Four: G. W. Campbell, British Red Cross Society

British War and Victory Medals (G. W. Campbell. B.R.C. & St. J.J.); Serbia, Cross of Mercy, gilt and enamel; Serbia, Red Cross Medal 1912-13, silver and enamel; together with the recipient’s St. John Ambulance Association Re-examination Cross, bronze, the reverse engraved ‘129537 Gordon Campbell’, enamel almost complete missing on last, otherwise good very fine (5) £300-400

Gordon William Campbell served with the British Red Cross Society in Serbia during the Great War from 29 October 1914 to 9 April 1915 (not entitled to a 1914 or 1914-15 Star). An account, entitled ‘Hospital Work in Serbia’, written by the recipient, an abridged version of the fuller account that he recorded in his diary (included with the lot), details the work he undertook:
‘As Serbia is about the least known of our Allies, I thought a few words as to hospital conditions here might not be uninteresting. We were very surprised on reaching here to find that our little unit, consisting of six doctors and twelve orderlies, was expected to work a hospital accommodating 1,200 patients, but the condition of the men was such that there was nothing for it but to plunge at once into the work. Our hospital was a disused tobacco factory, consisting of three large floors, each having about 200 beds. In order to deal with the rush of wounded which followed the Austrian advance into Serbia, the authorities had put two men in every bed. The place was inexpressibly dirty, and the atmosphere you could “cut with a knife”. At first we had no time to improve these conditions, as it was all we could do to cope with the work of dressing the wounds.
We started work at 8:00 a.m. and it was usually ten or eleven p.m. before we had finished. Sometimes we would be finished by 7:00 p.m. and then a fresh train of wounded would come in and we should have to start once more. The condition of the men when they arrived was pitiable in the extreme. Covered with mud, their wounds having not been dressed for a week or even a fortnight, their clothes torn and their boots worn out, they presented a spectacle which must have moved the hardest heart. A large majority of the wounds were in the limbs, and owing to the long time elapsing before proper attention could be given to them, many of them had become hopelessly aseptic and amputation was necessary. As soon as we were able we fitted up an operating theatre, but the Serbian soldier is very much averse to amputation, preferring rather to die. This is partly explained buy the fact that in Serbia there are no Poor Laws, and consequently a cripple is practically a beggar.
A good many of our patients were Austrian prisoners, who besides bearing their pain better, were much more practical in the matter of amputation as an example of what the human frame can endure, and yet live. Since the Serbian’s great victory, when they drove the Austrians right across the frontier, there has been very little fighting and the number of wounded has consequently decreased. but now there is a new danger to face and that is an epidemic of typhus. This terrible disease has made rapid progress, particularly among the Austrian prisoners. Two of our own men have fallen victim to it, and we have laid them to rest in the little cemetery with the snow-clad mountains looking down upon them. Although so far from home they have for company a sister from one of the other British Hospitals, and two British Red Cross men who fell in the Balkan War. Four other men of our unit are suffering from typhus and as soon as we have nursed them back to health we shall start work again at a new hospital, where the hygienic conditions are more favourable. Here we shall endeavour to combat the epidemic, so that Serbia may not be hampered by it when she resumes the strenuous struggle on which she is engaged.’

Sold together with the recipient’s diary, which gives a graphic daily account of his time in Serbia; and various accompanying letters.