By MAJOR J. F. BOURKE, - BMJ Military Health · department of the Royal Arsenal. The personnel consisted of eighteen officers of the Army Medical Department, with one Surgeon-General,

197

OUR WOOL WICH MESS, 1882-1932. By MAJOR J. F. BOURKE, M.C.,

Royal A1'my Medical Oorp8.

I.-EARLY DAYS, 1882-1890;

MANY various causes are responsible for the fact tbat the minutire of the minor happenings of mIlitary domestic life are so quickly lost, and that the reconstruction of the picture of the daily life of an epoch, which has only just passed away, may be so difficult

The Woolwich Mess is particularly fortunate in one respect concerning its hIstory, for the original minute book recording the meetiIlg which founded the mess has been in use for every E\1ibsequent meeting, and should serve the same pmpose for a generous time to come; unless succeeding members become more prolix than their predecessors.

With this minute book as the basis the task of narrating the foundation and the vicissitudes of the mess over a period of fifty years becomes a· fairly simple one.

The present time is appropriate for such a record as March 7, 1932, was the Jubilee anniversary of the establishment of the original Army Medical Department Mess at Woolwich in 1882.

The mess owed its origin to the dynamic personality of the late SmgeonGeneral Sir George Evatt, who was then a Surgeon-Major serving at the Royal Military Academy.

Surgeon-Major Evatt was then at .the zenith of his activities, for it was in 1883 that he materially assisted in the early work which led to the formation of the Volunteer Medical Staff Corps, wrote a book, which went to three editions, on Army Medical. Organization, and in the following year founded the Medical Officers of Schools Association.

His restless energy found a further outlet in 1886, when he wac; a parliamentary candidate. in the Liberal interest for W oolwich, but success did not crown his efforts in that venture. .

It was on March 7, 1882, that a meeting of the medical officers stationed in Woolwich was held at the qadet Hospital of the Royal Military Academy to consider the formation of an Army Medical Department Officers' Mess at Woolwich.

The Army List for March of that year shows that there were eighteen medical officers in Wool wich, and of these sixteen were present at the meeting; doubtless duty, leave or. casualties. accounted for the remaining two.

Surgeon-General J. M. S. Fogo was in the chair; but, a.s he retired two months later; it may pethaps be legitimately deduced that he was not the leading spirit of the movement.

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198 Our Woolwich Mess, 1882-1932

From various sources it would appear that a number of the more senior medical officers, who had been brought up in the regimental system, viewed with little favour the establishment of a purely medical mess .. Surgeon-Major Evatt voiced the views of the more progressive party who were yndeavouring to make the Medical Services a:. complete and corporate

. entity in the Army. At this point it may be well to look at the military situation in Wool wich

at the time in question. Woolwich ranked as a "District Command" under a Major-General directly subordinate to the Commander~in-Chief. rrhe garrison consisted of an active brigade of Royal Horse Artillery, another of Field Artillery, and the large depot for training artillery recruits.

There was in addition a complete· battalion of infantry (1st Battalion the Wiltshire Regiment) and a detachment of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, whose battalion headquarters were at Warley.

(The guard duties at the'Royal Arsenal were then performed by the infantry and absorbed a considerable number of dutymen daily.)

Two companies of the Commissariat and Transport Corps were also in the garrison; but the Army List only shows a total of six officers of the Commissariat and Transport staff, ·three of whom were quartermasters and one a " Temporary Captain and Deputy Assistant Commissary General on probation~" ...

The medical establishments were the Herbert Hospital, completed in 1866 at a cost of £220,000, the Auxiliary Hospital (now the Medical Inspection Room) dose to the Artillery and the Commissariat barracks, the Cadet Hospital at the Royal Military Academy, and the medical department of the Royal Arsenal.

The personnel consisted of eighteen officers of the Army Medical Department, with one Surgeon-General, one Brigade-Surgeon, eleven Surgeon-Majors andfiye Surgeons, which presents the same type of disparity between the normal relatiye proportion of ranks as that at present existing.

