Thursday, 6 August 2015

Poem ~ Ambulance Train Inspections - Friday, 6 August 1915


Impression sketch of a train being loaded at Tilbury docks, on its way to the front - by Jamie. See original at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2605886/Poignant-archive-pictures-ambulance-trains-transported-soldiers-wounded-First-World-War-hospitals-Britain.html

By special arrangement,
At a cost of sixpence a ticket
The public were granted inspection
Of an ambulance train, made
By the Eastern Railway Company.

Made at the Stratford
Works and on route to army
Service in France - The special train
Temporarily at No 1 Platform,
Liverpool Street Station London.

To last two days on 6 and
7th August, the ticket allowed
Viewing to see inside for full access -
The specifications at 445 tons,
864 feet long; to hold 342 wounded.

Specifically, 280 sitting
And 162 lying down patients,
Along with accommodation of staff
Of orderlies, nurses and
Doctors; in usage of every space.

Seen as cheerfully decorated
Gangways, connected corridors,
While compartments may be isolated
As needed - any patient on
The mobile hospital may be separated,

Those suffering infections
Disease had asbestos barriers
In an independent part of the train -
With kitchens, linen stores
Pharmacy and operating theatres.

All this was on view to those
Who paid sixpence - on the first
Day 2000 were sold, between 7.30 a.m.
To 10 am - a steady stream
Of public would flow until 4.15p.m.

Monies raised from public
Experience, were to fund comforts
For railway troops serving in France -
On 7th August the train
Was then due to leave for the continent.

by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1915 Railway Ambulance Train - Public Inspection. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 6 August. P.7. Col.4. Available at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11776342/Daily-Telegraph-August-6-1915.html [Accessed: 6 August 2015].
Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 6 August 2015). 



#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary #worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1Trains

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