History 131 Helping St George: the Royal Naval Medical Service at Zeebrugge, 22-23 April 1918 JVS Wickenden, D Walsh

May we give the dragon’s tail a damn good twist – Capt. AF success lay in combining a land-based with an amphibious at- Carpenter, RN, VINDICTIVE tack. By May 1917 a project called the “Great Landing” was under discussion, with the intent of linking an amphibious at- Abstract tack with British advances around Ypres. These land advanc- es culminated in the Battle of Passchendaele, Third Ypres, in On the night of 22-23 April 1918, the Zeebrugge Raid, part of which the Royal Naval Division (RND) and its medical staff Operation Z.O., took place. This historical article gives some were heavily involved:2 it was failure in this battle that led to context to the raid and its purpose, studies the medical provi- the withdrawal of the plan for the “Great Landing”. sion for and experience during the raid, and tells the stories of the medical staff involved. On 12 May 1917, the RN bombarded Zeebrugge from behind smokescreens, to little effect;1 it was decided that isolated long- Introduction: the background range bombardment was not the best method of attack. Then, By 1918, German U-boats were sinking up to 30% of the ship- on 1 Jan 1918, Vice Admiral Roger Keyes was appointed to ping lost in British waters; they berthed in shelters at Bruges, command the Dover Patrol. He was a man who believed in of- which were safe from attack because bombing was still in its in- fensive action “to the point of recklessness”1 and realised that fancy, and bombs were small and inaccurate. In a wider context, British morale, particularly in the RN, needed raising. He began this had issues in terms of access to the eastern end of the Eng- by introducing illumination of the mine and net barrage north of lish Channel. At the beginning of October 1914, the Royal Navy Ostend, which forced the U-boats downward and into danger. (RN) had laid mine barrages north of Ostend in response to the German march through Belgium; however, no effort had been The plan and the target made to close the ports, as the war was expected to be short. The The idea of using blockships at the harbours of Zeebrugge Dover Patrol, including aircraft of the Royal Naval Air Service and Ostend had been raised before, and the ease with which (RNAS), was set up to counter the Marinekorps Flandern and to these harbours silted up made the idea particularly attractive. keep the Channel ports clear for the British Expeditionary Force. Vice Admiral Keyes picked up on the idea, and by 24 February 1918, final plans for Operation Z.O. had been submitted. The 26 destroyers of the Marinekorps Flandern carried out con- aim was to deny the use of the ports to 38 submarines and 28 stant attacks on the mine barrages, and were spotted by the torpedo boats, plus 30 destroyers. To this was added, later, the RNAS, and later by the Royal Air Force (RAF), making the need to achieve psychological dominance over the Germans 40-mile transit from Bruges to Zeebrugge.1 The danger from to counter the success of their Spring 1918 offensive. The first them was compounded when, at the beginning of 1917, the objective of the plan as it affected Zeebrugge was to capture Germans moved to unrestricted submarine warfare, more than the fortified seaward end of the Mole, disable the German guns doubling Allied shipping losses in the first four months of the and distract notice from the arrival of the blockships, which year. On April 6, 1917, the United States (US) declared war would then be sunk in such a way as to close the harbour. on Germany and a convoy system was introduced, with the US Navy providing escorts and thus reducing the number of The Mole was 30-45 feet above sea level depending on the unprotected targets. In addition, British advantages in signals state of the tide, but on its inner side and four feet below the intelligence put the U-boats at risk of counter-attack; never- parapet, 16 feet above the Mole’s main surface, was a walk- theless, losses were still large, as the U-boats, based like the way, while at the shoreward end was a lattice steel viaduct destroyers in Bruges, took to picking ships off closer to the through which the ebbing tide scoured away the silt which English coast where there was more shipping and less convoy tended to build up in the harbour. Access to the Mole could cover. Meanwhile German cruisers, which refuelled at Zee- only be gained from the land by crossing this viaduct. brugge, were attacking ships of the Dover Patrol. The plan was for the leading blockship to ram the outer gate of Countering the threat the harbour and be sunk in the entrance of the lock leading to the An Ostend landing was first proposed when the Germans oc- Bruges canal; the other two blockships were to be sunk in over- cupied the town in 1915. However, when the occupying forc- lapping positions in the navigable channel across the harbour. es moved their heavy guns to the coast, RN sea-power alone In addition, since it was across the viaduct that any German re- became less effective, and it was felt that the best chance of inforcements would arrive, it was decided to destroy this weak 132 Journal of the Royal Naval Medical Service 2018; 104(2)

