[Leica] IMG: Inside a hospital on Malta in 1917

[jayanand at gmail.com (Jayanand Govindaraj)]

Douglas,
What a wonderful keepsake to have.

Thanks for letting us in on it, it is great!

Cheers
Jayanand

On Mon, Nov 21, 2022 at 12:08 AM Douglas Barry <imra at iol.ie> wrote:

> My grandfather Tom Casserly, a sapper in the British Army's Royal
> Engineers, is shown  hospitalised on the island of Malta in 1917. He was
> fighting in Greece in the 8th Wireless Section in Salonika when he got
> infected with dysentery and had to be shipped to Malta which was known
> as "The Nurse of the Mediterranean" during WW1. Casualties from the
> campaigns in Salonika and Gallipoli flooded the numerous hospitals
> specially set up there. Photographer and camera unknown, but at a wild
> guess, based on images with similar backgrounds, it was taken at St.
> Georges Hospital near Valletta.
>
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/DouglasBray/TFC+Hospital+Malta+1917+b.jpg.html
>
> Can be seen larger
>
> I intend to tidy this up a bit, but the image print has been a bit
> battered over the last 100 or so years, and is also quite small at 9 x
> 10.25 cm, so it will be a challenge. However, I've just brought down my
> old Epson Perfection 3200 Photo scanner from the attic as wrinkled and
> ragged photos need a scanner, rather than a camera and stand setup, and
> this is the first shot I've scanned. I've loads more of these as we were
> never allowed to hear any family history other than generalities, let
> alone see photos. Remember, In the last 110 years, Ireland has seen some
> very fractious events - the 1916 Easter Rising, the War of Independence,
> the Treaty and division into north and south. the Civil War, the
> euphemistic "Emergency" (WW2 to everyone else) and many more culminating
> in the "Troubles".  It turns out my grandfather who died in 1953 at the
> age of 57 while still working as Chief Superindentent and head of the
> Crimes Unit in the Irish police force - the Garda Siochana - was
> involved in a lot of these events. All connections with armed resistance
>
> Tom also contracted malaria out there in Salonika, and much later got TB
> which ultimately killed him. That said he did return to Ireland, and, as
> he had been a radio operator which was cutting edge tech at the time, he
> got a job with the Department of Post and Telegraphs who placed him in
> Dublin Castle. The Castle was the headquarters of the British Army in
> Ireland, but Tom was not deemed to be a security risk - with his war
> record, and the fact that his father was a sergeant serving in the Royal
> Irish Constabulary, the Irish police force during British rule. Well,
> they got that wrong...
>
> Apparently, his position in the Castle was noted by Michael Collins, the
> head of the IRA Intelligence unit, and he was recruited as one of
> Collins's spies. He also evidently became utilised in other ways during
> the War of Independence later on. When I visited the Garda museum to
> check records four  years ago to try to discover just why he had been
> recruited at Inspector level and why then, within nine months, had
> become Superintendent, the written reason for his recruitment was "IRA
> Battalion Intelligence Officer". My mother and her two sisters knew
> nothing of this and it was only in 2020 I got to ask my uncle the
> background on what turned out to be his deathbed. I discovered from him
> that Tom had been in Michael Collins's "Squad" - a group of deep cover
> IRA specialist assassins and when Arthur Griffith became President of
> the D?il - the Irish parliament, he and two of my grand uncles Pat
> Swanzy and Joe McCarthy - also both secret (to me) were Griffith's
> minders when he was a priority target for anti-Treaty gunmen.
>
> Anyway, here Tom is receiving succour from the British Army.
>
> Douglas
>
>
>
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