Art Treasures of Kinloch Castle: August 2022

THE PORTLAND HOSPITAL

ANGLO-BOER WAR

A MOBILE FIELD HOSPITAL SENT-OUT BY VOLUNTARY SUBSCRIPTION
TO ALLEVIATE THE SUFFERING OF WOUNDED AND SICK DURING
THE ANGLO-BOER WAR 11 OCTOBER 1899 - 30 MAY 1902.

INTRODUCTION:

Please read notes at end of this post, thank you!

Above: Surgeon Stoker's letter to The Times - 13 October 1899.

The mobile hospital was named The Portland Hospital,

after its principal benefactor, the Sixth Duke of Portland.

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Report of the Committee of the Portland Hospital – 1901

George W. Randall Research and Photographic Archive

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“The strength of the Portland Hospital was forty-one, including sisters and servants.”

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MEDICAL AND SURGICAL STAFF

OF THE PORTLAND HOSPITAL

Anthony Bowlby, F.R.C.S., Senior Surgeon

Howard Tooth, M.D., F.R.C.P. : Cuthbert Wallace, M.B., B.S., F.R.C.S.

Joseph Calverley, M.B., B.S., M.R.C.S.

Surgeon-Colonel Kilkelly, Grenadier Guards, Principal Medical Officer and in Military Charge.

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Unidentified Sister.
(Carston, Godfray or Harland - ?)

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Each sister was in charge of three wards helped by three orderlies.

In addition there were two Enteric Wards, (Numbers 16 and 18), wholly devoted

to this little understood at the time and frequently fatal infectious disease caused

by the bacterium, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi.

Leaving Cape Town on 8 April 1900 the Portland Hospital relocated from Rondebosch to Bloemfontein by train where it arrived on 14 April 1900.

Two horse Tonga.

STATISTICS OF THE 303 SURGICAL CASES.

The treed background suggests Rondebosch., near Cape Town.

Unidentified location. Most likely Bloemfontein.

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THE PORTLAND HOSPITAL ADMITTED 1,009 OFFICERS AND MEN.

OF THESE 37 DIED * 159 REURNED TO DUTY

303 WERE DISCHARGED TO CONVALESCENT CAMPS OR HOSPITALS

98 WENT TO ENGLAND

AND 412 WERE TRANSFERRED TO OTHER HOSPITALS AT THE BASE.

OF THE 303 SURGICAL CASES ADMITTED TO PORTLAND HOSPITAL

THREE DIED - ONE OF THEM AN OFFICER WHO HAD BEEN SHOT THROUGH THE LUNG AND SPINAL CORD AND PARALYSED FROM THE NECK DOWNWARDS.

ANOTHER WAS A MAN SHOT THROUGH THE BRAIN,

THE THIRD A PATIENT WHO DIED FROM GANGRENE.

ALL OTHER PATIENTS RECOVERED AND NONE REQUIRED AMPUTATION.

MOST PATIENTS WERE TREATED IN THE OPEN AIR,

TENT WERE NEVER CROWDED, NEARLY ALL WOUNDS HEALED WITHOUT SUPPURATION AND THERE WERE NO CASES OF ERYSIPELAS

OR OTHER FORMS OF SEPTIC POISONING.

(Report of the Portland Hospital (Page 71)

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“THANK YOU!”

(An unframed, unglazed print found damaged in a loft at Kinloch Castle by the author.)

Signature on print above - lower left corner.

REFERENCES:

The Boer War Eversley Belfield 1975

The Boer and Britisher in South Africa John Ormond Neville 1900

The Boer War Winston Churchill 1991

The Boer War Thomas Packenham 1979

The Times History of the War in South Africa (First Edition) 6 volumes + Index

South Africa and the Transvaal War Louis Creswick 1900

Go to Your God Like a Soldier Ian Knight 1996

The Battle at Majuba Hill Oliver Ransford 1968

Thank God We Kept the Flag Flying - the Siege and Relief of Ladysmith 1899 - 1900

Kenneth Griffith 1975

The Great Anglo Boer War Byron Farwell 1976

The Origins and early use of radiology in South Africa before 1899

J. C. de Villiers, Emeritus Professor of Neurosurgery, University of Cape Town.

Principal source:

The Report of the Committee of the Portland Hospital

Published by John Murray, Albemarle Street, London, in 1901,
and printed by Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh, for private distribution
among the subscribers only.
(A copy of which is in the Library at Kinloch Castle.)

Quotations in the text taken from the the Report.