­addition of extra guns and a wooden boarding platform with 14 narrow, hinged brows attached to facilitate speedy access to the Mole. In addition, her foretop was converted to a fight- ing-top, manned by the Royal Marine Artillery (RMA).

HMS IRIS (II) and HMS DAFFODIL were designated as two other attack ships in order not to concentrate the entire attacking force on VINDICTIVE. They were taken up from the Mersey ferry run, and given additional protection with a combination of armour plate and mattresses.3

THETIS, INTREPID and IPHIGENIA, blockships, had been converted by Chatham Dockyard personnel. They were each filled with concrete and each primed with four 45lb TNT charges.

C1 and C3 submarines were tasked with destroying the Mole viaduct. Each carried 5 tons of Amatol, and towed a boat in which the crew could abandon ship.

Other RN vessels involved were monitors EREBUS and TER- ROR, mine-sweepers operating round them, escort ships, five destroyers zig-zagging round the fleet as a screen against U-boats, motor launches (MLs) and coastal motor boats, as well as a covering force farther out in readiness to intercept any German destroyer sortie.

Medical preparations aboard VINDICTIVE The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of the raid wrote of the medical preparations for and experiences during Op Z.O. in an Figure 1: A sketch of the Mole, showing the Marinekorps Flandern­ article published in this Journal in 1919.4 Medical preparations installations.The viaduct is in the lower left corner. [Crown were also detailed in the post-raid report: ­copyright] “Preparations were made to utilise the mess deck, port side link using submarines packed with explosive. With fuses on the (which would be the sheltered side) for the accommodation of explosive and gyro controls on board, these could be left to run wounded, and arrangements were also made for the supply of for target unguided once the crew had abandoned them. necessary medical comforts ... In addition to the ample supply of dressings and medical appliances in the dressing stations, Tide and time requirements for the plan involved high tide to first-aid bags containing ready-cut dressings, tourniquets, burn facilitate access to the Mole parapet; a night with no moon so dressings, &c. were placed at all the guns, in the foretop, con- that all vessels could approach in darkness; and a northerly ning tower, and engine-rooms, Neil-Robertson stretchers were wind. The wind direction had gained added importance since placed on the upper deck, in the foretop, engine-rooms and Wing Commander Frank Brock, formerly of the RNAS but by boiler-rooms, and every man on board the ship was supplied the time of the raid an officer of the RAF, had become involved with a first field dressing.”5 Gas masks were provided for all with the planning of the raid, and devised a system of artificial officers and men. smoke production to prevent the British approach from being seen by look-outs in Zeebrugge; this was very much in his The personnel line, as he was a director of the family firm, Brock & Sons, Rear-Admiral Keyes noted in his memoirs the eagerness of manufacturers of fireworks. his officers to take part in the raid (apart from one who took some persuading), but he was also keen to involve men from The plan was approved by the Admiralty, with full acknowl- as many divisions of the service as possible: “Drawn as this edgement that the effect on the morale of British forces was an force is from the Grand Fleet, the Harwich Force, the Dover important factor in the decision. Patrol, the Three Depots [Portsmouth, Plymouth, Chatham], and the Royal Marine Artillery [RMA] and Light Infantry The ships [RMLI], it is thoroughly representative of our Service.”6 Also HMS VINDICTIVE, a 6000-ton cruiser, carried the main present were personnel (including Wing Cdr Brock) from the attacking force. She was converted to an assault role by the Admiralty Experimental Stations, the Royal Australian Navy History 133 and the British Army, while French sailors served as crew in a passage for the incoming vessels. Next, a projected raid on some of the supporting ships. the night of the 11-12 April was called off when a wind change would have made the planned smokescreen ineffectual; the next Few of the officers had experience of heavy fighting ashore. attempt after that was foiled by bad weather. With the military The men of the attacking forces, however, had been intensive- situation worsening, the decision was made not to wait for the ly trained, as recorded by Lt. F.J. Hore, RMLI: “The 4th Bat- next coincidence of high tide and dark moon, but to sail on the talion, R.M., consisting of three Companies R.M.L.I. (from night of the 22-23 April, the next high tide. Since that was also Chatham, Portsmouth and Plymouth respectively), of How- the next full moon, an effective smokescreen was even more itzer and Stokes Gun details, R.M.A., and Machine Gun Sec- essential, and was installed on additional­ destroyers.