Page 31 - RADC Bulletin 2019

CORPS MATTERS
Lest We Forget
Colonel JH Hardy
On the 9th of April 2019 the final original watercolour painting in the series of thirteen, commissioned by the British Dental Association (BDA), was handed over by Colonel Hardy to
the Director of the Museum of Military Medicine (M3), Jason Semmens, during a short break in proceedings of the Chief Dental Officer (Army) Study Day, at the Former Army Staff College, Camberley.
The BDA had originally commissioned 12 watercolours to use as their front cover series for Volume 217 (1-12) of the British Dental Journal (BDJ) published in 2014 and recording the involvement of dentistry in the Great War. The artist Philip Bannister forewarned Colonel Hardy in 2015, that the BDA was considering commissioning him to produce one final watercolour to celebrate the Armistice in 2018 which would be used for the front cover of the BDJ in early November 2018 (BDJ Vol 225 No. 9 Nov 9th 2018) immediately
prior to the 11th November 2018 – Armistice Day, to celebrate the centenary, marking the end of WW1. Colonel Hardy asked that the RADC be given the opportunity to purchase the final painting in order to complete the collection for the dental archive in the Museum of Military Medicine, a condition, which was agreed by the artist.
At the time of publication in 2014 of the BDJ series, the Museum of Military Medicine was putting together an exhibition commemorating the contributions made by the four Corps of the Medical Services during WW1. It soon became obvious that as
In order to commemorate members of the BDA who gave their lives, a War Memorial Committee was set up in 1919 by the BDA and a commemorative tablet of bronze, with a carved wood
surround was decided upon. Currently, the memorial without the wooden surround is
on display at BDA HQ at 64 Wimpole Street London.
The original final painting produced from the draft had a space between the last two names (Fig 2) as Henry Thomas Massey (last name)
was not dentally qualified but had been chief clerk to the BDA. He served with the London Regiment (Queen Victoria’s Rifles) in France and was killed in action on 16th August 1916. It was quite rightly agreed by the BDA War Memorial
Committee that his name should feature on their memorial but with a slight separation to indicate that he was not a dentist.
As requested, Philip left a space between the last two names
but the BDA then decided it was a mistake to make such a differentiation as all named had made the ultimate sacrifice. With the clever and careful use of a scalpel Philip was able to perform an intricate ‘cut, paste and paint alteration’ Fig 3.
The BDA, themselves, then decided that they would like to purchase the original painting which Philip said he was unable to agree to as the RADC had already asked months before that they purchase it in order to complete their collection in their archive of their military museum. An easy solution offered by Philip was to paint a duplicate which he was commissioned by the BDA to do.
Colonel Hardy explained that he was keen that the RADC should own the original with its interesting and unique alteration. He also suggested to Philip that in the unlikely event that the BDA should try to persuade him to let them purchase the original, he would be looking at the painting under a microscope !! Rest assured the original ‘original’ is now the property of the RADC archive in the Museum of Military Medicine!
It was felt appropriate and agreed that funding to purchase the painting and its framing costs was made from donations from all members of the Corps, Past and Present, directly from the RADC HQ Central Fund.
Art quality copies of all the 13 original paintings are available to view and purchase from the Museum of Military Medicine, on line shop or by Telephone: 01252 868612.
a result of the lack of forward planning by the
War Office (MOD) and their failure to learn and
take action from previous campaigns (sound
familiar?), the dental archive in the Museum was
almost totally lacking in WW1 dental artefacts.
At the start of WW1 dentists and dental teams
were not deployed. This complete lack of
appreciation of the importance of deploying
dental teams by the War Office planners only
became apparent when dental casualties
started to take their toll on the fighting capability
of large numbers of military personnel. Due to this lack of planning and the fact that the Army Dental Corps did not come into existence until 1921, dentists were, like anybody else between the ages of 19 – 40 years, eligible for conscription. At the time, of the 2,000 eligible dental practitioners, half of these were serving in the armed forces and of those only 454 were commissioned as dentists.
Copy of original draft submitted to BDA.
Note space between last two names on the Memorial
Look carefully at the arrowed area for the clever ‘Cut, Paste and Paint’ Alteration
RADC BULLETIN 2019 29