Men remembered here

The linked biographies identify each man’s connection with this workplace. This is a partial list; the men may have served in different years.

Further men recorded with this hospital
  • John MCPHIE — Lance Corporal · SE/16565 · died 3 September 1917 · CWGC
  • Joseph William NIX — Private · SE/23052 · died 16 January 1918 · CWGC
  • David SMITH — Private · SE/16617 · died 13 November 1917 · CWGC
  • Henry SMITH — Private · SE/21949 · died 14 March 1918 · CWGC
  • John WHEATLEY — Private · SE/7967 · died 10 November 1918 · CWGC

Read the wider context of veterinary work and treatment routes.

Brief history

No. 23 Veterinary Hospital began operating at St-Omer in May 1916, in the French artillery barracks. An Imperial War Museums photograph taken in June 1918 shows wounded horses being led into an animal ambulance at the hospital.

Five of the men listed below died on 18 May 1918. Further deaths followed over the succeeding days.

Hospital chronology
  1. 20 May 1916

    The earlier diary research places the hospital at St-Omer.

  2. 18–23 May 1918

    A cluster of deaths is recorded among men assigned to No. 23; the circumstances require individual confirmation.

  3. 14 June 1918

    IWM photograph documents hospital work at the artillery barracks.

Historical material

Wounded horses at No. 23 Veterinary Hospital, 14 June 1918 — Imperial War Museums

Sources and further reading

Graham Hodgkins’s hospital articles and war-diary research. The exact No. 23 diary reference remains to be reconciled.

Individual Commonwealth War Graves Commission records are linked from the biographies or beside any further names above; the historical photograph is credited to Imperial War Museums.