Low Down Articles
Local History
Article 22 of 111
This article first appeared in the November 9, 2022 issue of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.
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That the world will not again be called upon to witness such things
An excerpt from Dr. Harold Geggie's 1936 Remembrance Day speech to the Wakefield Women's Institute at the La Pêche School in November 1936.
On Remembrance Day in 1936, Dr. Harold Geggie was asked by the Wakefield Women's Institute to address the students of La Pêche School about his war experiences. He wrote mainly about the seven months that he spent at Orpington Hospital in 1919. Dr. Geggie practiced medicine in Wakefield for 55 years and spent significant time as a captain in the Canadian Army Medical Corps, where he treated patients suffering from the Spanish Flu. Geggie returned to the Hills, where he practiced medicine for 55 years. He established the Gatineau Memorial Hospital in 1952 as a memorial to those who served and those who died during the two World Wars. These are some of his words, written 86 years ago.
"...About once in 10 days in the big hospital where I worked in England, a hospital of 2,500 beds, I would be on orderly duty, that is, on call for any service night or day. Many things worth remembering happened on orderly duty
One night a small eye hospital was being closed and the patients were brought to our hospital. It was my duty to meet them at the station with ambulances and to see them safely distributed to their proper places.... I wish I could picture vividly enough to your minds what it is like to meet 60 more or less totally blind men - blind for life. For months they had been in one hospital and had accustomed themselves to their surroundings. Suddenly the confusion of transfer to strange places and rushing traffic put them all astray. Many had not yet become accustomed to their perpetual darkness and were lost in the hubbub. Many hours we spent that night trying to get the poor lads settled, one chum by another, each man [with] his own belongings. May I recall to you that these men, if living, are still blind!
...These are a few of the everyday things of war days. Let me remind you that these were only at the beginning. For 18 long years since then these men have struggled with infirmity and disease and incapacity. Many are still in hospital. Many are still struggling to make a living for themselves and [their] families. Many are since dead and have left families ill provided for. It is for them you have sold your poppies. It is for them [that] Remembrance Day is observed. It is for them I ask you to take time to think in your busy lives ... to such purpose that the world will not again be called upon to witness such things."