3rd Canadian General Hospital

History
Name	3rd Canadian General Hospital
Where formed	Montreal, Canada
Date formed	mid 1914
Capacity	1,500 beds
Locations	Dannes-Camiers, Pas-de-Calais, France

General Information

Just prior to the start of WW1 the McGill University organised the 3rd Canadian General Hospital to serve in France. The majority of medical staff came from the university, with nurses from hospitals in Montreal. On the 6 May 1915, the unit sailed for France on the SS Metagama. On arrival there the hospital was established under canvas at Dannes Camiers on 19 Jun 1915, with a staff of 35 Officers, 73 Nursing Sisters and 190 rank and file. With winter approaching life under canvas entailed coping with deep mud, storms, frost and collapsing tents.

During November 1915, the hospital moved to a partly-destroyed Jesuit College at Boulogne-Sur-Mer. The hospital was part of an evacuation chain, situated further back from the front line than the Casualty Clearing Stations. Base hospitals were ideally situated close to ports and with a railway line so that injured men could be evacuated for longer-term treatment in Britain. The Boulogne area was frequently bombed, but the hospital was fortunate, escaping serious casualties. The units Commanding Officer from June 1915 until his death from pneumonia in 1918 was Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae. McCrae was famous as the author of the poem “In Flanders Fields” written after the 2nd Battle of Ypres.

Between 1915 and 1918, the hospital admitted 143,762 sick and wounded patients and performed 11,395 operations with a death rate of 1 in 135. In 1918 the hospital covered 26 acres and had 1,560 beds.