Sir Alexander Ogston (1844 – 1929) Surgeon and Pioneering Bacteriologist. One of the remarkable Ogstons of Aberdeen. Revised.

Introduction

The “Remarkable Ogstons of Aberdeen” refers to a family which can be traced back to Alexander Ogston who was born in 1766 in Tarves, Aberdeenshire.  About 1785 he moved to the county town and started a business trading in lint and flax thread.  In 1802 his business diversified into the wholesale manufacture of candles.  It became very successful and the story of this manufacturing branch of the Ogstons has been told elsewhere on this blogsite, see “The Remarkable Ogstons of Aberdeen: Flax, Candles and Soap”.  Alexander Ogston (1766) had three sons, Alexander (1799), George (1801) and Francis (1803).  Alexander eventually succeeded to the management of the candle manufactory and continued the success of his father.  George emigrated to Australia but proved to be either incompetent or unlucky, because he made nothing of his life.  The third son, Frances, was very bright and attended Marischal College, Aberdeen, where he graduated with the degree of MA and then moved to the famous Edinburgh Medical School, graduating with a Diploma in Medicine in 1824.  His subsequent career was consistently studded with success.  He filled the post of Police Surgeon in Aberdeen, Medical Officer of Health and Professor of Medical Jurisprudence at Marischal College.  Francis Ogston’s life has been dealt with elsewhere on this blogsite – see “The Remarkable Ogstons of Aberdeen.  Francis Ogston (1803 - 1887), Professor of Medical Logic and Medical Jurisprudence at Aberdeen University”.  Francis Ogston (1803) had two sons, Alexander (1844) and Francis (usually known as “Frank”), both of whom became doctors too.  Alexander graduated in medicine from Aberdeen University Medical School in 1865 and subsequently had a career of diversity and dazzling success.  This is his story.

I first published an account of the life of Sir Alexander Ogston in October 2022.  Since that time I have spent many days in the University of Aberdeen Collections reading the contents of the archive of materials deposited there by the descendants of Sir Alexander Ogston.  I am particularly gratefull to the Collections staff for their unfailing support and cheerful tolerance of my numerous visits.  In consequence, I have now produced a much expanded version of Sir Alexander’s life and achievements.  The sections which have been particularly extended are those dealing with his holidays in Greece and Norway, his participation in the Second Boer War and the First World War, the India letters and his visit to St Petersburg in 1898 – 1899.  Minor changes, additions and corrections have also been introduced throughout the 2022 text.

 

The early life and education of Alexander Ogston (1844)

Alexander Ogston (1844), the eldest son of Francis Ogston and Amelia Cadenhead, was born at Ogston’s Court, 84 Broad Street, Aberdeen on 19 April.  This Ogston family house had windows which overlooked the quadrangle of Marischal College, where the young Alexander first learned to walk.  The connection with Marischal College and the University of Aberdeen would be maintained for the rest of his life.  Between 1850 and late 1852, Alexander attended Rev. Archibald Storie’s school in Dee Street.  He was the chaplain to the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.  The next educational establishment entrusted with the education of Francis Ogston’s older son was Mr Alexander’s English School in Little Belmont Street, where Alexander was adjudged to show “superiority” in reading, gained a merit certificate in English and a prize for mathematics.  Alexander then moved on to Aberdeen Grammar School where he attended until late 1858, being awarded merit certificates along the way in both Latin and Greek.  His final educational port of call before entering university was the Old Aberdeen Gymnasium under headmaster Rev Alexander Anderson, where he was again a prize-winner in Latin, English and geometry.  While at this establishment, Alexander Ogston (1844) entered the Marischal College Bursary Competition in November 1859 and came 27^th in the order of merit out of 109 entrants, gaining an award of £6.

Late1859 saw Alexander Ogston (1844) become a matriculated student at Marischal College to pursue a course of studies which would have, after the fusion, qualified him to graduate with an MA degree from the University of Aberdeen.  In the winter session of 1859 - 1860, he studied Greek and Latin under Dr Brown and Dr Maclure respectively.  In the remainder of his first year, he is known to have studied Botany under Dr Beveridge, by whom he was adjudged to have the best collection of plants and was awarded an honorary certificate.  Alexander’s second year of study, 1860 – 1861, involved the study of Greek under Prof Geddes, Latin under Prof Maclure and Mathematics under Prof Fuller, Botany under Professor Dickie, Chemistry under Dr Brazier and Comparative Anatomy under Professor Lizars.  No record has been found of him graduating at the end of the session, either in local newspaper reports or in the Roll of Graduates of the University of Aberdeen, and it appears that he simply continued during the next session, 1861 – 1862, with studies in the Faculty of Medicine.

The session 1861 – 1862 saw Alexander Ogston attending classes in Anatomy and Physiology with Prof Lizars, Chemistry with Prof Fyfe and Dr Brazier, Materia Medica with Prof Harvey (receiving an honorary certificate) and Surgery with Prof Pirrie.  Alexander spent four months learning Practical Dispensing with Mr David Reid, the Druggist, and he also attended Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.  At the end of the session, he passed part of his medical graduation examinations.  During the following session, 1862 – 1863, he was taught Medical Jurisprudence by his father, Prof Francis Ogston, Histology by Prof Ogilvie, Microscopy by Rev John Thomson, Clinical Surgery by Dr Keith and Clinical Medicine by Dr Kilgour.  Alexander also undertook 6 months’ Dispensary work with Dr Rattray.  Prof Fyfe of the Department of Chemistry died during 1861 and in April 1862, the University Court voted on his replacement.  Dr Brazier, already a member of academic staff in Chemistry was appointed and Francis Ogston, Senatus Assessor on the University Court, voted for him.

Marischal College after the 1840 reconstruction.

Alexander Ogston’s medical education continues in Continental Europe.

Like his father before him, Alexander Ogston made a continental tour of medical establishments as part of his education.  This tour appeared to start in Austria, “I saw Vienna in the winter of 1863”.  He lived in Vienna as a student in a small lodging in the suburb called Alser Vorstadt, which contained the Allgemeines Krankenhaus hospital.  In the university he was given the title of “Inscribed Extraordinary Student“.  Alexander enrolled for courses of Anatomy under Prof Hyrtyl, Physiology under Prof Brucke, Pathology under Prof Rokitansky, Clinical Medicine under Prof Oppolzer and Surgery under Prof Dumreicher.  His educational experiences there were rather mixed, since he gained nothing new in some cases, being unable to understand one lecturer and finding some lecture rooms badly overcrowded.  This caused him to change his strategy and, instead, he enrolled mostly for private classes on new subjects, or ones which were badly taught in Britain.  Amongst the thousands of students in Vienna, there were only seven from the UK.  One important set of classes that Alexander attended was that by Prof Jaeger on the use of a rudimentary ophthalmoscope, which training Alexander quickly put to use on his return to Scotland.  He also received instruction from Prof Turck on the laryngoscope, Prof Sigmund on syphilis and Prof Hebra on skin diseases, including smallpox.  Alexander Ogston had been inoculated with cowpox as a child but found a few smallpox-like vesicles on his own skin, possibly contracted from an infected patient, about which he consulted Prof Hebra.  His conclusion was that Ogston had a mild attack of smallpox.  Later (year unknown), Alexander Ogston deliberately infected himself with smallpox with no significant effect.  Away from medical classes, Alexander Ogston lived a very sociable life, mixing with students of many nationalities.  Though they drank both beer and wine, accompanied by much singing, Alexander claimed that they did not get as drunk as his medical contemporaries in Scotland.  Indeed, he subsequently claimed that he was never drunk in his life.  Alexander was admitted to a society for German-speaking students, ostensibly to improve his knowledge of the language.  Socially, the members were a mixed bunch, none was rich, and many were poor.  They had a convention of making small loans to each other, but these loans were effectively gifts, because they were never repaid.  Alexander was himself wealthy enough to join in this convention and he made loans to other students.  He also took instruction in fencing, that very continental activity.  All of Alexander’s foreign friends consumed tobacco, and he picked up the habit of smoking cigarettes in Vienna, which he subsequently transferred to Aberdeen.  “I think I was the first who smoked cigarettes in that city – much to the scandalising of the old-fashioned ladies and eternal perdition for smoking a cigarette in Union Street in day-time”.  When Alexander left Vienna his student friends sent him a letter over 10ft long, containing greetings and farewells, indicating that he had been a popular visitor.  One of his friends, whom he met in Vienna, was William (later Sir William) Stokes (1838 – 1900), the son of the famous doctor, Prof William Stokes of Dublin.  Ogston and Stokes toured the city together, where they attended concerts conducted by Johann Strauss II (1825 – 1899), the prominent composer of waltzes.  Alexander also enjoyed the opera, especially Richard Wagner (1813 – 1883), who was becoming popular in the 1860s.  Alexander Ogston commented that during his peregrinations about the Austrian capital, “Several times I saw Kaiser Franz Josef (Kaiser Franz Joseph I of Austria) driving in the city and, on one occasion, the Kaiserin Elizabeth, a most lovely woman with whom, like everyone else, I fell deeply in love”

William Stokes (1838 - 1900).

 

Kaiser Franz Joseph I of Austria.

