Page 26 - QARANC Vol 16 No 2 2018

24 QARANC THE GAZETTE
Writing Armistice Poetry Competition
One of our members, Fiona Mitford, was unable to attend the Reunion this year as she was making a significant attendance of her own! She was an award winner for her poem ‘Armistice Medical Saviours’, which she submitted to the Writing Armistice poetry competition. Over 600 entries were received, and the judge, Roy McFarlane, commented upon the variety and emotional intensity of the poems entered. The prizes were awarded at a ceremony at the National Army Museum, London, on 28 April, where all the winning poems were presented in a prize-winners’ anthology.
Fiona was awarded a Museum of Military Medicine Commendation for her poem ‘AMS (Army Medical Saviours or Army Medical Services)’
Fiona Mitford
AMS (Armistice Medical Saviours or Army Medical Services)
RAMC – oh what a Corps! Leishman and his Typhoid inoculation,
Oft in the midst of uproar, saved the lives of many by its application;
Gillies and his plastic surgery, Saved face for many disfigured,
Rib cartilage and subdividing artery, for two thousand and more, he delivered.
O’ Robertson, another medical man, developed blood banks at the front,
Transformed life-saving surgery, can be proud of his work at the battles’ brunt;
Welsh surgeon Owen Thomas, lent his name to a splint he designed, turned,
fractured femur mortality round, a risk reversed, an accolade earned.
Grey-Turner performed open-heart surgery in the field, attempted removal of a bullet,
Though not detached, he repaired circuitry, the man served in WW2 on the Home Front;
The bravest medical men of the time, rescued and saved so many,
Doctors oft cut down in their prime, VC’s awarded ... legendary!
Noble Allen, Green, Maling, Ranken, Russell, Scrimgeur and Sinton,
Albeit a short list, veiling, a VC their valour pertaining; Brave Chavasse and Leake awarded the Bar, the most
courageous Field-Doctors ever,
The small maroon ribbon and bronze star, oft’ awarded
Career Surgeon DGAMS Sloggett, worked both Home & War front,
Until illness beset, Keogh took home reins, no affront; Keogh had retired in 1910, came back for the war, Commanding AMS from then, his name immortalised
evermore.
What changed for women in the great War? The QA’s went from under three hundred,
To three-hundred-fold and more, every one of them war- encumbered;
The humble VAD, was another, In her smart apron and kindly chat,
Sometimes a child, wife, or mother, aided the binman or aristocrat.
Edith Cavell, “patriotism is not enough, I must have no hate in my heart,”
Saved many through neutral borders, made the ultimate sacrifice;
Treason made the Germans rough, a Firing squad caused her depart,
Much to the uproar of the world, her final price.
“My Leg nurse, can you scratch my foot? The pain is so unbearable ...
Wait ... where’s it gone? Oh darn, that’s unrepairable.” What options? Debridement, Carbolic or Bipp? “Please
Nurse hold my hand,
And help me on a ship, Home to Blighty-Land.”
© 2018 Fiona J Mitford
posthumously for endeavour.