- www.national.archives.gov.uk
- www.iwm.org.uk
- www.st-dunstans.org.uk
- www.iwm.org.uk A. W. Westmore and others, The Story of the 63rd Field Ambulance, 1928
- Rogers, A. F., 63rd Field Ambulance B section. GS 1378 Liddle Collection, University of Leeds
- A. W. Westmore, The Story of the 63rd Field Ambulance.
On the title page of their 1912 'desk-top' book, the writers don't give their names. Discovering who they were and where they came from was a slow and complex process. Until they could be identified, the 'Nomads' were given code-names. Alec Westmore was known as 'Straw Boater'. In every photo, 'Straw Boater' and 'Miss Gleave' were clearly inseparable. Census and street directory research traced them to the Liverpool suburb of West Derby. Boy and girl next door, the couple married on August 10th, 1914. Newly married, Alec didn't need to enlist. Initial recruiting campaigns targeted single men aged 18 - 30. Everybody knew it would all be over by Christmas. A search for Alec's name in the military records known as the 'Burnt Series' failed. The entire section where the name Westmore might be, is missing. Over two thirds of WWI service records for 'other ranks' were destroyed by bombing in WWII. Stored separately, Medal Cards survive, detailing medals awarded and brief service records. Alec served as a stretcher-bearer in the RAMC. Unlike Fred, who enlisted at once, Alec waited till February, 1915. (1)
Why did he wait for so many months? Could his sight be a problem? In the photos taken in France, Alec's wearing glasses. But most men who were determined to enlist managed to pass the sight test. During the first overwhelming rush to volunteer, cheating was easy. Kipling's son Jack, killed in 1915 at Loos, was both underage and like Kipling himself, extremely short-sighted.
Months of delay suggests thought. Joining the RAMC, Alec chose one of the most dangerous roles of all. Doctors, orderlies and stretcher-bearers didn't fight, but they were in constant danger, often working in the front line. Serving as a stretcher-bearer was an option for men whose religious or political beliefs ruled out combat. After conscription became law, the RAMC became increasingly unwilling to accept men who weren't prepared to fight. From 1917, RAMC officers and men could be ordered to carry arms. This didn't apply to those already serving overseas. Alec was entitled to remain unarmed.
Why volunteer at all? In February, 1915, married men were still officially exempted from military service. Many did volunteer, and later in the war, more married men than single were promising to serve. Many others had 'attested'. Officially, they joined the armed services. Then they were discharged to the reserves, on the understanding that they wouldn't be called up until the supply of single men had been exhausted. (2)
Discharged sick on April 23rd, 1918, Alec must have been very badly injured. After devastating Allied losses in the Spring Offensive, men who'd been injured two or three times were returning to the front. St Dunstan's has records of men who'd lost an eye returning to overseas service. (3)
Photographs above are copyright Imperial War Museum.
-
In 1919, as 'A.W.W.', Alev wrote articles for the Liverpool Courier, describing the work of a Field Ambulance Unit. A search of the Liverpool Record Office catalogue found this entry: 'A W Westmore and others... The story of the 63rd Field Ambulance, 2/2 West Lancashire Field Ambulance, 1914 - 1919' The publication date is 1928. The first seven chapters are based on A W W's 1919 articles for the Courier. 'Straw Boater', backpacking with his girlfriend through fields 'bright and gay with poppies' became, in his journalism and this book, one of the early historians of WWI. (4)
Whatever Alec's personal view of the war, the book isn't a treatise on patriotism or pacifism. The 63rd Field Ambulance had a job to do, caring for desperately injured young men. Alec isn't telling his own story. Although he appears in some photos, he never refers directly to his own role. He consulted original sources; the diaries and other records kept by his colleagues in the 63rd Ambulance, including his Medical Officer, Captain Greig, who would become a lifelong friend. Some of these records are in the Liddle Collection at the Brotherton Library, Leeds University and corroborate Alec's account. (5)
The 63rd Field Ambulance worked in the grimmest of conditions. In Alec's own book, one Imperial War Museum photo shows the '63rd' in operation at Mametz Wood on the Somme. Alec served as a stretcher-bearer in most of the terrible battles of WWI, Loos, the Somme, Arras, Passchendaele and the 1918 'Spring Offensive'. IWM photographs of Paschendaele show the conditions Alec describes at Chateau Wood, Clapham Junction and Glencorse Wood. They were taken during the 63rd Ambulance's active service at Passchendaele.
Describing the butchery of July 1st, 1916 and the desolation of Passchendaele, the brevity of Alec's account is powerful. The pain suffered by so many is laced with understated courage. War poets keen in the same minor key. Alec includes anarchic comedy suggesting lost episodes of 'Blackadder Goes Forth'. Military tactics are incidental, though Alec does give details of serious communication failures. The Field Ambulance war is always against suffering. For Alec and his colleagues, the nationality of their patients became irrelevant as they treated young men in agony. Alec himself never uses the derogatory terms 'Hun' or 'Boche' when referring to German soldiers, and he writes with compassion about German casualties. Learning that Alec Westmore had written for a Liverpool newspaper, the Liverpool Echo published a report about the 'Nomads', together with photos taken in France. Recognising his parents and their friends, Norman Westmore, Alec's younger son, contacted the paper. Norman offered vital gateway information, the key links which made the rest of this research project possible. (6)
Alec Westmore worked for Royal Insurance in Liverpool.