far away from where he was plying his trade. Long simmering tensions between Boer and Brit overflowed into open war on 11 October 1899 and, after initial and unexpected reverses at the hands of the Boers, a call went out from the Home Government for additional troops and support personnel from throughout the Empire to join forces in South Africa to counter the menace from President Kruger of the Transvaal and his Orange Free State ally.

The Boer Commandos had already invested Ladysmith and its 12 000 military men by the dawn of 3 November 1899. The seminal battles of Talana and Elandslaagte had already been fought and Yule and his exhausted men had trudged through the mud and torrential rain to reach the town just prior to the Boers laying siege to it. The Indian contingent arrived in Natal early in October, just prior to all of the aforementioned actions, bringing with it a field hospital for natives of India accompanying it as transport drivers and in other capacities. The establishment was entirely Indian, and consisted, in addition to the officers of the Indian Medical Service with the native field hospital, of assistant-surgeons of the Indian Medical Service, native ward orderlies, water-carriers, cooks, sweepers, and others." (Times History of the War in South Africa. Vol. IV p 513-4)

Sections C & D No.69 (Native) Field Hospital was composed of 2 British Officers, 1 British NCO, 4 Hospital Assistants, 8 native rank and file and 76 public followers and 15 private followers. (Frontier and Overseas Expeditions from India.) - all under Major. W.H.W. Elliott I.M.S.

As previously alluded to, little is known about the activities of this hospital and its staff – the focus by most historians being on the hospital operating in the Ladysmith Town Hall and, of course, the far larger medical “tent town” of Intombi, created on the outskirts of Ladysmith by special arrangement between the Boer General Joubert and Sir George White, the Officer Commanding the besieged Ladysmith garrison – which bore the brunt of patients suffering from Enteric Fever and other illnesses commensurate with a poor diet, pestilential living conditions, searing heat and a lack of activity.

What can be gleaned from the various medal rolls associated with the I.M.S. contingent show us that No. 69 (Native) Field Hospital could well have been 11 Field Hospital in disguise. As can be seen from the spot highlighted on the map below, 11 Field Hospital was to the west of the town centre and not far from the Klip River that flowed next to the town.


Map of Ladysmith denoting where 11 Field Hospital was situate.

Montgomery was one of only four surgeons working from C & D No. 11 British Field Hospital – the others being R.H.W. Hart; H.A. Richardson and M.C. Pinto – all under Captain Frost, I.M.S. A medal roll dated 8 November 1902 at the Remount Depot, Elandsfontein, Transvaal has Montgomery and his colleagues down for the Elandslaagte clasp but this has been crossed out, again, the extent of the Indian Contingent’s involvement at that battle being unknown.

Buller’s despatch carries perhaps the most information pertaining to the I.M.S. at 11 Field Hospital, Ladysmith – he states,

“C” and “D” sections of No. 11 British Field Hospital acted as Field Hospital to the 1st Cavalry Brigade throughout these operations (Defence of Ladysmith). Especially brought to notice are the services of 3rd Class Assistant Surgeon R.H.W. Hart, I.S.M.D. (Montgomery’s colleague) as an excellent Medical Warrant Officer, well worthy of advancement.”

The siege of Ladysmith over on 1 March 1900 when Buller finally rode into town, Montgomery and his colleagues moved on with the next (and last) recorded instance of the 69 Native Field Hospital being stationed at Newcastle on 14 September 1900 – this was according to the Daily Return Showing the Number of Deaths Remaining in the Hospitals in Natal of that date.

That he remained in South Africa and saw out the war is confirmed by the award of the Kings Medal with both date clasps.


The only known photos of 69 (Native) Field Hospital personnel - Montgomery is most likely one of the few European men in the shot.

With peace reigning, Montgomery returned to his obligations in India. He also became an ardent free Mason, joining the Beauchamp Lodge at Roorkee on 6 November 1906. The Indian Medical Directory shows that he was based at Muttra in 1909 as a 1st Assistant Surgeon with a Conductor’s ranking. Life continued on but was rudely interrupted by the advent of the Great War on 4 August 1914 – this war was different from that he had taken part in a mere 12 years prior. Here it was the might of Germany and her Turkish Ally pitted against Great Britain and her Allies.

Montgomery, by this time a 1st Class Surgeon with the Indian Medical Department, was deployed to the Mesopotamian Theatre of the war. This was in the Middle East, far from the Western Front where thousands of lives were sacrificed daily. Nevertheless, there was plenty to keep him and his staff busy with the Turks waging war against the Allies, the casualties started to stream in to the hospital he was stationed in. The general hospitals had not arrived in Mesopotamia until after the battle of Sahil which occurred between 6–8 January 1916. This battle took place along the banks of the Tigris River between the Anglo-Indian Tigris Corps and elements of the Ottoman Sixth Army.


Map of No. 3 British General Hospital

On arrival at Basra “A” section of No. 3 British General Hospital, where Montgomery was stationed, was opened in the palace of the Sheikh of Mohammera, a large two-storied building situated on the right bank of the Tigris. The ground floor was somewhat damp and dark, but the first floor was bright and airy. When it was first opened all casualties were brought to it. The sick of the troops in Basra were collected daily at the main supply depot, a central point on the Shatt-al-Arab, whence they were brought to the hospital by steamer. The steamer on its return journey, carried patients who had been discharged from hospital and were rejoining their units. At the palace a wooden pier was constructed to facilitate the landing and the embarking of cases. The building itself could accommodate 150 patients, and the wards were at first used by both British and Indian sick and wounded. As the number of British troops increased only British casualties were accommodated in the buildings while the Indian troops and followers were treated in European pattern tents pitched in the compound of the palace. Considerable work was done to make the building conform to the requirements of a modern hospital. Fireplaces were made, the walls and floors of the operating theatre were covered with cement, a skylight was constructed and electric light was installed. As an extension was required reed huts were erected in the compound. At first there was a great shortage of bedsteads and the patients lay on mattresses on the brick floors of the palace or on the ground in tents. Local Arab bedsteads, costing one rupee each, were obtained and used until iron bedsteads were sent from India. A portable steam disinfector was used extensively to sterilize the clothing and bedding of the infectious cases and the garments of lice-infested men. Its capacity however was limited and it could not cope with all the work that required to be done.

John Hay Beith, in his “One Hundred Years of Army Nursing” mentioned that:

“No. 3 British General Hospital had been in operation in Basra, in a ‘palace’ belonging to the Sheikh of Mohammerah, since November 1915, and was now fully occupied with the care of the sick and wounded from Ctesiphon and Kut, who were being evacuated to India. Most of these unfortunate men were in a pitiable condition, for they had been conveyed some 200 miles or more in open barges, destitute for the most part of hospital comforts or sanitary equipment, and almost completely exposed to the weather. In addition to the war-wounded there were a very large number of cases of dysentery and malaria — an ominous sign of things to come when the great new campaign should be launched.”


No. 3 British General Hospital

Montgomery and his staff must have had their hands full. It is not known for how long he served in the war but, for his efforts, he was awarded the 1914/15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal – the Star was issued to him in India.

Sadly, at the relatively young age of 51, Montgomery breathed his last at Calcutta on 25 March 1919. He was survived by his three children (his wife is not mentioned) – Ivy Frances (26), Florence May (24) and his son Robert Clayton Tuite (20).