III addition there was an Apothecary (ranking as a Captain) whose dress the Army List states was scarlet uniform, grey cloth facings and edgings, " no pouch or belt."

A Captain of Orderlies of the Army Hospital Corps, of which No. VIII Division waS quartered at the Herbert Hospital, completes the medical picture.

(It is interesting to note that the Army Hospital Corps officer at the Depot in Aldershot in 1882 is described as "Lieutenant of Orderlies and Instructor of Musketry.")

. This theilwas the situation at Woolwich when the first meeting was held to consider the question of the formation of a "Meeting Place" for medical officers.

The first entry is to the effect that Surgeon-General Fogo requeRted Surgeon-Major Evatt to act as Secretary of the meeting.




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J. F. BOU1'ke ]99

The cart is very definitely put in front of the horse by the first .. two resolutions, which settle the rates of entrance contribution and monthly subscriptions before the question was raised as to whether the meeting should decide to form a mess or not.

The real problem was faced in the fourth resolution, which was "That the establishment be formed, independeutly of dining arrangements, as a convenient and comfortable place of meeting for Officers, Army Medical Department."

An amendment" That a Mess be started in Woolwich for the convemence ef all Officers Army Medical Department" having been lost, the original resolution was carried by a majority of four votes.

Surgeon. General Fogo then proposed a nominated Committee of five under Brigade-Surgeon J. Wiles as President,. with Surgeon-Major Evatt as Secretary and Treasurer, so selected as to give equal representation to the married and unmarried members, excluding the President.

It is rather curious at the present time to read the sixth resolution, " Whether the establishment be called Mess or Institute,': and to learn that the designation of a mess was only gained by the narrow margin of two votes as a majority in the meeting of sixteen. ,

It would seem that there W3,S a solid block of six medical officers who did not wish allY" convenient and comfortable place of meeting" to be formed, if this voting is viewed in relation to the result of the voting on the fourth resolution quoted above.

The remaining voter against the use of the term I, Mess" may have had in mind tha Royal Artillery Institution at "\Voolwich or the Royal Engineers Institute at Chatham and have desired the it Meeting Place ;, to be conducted on similar lines.

The rest of the business I1t this meeting was of a purely domestic character relating to the collection and banking of subscriptions, the raising of a loan to purchase furniture and other matters of moment at thE:: time, but of no particular interest now.

The llext meeting was held 'a fortnight later, as the Director-General had intervened to point out that under the existing Queen's Regulations married officers could only be called on to pay half rates of the normal mess subscription.

The necessary resolution was passed to regularize the position. Surgeon-Major Evatt having been thanked for a gift of £:25 to the mess, the meeting was dissolved.

Although there is no specific record it would seem that one of the factors which prompted the movement to establish the Army Medical Department Mess was thatvery suitable m~ss premises, centrally situated, were available owing to the paucity of officers in the Commissariat and Transport Staff having Jed to the closure of the old Commissariat Mess. .

,Furniture and fittings were purchased .from this mess and a cheque for £55 14s. Sd. was despatched to it Assistant Commissary General Packyn" on May 30, 1882.




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200 QUI' Woo/wich Mess, 1882-1!J32

(This inrormatioll is contained in the copy of a letter recorded in the minute book along with some nine other letters relating to mess affairs in 1882.)

Sanction was obtained for the lVIedical 0 Ilicers' Library to be removed from the HerberL Hospital to the ne\..,- mess, together with certain furniture therefrom.

A note of explanation might appropriately be made here of the history of the barracks then occllpied by the Corumissariat and Transport, and still in the hands of their lineal descendants, the Royal Army Service Corps.

'rhe vast mass of barracks for the Royal Artillery was commenced in

FIG. I.-Mess in Commifu:!ariat and Transport Barracks (1882-1890).

1776 and in co-relation with the scheme the necessary provision had to be made for the hospitalization of the inevitable sick.

Tbe HOYI.l Artillery Hospital (afterwards known as tbe Ordnance Hospital) was built in 1780 " on a plot approved by the Surgeon-Geueral" between the Artillery Barracks and" Cholick Lane" (does the name of this by-way give rise to dark thoughts in the mind of the ultra-suspicious present-day hygienist '?).