 

Kaiserin Elizabeth of Austria.

Francis Ogston had supplemented his medical education with a visit to Continental Europe in late 1824.  Though the details have not been uncovered, he studied at several leading medical establishments before returning to Scotland.  In session 1863 – 1864, his son, Alexander followed a similar, but apparently more extensive, sojourn across the North Sea, travelling on from Vienna to Prague, where he appears to have met up with his father.  It is unclear what specific activities they undertook together but Alexander commented, “No classes but attended Seifert, Maschka and Hasner at University and Hospital”.  Ostensibly, Alexander had gone to Prague to improve his knowledge of the German language.  He also attempted to learn the Bohemian language but gave up on account of its complex verbs.  Alexander Ogston developed contrasting opinions about the three main ethnic groups in Prague.  “A strange population filled the crowded town.  Half the inhabitants were Czechs (Bohemians), a quarter were Germans, and the rest were Jews”.  He found that the Bohemians hated the Germans.  “The Jews mixed with both and permeated the ranks of both …”.  “My acquaintances were mostly among the Germans and Jews, many of whom were intermarried, some for generations so that it was not always an easy thing to judge whether they were of pure blood.  I came to love the Jews; their intellectuality was so outstanding and the eminent rank they held in the medical profession, in the University circles and in the society which I frequented compelled respect and esteem”.  “I attended the Medical Society of the city.  It was housed in no fine building – although there I met with the famous Professor Czermac, the inventor of the laryngoscope; Professor Prsibram; Professor Kahler, Professor Maschka of Medical Jurisprudence and Professor Ritter von Ritterstein who edited a magazine devoted to the diseases of childhood; and others equally eminent – its meeting place was just a small box, one of many in a public house, where there was barely room for the nine or ten members to find accommodation”.  “Everyone was kind to the young Scot but with the Bohemians I always felt the constraint of an alien race whom I could not see through.  This was less so with the Germans but on the other hand with the Jews I felt at once quite at home.  I was constantly at the houses of the Maschkas and their friends and many years afterwards when those of the Maschkas who survived were suffering from poverty, especially after the Great War when starvation was rife in Vienna, whither they had gone, I was able to do something to alleviate their distress”.

The sojourn in Prague lasted for two months before Alexander Ogston, again in the company of William Stokes, travelled on by train to Berlin, where the pair took lodgings together near the Charité Hospital.  By this time, it was the start of the 1864 summer session at the University of Berlin, where Ogston and Stokes were probably the only British students in attendance.  This institution was famous for a number of leading doctors and scientists on its staff.  The two young British doctors attended the following lecture courses.  Ophthalmology – Prof Albert von Graefe, Pathology – Prof Rudolf Virchow, Demonstrations – Prof Kuhne and the Clinics of Prof Langenbeck, the prominent surgeon.  Von Graefe was one of the leading proponents of the ophthalmoscope, which had been invented by Hermann von Helmholz in 1850.  At the 1858 Heidelberg Ophthalmological Congress, von Graefe presented Helmholtz with a cup which was inscribed with the words, "To the creator of a new science, to the benefactor of mankind, in thankful remembrance of the invention of the ophthalmoscope". Virchow, though a disappointing lecturer, was something of a polymath and became particularly famous for propounding the cell theory, one of the most fundamental generalisations in Biology.  This theory states that cells are the basic units of life, that cells only arise from the division of pre-existing cells and that life is transmitted from one generation to the next by cells.   

After the completion of their studies, the two young medics travelled together in Bohemia, Saxony, Switzerland and Prussia, visiting Thuringia and the Hartz mountains, and Dresden with its art galleries. The two also visited various historical sites and, with the encouragement of a corrupt guardian of objects which were associated with Martin Luther at one of them, Alexander took samples and, when back in the UK, he preserved and labelled these items and displayed them in a glass case.   In Cologne they visited the church of St Ursula and were told a traditional, if fantastical, story of a visit to Rome by St Ursula, accompanied by 11,000 virgins.  On her return she and her followers were murdered by the Huns and the skulls and other bones of these martyrs were subsequently stored in the church.  Alexander examined these remains with his medical eye and found that at least some of the bones were derived from bullocks!

Alexander Ogston found a marked contrast in people’s behaviour between Austria and Germany, though both were German-speaking.  Austria was a nation of gentlemen, while Germany was a nation of boors and bullies.  People barged him off the pavements and men had an unpleasantly superior attitude to women.  They also disliked foreigners.  “Englischer schwein”, accompanied by a scowl being common amongst railway officials at all levels.  This was the time of the Second Schleswig-Holstein War, which lasted from February 1864 to the end of October of the same year, when Denmark, much the smaller state, was attacked by Prussia and Austria.  Alexander found the Prussians to be very boastful of their military prowess.  “We had ample opportunity of watching the development of the modern German bully, though we had little thought then of the menace that the brute would become in Europe in the next fifty years”.  Alexander also found German triumphalism in defeating Denmark very distasteful.  “When the King came out to the balcony of the Royal Palace and addressed his people amid the most frantic manifestations of joy and loyalty, Stokes and I laughed at the performances”.

Despite his dislike of the popular attitudes and manners of the generality of the German population, Alexander Ogston, by this time fluent in German, would return to the country many times, would attend German medical congresses, would become a familiar of leading German doctors and would publish important scientific findings in German periodicals. “Owing to my friendship with these men (the professors in Berlin) I soon came to know others such as Esmarch of Kiel, whose name became great in connection with bloodless surgery and in after years I met them at Langenbeck’s house and elsewhere”.  Alexander was the direct recipient of a particular instance of German unpleasantness.  He gave a lecture to the Congress of German Surgeons and Volkmann, although not personally present, attacked the visiting Scot the next day, describing his methods as “surgical rope-dancing”.  However, Volkman was known to be a morphine addict and Ogston did not reply, believing that the German was acting under the influence of this dependence-inducing, mood-altering opiate.

Ogston and Stokes, the young medical wanderers finally ended up in Paris for further study before Alexander Ogston returned to his native land and the completion of his undergraduate medical courses.  He graduated both MB and CM during the spring and summer of 1865, “with Highest Academical Honours”, one of eight graduands to do so.  About a year later he was also awarded the postgraduate qualification of MD, again “with Highest Honours”, the capping ceremony taking place in the public hall at Marischal College in April 1866.  For Alexander Ogston, son of a prominent medical father, scion of a wealthy Aberdeen family of manufacturers, familiar of leading German doctors and a fluent German speaker, the scene was set for him to pursue a prominent medical career.  He did not fluff his chance but, at this auspicious beginning of his professional life, he could not have guessed how successful he would become.

 

Alexander Ogston and boats

Although little is known about Alexander Ogston’s sporting activities as an undergraduate, it is likely that he was a keen oarsman, but this is only known from two advertisements placed in the Aberdeen Journal in 1865, offering for sale a four-oared racing gig, “Bon-Accord” and a five-oared boat, “Black Bess”, “with new oars and fittings complete”.  This was the year that Alexander graduated from the Aberdeen Medical School and began remunerated work.  Perhaps he felt that he could no longer spare the time necessary to pursue this challenging activity?  A few years later, after he had acquired the Glendavan estate, which encompassed part of Loch Davan, in 1888, he is known to have kept a rowing boat there, probably to allow him to fish for pike and perch, but he also used to row his young children around this expanse of water on quiet evenings.

 

Alexander Ogston and Ophthalmology

During his continental foray into the universities and hospitals of Europe, Alexander Ogston had received training in the use of the ophthalmoscope from von Graefe and others, and he soon put this skill to good use by opening an eye dispensary in Castle Street, Aberdeen in 1866 which it is presumed catered for the needs of the poor people of Aberdeen.  The dispensary did not survive for long, being closed in 1868, perhaps due to Alexander being appointed in that year as Ophthalmic Surgeon to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.  The appointment came about after the resignation of Dr Wolfe from the position of Physician to the Ophthalmic Institution in September 1868.  There were two applicants for the post, Dr Alexander Ogston and Dr Alexander Dyce Davidson.  The directors of the Institution then, perhaps unwisely, asked Dr Wolfe for his opinion of the two contenders but Ogston, when he heard of this development, was clearly miffed.  Subsequently, the directors met to consider how to proceed, when they received a letter from Alexander Ogston rejecting the notion that Dr Wolfe should have been asked, in effect, to arbitrate between the two candidates.  This did not advance the directors’ opinion of Alexander, who was rejected for the role by a vote of 10 : 3 in favour of Dr Davidson.  But that was not the end of the matter since the actual employer of the postholder would be Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.  On 28 September 1868, there was a Special General Court of the Managers of ARI to consider the appointment to the post of Ophthalmic Surgeon.  The Lord Provost, Alexander Nicol, chaired the meeting, which was attended by many managers, and he got straight to the point.  Without asking for formal nominations of the candidates, he posed the question, “There are only two candidates, do you want to proceed at once to an election”?  There was general and enthusiastic acclaim for this proposal.  It appeared that the managers were already familiar with the credentials of the two competing doctors and had made up their minds.  The vote went in favour of Alexander Ogston by 70 : 52. Davidson must have felt a bit hard done by, after he had already received the approval of the directors of the Ophthalmic Institution.  Alexander Ogston’s undoubted medical abilities, which had already come to the fore, clearly outweighed the blunt way in which he had demonstrated his disapproval of the Institute’s managers.  Most interesting to contemporary eyes was the advertisement placed by Alexander Ogston in the Aberdeen Journal following his appointment as Ophthalmic Surgeon at ARI.  “Aberdeen Royal Infirmary Election.  Dr Alex Ogston takes this opportunity of returning his thanks to the Managers for their support at the election today and hopes to merit the confidence reposed in him.  Aberdeen 28 September 1868”.