­ tion, assembled at Deal on the 22nd and 23rd February. For about a month a stiff course of training was carried out. So On 22 April, the first ships left the Swin anchorage at 1300, well had the secret of the contemplated raid been kept that joining the Dover forces by 1700.1 On the next leg of the voyage only on embarkation did the men learn that the “stunt” was not submarine C1 broke down, and had to turn back. The effect of what they had been led to believe - a raid on a dry canal bed the full moon was mitigated by fog and drizzle, which reduced in the north of France, but actually the Mole at Zeebrugge.”7 visibility to a mile, while thanks to the extensive rehearsals sig- nalling could be kept to a minimum. Aboard VINDICTIVE, at Medical personnel 2300 “Action Stations was sounded and all the landing units assembled on the upper deck. A section of the first-aid party CMO for the Zeebrugge raid was Staff Surgeon James Mc- were immediately detailed to clean the port mess deck, unship Cutcheon, VINDICTIVE, in charge of the after dressing sta- all mess tables, and arrange mattresses and blankets for the re- tion in the warrant officers’ flat below the wardroom. Under ception of the wounded, all medical parties went to their allotted his command were:5, 8 stations, while cooks prepared hot bovril and soups.”5 Surgeon Henry St.C. Colson, to go ashore with the landing The smokescreen was started at 2310. At 2330, monitors HMS party on the Mole. EREBUS and HMS TERROR opened long-range fire from their 15-in guns; it had been intended that there should be RAF Surgeon William L. Glegg, to organise stretcher bearers be- support, but this was prevented by the atmospheric conditions; tween the Mole and VINDICTIVE, but stationed before the and at that moment, the wind veered southerly, and blew the landing with one Sick Berth Rating (SBR) and two stretcher smokescreen away from the defending forces to the attacking parties, under the orders of Chaplain Charles J.E. Peshall, RN, ships and out to sea. Until then the Germans seem to have in the flat abaft the foremost dressing station. assumed that the British fire was no more than another sea-to- shore bombardment, for there was no return of fire until 2345, Surgeon J.F.M. ‘Jack’ Payne from Tasmania, in the foremost more-or-less when the wind changed direction. The raid was dressing station below the stokers’ bag flat aboard VINDIC- by now within a few hundred yards of its first target, having TIVE. penetrated 25 miles of the German defensive zone. By 2350, casualties were already being carried into VINDICTIVE’s Surgeon Frank Pocock, IRIS (II), an exception among the first-aid stations. The ship, putting on speed to get under cov- raid’s naval officers, having had experience of intensive fight- er of the Mole, came alongside at 0001, one minute after her ing. He had been awarded a Military Cross (MC) after tending projected time. to the wounded under three days’ continuous bombardment when serving with Drake Battalion RND at Passchendaele The success of the smokescreen and other deception manoeu- in 1917. vres meant that VINDICTIVE was exposed to gunfire for a relatively brief period, but the change of wind and her sub- Additional medical staff aboard VINDICTIVE were: SB sequent increase in speed had other consequences; although Steward (SBS) Arthur Ernest Page, SBR Albert Smith, SBR alongside, she was not at her planned position, close to the Henry Bevington, SBR Edwin George Poynter, SB Assistant guns at the end of the Mole, but beyond them, so that the (SBA) Geoffrey James Arthur and a first-aid party consisting landing parties, who had trained specifically for landing in the of 29 ratings, all volunteers, equipped with hook ropes and correct position, were in “unexpected surroundings, separat- Neil-Robertson stretchers. ed from their goal by barbed wire and machine-guns.”6 She was now too close inshore for the German guns to bear on Aboard IRIS (II) were SBA James Milner Cowgill and SBA her, but her superstructure was badly damaged and many of George Herbert Sanderson; also on the 4th Battalion RM mus- her gunners had been killed. In addition, there was an unex- ter were: Acting SBS John Williams, 2/SBS Henry William pectedly strong current between her and the Mole which pre- Cowie and SBA Albert Robinson. vented her from making fast. DAFFODIL, originally planned to make fast to the Mole alongside her, had to remain out- The raid board and hold her in place, landing her own party through Preliminary hitches were perhaps inevitable: first, RN cruisers ­VINDICTIVE. Lt Hore, RMLI, recalled: “About one-half the had to sweep a path through the British-laid minefield to enable casualties occurred whilst the Vindictive was going alongside 134 Journal of the Royal Naval Medical Service 2018; 104(2)

