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.
Arthur BETTS
Occupation recorded: Shoeing Smith
Read his storyFurther men recorded with this hospital
Read the wider context of veterinary work and treatment routes.
Brief history
No. 5 Veterinary Hospital assembled at Bulford before travelling to Southampton in August 1914. Embarkation was delayed when the expected transport failed to arrive on time. Old packing cases burst open and had to be secured with leading ropes.
The men and horses boarded SS Bosnian. The horses were lifted aboard in a horse box without accident. Low water delayed the ship off Le Havre, and a thunderstorm drove men sleeping on deck to seek shelter.
The ship continued up the Seine to Rouen. After landing late in the evening, the men spent the night in a dock shed. The hospital later moved through Nantes to Abbeville. Its diary continues into April 1919.
Hospital chronology
- 13–14 August 1914
Embarkation at Southampton; SS Bosnian takes the men and horses overseas.
- 15 August 1914
Arrives at Rouen after waiting off Le Havre; the men spend the night in a dock shed.
- November 1914
Hospital is at Nantes, according to the original research.
- 2 December 1914
Move to Abbeville recorded by the author.
- 29 April 1919
Last diary entry identified by the author.
Sources and further reading
Graham Hodgkins’s hospital articles and war-diary research.
- The National Archives, WO 95/4156/4–8.
- Medal News, June/July 2026, pp. 25–26, Graham Hodgkins.
Individual Commonwealth War Graves Commission records are linked from the biographies or beside any further names above.