15th Field Ambulance

Informal group portrait of members of the 15th Australian Field Ambulance AWM P09328.001

Shoulder patch

Brief History

The 15th Field Ambulance was the Field Ambulance Company that nominally supported the 15th Brigade of the Fifth Division, comprised of the 57th, 58th 59th and 60th Battalions. The Field Ambulance was a complete medical unit made up of previously separate and independent entities. These were The Bearer Division [previously working as Bearer Companies]; The Tent Division [previously working as Field Hospitals] and The Transport Division. The Field Ambulance at full strength composed of 10 Officers and 224 men. The Bearer Division had 18 stretcher squads each of 6 men. The Tent Division was comprised of doctors: 9 medical officers and 1 dental officer, as well as 1 Quartermaster of stores, batmen, clerks, cooks, dispensers, nursing orderlies, and the Transport Division, which had 60 men attached from the Army Service Corps. All this made up medical support for one infantry brigade. [Three to every Division].

Twenty four men died while posted to this unit.

Patients

• John Edward Thomson 25 - 26 Feb 1916
• Victor Emanuel Durling 10 Jul 1916
• Albert George Bullock 19 Jul 1916
• † Frederick James Bishop 19 Jul 1916
• Charles Henry Davis 14/16 Aug 1916
• William Robert Rigby 13 - 29 Dec 1916
• George Partington 26 Dec 1917
• Albert Edward Coates Delamotte 22 Jul 1917 & 10 Aug 1917
• William Augustus Povah 8 - 9 Aug 1918
• John Laidlaw Paterson 10 Aug 1918
• Gordon Devereux MM 18 Aug 1918

Individual Honours

• 1 x Officer of the Order of the British Empire
• 3 x Distinguished Service Order
• 2 x Military Cross
• 1 x Distinguished Conduct Medal
• 31 x Military Medal
• 5 x Bar to Military Medal
• 6 x Meritorious Service Medal
• 16 x Mentioned in Despatches
• 1 x Belgium Croix de Guerre