Pages from the diary of Lieutant Boyd (sent to the Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald) - Part 1

48PR82/8
From
MacMacmanus
"Castlereagh"
Gilgandra.

Following is a continuation
of Lieut. Boyds diary-

April 5^th Two days ago our whole
unit came on to their new billets,
which is a farm. The men sleep in
the barn & the officers in the loft.
We collected wounded at night,
but everything was very quiet,
there being practically no rifle
fire, & not a single shell, in fact
it was quite dull, especially
as the rain descended in torrents
the whole time. The weather has
quite broken down, & we have
heavy rain every day, so the

Flemish mud has appeared in plenty.
Yesterday, being Easter Sunday,
we had a special church parade
in a barn, the roof of which
was in a very rocky condition
from shell fire. It was a day of
rain and mud, very different
43

44
to last Easter Sunday, which I 
spent in glorious sunshine on
the cliffs at Land's end, but for

all that I enjoyed it very much.
At midday I received a profound
disappointment, for the C.O. told
me I had to take over the infectious
disease hospital at Bailleul
which does all the work for the
___ army. I was very much
cast down, because I had set
my heart on Field work, & wanted
some more mid-night shell = dodging
expeditions. However I am now
quite reconciled, for it will probably
be only for a few weeks, and I
am in entire charge of this
show, in fact i am now "C.C.
Infectious Hospital & no longer a
mere subaltern. I have brought
10 of our own men, & I am re-

- sponsible for everything-
treatment, disinfection, rationing,
patients & my staff, sending
in returns to big wigs etc.
One of the first things I did

45
on arriving was to lumbar
puncture a doubtful cerebre
spinal meningitis. Fortunately
M^cNee, the Mobile lab. bacteriologist

is close to this place,
& I hope to see a lot of him.
I am going to have tea with him
in half an hour's time. By
the way, I noticed in some
illustrated "rag" ("Daily Sketch"
I think) pictures of ruined
churches & broken crucifixes,
with such headings as "How
the Huns keep Easter". Such
rot simply sickens me. As
if artillery firing at 3 miles

range could be held
responsible for damage to a
wayside crucifix, & the ruined
church was quite as likely
hit by our own shells,
for every church tower is used
as an artillery observation
post.

46
April 8^th I have been having
a great time at my infectious
hospital, & am enjoying
myself down to the ground,
for I have not been so busy
since we were mobilized.
The accomodation is very
limited, only 18 beds for
infectious cases distributed

amongst 6 rooms, & a small
farm for cerebo spinal meningitis
suspects & contacts. Cases keep
pouring in day & night; & at

one time, we had cases of the
following diseases:- measles,
German measles, mumps,
scarlet fever, diptheria,
typhoid, & cerebo spinal meningitis.
There is a regular epidemic
of measles raging between
Bailleul & Ypres, & the great
problem which confronts me
each day is how to evacuate
the cases, for the ambulance
train will never take more

47
than one type of infectious case.
When I am very hard pressed,
I wire to the D.M.S. for an Ambulance
convoy. I find my bacteriolological
knowledge & apparatus extremely
useful. For instance a man
was admitted today suffering
from sore throat. while he was
still at the door I took a swab
of his throat, in 5 minutes the
slide was under the
microscope & a diagnosis of
diptheria made, & in 20 
minutes he was in bed &
antitoxin injected. Three
days ago the ambulance
brought a patient to the door.
His face was very inflamed
& on the cheek were a number
of pustules. I pricked one of 
these, made a slide, found
numbers of anthrax bacilli,
diagnosed the case as anthrax
& at once sent the case down 
to St. Omer for surgical & serum
treatment. A man is admitted
with headache & stiffness

48
of the neck. In a quarter of
an hour a lumbar puncture
is done, & one at once knows if
the case is meningitis or not.
An obscure case of diarrhoea is
admitted, & a blood examination

at once determines
the question of typhoid. It
keeps me busy from morning
to night but it is most
interesting work.
April 13^th It is quite an age
since I made an entry in this
diary, because nothing startling
has happened. Now that something
startling has happened I
take up my pen again. We
came here on Easter Sunday
10 days ago, & since then we

have had plenty of work
with lots of interest. This is
essentially a clearing hospital,
that is to say we must get
the patients out as quickly as possible.

49
We have only 18 beds and as
we get 50 cases during the week
it is evident that the process
of evacuation has to be rapid
& thorough. Every day an
ambulance train leaves
the town, but it has only
one coach for infectious
cases, & will only take one class
of disease. So that if I have
four cases of measles ,three
German measles, two scarlet
fever, three mumps, 2 diptheria
an enteric & one or two other
cases. It is somewhat difficult
to get rid of them. In such a
case I wire to the D.M.S.,
A.X.^D. M.S etc. I have had
visits from all sorts of
important people, but as
far as I am concerned the
most important was Sir
Wilmot Herringham,
one of the consulting physicians

50
to the B.E.F., who strolls
about giving advice, in
return for which he gets
f5000 a year. Herringham
discovered that I had been
doing some work here, and
at once pounced upon me,
for he was looking for
someone to do pathology.
I told him however I was out
for field work. Next day
M^cNee met him at St. Omer
& he asked him all about me
Yesterday Sir William Levisham
came over to interview me
and he is going to talk the
matter over with Herringham.
I think that it is allowable
now for me to say that the
town I am in is Bailleul.
That is certainly a fact of.