The hospital was designed for 200 patients, but Oll many occasions this number was greatly exceeded and the accommodation fOl" the surplus patients was of a very priwitive character.

The condemnation of the hospital after the Crimean War and the consequent erection of the Herbert Hospital in 1865·66 led to the prewises hecoming available as barracks.




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'J.P; Bourke 201

It has not been posBible to ascertain exactly what function of the o1:iginal hospital existence was carried on in the rooms which subsequently became the mess premises; tradition, in this case, supported by grounds of reasonable probability" says the various mess rooms were the original Board Room and' administrative offices of thehospitai.

The exact date of the opening of tbe A.M.D. Mess is not recorded, but it would seem that Surgeon-Major Evatt could have wasted but little time as there is a copy of a letter sent to a wine merchant with a cheque for £5 in part payment of "your bill of: 1st June; 1882, for wine, etc.," and an application on behalf of a Private of the Army Hospital Corps to return to ,his duty from employment as a waiter in the mess dated July 14.

At the next mess meeting, under the presidency of Brigade-Surgeon Young, it ,was decided by nine votes to three that the mess should not become a dining mess. The first meeting in 1883 shows that billiards was being 'played regularly; probably thetabJe, was' included in ,the purchases from' the old' Commissariat :Mess; ,

Itis somewhat difficult to ascertain, exactly when the Woolwich mess ,entered into its full function Of becoming 'runormal dining'mess;

In October, 1883,Deputy~Surgeon_GeneraISirJames Hanbury "made some remarks as: to what probability there wasofhaving dinners at:Mess, and asked if any estimate of the 'cost, of equipment to carry out such a scheme was forthcoming.", • 'lTheMessPresidenLwas instructedto'draw up the necessary estimate and forward it to the Principal Medical Officer for further, consideration. '

From a resolution passed in June, 1884, it ,may be jnstly iriferredthat a Dini,ngMesswas established, as it is unlikely that a series of: mess dinners, to the first of· which' all officers 'of importance , iu'W ooiwich were invited, would be proposed withoutfurtber comme,nt: on ways and means, unless the mess itself provided the catering. ,

The resolutionreads'as f()llows :". That a Mess dinner should be given once a month to which all members would be able to invite guests and that the next dinner :be held at an early date next month, and that the General and, Staff and Heads of Departments be asked as public guests. H

In October, 1884, a res()lutionwg,s passed that "£100 be raised to provide equipment to dine 36, and that provision' should be made for a Sinking ,fund."

By Royal Warrant of September 20, 1884, the Army Medical Department became the Medical Staff, and the Army Hospital Corps the Medical Staff Corps.

Curiously enough' the pt'oceedings in the minute book referring to the two meetings held in 1885 refer to the "A.M:S. Mess," an abbreviation which was not legitimate until the formation of the Army Medical Staff under Army Order 187 of. 1891. Internal evidence suggests that the yvrongful use of the abbreviation was due to the clerk who copied ,but the proceedings: it is not repeated after 1885.




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20~ Our Woolwich Mess, 1882-1932

To those who regard an "Afternoon Dance" as a function of quite recent origin it will come as a surprise that a proposal to hold one and invite "The General and Staff, Heads of Departments, their wives and families" was carried in. 1886.

In March, 1887, it ~as found necessary to make some stringent rules .to enforce mess discipline to ensure" that the Mess should be maintained on a proper footing,' and a,s it is found that this cannot be done unless the unmarried officers are regular dining members in the same manner as in a Regiment, and in accordance with the, spirit of Section VII, para. 53, Qqeen's Regulations;" .

The resolution further states that" no dining member can be exempted from the charge for his dinner unless he has leave of absence with the sanction of the Principal Medical Officer, or as his individual case may seem to the P.M.O. to require." .

The last rule to be adopted, which would appea~ to claim power beyond the scope of a mess meeting, reads ominously." In the event of an unmarried officer .not wishing to ' support, the. Mess as a regular dining member, his name will be submitted to the Director.-General for such action. as he may considernecessary.." Perhaps it was only put in, as a piece of bluff: there is no record that any such report was ever, made.