... only two of the eighteen brows were available, the others I. ‘How strong?’ ‘Oh, pretty strong,’ said I, feeling it must be having been shot away. The two used [two more were recon- all or nothing. The other casualties, some eighteen or twenty, structed later] were in imminent danger of being smashed up who had been caught by machine-gun fire on their way out of by the ship’s motion as she swayed up and down alongside the harbour in the motor launch now lay on the mess tables and Mole. The Daffodil, a Mersey ferry-boat, was with splendid benches and on the deck itself under the fo’c’sle. We did what grit holding the Vindictive against the Mole with 160-lbs pres- we could for them, dressing their wounds, giving them mor- sure to the square inch on boilers designed for 80-lbs. What phine in full doses, making them as comfortable as we could sort of hideous death those engineers and stokers faced can with blankets, cocoa and so on.”10 better be imagined than described.”7 Aboard VINDICTIVE the stream of casualties had been con- The Mole was stormed through heavy machine gun fire, sup- tinuous since 2350; “it was soon found necessary to utilise porting fire from VINDICTIVE’s converted foretop having the ward room, aft deck, sick bay, all cabins, and, in fact, all ceased when it received a direct hit from the German vessel available space of the ship between decks for the disposal of V.69 on the other side of the Mole. Wing Cdr Brock, wishing the wounded ... [U]ntil about 10 a.m., when we arrived at the to investigate the secret German system of sound-ranging, had disembarkation pier at Dover, medical officers, sick-berth rat- obtained leave to go ashore with a storming party, and was ings, stretcher parties, and voluntary assistants of all ranks killed in action.8 At 0020 Submarine C3 successfully blew the were fully occupied to the needs of the wounded ... Most of viaduct at the landward end of the Mole; men recorded seeing, the cases had multiple wounds of an extensive nature, accom- but not hearing, amid the ferocity of the fighting, the explosion panied by severe haemorrhage, which had been caused by of 5 tons of Amatol (C3’s crew was rescued safely). Firing and bullet, shrapnel, high explosive, or what appeared to be an ex- 5 searchlight use by the Germans was thereby reduced; mean- plosive bullet.” One shell cut the pipe leading to the forward while concentrated fire had been directed at THETIS, damaging flame ejector, necessitating the use of gas masks, which were her steering gear so that she could not avoid the barrage nets required once more when VINDICTIVE left the Mole and the in the harbour approach. Her captain ordered her sunk prema- artificial fog drifted into the casualty-filled mess decks. Sur- turely rather than continue under such severe fire.9 INTREP- geon Payne wrote to his father, afterwards: “Between decks on ID was relatively unscathed thanks to the attack on THETIS, the old Vindictive was too filthy for words, and was wet with and could have taken on her task of ramming the lock gates. oil and water from pipes being broken with shells, and there Her captain, however, sank her according to the letter of Vice was very little space that was not covered with blood; and on Admiral Keyes’s instructions, in the navigable section of the deck above you would find bits of human beings plastered up 11 canal entrance, although Keyes had intended that the ramming against shells in racks, stanchions, deck houses, etc.” of the lock gates was a priority, whichever ship undertook the task. IPHIGENIA, manoeuvring, hit INTREPID’s bows before Meanwhile IRIS (II), still against the Mole, was under heavy herself being scuttled, with the result that the channel was not fire. At one point a shell pierced the upper deck and explod- completely blocked as intended. The crews of all three ships ed above 56 RMLI men awaiting the order to land; 49 were were picked up by ML 282, 34 tons; this launch, designed for killed. Another shell exploded in the wardroom, in use as a a complement of eight, was carrying 101 men by the time she sick bay, and killed four officers and 26 men. Eventually ML transferred them to Keyes’s flagship, HMS WARWICK. 558 raised an emergency smokescreen cover, and IRIS (II) was able to retreat.

