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

[scrimnet]

There always have been Regimental Siganallers... The Royal Engineers provided the bulk and major equipment up until the Royal Corps of Signals were formed....

So yes Phil mate!

[Sheila M]

The other interesting thing about George is that one of his daughters is adamant that he was gassed and lost a lung.  Surely, if he was gassed he would have been invalided out before 1919?  His records certainly make no mention of any medical issues.

[scrimnet]

He could have lost a lung later in life as removal / deflation was the standard treatment for TB up to the advent of sulphonamides in the 1960s. The procedure was known as a "thoracoplasty" where ribs from the back were removed and he lung seen to...

[Sheila M]

He could have done scrimnet but the family have always maintained he was gassed in France.     I've not found any medical records to prove or disprove the family story.

[scrimnet]

Most soldiers were at some point or another "gassed"...

But what happened next depended upon the speed of the soldier in putting on his protection...

After the first gas attacks, varying designs of respirator were produced via the P, PH hoods (basically an impregnated hood one had to wee on to activate with a cellulose "window") through to the SBR...The Small Box Respirator...Which was very effective against non persistent forms...For persistent  agents, the PH hood was used as it covered the skin on the head.

And with these anti gas measures, very few injuries were incurred after the first attacks...The gas attacks just became an annoyance...though a deadly one.

[Sheila M]

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.

[scrimnet]

He would have been laid up for the remainder of the war, and beyond....!!

There is nothing in any of the WW1 medical books (text or history) I have that mentions removal of a lung in the field.

Surely any "gas" would have affected both lungs equally??

Did you find his records in the "burnt series" or did you find him in the pension records??

[Sheila M]

I found his records in Pension Records on Ancestry, hence my initial question of what did he do and where did he do it.

I have now decided that George may well have had a lung removed but it certainly didn't happen in France and definitely not before 1919.

Oddly enough, George isn't the only person who claims to have been gassed and had a lung removed.  My ex-husband's grandfather also maintained he'd been gassed and had a lung removed somewhere in France.   Wasn't there a military hospital at Rouen?

[scrimnet]

Yes there was...No's 3,5 and 6 General Hospitals...

I have been through my WW1 medical text books, and an yet to find references to lungs being removed.

The first successful, full "radical" pneumonectomy wasn't until 1946, although a dissection lobectomy was done in 1912.

You may find this interesting....

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Use-of-poison-gas-in-World-War-I