In 1887 the first mention occurs of a regimental dance,.when a resoluc tion was carried that such an entertainment shouldbegiyen by the mess " on a large scale." .

In 1890 a new situation arose owing to the formation; by a Royal W arran t of December; 1888, of the Arm y Service Corps.. By 1890 Wool wich .had become the headquarters of seven Army' Service, Corps Companies, while a total of nineteen ,officers are shown in the ;ArmyList as serving at Woolwich, including those on probation, with.a view to subsequent transfer to that Corps. '

Not unnaturally the Army Service Corps were desirous of availing .themselves of. the mess premises' situated iu' their cwn lines and only surrendered by the old Commissariat and Transport Staff owing to their meagre number of officers.

An unsuccessful attempt to obtain the return of the mess building had previously been made in 1887; but in 1890, when the Army Service Corps were very much to the fore, and the favourite of Fortune and the Horse Guards, the matter wore a very different aspect. Accordingly the mess premises were handed over to that Corps, and the Medical Dtaff Mess, before closing, arranged for the Library to be re-transferred to the Herbert Hospital and a reading-room to be refurnished therein.

Under Army Order 187 .of 1891 the Army Medical Staff was formed and.the new compound titles of Surgeon-Colonel, Surgeon-Captain and so on are first recorded in the meeting of medical officers held in the Officers' Library of the Herhert Hospital in September, 1891.




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J. P. Boul'ke '20B

II.-CONNAUGHT HOUSE 18fJ2-1R9a.

During IS92 various premises were considered as to their suitability foe an Army !\Iedical Staff Mess, and eventually ="0. 37 The Common (Connaught House) was selected. This house was fairly contral for all the medical establishments, accessibility being a rnajor consideration in those days .. wben neither buses nor trams "vore available in 'lVool\vich ; the motor car was in its early infancy, and bicycles were in a primitive st.a.tc of tbeir development.

The premises were taken into nse hetween January and October, 18\)3, and the virtual founder of the original Army Medical Department Mess,

FIG. 2. - 0onoanghL House, H7, Tho Oommon (1892-1899) .

G. J. H. Evatt, once again back in "'i.Voolwich, and no\v a Brigade-Surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel, was appropriately enough elected as P,l\.LC.

A glimpse is given of bygone dOlfl(~stic economic.s when the entry of it

Mess Committee meeting is read: .. Agreed to pay cook £30 per year, £5 to go towards payment of her lodgings." '1'he Mess Sergeant only rec~ived .£1 a month additional pay; subsequently another ten shillings was added to this.

No record exists of the actual number of dining members. The number of medical ollicel'" stationed at ~Woolwieh relllained fairly constantly just under twenty. At an impodant mess meeting about thl~ time, when it is to he presumed as many mem hers as possible would be present, the attendance was 17 (1 Surgeon-Colonel, 3 Brigade-Surgeon Lieutenant-




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204 Our Woolwich Me8s, 1882-1932

. Colonels, 4 Surgeon-Majors, 8 Surgeon-Captains and 1 lone Surgeon-Lie,utenant.) .

The minute book is singularly devoid of interest for the first eighteen months. In April, 1895, there occurs the first e~try of the Officers' Mess assisting in the recreation of the orderlies, when a resolution is recorded " that £5 be given to the Sports Fund of the 12th Company Medical Staff Corps.'; , The subject of afternoon dances was raised at the same meeting. Apparently the proposal met with. little favour, as it was withdrawn, as also was a proposal for the holding of" Ladies Guest Nights."

Woolwich was not in the van of the movement leading to the presentday surrender to feminism.

It was also decided at this meeting that the Lincoln Regiment should be entertained at a guest night: this is the first note of any such regimental hospitality being extended to another unit as a whole.

A mess meeting was held in April, 1896, wnen trustees were appointed to a deed of assignment of all the mess pr~perty. It is difficult to understand at this date the object of the deed; certainly it caused th'e mess a good deal of legal expense later on, although the firm of Solicitors employed were lenient in scaling down their normal charges;

The Trustees appointed were Surgeon Major-General J. J ameson, Mr. V. G. M. Holt and Surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel W. C. Gasteen (retired) .

