Family group:

An Order of St. John Lifesaving Medal in Gold group awarded to Major Alan Cunliffe Vidal, D.S.O., Royal Army Medical Corps - awarded for his devoted service at the ‘typhus stricken’ German prisoner-of-war camp at Wittenberg
1914 Star, erased naming; British War Medal 1914-20, erased naming; Victory Medal 1914-19, M.I.D. oak leaf (Major A. C. Vidal) ‘C’ double struck; Order of St. John Lifesaving Medal, 2nd type, gold (Presented to Capt. Alan Cunliffe Vidal, D.S.O., R.A.M.C. 1916)

Three: Staff Nurse, K. Vidal, nee O’Donoghue, Civil Hospital Reserve
1914 Star (Miss K. M. O’Donoghue, Civ. Hosp. Res.); British War and Victory Medals (S. Nurse K. Vidal) ‘Victory’ corroded

Three: P. A. F. Vidal
Ampleforth College Medal (3) silver, 45mm., reverse inscribed, ‘A.C.A.S. 1934 under 15 hurdles P.A.F. Vidal 181/2 Secs’; another, bronze, ‘A.C.A.S. 1934 under 15 high jump second P.A.F. Vidal’; another, silver, ‘A.C.A.C. 1937 open 120 yards hurdles second P. A. Vidal’

Pair: J. F. C. Vidal
Ampleforth College Medal (2) silver, 45mm., reverse inscribed, ‘A.C.A.C. 1938 junior cross country J. F. C. Vidal 10 mins. 5.9 secs.’; another, bronze, ‘A.C.A.C. 1938 junior one mile second J. F. C. Vidal’

Together with a St. John Service Medal, unnamed; and a miniature British War Medal, unnamed, edge bruising, very fine except where stated (14) £1800-2200

D.S.O. London Gazette 18 April 1916. ‘... in recognition of their distinguished service and devotion to duty at the Camp at Wittenberg, Germany, during the Typhus Epidemic which prevailed there from Feb. to June, 1915.’

M.I.D. London Gazette 10 January 1919.

Order of St. John Lifesaving Medal, No. 299. ‘Vidal, Captain Alan Cunliffe, D.S.O., R.A.M.C., Life Saving Medal in Gold.’ ‘For devoted services at the Prisoner’s Camp, Wittenberg, Germany, during the Great War 1914-1918.’

Alan Cunliffe Vidal was born in Eton, Buckinghamshire on 2 May 1880, the son of The Rev. Furse Francis Vidal. He was educated at Framlington and studied medicine at Edinburgh University, qualifying in 1904. He married Kathleen O’Donoghue at Chatham on 24 September 1917, by whom he had two sons. Commissioned a Lieutenant in the R.A.M.C. on 31 July 1905; promoted to Captain in August 1909 and Major in February 1918.

He served in France/Flanders from 10 August 1914 but was captured at Ligny-en-Cambresy on 27 August. He was taken to camps at Torgau, Burg, Halle and finally Wittenburg, where he was held from 11 February 1915 to 20 February 1916. At Wittenberg prison he assisted in the medical treatment of typhus patients. There were 13,000 prisoners (9,000 Russians, 3,000 French and 900 British) in the camp and some 1,200 were typhus patients at any one time. Four of the six British medical officers being held there contracted the disease, one of which (Captain Stephen Field) died.

The prolonged detention of medical officers by the Germans was in violation of the Geneva Convention and aroused worldwide indignation. Vidal was finally released and repatriated in February 1916.

Vidal and others brought back terrible revelations of the conditions prevailing at the camp during the typhus outbreak - the lack of food, clean water, clothing, warmth and medical assistance - with the German medical staff fleeing the place rather than risk the infection by staying to help. The appalling insanitary conditions provided one of the most notorious scandals of the war.

For his distinguished and devoted services in combating the Typhus Epidemic in the German prisoner-of-war camp in Wittenberg, he was mentioned in despatches, created a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order and awarded the prestigious Gold Medal of the Order of of St. John.

Vidal returned to France/Flanders, 15 December 1917-9 August 1918. After the war he served briefly in India before joining Ampleforth College in 1928 as the School Doctor. He practiced there until his death in 1956. Vidal was buried at St. Hilda’s, Ampleforth.

With a quantity of copied research, including reports on his capture and the conditions at the Wittenberg prisoner-of-war camp.