Naval Medical Operations at Kingston During the War of 1812

Canadian Military History Volume 18 Issue 1 Article 5 2009 Naval Medical Operations at Kingston during the War of 1812 Gareth A. Newfield Canadian War Museum, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh Part of the Military History Commons Recommended Citation Newfield, Gareth A. "Naval Medical Operations at Kingston during the War of 1812." Canadian Military History 18, 1 (2009) This Canadian War Museum is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Canadian Military History by an authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Newfield: Naval Medical Operations Naval Medical Operations at Kingston during the War of 1812 Gareth Newfield ritish naval medicine in Kingston, Furthermore, operations in Europe Frederick, immediately across the BOntario is a peripheral and against Napoleonic France dominated Cataraqui River commencing shortly seldom-explored aspect of the War the medical resources of the British afterwards. Little effort, however, of 1812 on the Great Lakes. Men Army and Royal Navy for much of was made to provide the Marine hospitalized ashore disappeared the war against the United States. Department with its own medical from history, and consequently our Medical officers at the Kingston infrastructure. As a division of the understanding of the circumstances and Point Frederick shore hospitals British Army rather than the Royal and conditions under which they faced shortages of facilities, staff Navy, its seamen were expected received medical care is quite poor. and supplies throughout the War of to rely upon the military hospital The practice of naval medicine 1812. Many of these issues were not (erected by the Loyalists in 1783) in in Upper Canada was beset with fully rectified until the conclusion Kingston. Throughout the 1790s, plans adversity. Makeshift arrangements of hostilities and mortality rates to erect a dedicated naval hospital instituted before the war created amongst patients were often high. Yet naval medical infrastructure in the grim realities of naval medical care Résumé : Durant la guerre de 1812, Kingston which was far from in Kingston were the consequence of la pratique de la médecine navale à robust, and was often unequal to adverse circumstances, not inadequate Kingston (alors quartier général des forces navales britanniques dans le secteur des the demands of an active conflict. treatment by naval surgeons. Grands Lacs) fut semée d’embûches. Abstract: Throughout the War of 1812 the This article explores naval Sous la dépendance de l’armée pendant practice of naval medicine in Kingston (the medicine in Kingston during the War de nombreuses années, les ressources headquarters of British naval forces on of 1812 in terms of the development médicales de la marine provinciale étaient the Great Lakes) was beset with adversity. of hospital infrastructure, personnel, infimes en plus d’être aux prises avec des problèmes de plus en plus nombreux Dependent for years upon the army, the logistics, quality of care, and Provincial Marine’s medical resources à mesure que s’accroissaient les forces were minimal, with problems increasing effectiveness. Drawing heavily upon de la Royal Navy dans le secteur. Les exponentially after the expansion of the primary sources, it seeks to shed chirurgiens de la marine eurent à faire face Royal Navy’s forces on the lakes in early new light on naval medical activities à une pénurie constante de personnel, de 1813. Naval surgeons in Kingston faced ashore in order to foster a greater fournitures, d’installations et de services. almost constant shortages of personnel, Ils travaillaient dans des situations understanding of the conditions under supplies and facilities, issues which were pénibles, qui ne s’améliorèrent qu’à la not fully resolved until the very end of the which medical officers laboured to toute fin de la guerre. Et, bien que la war. Yet although the standard of care provide effective treatment to British qualité des soins dispensés dans ces under these conditions has earned a poor and Canadian naval forces on the conditions ait eu mauvaise réputation, reputation in the past, naval medical Great Lakes.1 les officiers de santé de la marine avaient officers in fact strove to ensure the fait leur possible pour assurer le confort comfort and recovery of their patients. et le rétablissement de leurs patients. Cet This article follows the development of The Question of Space article est consacré au développement de naval medical infrastructure in Kingston l’infrastructure de la médecine navale à during the conflict, demonstrating that ingston was selected as the Kingston pendant le conflit et montre que, despite adverse circumstances the care headquarters of the nascent malgré les circonstances défavorables, K les soins qui y étaient prodigués étaient provided was often both sophisticated Provincial Marine in 1789, with and effective. souvent à la fois élaborés et efficaces. construction of a dockyard at Point © Canadian Military History, Volume 18, Number 1, Winter 2009, pp.37-47. 