Tt jumps to the eye, as the French say, that this arrangement was bound to cause a continued amount of legal expense in connection with the appointment of fresh trustees to replace casualties caused by death, age or unwillingness to continue the duties. That is the negative side; on the positive side it would seem that the interests of the mess and the security of its property could quite adequately have been left in the hands of the 'Senior Administrative Medical Officer and the Senior Executive Medical Officer. One clue to their appointment lies in the fact that one of the members of the Mess, besides being a S~rgeon-Major was" of Lincoln's Inn, Barrister-at-Law," and that possibly he may have wished to make assurance doubly sure and to give the mess the benefit of his legal knowledge. (He actually drew up the trust deed.)

The trustees never seemed to have '[lllfilled any very necessary purpose, ' and it came as a real surprise to the ,niess . meeting in 1924 that such trustees even existed. In the minutes of the January meeting of that year a letter was read from one of the trustees pointing out that as another. one had died a further' appointment was necessary .. The minute states: "It was pointed out that the Mess Rules and K.R. contained, no mention of the' necessity for trustees, and the President asked for information on the matter; None being forthcoming; ." (two months later the whole matter was finally cleare~ up by Messrs. Holt and Co. taking over the per~anent trus~eeship ofth,e mess for the very modest final settlement of five guineas). ',.,., .. ,




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J. F. Bourlr,e 205

It was about 1895 .that theWoolwichGarden Parties in the grounils of . the Herbert Hospital acquired, more than local fa.me. rrhe scene can be readily pictured £ro)U the descriptions by participants. . ,The tennis courts were cleared of netting and tennis gear, and ~the Senior Officer and his wife received the guests towards the top oJ the lawns, Full formality of dress was'de rigueul', at least for the visi~ors from London, frock coats, sponge bag trousers, as was the fashion for men at the time, w:ith top hats, and long trailing skirts with pinched' waists andleg-of-mutton sleeves for the ladies as depicted in the contemporary volumes of Punc.h" After the formal reception the guests and. hosts solemnly promenaded around the grounds greeting and conversing with one another. The tennis lawns were occupied by thisperambulation whUe the croquet lawn was given over to outdoor teas. Two or three side shows/an air~gun shooting gallery, a cockshy, a lady pahnistand similar staid and elegant diversions were introduced in various years. ..

The. Garden Party in 1896 must have been especially successful, for it . led to the subsequent enactment of a scene of almost feudal sole'mnity at a,

full meeting of the members of the mess, which is recorded in the minutes in the following terms :" The P.M.O., having called in the Mess St~ward, (Serjeant Noble, M.S.C.), informed him that the officers were much pleased with the efficient way in which he had arranged the .. refreshments at the Garden Party and the M.S.C. Sports."

A puzzling reference that "The air-guns and newspapers having been sold. the meeting then adjourned " is explained. by the fact that the air-guns were bought for the Garden Party and were not used, as the frivolous might suppose, to waken somnolent members or to hurry tarrying' waiters.

An innovation was made in 1896 whereby the dining member was permitted to elect to pay for the mess dinner only, and for breakfast and luncheon as consumed, or topay a flat rate of messing of four shillings a day. This is the same rate as that now in force with the advantage of the lower rate of ration allowance in favour of the present officer. As this is paid direct to the dining members they are financially some eighteen per cent better off than their predecessors in the Good Old Days.

A certain feeling of frustration is engendered at reading such ephemera as old mess minutes, as the. continued, history of an innovation.is seldom recorded,and failures are too often" readjusted" to the former pre-inpovation conditions without further written record.

It was first discovered in 1896 that a fly in the. ointment in the matter of the mess premises existed, and a fly that caused a good deal of indignation arid harassed feeling till the m.es8closed'in1899.

Although Connaught House had been appropfiated as anOfficers'Mess by Government,an undertaking appears to have.been'given, on behalfof the mess, that the members would be responsibleJo the landlord for repairs under the terms of the lease; , .... ....'

