THE MEDICAL MEMORIES ROADSHOW
‘To understand where we are today
We have to know where we have come from’
WHO WORKED ON AN AMBULANCE TRAIN?
In 1915 I learned that it is possible to work for twenty-four hours or more at a stretch... and to use my strength in helping others rather than merely in playing games.
Paul Cadbury, orderly
Each ambulance train could carry 500 passengers and was run by up to 50 staff. The majority of these were orderlies, who fetched water, changed dressings, fed the passengers, and cleaned the train.
There would also be three medical officers, who checked each soldier on to the train and decided their treatment, and two or three nurses, who gave patients skilled medical care. In addition to medical staff, each train had chefs working in the kitchen car to keep everybody fed.
The proportion of staff to casualties on a First World War ambulance train.
​
Working on an ambulance train was difficult, dirty and dangerous. For every new load of passengers, there was a long list of jobs to be done. Staff regularly worked through the night to make sure their patients were given the care they needed.
They ran the constant risk of catching lice or infectious diseases, and of being bombed.