At 0110 the ships, still under heavy fire, began to withdraw By this time Surgeon Frank Pearce Pocock was the sole unin- from the Mole. jured survivor of IRIS (II)’s medical staff, and responsible for over 100 wounded men. He continued working at a makeshift Medical proceedings operating table by candle and torch-light, since the ship’s dy- Aboard WARWICK the surgeon in charge was Surgeon Pro- namo had been damaged and no electric light could be gen- bationer George Abercrombie, who had joined the RN in 1917 erated, for over 13 hours, the ship reaching Dover at 1445.12 before finishing his degree, and had already served on three other ships: “Of those brought on board, three were dead and A naval ambulance train was already drawn up at the platform 31 others were casualties. There was a group of 10 or 11 who abreast VINDICTIVE on her earlier arrival, and by 1120 her puzzled me. They were in some distress, with pain in the chest surviving 171 casualties were in transit with the assistance of and a cough, and I wondered what this could be. It occurred RAMC bearer parties, additional help having been rendered to me that they were gassed, but by what I did not know. I by MOs from ARROGANT and other ships in port. 60 dead 5 thought it was possible that fumes from the explosives used to were removed to the town’s Market Hall. sink the blockships might have caused this. The Admiral sent Awards to medical staff his Flag-Lieutenant, Vaughan Morgan, down to the mess deck to help me ... ‘What shall we do for these men?’ he said. A line Staff Surgeon James McCutcheon RN – Special promotion from Bainbridge & Menzies’ Physiology had come back to to Fleet Surgeon - HMS VINDICTIVE me to the effect that, if one made a man vomit with an emetic, one emptied not only his stomach but also his lungs. ‘Make Staff Surgeon James McCutcheon was born in 1876 and grad- them vomit,’ I said. ‘How?’ he said. ‘Mustard and water,’ said uated from medical school in 1903, joining the RN in 1904. History 135

