Page 70 - RADC Bulletin 2019

CORPS MATTERS
RADC
wreath at the
Menin Gate
Maj Robin DICKSON RADC 251 Med Sqn
On 3 September 2019, I laid a wreath at the Menin Gate, Ypres on behalf of the RADC during the daily Act of Remembrance.
I was part of an RAMC battlefield tour to Ypres and the Somme from 1 to 6 September.
The sites we visited included the Thiepval Memorial and Guillemont Cemetery.
At the two locations are the names of four qualified dentists who had died in combatant roles during the Battle of the Somme.
At Guillemont, we visited the grave of Captain John Wheeler, Royal Garrison Artillery, who was killed 10 November 1916 age 29. He had qualified LDS from the Royal Dental Hospital in 1908.
On the Thiepval Memorial are the names of Captain Claude H Stainer, East Surrey Regiment, who qualified LDS at Guys in 1913 and was killed 15 November 1916 age 31. 2nd Lt Donald B Morrish, Kings Own Light Infantry, also qualified LDS at Guys in 1913 and died 18 August 1916 age 25. Captain Norris Snell, East Yorkshire Regiment, who died 14 July 1916 age 41.
Although they were qualified as dentists, they were not registered and therefore not selected to serve as dentists. The original
six dentists selected in 1915 were doubly qualified in medicine and dentistry and temporarily commissioned into the RAMC.
This was prior to the Dentists Act of 1921 where reform of the profession meant registration became a mandatory requirement.
I gave a short talk to the group on the origins and evolution of dental care during WW1 from Haig’s toothache during the Battle of the Aisne in 1914 through to the formation of the Army Dental Corps in 1921 and the granting of its Royal prefix in 1946.
The important role of increasing numbers of dentists during WW1 became apparent and demonstrable from war diaries and official plans & maps which we examined. We visited sites of Casualty Clearing Stations, and Stationary, General and Base Hospitals used in the evacuation chain throughout the war which had a dental component.
In late 1914, one hospitalized soldier had said “There is nothing which takes it out of a man in the trenches more than toothache.”
Ex Dentibus Ensis.
68 RADC BULLETIN 2019