In 1896 the question of the exterior paintIng of the building was raised




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206 Our Woolwich Mess, 1882-1932

and the subject was left in the hands of the P.M.O. to take up with the G;O.C; and C.R.E.· Disappointingly enough no further reference occurs as to the solution of the difficulty.

A considerable amount of inco-ordination seemed to have arisen· in the business dealings with, the landlord during the whole period, as the mess minutes in 1899 aver that the" Bamlck Department "£ailedtogive notice to determine the lease at seven years, and that, in consequence, it . was automatically extended to fourteen years. , As· a few months previously members had been informed, by the D.O.R.E. that the mess was responsible foral! repairs it is not difficult to visualize the indignation displayed by a Special General Meeting on July 27, 1899, when a resolution was carried". . . and why the Officers of the Royal Army Medical Corps were not consulted, and the reason of. the lease being extended to fourteen years, when they had previously represented that Connaught House was quite unsuitabl~ for their requirements as a Mess House." As will be seen later on in the narrative rio record exists in the mess showing how the matter was finally adjusted.

The;mess meeting held in May, 1898, was the last time the.designation Army Medical Staff rwasused, as the Royal Warrant of 1898 constituting the Royal Army Medical, Corps had been promulgated before ·the llext meeting in October. . .

There is little to record in the last couple of years at Conul1ughtrHouse as, only purely domestic matters are mentioned in the minutes until the final meeting, on r September. 25, 1899, when a resolution was carried "That no futur:erepairs ,should be carried out by the Mess:" '

,The' last resolution on record in the minute book shows a, high fighting morale, although it remains .with the j uri!:it to say what validity or legality the spirited words convey .

. , It was unanimously decided by the Members of the Mess that all and each one of them absolutely refuse any responsibility with regard to the repairs of the Mess, and that they consider themselves in no way responsible for the terms of the lease."

The actual formal closing of the Connaught House premises is not recorded, but it appears that the South African War in its earliest days so depleted ·the mess of Regular Offi,cers that ,it was closed· soon after the outbreak of hostilities. '

IIL-A LONG INTERLUPE,1900-1909.

Of mess history there is nothing to relate until 1906, when a rpeeting was held at the Royal HerbertHospital "to consider the question of re-establishing the R.A.M.C. 'Officers' Mess atWoolwich." That meeting also decided to re-open the Officers' Library in the Hospital and to fit it out as a sort 6f modified ante-room with newspapers, writing' facilities and the like, and also to continue the tennis parties in thegrou'nds of the Royal Herbert Hospital. .




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J. F. BOllrke 207

It should be remarked that it was in 1903 that the designation" Royal .. was conferred on tbe Herbert Hospital. 'l'he i\'lay Army List of that year sbows the pla.in designation, while the June nuwber refers to tbe Royal Herbert Hospital as the name in nse.

The Hospital joined a distinguished alld very numerous company, for such n. comparatively small garrison as 'Voolwich, to which the regal appelln.tioll has been accorded. This gl"Onp incILldes tbe Royal Arsenal, the Hoy.l Dockyard, the Royal Military Academy, the Royal Gal'l'ison Cburcb and tbe Royal Military Repository, while even th e former Veterinary Hospital is showtJ on the old maps as the Hoy .. l Horse Infirmary, and the garrison meteorological centre a.s the Royal Observatory.

FIG. a. - Present Mess in Shooters Hill Road, opened 11)10.

By February, HJOD, the scbewe lor erecting a new Illess building had advanced so far tbat a special mess sub-committee was appointed to represent tbe interests of tbe members during tbe construction period.

IV.-SHOOTERs HILL, 1()10·1932.

The present mess building was commenced in ] BOO, completed in 1910 aud opened as an R.A.M.C. l\'Iess on July 1 of that year. 'l'he cost seems to have been very modest-£9,600 is shown on the official plans.

rrbo site wa.s very wisely chosen on the south~east edge of \Voolwich COlllmon, opposite the Royal Herbert Hospital in Shooters Hill Road. 'rhe building was erected to face a picturesque small copse and made roughly quadrant-shaped for this end.