The new ophthalmic surgeon wasted no time in organising his charge.  The Aberdeen Journal reported that at the next quarterly meeting of the ARI managers, “Surgical instruments to the value of £10 10s have been added to the stock of the Ophthalmic Department of the Hospital and a favourable arrangement entered into with Dr Ogston with the view of making that department efficient and complete”.   Interestingly, one of Alexander Ogston’s duties in addition to acting as Ophthalmic Surgeon, was to act as anaesthetist, this technique being newly introduced into surgical practice.  After starting his newest position, Alexander also delivered three courses on the use of the ophthalmoscope over the winter of 1868 – 1869.  In April 1869, Alexander Ogston asked the University Court to fix the fee for his Ophthalmology course at 1gn.  At the end of his courses on the use of the ophthalmoscope in April 1869, his medical students who had attended these classes presented him with a testimonial, suggesting that his lectures had been well received.  About this time, Alexander was appointed Lecturer in Practical Ophthalmology in the University of Aberdeen.  During the summer term of the 1870 – 1871 University session, Alexander Ogston again mounted a three-month course in Practical Ophthalmology, but this would be his last such teaching assignment as he was appointed Junior Surgeon at ARI in August 1870 and resigned his appointment as Ophthalmic Surgeon the following month, followed by him giving up his university lectureship in Practical Ophthalmology in the following November.  In future, though he would operate on patients with damaged eyes, his surgical horizons would be much more extensive than the organ of sight.

Alexander Ogston.

 

Alexander Ogston marries Mary Jane Hargrave

Alex Ogston married Mary Jane Hargrave (known as “Molly” to her family) on 25 September 1867 at Stoke Newington, Middlesex.  She was the fourth child and younger daughter of James Hargrave, who had a substantial career with the Hudson Bay Company in Canada, rising to become the Chief Factor in 1844.  Mary Jane’s father had been born in Hawick, where the parish minister spotted that he was very bright and persuaded his parents to allow him to continue his schooling rather than becoming a shepherd.  He stayed at Fysshie Academy, Galashiels, until he was 18 or 19 then taught school for a year before helping his parents to emigrate to Canada, near Montreal.  James joined the North-Western Company at Sault St Marie and was kept on. 

In 1838 James Hargrave returned to Scotland and fell in love with Letitia Mactavish.  They married in 1840 and returned from Gravesend to the York Factory in Sault St Marie.  Four children were born to the couple but Letitia died in 1854.  In 1859 James Hargrave retired from the Hudson Bay Company with a comfortable fortune.  He then returned to Scotland and married a lady in Edinburgh of Irish and Orkney descent, Margaret Alcock, who made him very happy.  James returned to Canada where he died in 1865.   After the death of James, Molly was brought to Aberdeen by her step-mother, allegedly to escape the attentions of an undesirable suitor.  While residing in the Granite City, Molly met Alexander Ogston at a ball.   The couple apparently went on honeymoon (described in the Ogston Archive at Aberdeen University as a “wedding tour”) to the Lake District, where they appeared to have gone boating and perhaps fishing on Windermere.  On marrying, Dr Alexander Ogston moved out of his father’s house at 156 Union Street, Aberdeen to his own property at 193 Union Street, until 1871, when he moved again to 252 Union Street.  This remained his Aberdeen town house for the rest of his life.

Mary Jane Hargrave.

The first child of Alex and Mary Jane Ogston, Mary Letitia, was born 8 months after the marriage, followed by Francis Hargrave in 1869, Flora McTavish in 1872 and Walter Henry on 29 November 1873.  After this fourth birth, Mary Jane suffered from what was then called puerperal mania, now referred to as postpartum psychosis.  It is a severe mental illness which usually starts within a few days of birth but is now thought not to be a single condition but a complex of many different maladies with overlapping and varying symptoms.  Molly died on 28 December at 252 Union Street, barely a month after the birth of her fourth child.  The cause of death was given as “Puerperal mania” and was certified by “F Ogston, MD”, probably Francis Ogston senior, though the informant, present at the passing and who registered the death, was Frank Ogston junior.  Since I published the first version of this biography in October 2022 another author, David A. Rennie, published a separate study of Alexander Ogston’s life “Sir Alexander Ogston, 1844 – 1929.  A Life at Medical and Military Frontlines”, 2024, in which he acknowledged the assistance of “the entire Ogston family”.  The account given there of the death of Molly Ogston, derived from a family source, is that she committed suicide using a drug taken from her husband’s laboratory.  (The identity of this “laboratory” is unclear.  It probably does not refer to the laboratory at 252 Union Street where he carried out his bacteriological research, which only started about 1879.)  If the family version of Molly’s death is accurate, perhaps there was some obfuscation of the exact cause of death on the certificate signed by “F Ogston MD”.  Although suicide appears not to have been a criminal offence in Scotland, as it was in England and Wales at the time, it is possible that the Ogstons preferred to keep the full circumstances of Molly’s demise private.  A black-edged letter, with seal affixed to the back, is present in the Ogston papers in Aberdeen University’s archives and reads, “Dr Alexander Ogston requests the favour of your presence at the funeral of his wife, on Friday 2^nd of January at two o’clock from his house to St Clement’s Churchyard.  No. 252 Union Street”.  The loss of Molly was a crushing blow for Alexander Ogston and left him to care for four young children aged from 5½ years to one month.  AO’s sister, Jane then moved to 252 Union Street to help with the family’s domestic arrangements and AO also employed a variety of servants.  Three and a half years would pass before Alec Ogston remarried.

 

Alexander Ogston and Homeopathy 

Homeopathy is a system of alternative medicine which was created by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann in 1796.  Its principal beliefs are that a substance that causes certain symptoms in healthy people can also be used to cure the same symptoms in sick people.  These, so-called, remedies are prepared by making extreme dilutions of the material before administration.  It is entirely unscientific, being unsupported by experimental results and considered to be fake by the scientific medical community.

In December 1868, a meeting of the Court of the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary was held with a “very large attendance of managers”.  The reason for such a populous meeting was that a controversy had arisen as whether it was appropriate to allow homeopathic treatments to be administered to patients in ARI.  Dr Reith, one of the physicians at the infirmary, was proposing to use homeopathic remedies in his hospital practice but all the other physicians and surgeons were opposed to the proposal.  Lord Provost Alexander Nicol was president of the court and it fell to him to conduct the meeting.

William Dingwall Forsyth, MP for Aberdeenshire East wrote a letter proposing a compromise.  It would have involved Dr Reith being reappointed as a physician but only prescribing homeopathic treatments in separate wards to those patients requesting them.  He wanted to see “harmonious cooperation between medical officials at the infirmary”.  But such a solution was quite unworkable.  Dingwall Forsyth had not appreciated the utterly fundamental gulf between evidence-based medicine and the alternative which depended only on believing that homeopathy was valid.  The Lord Provost had referred the dispute to the judgement of two doctors of great status in the area, Drs Kilgour and Dyce.  Their conclusion was that any encroachment of homeopathic practices on the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary would lead to “very serious consequences for the institution”, though they had no objection to any doctor providing such treatment to his private patients.  The Lord Provost said that he personally accepted this judgement because of the status of the two authors of the study but that point of view was also held by other doctors in the city and the country round about, which reinforced his position.

The Lord Provost then put forward a motion for consideration.  “The managers having had under consideration the correspondence between Drs Harvey, Smith and Reith and also the report of the two Consulting Physicians thereon consider it to be for the best interests of the institution to be guided by that report and not to permit the use of Homeopathic medicines in the Infirmary, further having regard to the correspondence and various publications which have been furnished by these medical gentlemen to the managers as well as to the almost unanimous expressed opinion of the medical men of the city and district which is entirely adverse to the practice of Homeopathy they do not consider it advisable to give countenance to it within the Institution”.  The motion was met with applause.

The president then revealed that he had received a letter from all the doctors at the infirmary, except Dr Reith, but had not circulated it because he did not want it to appear as a threat.  There was then a clamour from the meeting for the letter to be read out and the president complied.  “Aberdeen 12th December 1868.  To the President and Managers of the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.  Gentlemen, Whereas Homoeopathy has not received the sanction of the medical profession and whereas it is in our opinion both unsound and irrational we the undersigned beg with all respect to acquaint you with our conviction that it would not be honest in us to remain connected with an institution in which that system is recognised.  We have no right nor have we any desire to dictate to you in regard to the choice of any of your medical officers.  If it be your pleasure on Monday next to re-elect Dr Reith well and good; but in that case, we consider that you will thereby virtually give your sanction to the introduction of Homoeopathy into your Institution.  Therefore, in that event and in the event also of our own re-election, there would be but one course open to us, namely that of resignation.  Thanking you for the consideration you have always shown us and for the confidence you have hitherto placed in us, we have the honour to be, Gentlemen, Your most obedient Servants.  Rd Dyce, Al Kilgour, Wm Keith, William Pirie, David Kerr, Alex Harvey, JWF Smith, Alex Ogston”.

