What did George do - and where did he do it?

[Sheila M]

Thanks for that link scrimnet.  I did indeed find it very interesting and it adds weight to my theory that although George may indeed have been in a gas attack he didn't suffer any immediate effect (as you say, many soldiers were, and with little or no ill effect).

I wonder whether he contracted pneumonia (or some other ailment) on his return to England and had a lung removed after his demob?    That would certainly explain why he only had one lung and why he subsequently succumbed to an attack of pneumonia in the 1930s.

What are your thoughts on that?  Or, yet again am I barking up the wrong tree? 

I think once I know where his unit were posted to, it may give me more clues as to what may have happened to him.

[scrimnet]

Yet again I will go back to my earlier thought...I still reckon TB...And I sill reckon it was "deflated" not removed...The pneumonia would have taken such a weakened chap...

[kizmiaz]

Thanks for that explanation scrimnet - extremely helpful.  However, we have been to see my husband's aunt today and she is adamant that her father was gassed in France and had a lung removed in France.

He died in the 1930s from pneumonia.

Looking at his service history, I don't think he had time to have a lung removed.

Do you think it might have been a case that the story was told that "he went to war and came back with only one lung", and it may have been assumed that this meant his lung was removed, rather than just severely damaged or no longer functioning.

I have found several family stories where the basic facts have been slightly skewed by the telling of the story, and a bit of a different interpretation could lead to a completely different end result.

I wonder if the same may have happened here.

Just a suggestion

Glen

[scrimnet]

Glen, I totally agree and this is the line I have been taking with this...

Though I am still opined he came back more or less "intact"

Family oral history is a bit like a newspaper report...Never let the (now forgotten) facts get in the way of a good (family) story!

All I can say is did you ever play Chinese Whispers??!!

 
 

[Sheila M]

Glen and scrimnet - I think we are all singing from the same hymn sheet now!

I suspect scrimnet's version of things is correct.

According to George's daughter, the cause of death on his Death Certificate was pneumonia - and that was in the 1930s.

Her story was that he got pneumonia, had a couple of days off work and then got double pneumonia which killed him.   Of course, that again could be pure conjecture because she was only a small girl when he died.

Interesting as this conversation about George's health is  we seem to have wandered some way off my original question, which was what did George do and where did he do it?

[scrimnet]

You're not going to like this....

Double pneumonia is where BOTH lungs are affected!!

 

[Sheila M]

You're not going to like this....

Double pneumonia is where BOTH lungs are affected!!

 

Oh dear, that will upset the family!

Those damned Chinese have a lot of things to answer for with all their whispering dontcha think?

I think we can safely say then that George got through the whole of WW1 totally unscathed?

[scrimnet]

Quite probably...

As for your initial question, I'll go through the units mentioned when I have five mins...

[Sheila M]

Cheers scrimnet - much appreciated!