He received special promotion to Staff Surgeon for services had risen to Surgeon Captain and was put in charge of the rendered when HM Hospital Ship REWA was torpedoed in RN Auxiliary Hospital (RNAH) Sherborne. He was appoint- January 1918 and, like Surgeon Henry St.C. Colson, was rec- ed CBE in 1942, and when promoted Surgeon Rear Admiral ommended after Zeebrugge both for a medal and for special took charge of RNAH Barrow Gurney. In 1946 he succeeded promotion, though only the promotion (to Fleet Surgeon) was Sir Sheldon Dudley as Medical Director General, retiring in granted. According to Vice Admiral Keyes, “He must have 1949. He died in 1968, and his son Colin was touched that saved the lives of many gallant officers and men, firstly by the Royal Marines should send a detachment to his funeral at the excellent and elastic organisation of the medical arrange- Haslar, exactly 50 years after he had been attached to them ments, secondly by the fine spirit which he imbued in his sub- during the Zeebrugge raid.15 ordinates, and thirdly by his own personal skill and attention, which only ceased when the last wounded man had been dis- Surgeon Sidney Wilfred Grimwade RN – MID - HMS embarked at Dover.”5 He was promoted to Surgeon Captain in EREBUS 1926, left the service in 1931, and died in 1956.13 Sidney Grimwade was born in 1883, and graduated from St Thomas’s Hospital and London University in 1906 and 1907. Surgeon Henry St Clair Colson RN - Special promotion to He joined the RN in 1910 and was awarded the gold medal Staff Surgeon - HMS VINDICTIVE for achieving the highest marks in the qualifying examina- Henry St Clair Colson was born in 1887, one of 11 brothers tions of his year’s entry. Along with Surgeon A.C.V. Green of and sisters. He attended Westminster Hospital and qualified TERROR he came aboard IRIS (II) to assist Surgeon ­Pocock in 1912, joining the RN that year as acting surgeon. Vice with the wounded, an act also mentioned in his later OBE Admiral Keyes had wished him both promoted and offered ­citation. He had served at RN Hospital MALTA, where he met a Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) after Zeebrugge, but and married his wife, Mary French QARNNS, and was later this was not permitted, and so he was offered the choice. awarded the Gilbert Blane Medal. Following his retirement Colson accepted special promotion to Staff Surgeon (later from the RN in 1932 he qualified FRCS in Edinburgh. On the known as Surgeon Lieutenant Commander) antedated to 23 outbreak of war in 1939 he served aboard LYNX and CABOT April 1916, which made him senior in a year’s intake of “ex- until reverting to the retired list in January 1941 and taking ceptionally able officers.”14 By the time WWII broke out, he up hospital posts in London and Selly Oak. He died in 1957.16

Fig. 2a: Surgeon James McCutcheon, RNH Fig. 2b: Surgeon Captain James McCutcheon, HASLAR entry photograph, May 1904. on the staff at RNH HASLAR, 1928. [Historic Collections Library, Institute of Naval Medicine.] 136 Journal of the Royal Naval Medical Service 2018; 104(2)

was born at Harrow in 1891, and after being educated at Rip- ley Court and St Paul’s School gained a scholarship to study at Westminster Hospital, where he qualified as a surgeon in 1913. He joined the Navy at the outbreak of war. His inclu- sion in the raid personnel was not entirely orthodox. Invalided home after winning an MC at Passchendaele, he was declared unfit for general service, “but within days he was pestering anyone he could to get back into the war. On New Year’s Eve he turned up at the Admiralty requesting to be re-examined only to be found ‘unfit for active service.’ He was, however, appointed to Chatham Naval Barracks ... A further applica- tion to the Admiralty on 1 February 1918 resulted in his being found ‘fit for duty’. Almost immediately, and without a single mention on his service record, he reappeared as one of the two medical officers serving with the 4th Battalion of the Royal Marines.”9 After Zeebrugge he returned to the Drake Battal- ion, RND, in Flanders, where he died in September of injuries sustained when going to assist the wounded. A Bar to his MC was announced in January 1919. He was 27 years old.17