The motion was then put to the meeting and Dr Reith’s few supporters then showed themselves, but they concentrated their fire on the physicians and surgeons who had written the letter threatening resignation.  Principal Campbell from the University rejected this view and said it had been right for the letter-writers to make their view clear before the meeting.  Dr Pirie also thought the medical men had acted honourably in making their views known before the vote and thus preventing a decision “to plunge into a course of action which would have thrown the whole Infirmary into confusion”.  He also described Homoeopathy as “absurd, false and delusive”.  “We, as the representatives of the public, are responsible.  The poor have been spoken of.  We are the trustees for the poor in that matter”.  Major Innes of Learney regretted that the debate had taken place with such “heat, partisanship and intemperance”.  He proposed his own motion removing the banning of homeopathic medicines from the institution.  He found no seconder and the president declined to modify his motion.  This was then passed by a large majority; the opponents being allowed to record their dissent in the minutes.

At that time, Alex Ogston was the Ophthalmic Surgeon at ARI, the most junior staff position, hence his placement last in the list of signatories.  Perhaps he had little option but to agree with his elders and betters, but it is certain that, even at this early stage in his career, his commitment to scientific medicine was unshakable and he would have had no qualms in refusing to be associated with what he viewed as quack practices.

 

Alexander Ogston becomes Joint Medical Officer of Health for Aberdeen

During March 1868, the Public Health Committee of the Town Council requested Francis Ogston to name a substitute to act for him, when necessary, through absence or otherwise and he named his son, Alexander Ogston (1844).  However, he could not be appointed as substitute for his father as the Public Health Act did not allow such an arrangement.  Instead, he was appointed Joint Medical Officer of Health for Aberdeen, the existing salary of £43 10s being shared by the joint postholders.  Although nominally equal in rank to his father, in practice Alexander was very much an apprentice in the role.  He continued in post until 1873 when he resigned due, as will be seen, to a major disagreement with the city authorities.

 

Alexander Ogston and the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary

Alexander Ogston (1844) first became acquainted with Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, then located on the Woolmanhill site near the centre of town, in 1862 during his medical training.  At that time, the conduct of surgical operations and the organisation of the wards to which the patients were sent after surgery was primitive and, to modern eyes, truly horrific.  Antiseptic surgery was yet to be invented and chloroform-induced anaesthesia was a new technique, still to receive a nod of approval from many leading surgeons.  Alex Ogston noted that in Aberdeen, although tentatively favoured by the younger surgeons, chloroform was usually not employed, due to the views of William Keith, the First Surgeon at ARI, known as “Old Danger”, to the medical students.  Keith had somehow developed the opinion from his own experience that his operations were more successful when anaesthesia was not used.  However, by the time that Alexander Ogston graduated in 1865, chloroform anaesthesia was generally accepted as a major aid to surgery.  If anything, the conduct of the wards was even more frightening than the conduct of operations.  Each ward was overseen by a fat old woman who prepared poultices.  She invariably kept a pet tomcat, which bore the name of the doctor that she served, for example “Alexander Kilgour”, the Senior Physician at ARI.  As tomcats do, these animals patrolled their territories, including the operating theatre, scent-marking prominent objects with a spray of smelly urine.  Added to the characteristic stink of tomcats was the equally recognisable stench of suppuration in surgical wounds which, in those days, usually became infected after an operation.  There was no understanding of the importance of cleanliness, there was no provision for hand-washing and surgical instruments and other accoutrements were simply placed on an open shelf when not in use.  Operations were performed by surgeons dressed in their street clothes, overlaid with one of a collection of communal long black coats.  These garments were never washed and became encrusted with blood, tissue and the contents of body cavities.  This was the environment that Alexander Ogston entered when, in 1870, he was appointed to the post of Junior Surgeon at ARI.

The surgical hierarchy in 1870 consisted of four positions, First, Second, Third and Junior surgeons.  Generally, when one surgeon died, retired, or otherwise demitted office, the person or persons below him in the pecking order moved up a rung on the surgical ladder and, finally, there was a competition for the most inferior role.  In that year William Keith, First Surgeon, resigned and those below him shuffled up with aspiring surgeons then putting their names forward for the vacant position of Junior Surgeon.  The candidates included Dr Alexander Ogston, Dr Alexander Dyce Davidson, Dr Best, Dr Ogilvie Will and Dr Roger.  At a Royal Infirmary Special General Court held at the beginning of August 1870, a vote was held on the list of candidates, with the following result.  Ogston 63, Davidson 30, Best 23, Will 16.  Although Alexander Ogston had garnered 33 votes more than Davidson, the claim was made by one or more managers that the result was not clear-cut, suggesting that there was some lingering hostility to this brash young surgeon.  Dr Will was then dropped from the list, the poll re-run and the following count declared, Ogston 71, Davidson 34, Best 28.  This time the result was allowed to stand, and Dr Ogston was duly elected though, in truth, the outcome was little different from that previously obtained.  Alexander Dyce Davidson had again been vanquished by Alexander Ogston in an employment competition, but Davidson received a consolation prize shortly afterwards when he was appointed to the vacant post of Ophthalmic Surgeon.  He had been the only candidate.  Alexander Ogston again took space in the Aberdeen Journal to thank those responsible for his appointment.  “Royal Infirmary Surgeoncy.  Dr Alex Ogston begs to convey to the Infirmary Managers his thanks for the honour conferred on him on Friday last”.  The position of Junior Surgeon was not remunerated and involved very little work, other than acting as anaesthetist when required.  In order to keep himself busy, Alexander applied for, and was additionally appointed to, the position of Aurist at the infirmary in 1870.

 

Alexander Ogston is appointed as Assistant Professor of Medical Jurisprudence

This university appointment in 1870 was in the gift of his father, but there was no hint that anyone found this situation to be unacceptable and potentially a case of nepotism, perhaps because Alex Ogston was such an outstanding young doctor and had experience of police work as assistant to his father.  This post was renewed annually until 1873, when Alexander Ogston resigned the position.

 

Alexander Ogston and German behaviour and attitudes

Alexander Ogston attributed the deterioration in German behaviour and social attitudes to their drubbing of the French in the Franco-Prussian War of 1871 – 1872.  “After the Franco-Prussian War, the simple modes of life came to be altered and luxury and ostentation were increasingly evident in their dwellings …”.  And in other aspects of German life, “Arrogance and boastfulness crept in and took the place of the former quiet conduct while the demeanour of the officers of the army in public places became bullying and self-assertive to an offensive degree and was plainly cultivated as a mark of the military official. … The gentle quiet studious type of German medical man died out by degrees and the type of the warrior was substituted, nearly all the leading surgeons being attached in some fashion … to the army.  One by one I missed the plain homely persons I had known so well …”.  Langebeck developed cataract and had to retire from surgery and take up general practice.  He lost his fortune apparently due to some bad behaviour by a relative and died essentially in poverty.  Alex Ogston had found this man to be inspirational, not only for his country but also for Ogston personally.  Some of the new breed of German surgeon, Alexander Ogston both knew and liked but others, already famous, he hardly spoke to.  He also found an undercurrent of anti-English feeling.  He knew three German surgeons very well.  Frederick Trendelenburg, Professor of Surgery at Leipzig University, visited Alex Ogston in Aberdeen in 1906, staying with him at 252 Union Street and was honoured with the award of an honorary LL D from Aberdeen University.  Mikulicz “was a good fellow” whom Ogson met again in Glasgow when both were guests of Professor Macewen.  Carl Lauenstein was the third and Alex Ogston sometimes stayed at his house in Hamburg.  He and his family were repeatedly the guests of the Ogstons in Aberdeen and at Glendavan.  He even travelled through Scotland with the Ogstons at Alexander’s expense.  Ogston was not pleased when, on the outbreak of war in 1914, the German wrote a book, or pamphlet, abusing the British and their ways.  Alexander Ogston’s admiration of, and respect for, German science and medicine clearly overcame, for some time, his distaste for the social attitudes frequently on display in the country.  But Germany’s appeal for Alexander Ogston started to wane.  “In course of years however, the attractions of German science became less for me and the changed character of the people so repellent to me that I withdrew from the membership of the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Chirurgie”.  Alexander Ogston then turned his attention more to North America, though apparently he never travelled there.

 

The influence of Joseph Lister on Alexander Ogston

Joseph Lister was born into a prominent Quaker family at Upton, Essex, in 1827.  At the age of 17 he entered University College, London to study medicine and was present at the first operation performed under ether anaesthesia almost three years later but was shocked to find that mortality following apparently successful operations was depressingly high and concluded that surgery should only be performed if absolutely necessary.  He also developed an antipathy to osteopaths whom he regarded as charlatans.  Lister graduated with the degree of MB from the University of London and also gained a Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons.  Joseph Lister then moved to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary to work under Professor Syme, a man of great status and trenchant opinions.  The two became friends and Joseph Lister married Syme’s daughter, Agnes. 

