At 2.43pm on 3 October 1917, number 9 Ambulance Train departed from Grévillers (Somme), carrying sick and wounded soldiers who were bound for the group of Base Hospitals at Rouen. Having gone via Achiet-le-Grand, it was approaching Rouen Rive Gauche station when at 10.40pm a tragic accident took place. It was noted in the Train’s war diary and was the subject of a court of enquiry.
The station was also known as Rouen-Saint-Sever and Rouen Gare de l’Ouest.
War diary
The war diary of 9th Ambulance Train is held by the National Archives [reference WO95/4133]. It is, at time of writing, free to download from their website.
Court of Enquiry
Bu sheer luck, the court proceedings appear in the service record of one of the men who died.
The casualties
Killed in the accident
The diary says “With much difficulty the following men were extricated from the telescoped compartments …”
Pte 515639 Joseph de Gersigny. A 34 year old broker for the import firm of Blythe, Green, Jourdain and Co., Joseph, who was from Beau-Bassin in Mauritius, was conscripted in London and began service on 18 April 1917. After training with a reserve battalion, he arrived in France on 17 July 1917 and was sent with a draft to the 1/14th Battalion of the London Regiment (London Scottish). Medical notes in his service record are incomplete but suggest that he was ill, suffering from “PUO” which usually meant a debilitating, feverish condition known as “trench fever”. Officially classified as “died” in the War Office casualty list of 2 November 1917, the medical notes suggest a cause of death of contusion of the body and shock.
Pte 202262 Walter Tinker, formerly 5147. 2/4th Battalion of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. He enlisted in Doncaster. Officially classified as “accidentally killed” in the War Office casualty list of 30 October 1917.
Pte 493259 Charles Garrard Turner, 1/13th Battalion of the London Regiment (Kensington). Born in Essex in 1894; at the 1911 census he is with his widowed mother Ellen in Brentwood. He had previously served with the 7th Middlesex Regiment and had been wounded in April 1917. Officially classified as “died” in the War Office casualty list of 1 November 1917.
The three men are buried in adjacent graves in Saint-Sever cemetery.
Others
The war diary also lists these men
253417 P A Abbott, London Regiment, with severe shock. This man was actually Percy Albert Mabbort, 1/3rd Battalion. He was evacuated home for further medical treatment but returned to France on 7 February 1918.
515483 Charles William Hoskins, 1/14th Battalion of the London Regiment (London Scottish). Conscripted from his home in York in April 1917. He was evacuated home for further medical treatment and later transferred to the Royal Defence Corps. Charles suffered an injury to his forehead in the accident.
201008 Robert Henry Mills, 1/5th Battalion of the Cheshire Regiment. He sustained a bruised shoulder. A Birkenhead man, he died of a disease on 11 March 1919.
The rest of the men listed in the diary and court proceedings were “found under the seats and the wreckage. They had a variety of fractures and other injuries, and many were said to be suffering from shock. It should be born in mind that all of these men were already being evacuated for fairly serious illnesses or wounds.
Links
Casualty evacuation chain for sick and wounded soldiers