Our Contributors

March 1916

So many friends outside the hospital now subscribe to The Gazette that we make no apology for printing a few paragraphs concerning our contributors. The majority of these are known throughout the 3rd L.G.H., but the general public is naturally curious to learn who they are and what position they hold in our community at Wandsworth.

Major Humphris (author of the 'Sparks' causerie) is well-known as an X-ray expert. He is temporarily absent from the 3rd L.G.H., his services having been required for the founding of X-ray departments in the Eastern Mediterranean. Capt. Harrison, whose alarming 'Labour-saving Devices' are continued this month, is in charge of our Pathological Laboratory, an article describing the work of which has been written by Pte. H. J. Gilby, one of his assistants.

From our first number onwards an ever-increasing chorus of praise has been showered on the very funny drawings by Pte. de la Bere. This month's series, 'An Orderlim's Day' (an orderlim is a male orderly, as distinguished from an orderlette), will sustain his reputation for a satire the full delicacy of which must sometimes, we are afraid, be missed by those unacquainted with the hospital's actual working. Pte. de la Bere, who was for five months in charge of D Ward (the Detention and Observation ward), and afterwards worked as an orderly in the Receiving Ward - the hall where newcomers and out-patients are attended to - has transferred to the Artists' Rifles. With him has gone Pte. J. A. Grant (illustrator of our Christmas shocker 'The Phantom Bride') but both have promised to continue to contribute.

Amongst other members of the R.A.M.C. (T.) unit who have sent illustrations are L-Cpl. George J. Coates, of the Recreation Room staff; Pte. Paul Kirk, a 'corridorderly'; Cpl. Fullwood of the Officers' Pack Store; Pte. Evans, dentist's orderly; and Pte. Ware, who made the drawing of the Royal Red Cross recently awarded to the Matron.



Aurelio Spaccatrosi, of whom L-Cpl. Coates has done a remarkable likeness, is certainly one of the most interesting patients passed through the 3rd L.G.H. Italian by birth (but long since naturalised), and a chef by profession, Pte. Spaccatrosi has seen many adventures. He was through the S.A. War, when he cooked for Lord Kitchener, Lord Roberts, and General Buller. In this war he has been at the Front in France; he then went to Lemnos, Suvla Bay, Salonika, and Egypt. On the Gallipoli Peninsula he carried on his art under conditions of the greatest danger and difficulty - but contrived to invent twenty different dishes made from bully beef. Pte. Spaccatrosi, who has had the honour of being presented to King George and Queen Mary, has four sons serving in the British Army. One of them, Albert, was in the retreat from Mons.

The bust of the C.O., which is on view in the new Recreation Room, and of which we publish a photograph, is universally pronounced to be a very fine likeness as well as a remarkable work of art. It was done by a member of our own staff, Sgt. Derwent Wood, who is head of the hospital's plaster splint-making department. Sgt. Derwent Wood is a sculptor of international celebrity, and the 3rd L.G.H. claims a unique advantage over the other war hospitals in possessing his services. The measure of his powers can be gauged by an examination of the bust to which we allude above (and we doubt whether the C.O. of any other hospital could find a member of his staff capable of thus immortalising him); but the splint room contains many very different specimens of a craftsmanship which, in a sense, are a still more significant tribute to Sgt. Derwent Wood.

Maj. H. C. Taylor Young, the author of the Kangaroo Story, is an Australian surgeon on the staff of the 3rd L.G.H., and his illustrator, Pte. Vernon Lorimer is also the author of many pictures and headings. Pte. G. F. G. Fisher who drew the exquisitely humorous operating-theatre fantasy which appears as a tailpiece on page 158, was a B.4 patient, but recently left the hospital for a convalescent home at Weybridge.

Two lady members of the hospital's staff send drawings this month - Miss Marjory Collins and Miss V. Down. Both are ward orderlies.

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