Gazelle Book Services Limited.

White Cross Mills, Hightown, LANCASTER LA1 4XS, United Kingdom.
Telephone: +44(0)1524 68765
Fax: +44(0)1524 63232
Email: sales@gazellebooks.co.uk
Web: www.gazellebooks.co.uk




Title:Medicine & Duty : The World War I Memoir of Captain Harold W McGill, Medical Officer, 31st Batallion C.E.F.
Series:(Legacies Shares Series, 23)
Author:Marjorie Barron Norris (ed)
ISBN:1552381935 : 9781552381939
Illustrations:b/w illus
Format:Paperback
Size:155x230mm
Pages:379
Weight: .618 Kg.
Published:University of Calgary Press - June 2007
List Price: 23.5 Pounds Sterling
Availability:In Print
Subjects:True stories: First World War: Canada


"Medicine & Duty" is the World War I memoir of Harold McGill, a medical officer in the 31st Alberta Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, that was originally compiled & written by McGill in the 1930s. Anticipating that his memoir would be published by Macmillan of Canada in 1935, McGill instead was met with disappointment when the publishing house, forced by financial constraints, was unable to see the project to its final conclusion. Decades later, Editor Marjorie Norris came upon a draft of the manuscript in the Glenbow Museum Archives, & utterly compelled by what she found, took it upon herself to resurrect McGill's story. Performing an exhaustive edit of the original manuscript, Norris has also included a wealth of information adding detailed explanatory notes & topographical maps, as well as excerpts of letters Captain McGill sent home to friends & family. These letters are literally written "from the trenches" & lend an unsettling atmosphere & stark realism to the original memoir. Wartime accounts written by medical officers are quite rare, & often more than other regular officers, the MO's position in the battalion provides a unique perspective on the day-to-day lives of soldiers under his command. Norris's painstaking archival research & careful editing skills have brought back to light a gripping first-hand account of the 31st Battalion and, on a larger scale, of Canada's participation in World War I, making this book of great interest not only to military historians, but also to any Canadian compelled by the incredible sacrifice of soldiers during wartime.

The Threat of War. The Outbreak of War. Mobilisation. Life in Barracks. The Move to England. Baptism of Fire. Our Enemy the Mud. The Dawn of new Year. The Battle of St Eloi. The Coming of General Byng. The Battle of Sanctuary Wood. The Summer in Belgium. The Journey to the Somme. The Battle of the Somme (cont/d.). After the Battle. The Souchez Sector. Out of the Line. The Storming of Vimy Ridge. Beyond the Ridge. Summer Holidays. The Lens Sector. Epilogue. Appendix: 31st Battalion Casualties to 11 November, 1918. Index.