The material used in the two-storied building was red brick with tenacotta ornamentation. The mess contains twelve sing le officers' quarters, of which two are designed for Field Officers.

Tbe mess room, which will dine nearly forty on a guest mgbt, and




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208 Our WoolwichMess, 1882-1932

the other public rooms are adeq uatefor their purpose. The present billiard room wal2 originally designed for a libr;:try, but was saved for its present purpose by the activities of the special sub-committee mentioned before.'

The fact that the mess was built well back fromtbe road junction averted what would have" been an almost intolerableaffiiction when the L.C.C. electric tramway system was extended and lines were laid from Woolwich to Eltham.

How small is human gratitude for wise and provident foresight is exemplified by the recording of complaints in 1911 that the members might be put to, some expense onacoount of the picturesque copse which actually gave the form to the mess buildings, and which was disparagingly referred to as "The Jungle."

Once established, the mess settled down to normal routine and there is little that calls for comment. Two public-spirited officers erected the first motor garage in 1912 and agreed to hand it over to the mess when their estimated original outlay of £50 and expenses had been recouped. This did not take place till 1919.

The smouldering sparks of Sarajevo were alight, but did not burst into flame, on the last pre-war mess me~ting at the end of July, 1914, when the question was taken up of constructing a tennis court in the mess grounds. Sterner business swept that project aside for nearly ten years.

During the Great War period little occurs of general interest. By May, 1915, the sum of £100 had been subscribed to the R.A.M.C. Prisoners of War and Comforts Funds---'a very creditable amount. ,

-The question of the mess privileges to be extended to Lady Doctors appears to have given ~ise to animated discussion. In July, 1917, the following resolution was passed, and, although subsequently challenged, was never rescinded :/1 That the privileges allowed to Lady Doctors, using the Mess, be limited to the use of the Card Room as a sitting-room in the afternoons, in addition to admission. t'o the Dining Room for meals."

War-time rations and their allocation and the alleged depredations by civilian employees seemed to have affected war-strained nerves to bitter words in 1918; but the disputes wereepbemeral and of little interest to the present-day reader.

More pleasing is it to record that in 1919 a proposal to make a presentation to the mess, on behalf of the Special Reserve, Territorial Force and Temporary Officers, led to the gift f)f a handsome massive silver bowl.

After the GreatWaiperiod it seems to have taken the mes~ rather a long time to settle down and continue to expand its normal;'pe'aCe-time activities. However, a red hard tennis court was built in the mess grounds at a cost of £165 10s. III 1928, and a substantial new garage wa.s built in 1925, '

In 1927 the Central Mess Fund made a grant of £200 for laying down a hard tennis court in the grounds of the Royal Herbert Hospital, the necessary official authority for an encroachment having been obtained.




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J. F. Bourke 209

Woolwich came into line with some of the newer ideas by furnishing a . ladies' room for tennis teas and so on in 1928.

And so this sketch of fifty interrupted years of mess history comes to an end. On the historical side the Woolwich Mess has no possessions of m uch interest. . The oldest pieces of plate date' back to the Medical Staff times (1884 to 1898). A large amount of the present silver was obtained after: the Army Medical Staff was established in 1891. . The sum of£100 was voted in 1895 to purchase suitableplate,and officers serving about that time were generous in their gifts.

In. post-war times the" Whelan" Cup was presented by the local medical fraternity for team competition between the R.A.M·.C. and the "WoolwichMedicals" at golf, and the mess reciprocated with a cup for individual competition. Both cups, the'first time for several years, are now in the mess.

In conclusion it only remains to say that the title of the present narrative is misleading, but convenient. Administratively the Woolwich Mess is . in the parish of Charlton in the Metropolitan Borough of 'Greenwich; the Royal Herbert Hospital, across, the road, being in the Kidbrooke parish of the same borough. . .

•

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Documents

By MAJOR J. F. BOURKE, - BMJ Military Health · department of the Royal Arsenal. The personnel consisted of eighteen officers of the Army Medical Department, with one Surgeon-General,