37 Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2009 1 Canadian Military History, Vol. 18 [2009], Iss. 1, Art. 5 were rejected several times owing to a During the fall of 1805 the naval the Marine Department sought lack of resources, as well as objections hospital was temporarily abandoned additional medical facilities closer to from local inhabitants over the and its patients moved into barracks the dockyard but its limited resources potential communication of disease in the town owing to problems with restricted options. As a temporary to the town, and the indiscipline of the building’s upkeep.7 By 1809 measure, the hulk of the HMS Duke the Marine Department’s personnel.2 these makeshift arrangements had of Kent (the Marine Department’s Nonetheless, by 1799 separate military so aggravated the local inhabitants, oldest and most decrepit vessel) was and naval hospitals existed within who generally opposed the presence employed as a hospital.9 Resting in Kingston.3 The latter was presumably of military hospitals within the the mud at the dockyard and moored the structure on the west bank of town, that they lobbied Governor- to shore, this impromptu facility was the Cataraqui River identified on an General Sir James Craig for the far from a ideal, although it remained 1816 map of Kingston (by Lieutenant removal of the garrison hospital in use well into 1813.10 Over the (RN) A.T.E. Vidal) as the “Old Naval because the Provincial Marine had course of the severe winter of 1812- Hospital.”4 Details of its construction used it almost exclusively for years. 1813, these ad hoc arrangements are unknown, although an inventory Indeed, they argued there was “a became increasingly unsatisfactory indicates it possessed wards for much more convenient and healthy as sick rates among naval personnel officers and enlisted seamen, a place for an Hospital for Seamen” increased. The Provincial Marine’s receiving room for new patients, as at Point Frederick, “contiguous to main hospital was geographically well as accommodations for the staff, their Vessels and Barracks.”8 Craig, isolated from the dockyard, and supply rooms and a morgue.5 however, rejected the petition, and both it and the decaying Duke of Throughout the first decade of both hospitals remained in use by Kent required constant repair. The the 19th century this modest facility naval personnel. hospital had become so dilapidated was frequently unable to provide At the commencement of by 1814 that the entire roof had to be adequate accommodations for the hostilities with the United States in “speedily” replaced in order to ensure Provincial Marine’s patients. In May June 1812, Kingston became a key the comfort of its patients.11 Clearly 1805 another storey was added to strategic garrison, supply and transit the naval medical establishment the town’s military hospital in order point for the British Army in Upper required better quarters. to provide additional space for Canada. It was also the primary In May 1813, Commodore Sir seamen, as the Marine Department headquarters and depot for British James Yeo of the Royal Navy arrived outnumbered Kingston’s small naval forces on the Great Lakes, at Kingston to assume operational peacetime garrison at the time.6 although smaller establishments control on the Great Lakes from existed at York and Niagara. the Provincial Marine following its As a result of the war the lacklustre performance against the strength of the Kingston’s Americans in 1812. He immediately garrison, and thus its ordered a complete reorganization medical needs increased of naval infrastructure, including and the Provincial Marine medical arrangements. Captain was forced to relinquish Richard O’Conor, given command use of the military hospital of the dockyard, accordingly sought to the army. As a result, to concentrate naval medical facilities at Point Frederick. Plans for “a Naval Hospital on Point Frederick, to contain Detail of “Plan of Kingston One Hundred Men” were solicited and It’s [sic] Vicinity (etc.)” by United Kingdom Hydrographic Office, B 718 B Office, Hydrographic Kingdom United in the Kingston Gazette on 8 June Lieutenant (Royal Navy) A.T.E. 12 Vidal, 1816, showing the location 1813. Until 2007, historians assumed of the pre-war naval hospital on this stone building survived as the the bank of the Cataraqui River residence of the commandant of the at the upper left. Following the Royal Military College of Canada.13 relocation of infrastructure to In fact, the new hospital proposed by Point Frederick in 1815 this building was utilised as a spare O’Conor was a substantial two-storey storehouse, as indicated on the wooden-framed structure, and was map. located immediately northwest of the modern residence.14 This building 38 https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol18/iss1/5 2 Newfield: Naval Medical Operations appears in a number of mid-19th Commodore Sir James Lucas Yeo, century artworks, including Henry commander of British naval forces on Francis Ainslie’s 1839 watercolour of the Great Lakes between 1813 and Fort Henry.

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