Surgeon John Frederick Munton Payne RN - MID - HMS VINDICTIVE Surgeon ‘Jack’ Payne was born in Tasmania in 1888. His two brothers served in the Australian forces, but he joined the RN Figure 3: Surgeon Henry St.C. Colson, RNH HASLAR entry as a surgeon in November 1915, having qualified in London ­photograph, April 1913. in 1910. In March 1918, he was serving aboard HMS CAL- [Historic Collections Library, Institute of Naval Medicine] GARIAN when she was torpedoed off the north-west coast of Ireland. Fleet Surgeon Charles Matthew included him in a list Surgeon Frank Pearce Pocock MC RND – DSO - HMS of the officers he wished to bring to the notice of the Admiralty IRIS (II) for their conduct, as well as being mentioned in dispatches (MID) in Vice Admiral Keyes’s report.5 After Zeebrugge he [NB: his service appears in some sources, incorrectly, as spent his leave period in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and was mar- RAMC: he was a member of Drake Battalion, RND.] Pocock ried there. On retiring from the RN, he returned to Devonport, Tasmania as a medical practitioner, except for an inexplicable period late in 1946 when the Tasmanian police reported him as missing from his home, possibly using the alias Peter Wil- liams. By October 1947 he had been located.15

Surgeon William Little Glegg RN - DSC - HMS ­VINDICTIVE [NB: His name sometimes appears as Clegg, but the spelling Glegg is supported by its appearance in Staff Surgeon McCutch- eon’s report and notifications in the London Gazette]. Before Zeebrugge Glegg had served, during 1916-1917, with Com- mander Locker-Lampson’s armoured cars in Russia. Just after the raid, the Aberdeen Evening Express described him as “one of the quietest and most retiring of young men”. He graduated from Edinburgh and Durham Universities after the war, early in the 1920s. He died in October 1956 while living in Leicester.

SBS Arthur Ernest Page - DSM - HMS VINDICTIVE SBS Page was born in Flitwick, Bedfordshire, in 1890. When he was nine his father, a railway worker, died; seven months later Arthur entered the Railway Servants’ Orphanage in Derby, leaving at the age of 14 to work as a junior booking clerk for the Midland Railway. In 1909 he joined the RN as a SBA. He was Figure 4: Surgeon Frank Pearce Pocock, from a group photograph serving aboard HMS CLIO in 1915 when she defended the Suez of the 4th Battalion RM. [courtesy of The Globe & Laurel] History 137

Figure 5: Surgeon ‘Jack’ F.M. Payne, from a newspaper article. [Collection of D Walsh]

