Difference between revisions of "2nd Australian Stationary Hospital"

	Colour Patch for 2nd Australian Stationary Hospital
	2nd Australian Stationary Hospital on Lemnos
	2nd Australian Stationary Hospital at El Arish AWM JO3018
History
Name	2nd Australian Stationary Hospital
Where formed	Perth, Western Australia
Date formed	August 1914
Capacity	1200 in Jan 1916 at Mudros
Locations	Cairo, HMHS Gloucester Castle,Lemnos Island, Ismailia, Sinai, Palestine
	v; t; e;

Revision as of 20:26, 11 July 2018

General Information

Formed in Western Australia in August 1914, the initial staff departed Fremantle aboard HMAT A55 Kyarra on 4 Dec 1914. Originally located at Mena Camp in Egypt in Jan 1915, where it was concerned with the treatment of venereal diseases. The 2nd Australian Stationary Hospital moved to East Mudros on the island of Lemnos in June 1915.

Staffed by eight Officers and 90 other ranks, plus Nursing Staff of 25 drawn from 3rd Australian General Hospital & Canadian Stationary Hospitals. With ‘the rush of sick’ from the Peninsula, an ‘eleventh-hour’ effort was made to develop Lemnos as an intermediate military medical base. As part of that reorganisation, 2nd Australian Stationary Hospital was moved to West Mudros, landing on 4 August 1915 – a day before its sister unit the 3rd Australian General Hospital – on “a bare and road less hillside” (Butler, 286). “Pitched camp on No. 7 block and started to erect hospital & make roads” notes the unit’s War Diary on 5 August.

By August 13th it was treating 763 patients. On 16 Aug 1915, 12 nurses from 3rd Australian General Hospital replaced the personnel of the 30th British Field Ambulance who left for the Peninsula. Nurses from the Canadian Stationary Hospitals and 3rd Australian General Hospital were regularly detached to the hospital.

By September/October 1915, the 2nd Australian Stationary Hospital occupied sixty large marquee-tents, and had 1,200 beds and 25 nursing sisters – “making some 130 Australian nurses now on the island” (Butler, 388).

When the Peninsula was evacuated, 2nd Australian Stationary Hospital was transferred to Egypt, leaving Lemnos on 20 January 1916. They arrived in Alexandria on the 23rd, and entrained for Tel-el Kebir in the Canal Zone.

During August 1916 the hospital moved to Port Said where it provided general medical services until 19 Nov 1916 when it moved to Mahamdrya, remaining there until it relocated yet again to El Arish on 10 Mar 1917. Its next location was Moascar, arriving there on 27 Aug 1917. Here it received VD patients as well as casualties and general illnesses.

On 15 Jun 1919, 1 officer and 71 other ranks, the last of the 2nd Stationary Hospital staff in Egypt, entrained for Kantara where they boarded SS Essex for Australia.