Guest Post: Irish Medical Involvement in the First World War

 

On the outbreak of the First World War, the Director General of Britain's Royal Army Medical Corps and the Royal Navy immediately issued letters to the Dean and Registrar of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland requesting that they recommend young qualified practitioners to volunteer for service in the Allied medical forces. However, the Directors received a response stating that while the College acknowledged the appeal, they regretted that they were 'unable to furnish any names of candidates at the present time'. This was indicative of the initial response of Ireland's medical profession to the First World War. The Royal College of Physicians' archive material provides a great insight into this initial reaction and helps chronicle the development of attitudes among Ireland's medical personnel towards Irish involvement in the conflict, 1914-1918.

To combat the lethargic reaction among Ireland's medical profession, an Irish Medical War Committee was established in 1915 as a regional subsidiary to a Central Medical War Committee in Britain. The Central group relied upon local organisations, like the Irish Committee, to determine which practitioners were eager to enlist and to encourage the less eager to partake. The Irish group consisted of various prominent medical professionals including the President of the RCPI, President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland and the President of University College Dublin. Their establishment appears to have been instrumental in increasing the number of Irish medical enlistments.

In a letter to the British Medical Journal in December 1916, Maurice Hayes, Fellow of the RCPI and Honorary Secretary of the Committee, reminded the profession that 'there was no compulsion in the matter of recruiting in Ireland, yet the Irish were now more than doing their bit'. He referenced a letter received from the Central Committee, which commended the 'patriotism' of Irish doctors and congratulated the Irish group on the steady flow of volunteers it was enlisting.

The Kirkpatrick Index (a collection of newspaper cuttings and manuscript notes relating to nearly 10,000 Irish medical practitioners from the seventeenth century to the 1950s collected by Dr T P C Kirkpatrick) records the biographical details of a considerable number of this steady flow of volunteers. These records contain various details including, rank, date of enlistment and honours received. During the conflict, Irish medical men and women acted as medical officers, surgeons, nurses, and worked in field ambulance divisions, casualty-clearing stations and in the specialised war hospitals established throughout Ireland to assist in the treatment of invalided veterans. The Kirkpatrick index shows that a significant proportion of Irish medical personnel enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps throughout the First World War and participated in all areas of care.

When hostilities ceased, many Irish medical personnel returned to Ireland. However, not all returned home. A number of Irish medical professionals were killed in action. Their previous places of employment opted to remember them by creating rolls of honour. The RCPI Archive holds the Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital Roll of Honour, which includes the names, qualifications, rank and regiment of those associated with the hospital who participated in the First World War.



My current project has benefited greatly from the RCPI Heritage Centre Archive. The collections referenced are just a small proportion of the material available and a visit to the archive is essential for those interested in the history of the Irish medical profession.