Lord Lister.

In 1860, Lister was appointed Regius Professor of Surgery at Glasgow University, though for a year he was without a complementary hospital appointment.  The 1850s and 1860s were a time of great ferment in the field of microbiology with the progressive demonstration that some diseases were caused by microbial infections.  But the significance of microbes was not fully understood, especially by the surgical establishment which generally regarded them as microscopical curiosities of little significance.  Hospital diseases such as erysipelas, pyaemia, septicaemia and hospital gangrene were often dismissed as unavoidable evils, or even as a necessary part of the healing process.  The miasma theory, which held that foul air was the cause of disease transmission, still held sway and seemed to explain the observation of disease passing from one inmate to another in crowded wards containing patients with suppurating wounds. 

Louis Pasteur.

Between 1860 and 1864, Louis Pasteur demonstrated that fermentation in nutrient broth was caused by microorganisms carried in the air and was not due to spontaneous generation.  Lister himself believed in the miasma theory until 1865 when he became acquainted with Pasteur’s work.  However, he still had no idea of the universality or diversity of microorganisms in the environment.  Between 1858 and 1863, Lister conducted a series of experiments on inflammation and blood clotting, the results of which were published.  Inflammation preceded suppuration in surgical wounds and Lister was trying to understand the processes by which suppuration was generated.  Joseph Lister concluded that microorganisms carried in the air were probably responsible, in some way, for suppuration and that cleaning the air in contact with a wound of microorganisms by chemical means was the way forward.  Occasionally, compound open fractures presented for his attention and in 1865 he first used carbolic acid in an attempt to suppress the disease processes which were inevitable in such cases.  From this time, Lister was totally focussed on preventing suppuration rather than improving surgical technique.  It was May 1866 before he had another suitable compound fracture case to try out his new technique.  This was a seven-year-old Glasgow lad who had sustained a leg break after a cartwheel rolled over him.  Lister applied a piece of lint dipped in carbolic acid solution to the wound and four days later when he replaced the pad found that no inflammation had developed.  Six weeks later the broken leg bones had fused back together and there was no pus in evidence.

Joseph Lister published his results in a paper which appeared in a series of parts in the journal, “The Lancet” between March and July 1867 under the general title of “On a new method of treating compound fracture, abcess, etc with observations on the conditions of suppuration”.  While his results were well-received in Germany, they failed to win over the conservative surgical establishment in Britain, especially in London, where, by and large, the claims were treated with incredulity.  Rickman Godlee, Lister’s biographer argued that a different style of training in Germany was responsible for this divergence of opinion.  Lister’s results were derived from scientific experiments which German doctors understood because they mostly took science degrees, whereas in Britain, surgeons were taught practically, standing in the shadow of their opinionated masters.  However, rivalry and jealousy were not uncommon in the medical profession and may have played a part in the rejection of Lister’s claims.  Even two years later, at the British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting held in Leeds, Joseph Lister’s techniques were mocked by the surgical establishment.  Also in Leeds, at a meeting of the BMA in the same year, Mr Nunneley, the prominent Leeds-based surgeon disparaged Lister’s methods, though he had not tried them personally.  However, other attendees had trialled Listerism and found that it worked, and they spoke up in his support.

Lister described his initial version of the antiseptic surgical technique as follows.  “Clean the broken limb, squeeze out all blood clots, swab the inside of the wound with calico soaked in undiluted carbolic acid, cover the wound with a piece of lint also soaked in carbolic acid, cover that with a metal sheet to prevent evaporation.  Leave for several days and renew carbolic acid from time to time”.  In the period 1865 – 1868, Lister also experimented with a carbolic spray for cleaning the air, the wound and the skin around the wound.  Carbolic acid is not very soluble in water, about 8% being a saturated solution, and such a solution was generally used in the sprays which were further developed after Lister’s return to Edinburgh in 1869.  Lister also emphasised the importance of cleanliness of hands, clothes and instruments. 

Many other doctors visited Lister in Glasgow to see for themselves the results of the antiseptic surgical technique.  Also, Lister’s own junior surgeons eventually moved away to significant positions elsewhere and became ambassadors for his methodology.  But Lister’s ideas were rejected by all but one of his senior colleagues at Glasgow.  In August 1869, Joseph Lister was appointed to the Chair of Clinical Surgery at Edinburgh University in succession to his father-in-law, Professor Syme.  Sadly, in Edinburgh too, Lister’s pronouncements on antiseptic surgery were rejected by all his senior colleagues.  It was about this time of transition, though the actual date has not been uncovered, that Alexander Ogston decided to make contact with Joseph Lister.  Ogston later wrote, “Unforgettable was the incredulity with which we heard the first announcement that Lister had discovered a means of avoiding suppuration and blood poisoning in operation wounds”.  Ogston then took a very bold step for a decidedly junior ophthalmic surgeon from Aberdeen, who had not even reached the lowest rung of the surgical hierarchy at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.  He called, without introduction, on Lister at his home in Edinburgh, where he was received cordially.  Alex Ogston then went on to Glasgow, presumably at the suggestion of Joseph Lister, and was shown around Lister’s wards (24 and 25) there, possibly by Dr Archie Malloch, a 25-year-old Canadian doctor with Scottish ancestry who had been training with Professor Lister in Glasgow and who took charge of his wards in the absence of the boss.  Ogston was convinced of the veracity of Lister’s claims within five minutes of walking the Glasgow wards.  Malloch later married Alex Ogston’s younger sister, Helen Milne Ogston (1849).  Is it possible that the couple met in Aberdeen when Malloch was making a reciprocal visit to Ogston’s home?  They were joined in 1872 at Brockville, Ontario but tragedy struck only a year into the marriage when Helen Milne contracted diphtheria, which attack proved to be terminal. 

In 1869, Lister was initially convinced, based upon the work of Pasteur and others, that the air was the route by which microorganisms gained access to wounds, which caused him to concentrate on the further development of the carbolic acid spray.  The bulb spray already existed but further versions were invented, firstly a foot-controlled bellows spray, then a spray mounted on a tripod with a hand lever to pump out the fluid droplets and finally a steam-actuated spray.  Later, in 1891, Alexander Ogston published a paper in “The Lancet” describing an "irrigator regulator" invented by Mr TW Ogilvie, one of the most outstanding medical students of his year, which was used for spraying wounds with antiseptic preparations during surgical operations.  The instrument was made by Mr John Stevenson, Schoolhill, Aberdeen.  Thomas White Ogilvie graduated MB CM in 1892.  He hailed from Keith in Banffshire and lived an amazingly varied but brief life, dying in 1908.

Ogston returned to Aberdeen in late 1869 convinced that Lister’s methodology would greatly reduce the incidence of post-operative wound disease, but it was only in 1870 that he was elected to the post of Fourth or Junior Surgeon, unpaid, not in charge of any operations and lacking influence with the big beasts ahead of him in the surgical hierarchy.  Even in 1874 when he became Third Surgeon and could undertake his own operative procedures and guide his own trainees, his influence was limited, though he now had Dr Ogilvie Will, with whom he saw eye to eye on Listerism, below him in the hierarchy.  In 1876 he became Second Surgeon and in 1880 he ascended to the top job of First Surgeon, all the time pressing forward with the application of Listerism in Aberdeen.  But it was only in this year, with the retirement of Prof William Pirrie, that Ogston was completely free to promulgate Lister’s methodology.  Pirrie believed that acupressure could be used not only to stem bleeding from cut blood vessels but also to control suppuration of wounds, though Ogston and others at ARI knew that Pirrie’s results on the impact of acupressure on suppuration were false and due to his nurses assiduously wiping all traces of pus from operation wounds before Pirrie made his ward rounds. The detailed progress of Ogston’s pioneering introduction of Lister’s techniques into surgical practice in Aberdeen after 1869 has not yet been fully uncovered but one excellent insight was produced by Dr John Scott Riddell, who graduated from Aberdeen Medical School in 1886 and later became senior surgeon at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.  In 1886 Riddell was acting as chief dresser in Professor Ogston’s wards at ARI and was closely associated with Ogston’s work for seven years subsequently, both in the infirmary and in the university.  He described Ogston’s struggles with Lister’s detractors in the following terms.  “(Ogston was) A convinced believer in the germ theory (the belief that many diseases are caused by infections by specific microorganisms) and in the practice of Lister, he helped to build up and improve its methods and was able to demonstrate to a generation of students and the profession generally its safety and its infinite possibilities.  But there is always a Mordechai in the gate.  The opposition and persecution which Lister met with in Glasgow, Edinburgh and London was not wanting here (Aberdeen) and protagonists of the Listerian dogma in Aberdeen had to fight for their opinions.  Indeed, some of the unconverted had been heard to say that if they could get a sufficient number of germs to make soft pads, they would dress their surgical wounds with them!  Dr Riddell went on to describe the operation of the steam spray.  “This “Puffing Billy” was an infernal machine which occasionally blew up and which I am afraid caused many finger burns and much profanity. … I recall the wards of bygone years and conjure up the sounds of steam sprays, hissing and spluttering a tainted atmosphere, redolent of carbolic acid and iodoform (an early anaesthetic), varied with occasional whiffs of the concentrated effluvia of soft soap and perspiring humanity”. 