Figure 6: SBS Arthur Ernest Page DSM. Canal against Turkish troops; after Zeebrugge he served until [courtesy of his grand-daughter, Sue Page] 1923, when he was invalided out with neurasthenia. He married in 1928, having met his wife when they were both working as nurses in Springfield House asylum, Kempston, Bedfordshire. Won or lost: the aftermath Later he was listed as an ambulance foreman at Ampthill Brick- Britain claimed the raid was successful in blocking the harbour works, married with one son. He died in 1957. at Zeebrugge. The German stance was that the raid had been in- SBA James Milner Cowgill - DSM - HMS IRIS (II) effectual; this was true for small craft, which were on the move through the incompletely-blocked navigable channel within a SBA “Jim” Cowgill was born in Skipton, Yorkshire, in 1890. day or two, but not necessarily true for larger German submarines He joined the RN in August 1914, giving his profession as and destroyers. Subsequent coastal bombardment by the British male attendant, Oldham Infirmary. He served under- Com had a further deterrent effect on German shipping movements, mander Locker-Lampson in Russia with the RNAS Armoured but a larger effect was achieved by the Channel mine barrages. Cars during 1916-1917, and was awarded the Russian Cross of St George “for rendering service to wounded Russian soldiers Unlike Britain, Germany, with one navy and four separate armies, under Bulgarian shell fire”, according to the Leeds Mercury. did not discuss any co-ordination of naval and land attacks, so The wounds sustained during the firing on IRIS (II) at Zee- that the long-term result of the Zeebrugge raid was that Germany brugge included the loss of three fingers from one hand and was put on the defensive. Psychologically shocked by the fact his little finger from the other; he sustained additional wounds that the RN had reached so far into a key defended zone unde- in the chest, thigh, arms and right shoulder. tected,1 the Kaiserliche Marine gradually retreated into ­German waters, outmanoeuvred, among other things, by British publicity; Other commendations the Daily Mail ran the headline “An Immortal Deed” on 24 April 1918. The sudden outbreak of morale spread to the Allies, with Surgeon Stanley Samuel Beare RN – HMS ARROGANT Maréchal Foch and Admiral Sims, USN, both joining in the con- Surgeon Roger Buddle RN – HMS WARWICK gratulations showered on the RN and the raid’s personnel. Surgeon Bernard Stanley Collings RN – HMS VELOX In terms of RN materiel, losses were few. Casualties, however, Other MIDs were high, with in the region of 176 killed, 412 wounded, and Surgeon Arthur Campbell Vaughan Green RN – HMS TER- 49 missing; of VINDICTIVE’s 900 personnel 60 were killed ROR and 176 wounded. German casualties amounted to 11 dead Surgeon Probationer Philip Cornelius du Toit RNVR – HMS and 24 wounded. PHOEBE Surgeon Probationer George Francis Abercrombie RNVR – This had never been a case, however, where casualties would be HMS WARWICK a measure of success; the impact was intended to be on morale, SBA Albert Robinson – [4th Battalion RM; ship not identified] perception and future operations.1 In November 1917 Vice Ad- SBA Geoffrey James Arthur – HMS VINDICTIVE miral Keyes had written, in a letter to ­Admiral ­Beatty, “we shan’t be asking the personnel engaged to take any more risk than the infantry and tanks take every time they advance to attack”,18 and 138 Journal of the Royal Naval Medical Service 2018; 104(2) the bravery of the raid’s personnel has never been in doubt. Three val participant, and may have appeared on both ballots. Chaplain Victoria Crosses (VCs) were awarded to men involved in the The Reverend Charles Peshall was awarded the Distinguished fighting; indeed, there were so many potential candidates that, Service Order (DSO) for his “superhuman work in carrying the uniquely, two ballots were held to select recipients from among wounded from the Mole over the brows into ­VINDICTIVE.”9 men who sailed in VINDICTIVE, IRIS (II) or DAFFODIL; one for RN personnel and one for RMLI/RMA. Captain Edward Awards made to the medical staff are listed with the biogra- Bamford, RMLI, and Sergeant Norman Finch, RMA, were both phies above, but the RN Medical Service’s impact on the op- surviving recipients, while Lt Cdr George Sandford RN was eration is best summed up by Vice Admiral Keyes: “No branch awarded the VC posthumously. SBA “Jim” Cowgill, in the mus- of the service surpassed in zeal and ability the efforts of the ters as attached to the 4th Battalion RM, was also listed as a na- medical branch to prove itself worthy of its profession.”5

Conflict of interest statement There are no known conflicts of interest from any of the listed authors.

References

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Acknowledgements

Thanks are owed to: Miss Jenny Wraight, Admiralty Librarian, for making sources for this article available; to Mr Stephen Prince, Head of the Naval Historical Branch, for the loan of his own copy of his book; to Mr Pete Starling, for clarifying the service career of Surgeon F.P. Pocock; to the owners of the copyright illustrations, for permission to use them.

Authors

Jane V.S. Wickenden MA DipLib Historic Collections Librarian Institute of Naval Medicine Alverstoke GOSPORT Hants PO12 2DL [email protected] Dominic Walsh MA Journalist on The Times Member of the Royal Marines Historical Society and currently writing a book on the role of the Royal Marines in the Zeebrugge Raid [email protected]