The Aberdeen Steam Spray.

 

During the period when Alex Ogston was using the carbolic acid spray liberally, enthusiastically and effectively, a famous four-verse ditty about Ogston’s passion for the carbolic spray was composed (by “JM Bulloch and T Holt”, according to Dr WC Souter) and appeared in the medical class of 1886 – 1890 graduation souvenir brochure.  The structure of the poem is quite complex.  Verses one and three have a routine rhyming structure of ABABABAB but verses two and four are quite different and unusual, with an AABBBA rhythm, suggesting the author was someone with a poetic bent.  The poem captures not only the atmosphere in Ogston’s operating theatre - “… shower it morning night and day …” - but also aspects of his personality – “And few were his words, and his manner was always deliberately slow”.  When was this rhyme composed?  The reference to Ogston’s involvement in the Egypt Campaign suggests its genesis occurred after 1885 but “… we learned that the thing of the future …” suggests a much earlier date than 1885, since by that year the veracity of Lister’s techniques had been generally accepted.  Even in 1877, Godlee could write that London was the only place in the world where the antiseptic doctrine had not been conceded.  On the other hand, the reference to fixing a “shaky knock-knee” could put the date of origin as early as 1876 (date of publication of Ogston’s seminal paper on that condition).  When Lister realised that the air was not the main source of infection after an operation but the patient’s own skin, contamination of the wound by foreign bodies, or the surgeon’s instruments, or his own dirty hands, clothes or dressings, he abandoned the spray.  That was in 1887, though Ogston was known to be still using the spray in 1892, which forms a definite long-stop date for the composition of the verses, since they were published in that year.  Perhaps, like other popular poems which are oft repeated, it evolved over time?  Who were JM Bulloch and T Holt?  Thomas Holt from Burnley, Lancashire graduated MB CM from Aberdeen University in 1890 and subsequently became Burnley’s medical officer of health.  John Malcolm Bulloch graduated MA from Aberdeen in 1888.  He then became a journalist for the Aberdeen Free Press and gained an early reputation for genealogical research and for vers de société (social or familiar poetry).  It seems almost certain that these two men were the authors of “A.O.”  However, there was another medical graduate who was equipped to play a part. 

William Bulloch (1868) graduated MB CM from Aberdeen University in the class of 1890.  Other than sharing a surname with John Malcolm Bulloch, there is no direct evidence that he was involved in the writing of the “A.O.” poem.  But, as will be seen, he would have been qualified to do so.  William Bulloch became a bacteriologist and would later confess his admiration for Alexander Ogston, who was one of his teachers. After several significant postings, Bulloch was appointed Professor of Bacteriology at London University in 1917.  He was also the author of a seminal work, “The History of Bacteriology”, published in 1938, which dealt with the significance of Ogston’s work for the development of this subject.  Bulloch also wrote an appreciation of Alexander Ogston’s life, which was published in the Aberdeen University Review in 1929.  Apart from Ogston’s ground-breaking work on bacterial suppuration, Bulloch considered Alexander Ogston to have been “the greatest practical doctor that Aberdeen had produced”.

“A.O.”

 We came to the land of the dummy,

To learn how to handle the knife;

The thing to begin with was rummy,

But rummy sensations were rife,

The plan of inserting a suture

Was taught in a practical way,

And we learned that the thing of the future

Was using unlimited spray

,

The spray, the spray, the antiseptic spray
A.O. would shower it morning, night and day
For every sort of scratch
Where others would attach
A sticking plaster patch
He gave the spray

To perform an abdominal section,

To strengthen a shaky knock-knee

Were things he could do to perfection –

To this you must surely agree,

And few were his words, and his manner

Was always deliberately slow;

As long as we flutter life’s banner

We’ll always remember A.O.

 

A.O., A.O., the dignified A.O.,

The solemn Prof. who garbled no bon mot.

This great and gallant man

Explored the hot Sudan;

Got medals spick and span –

You know, you know.

 

After the initial contact between Ogston and Lister in Edinburgh, a mutual respect grew between the two men and they became good friends.  In 1883, Ogston wrote in a letter to Lister, “You have changed surgery, especially operative surgery from being a hazardous lottery into a safe and soundly-based science.  You are the leader of the modern generation of scientific surgeons and every good man in our profession – especially in Scotland – looks up to you with such respect and attachment as few men receive”.  Lister reciprocated these sentiments in his presidential address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science when it met in Liverpool in 1896.  Joseph Lister’s nephew, Arthur Hugh Lister became a medical student at Aberdeen, graduating MB CM in 1895 and subsequently serving as one of Ogston’s dressers.  Dr John Scott Riddell, one-time senior surgeon at ARI has suggested that Arthur Hugh Lister came to Aberdeen at the suggestion of his uncle because of Alexander Ogston’s presence there.  Arthur Hugh Lister died at sea in 1916, during WW1.

 

 Alexander Ogston and military surgery

The Franco-Prussian war lasted from July 1870 to May 1871.  The belligerents were France, led by Napoleon III, and the North German Confederation led by Prussia, whose chancellor and prime minister was Count Otto von Bismarck.  War was declared by Napoleon III.   He had been led to believe France would easily win such a conflict, but this belief proved to be wildly inaccurate.  The Prussian army mobilised more quickly and rapidly defeated the French leading to the siege and occupation of Paris, French capitulation and the deposition of Napoleon III.  Casualties on both sides were large, but especially amongst the French troops.  There were many wounded requiring treatment in the two armies, and it was this war which led Alexander Ogston to become interested in military surgery.  With so many injured soldiers in hospital it was an inevitable consequence that hospital-acquired infections would become a significant problem and it was certain that Lister’s techniques would be severely tested.  Professor Richard von Volkmann, a leading German surgeon (and earlier critic of Ogston), was so successful in applying Lister’s methods that other doctors quickly attended his wards to see the success of this new approach to the reduction of wound suppuration and its associated mortality.  Ogston published a paper in the British Medical Journal in 1870 with the title “A method of antiseptic treatment applicable to wounded soldiers in the present war”.  It described a simple method of dressing gunshot wounds using carbolic lotion and carbolized oil (carbolic acid dissolved in olive oil).  Although the UK was not a combatant in the war, humanitarian considerations led British volunteers to become involved in aiding the wounded on both sides, for example by manning ambulance parties to recover injured soldiers from the battlefield.  This was a development that Alexander Ogston later encouraged in Aberdeen with his support of local ambulance volunteers.  It also led to Alex Ogston introducing military surgery into his lectures to students in the medical school, since a significant proportion of the medical graduates would end up working in the army.  But Ogston also realised that in order to teach the subject effectively he needed to have first-hand experience, just as his famous predecessors, Sir James Wylie in many Russian battles and Sir James McGrigor in various campaigns with the British Army had experienced.  Ogston wrote in his book, “Reminiscences of Three Campaigns”, “… it was incumbent upon me as a teacher of surgery and professor in the University, to give instruction to students in the subject of military surgery, and I was not long in finding out that to impart a knowledge of it as applied to war it was indispensable for me to witness its operations in the field.  Hence, when the opportunity arrived, I was drawn by degrees into the experiences I am about to relate”.  His first opportunity would arise during actions in the Sudan during the Egyptian Expedition of 1884 - 1885 to relieve General Gordon, who had been besieged by the Mahdi’s forces in Khartoum.

 

The Aberdeen smallpox epidemic of 1871 - 1872

Several waves of smallpox affected Aberdeen during the 1870s.  In December 1871, the first of these crises came upon the city.  Because the disease was so infectious and with significant associated mortality, the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary could not treat the victims, forcing the Town Council, under the Public Health (Scotland) Act 1867, to open a temporary facility at Mounthooly, which had formerly accommodated the Bon-Accord Chemical Light Company, and which was exclusively for the isolation and treatment of smallpox cases.  Alexander Ogston, then Joint Medical Officer of Health for Aberdeen, was put in charge of this hospital at the beginning of January 1872.  The epidemic was quickly brought under control and by the middle of July 1872, only two patients were being accommodated and no new patient had been admitted during the previous three weeks.  There had been 230 cases with 37 deaths, a good ratio in relation to what had been achieved in other towns.  Alex Ogston, along with his medical resident, Dr James Inglis, had clearly performed their roles skilfully and conscientiously.  Arrangements were made to close the facility and Alex Ogston then submitted his bill for providing treatment to 220 patients - £472, calculated at 2gns per patient.  When this account landed at the Town House it caused deep disquiet due to its size, though one councillor, Baillie Ross, “thought the bill reasonable given that Dr Ogston’s private practice has been injured, the sacrifice of home and family comforts”.  The first reaction of the Town Council was to claim they had no liability to meet his bill at all, since his letter of appointment stipulated that he would only get his normal salary.  However, when the emergency was over, they would consider if they should pay him something extra.  Ogston shot back that the two were not related.  The bill for services at the Smallpox hospital related only to his appointment in January in charge of smallpox.  He immediately asked to be relieved of his responsibilities at the smallpox hospital and as Joint Medical Officer of Health, told them that he would not forgo his claim and reserved his position.  In fact, both Alex and his father resigned almost simultaneously by letter, Francis on 23 August and his son a day later.  Alex Ogston clearly possessed a very different personality from his compliant, financially indifferent and accommodating father, with whom the Town Council was used to dealing.  By some means an agreement was reached that Alex Ogston’s bill for services at the smallpox hospital would be submitted to the arbitration of Dr Alexander Kilgour, a highly respected Aberdeen doctor, who had been Senior Physician at ARI, had an extensive general practice in the city and had been involved in examining the living conditions of the poor in relation to disease.  Dr Kilgour attempted a compromise, though the basis of his proposal was unclear.  Alexander Ogston would be awarded £230, less than 50% of his claim.  Dr Kilgour, perhaps trying to be even-handed, criticised the Council for not specifying Alex Ogston’s duties and Ogston for not obtaining a binding statement as to his level of remuneration.  When the Town Council considered the letters of resignation, the Lord Provost, William Leslie made a pointed distinction between the two Ogstons.  “I have no hesitation whatever in recommending acceptance of Dr Alexander Ogston’s resignation, but I think we should hesitate before we accept Dr Francis Ogston’s.  Dr F Ogston has always shown himself, under ticklish circumstances, to be conciliatory and very willing to do all that devolves upon him. (Applause)”.  Indeed, Francis Ogston had offered to continue in post until a replacement was found.  The local authority then laid down their plan for the future.  The replacement medical officer was to be a single post, not split and to be offered to Dr Francis Ogston at a remuneration of 100gns per year.  It was also suggested that, if there were to be another epidemic, the medical officer should be paid at the rate of 1gn per day.  Francis Ogston accepted the offer, in his characteristic style, without demur.

 

Alexander Ogston’s status grows 

In November 1872, Alexander Ogston was elected a Fellow of the Medical Society of London and a year later he was nominated as an examiner in Medicine at Aberdeen University.  Also, in the same year he was appointed to a small committee of the University to examine the medical curriculum.  Two years after, Alex Ogston was asked to join the Committee on the Act and Ordinances and on the Arts Curriculum set up by the General Council of Aberdeen University to report on subjects to be brought before the then imminent Royal Commission. The year 1874 saw Alex Ogston promoted to the position of Third Surgeon at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, a full surgical post which involved him actually performing operations and being paid for so doing.  He was now 30 and his colleague, Dr JC Ogilvie Will stepped up in his place as Junior Surgeon.  Alex Ogston then started to teach Clinical Surgery courses to medical students along with the other two paid surgeons, Drs Pirrie and Kerr.  Alexander Ogston’s rise up the surgical hierarchy at ARI soon ascended another rung.  He was promoted to Second Surgeon in 1876, when Dr Kerr resigned, this advancement being met with applause in the special court of hospital managers.   Dr Ogilvie Will then rose, in lockstep, to Third Surgeon.  Interestingly, Sheriff John Dove Wilson, a leading barrister, judge and legal author, who was one of the managers, proposed that a senior surgeonship at the hospital should always be held by the Professor of Surgery in the University, perhaps anticipating that ARI’s new second surgeon had further to go and realising that it would be anomalous if there were to be such a disconnect between the hospital and the medical school.

In the operating theatre, Alex Ogston’s creativity was at work inventing new surgical procedures.  In 1877 he published a paper on the surgical treatment of knock-knee, his operation being used widely until it was in turn superseded by a technique invented by Dr Macewen of Glasgow.  Dr Ogston also lectured, in German, on his new technique in Berlin under the title, “Zur operative Behandlung von Genu-Valgum”.  (For the surgical treatment of knock-knees).

 

Alexander Ogston’s proposed reform of medical societies in the North-East of Scotland

In 1885, towards the end of his year as president of the local branch of the BMA, Alexander Ogston delivered an address to the association at its annual meeting.  The text of this substantial presentation has survived and illustrates many features of its author’s personality.  He had a substantial grasp of history, especially of the medical profession and its doings in, or for, the North-East of Scotland, he was an excellent writer and raconteur, with a flowing style and a wide vocabulary, he was fluent in German, he revealed a reforming zeal for whatever subject, or organisation, with which he became associated, a belief in medicine being underpinned by science and he displayed a high level of integrity, with a desire to enhance the general good.  But his address also illuminated the reasons for initiating the local branch of the BMA some 13 years previously, in 1872.  Some extracts from Ogston’s speech will illustrate these points.

“After acknowledging the honour which had been done to him and stating that it would be his aim to serve the Society so it should be rendered more useful during his term of office and in such a way that no one would justly desire he had not been elected”.

“As the tides and waves of worlds come and go and the destinies of races and nations ebb and flow in seeming consonance with the universal laws of change, so do phases of change pass over bodies of men, leaving their marks to be read as lessons by those who succeed, if they have the will and penetration to understand them”.  This is almost poetic and the internal rhymes (“come and go”, “ebb and flow”; “bodies of men”, “understand them”) surely deliberate.

“The Annals of Aberdeen show that it has contained, not one, but many pioneers of knowledge who have won among the teachers of Britain and the Continent a high and noble name; that its sons of medicine have been physicians to potentates and kings; and even in our own hour we could point to those who are doing the like, and whom after generations will delight to honour.  The shelves of our libraries and the portraits in our halls tell us also of many who, remaining in the midst of us, have by their labours and genius gained for themselves a lustre that has not yet faded”.

“But I would not willingly be taken for a laudator of only the times that are past and played out – my purpose is far otherwise.  I would rather seize the opportunity which I have in addressing you to point out that we who belong to the profession here, who are now in this room, are acting unworthily to ourselves, are neglecting an opportunity of benefitting and ennobling our profession, and are so using the short time at our disposal that our successors of the next fifty perhaps even twenty years or maybe less, will, unless we are wise, pass their verdict on our living and acting as having been unworthy”. 

This last statement was a preface to a complaint about torpor, lack of vision and promotion of self-interest in the medical profession in Aberdeen over the previous couple of decades, including within the Aberdeen Medico-Chirurgical Society, which Alex Ogston had perceived and countered. 

“It has always been the reproach of our profession that it has been disunited and torn by strife, and to some extent the reproach is true and especially it has been true of the profession in Aberdeen during the twenty years that are gone (ie 1865 – 1885).  Twenty years ago, the profession here consisted almost entirely of middle-aged or elderly men.  I can hardly remember one who was under fifty, and a singular mixture of most dissimilar elements they were.  Some of them were men of all nobility, nobility in its various styles – some were outspoken, fearless men, as true as the light of the sun and as penetrating, who, regardless of intrigues and jealousies around them, walked their own unassisted way as the acknowledged leaders of the profession – others were of less force and more gentleness, who strove to do what was right and just, but seeking to evade the turmoil of life, passed through it little noticed in the privacy of their lives – and in contrast with them is the meteor-like course of others, great yet little, noble and generous at times, narrow and unjust at others, who, with powers that should have raised them high and helped their brethren higher, yet fell short of the goal they should have won, and failed too frequently and too lamentably where they ought to have been pioneers to their colleagues and brethren.  Besides these, there were the usual grades of mixed good and bad, the much bad with a little good, and the wholly bad when weighed in the balance, not perhaps with other men, but with what they ought to have been.  As time passed on our best lights went out, and the profession in Aberdeen fell to what I must call a very low ebb.  Its reputed leaders were men without diameter, or without proper proportion in their diameters.  Small or narrow, all were actuated by no great thoughts for the welfare of the profession; and, starving under their cold shade, science ceased to hold up its head in our midst.  Our one local Medico-Chirurgical Society, the pantheon of physic in Aberdeen, dwindled down to the verge of extinction, the two or three who attended its meetings finding no justification for their doing so in the thin and even injurious pabulum there provided for their intellects, and everywhere mutual distrust and malevolence were rife among those who should have been co-workers and friends”.

The oldest medical society for doctors in the North-East of Scotland in the 1870s was the Aberdeen Medico-Chirurgical Society, founded in 1789 by Aberdeen medical students unhappy with the quality of medical teaching at both King’s and Marischal colleges, as the Aberdeen Medical Society.  One of the student founders of the Aberdeen Medical Society was James McGrigor, who would later achieve considerable prominence in military medicine.  In 1811, the Aberdeen Medical Society evolved into a postgraduate organisation.  This medical club acquired a home in the form of the grand Medical Hall, designed by architect Archibald Simpson in a classical style, in King Street, which was opened in 1820.  By 1844, the society had changed its name to the Aberdeen Medico-Chirurgical Society, an appellation which survives to this day.  The “Med-Chi” was followed in 1865 by the North of Scotland Medical Association, a conglomeration of all the medical societies in the North-East of Scotland, including the “Med-Chi”.  The purpose of this new grouping was “to promote friendly intercourse among the members, the discussion of questions of general or scientific interest to the profession and giving expression to the opinion of the profession in this part of the country on public questions”.  Individual membership was also possible. 

Medical Hall, King Street, Aberdeen.

The Ogstons gravitated to the North of Scotland Medical Association, following their disillusionment with the Med-Chi but also found that organisation underwhelming.  The amenable Francis Ogston (1803) served during 1871 as president of that association.     His son, Alex was less accommodating as explained in his 1885 talk, “It was a heart-breaking time for Aberdeen science.  Our North of Scotland Association, designed and fitted though it was to unite the profession of the district in name and in reality, fell upon evil times when it was originated, and has, during the whole course of its existence, from one unfortunate cause or another, never done anything that could be considered a good reason for continuing to be”.  Alex Ogston then turned his attention to a solution for this lack of purposeful interaction in the medical community.

“Amidst the existing chaos of those days a few of the younger men were impelled together to an effort to remedy the existing evils.  They resolved to set their face up against the dishonourable professional courses then so general, and against those who were known to practice them, and to endeavour to stimulate the decaying scientific aspect of Aberdeen medicine into a renewed vigour more in keeping with what it had once been, and ought to be”.

There was another club for doctors, the Aberdeen Medical Club which operated between at least 1868, but probably earlier, and 1875.  At its meetings members would make presentations on interesting cases, or conditions, that they had come across but disharmony intervened and, due to differences in "vital and fundamental doctrine" between members, the club was disbanded in 1868.  A small group of doctors, including Smith, Ogston, Fraser and Davidson, continued to meet but the gathering proved to be inviable and the club finally ceased in 1875.

Dissatisfaction with the Med-Chi came to a head for the Ogstons in 1872.  Even before this year, at the 1869 AGM of that organisation, neither Ogston was involved in the management of the society for the following year.  An ordinary meeting of the Med-Chi was held in February 1872, immediately followed by a special meeting “to consider and determine on the proposed alterations in the situation and arrangements of the Society”.  No report of that special meeting has been uncovered, but it seems likely that this was the occasion when Alex Ogston and his associates, the angry young men of the Aberdeen medical community, sought change in the Med-Chi but failed in that quest.  One bone of contention was the exclusion of country doctors from the Med-Chi.  Alex Ogston was 28 at the time and his solution to the problem of the thin gruel of medical discourse was to establish a local branch of the British Medical Association as a vehicle for the meeting and professional mixing of North-East doctors. 

The British Medical Association traces its origin to an organisation of medical practitioners formed in Worcester in 1832 during the cholera epidemic of that year, with the aim of doctors pooling knowledge about that dreadful malady.  It became a national organisation in 1858, when it adopted its present name.  Over the years it has had a variety of roles advising governments, national and local, on medical matters but increasingly it took on the role of protecting the interests of its members and after WW2 became a registered trades union.  The British Medical Journal was founded and is owned by the BMA.  In Scotland the first regional branch of the BMA in that country, the Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine Association, was formed in April 1872 on the initiative of Alexander Ogston, who was the leading advocate for this innovation, the circumstances of which have been explained above.  The Aberdeen Journal praised his courage.  “We should fail in an act of justice if we did not say how much is due to the efforts of Dr Alexander Ogston of Aberdeen who has spared no pains to contribute to the success of the Branch and who will act as its Honorary Secretary …”.  Later, he was elected president of the local branch of the BMA at its 1884 AGM for the following year and it was during that year that he made his illuminating address to the membership which covered his reasons for stimulating the formation of the branch.

Alex Ogston’s assessment was that between the local branch of the BMA being formed in 1872 and the year of his speech, 1885, progress had been made.  “Their efforts in the first direction have slowly born fruit, so that it may be fairly stated that at the present day, Aberdeen stands behind no district in the loyalty of its medical men towards one another and towards themselves.  In the second direction, that of rekindling the torch of science, their endeavours have also not been entirely in vain.  Partly owing to their own labours and partly to the attraction to the chairs of the University of talented men, Aberdeen can at present show a large number of highly distinguished physicians, some of whose names are known among their compeers to the very ends of the civilised earth.  But much remains to be done ere we can feel that our verdict, and that of posterity upon us, would be what we all would have it to be.  There is among us no proper concentration of the scientific centres, so that the benefits of cooperation may be duly utilised, and the fostering care science always requires be rightly and effectively bestowed”.  What did Alex Ogston have in mind to promulgate such change?

First, he appealed to the sense of honour and duty of his audience, especially its younger members, and the need to put the greater good ahead of any personal considerations.  “But I would ask those, from whom so much will be expected, to consider well the lesson they have to learn today from the past and present, to decide wisely but resolutely upon what they have to do, and, having done so, let no considerations save those of duty and the honour of the profession prevent them sweeping away every obstacle that may oppose itself to the carrying out of every needful reform or revolution.  I may be pardoned for being more precise.  At the epoch when science had sunk among us to its lowest ebb, an endeavour was made, by one who has borne the highest honours of this branch, to institute such a change in our medical societies – especially in that Valhalla of our bygone great men, the Medico-Chirurgical Society – as would constitute it that needed centre of professional and scientific life which it was felt was required as the commencement of such a change.  A proposal to reform the Society and adapt it to the requirements of the day was carefully elaborated, hedged around with all the safeguards that prudence could suggest, proved by calculations carefully made at every point to be practicable, safe, and advisable, and brought forward, only to be shipwrecked after a desperate struggle, by the then leaders of the profession with whom they were then so powerful”.  This was a reference to the attempt to reform the Med-Chi in 1872 in which Alex Ogston appears to have played a leading part.  “The hopelessness of prolonging the struggle in the circumstances of the hour led to secession from the Society and to the establishment of our present branch of the British Medical Association.  This step, though its necessity was to be regretted, proved a drastic remedy to the disease it was meant to cure.  It has steadily increased the usefulness, the harmony, and the status of the profession since the hour of its inauguration; it has gathered around it a band of workers who have raised science from the dying state in which it lay and who hope to raise it yet higher, and it has brought together the workers over a large district, rendered them acquaintances and friends – produced from their labours a mass of valuable scientific work that has raised our town and district not a little in its own esteem and in the esteem of the scientific world elsewhere.  Such an amount of valuable work has never before been effected by any like association here”.

Alex Ogston was also able to claim that the secession of himself and his acolytes from the Med-Chi had, in itself, produced beneficial reform in that society.  “… since emulation is the soul of progress, the Medico-Chirurgical Society has slowly felt the force, and has itself resumed, I believe, an energy and activity that it never exhibited in my day.  I am truly glad to say this. … I recognise – I believe I may say we all recognise – that to a reformed Medico-Chirurgical Society we must eventually look as the place where the memories of our scientific heroes of the past should live, where our own may perhaps live when our day is done and our fight well fought, where all that is of interest regarding the history of medicine here ought to be gathered together, and where not only medical but all other scientific societies ought to find a common point to which they would gravitate towards mutual contact.

But Ogston did not rest with this high-minded aspiration for unity.  He also proposed a practical mechanism by which it might be brought about, but he warned that the “levers of inaction” against the necessary moves would be mobilised.  However, he had faith that the pressure for change would eventually prevail.  “Come these changes must, and come they will, whether soon or now I care not, and know not, but the time has passed when the inaction and apathy that once hindered the profession here can long keep it disunited, and it will be a welcome thought to me if any words of mine from this chair, which I feel so proud to fill, should hasten the fullness of the time when the younger and abler men of our profession will rise and sweep irresistibly before them all who may bar their progress by declaring themselves hostile to the union of the town and country profession into a strong , active and honourable combination”.

Ogston’s plan for reform proposed selling the Medical Hall on King Street, valued at about £2,200, buying and fitting out a house as a new headquarters, investing the balance and using the interest on that sum, plus annual subscriptions to meet running costs.  The house would contain a library, reading room with newspapers and periodicals, a museum, a smoking room (!) and bedroom accommodation for country members.  The constitution would ensure a regular turnover of officeholders and the Widow’s fund, which Ogston described as a “financial excrescence” should be “lopped off”.  The North of Scotland Medical Society should cease to exist, and the local branch of the BMA should hold its meetings as part of the program of the Med-Chi Society.  The BMA members should pay their subscriptions to the reformed Med-Chi and, since the BMA organisation had, at that time, 106 members, he thought the advantage of his proposal to the Med-Chi would be obvious.  Some members of the Med-Chi must have thought that Alex Ogston, who had seceded from the Society and set up a rival, showed a considerable extent of brass neck in telling the predecessor organisation how to evolve.  Ogston’s plan was not instituted in the big-bang fashion that he proposed but the Med-Chi did, over the years, move on a very similar path to the one Alex Ogston proposed and today it fulfils most of the functions that he foresaw for it.

 

Alexander Ogston and the Medical Students’ Society

Although the Aberdeen Medico-Chirological Society had originally been formed by undergraduates, it had become a postgraduate society by 1811.  Subsequently, a Medical Students’ Society was created and in 1877, Dr Alexander Ogston, then the rapidly-rising Second Surgeon at ARI, was proposed for the honorary post of president of the society.  At the committee meeting where the proposal was made, it was “received and carried amidst loud and prolonged acclamation”.  The Aberdeen Journal remarked, “Dr Ogston has we understand well won his popularity among the students by his unwearied exertions in behalf of the advancement of surgery in the Aberdeen Medical School”.  Later the same year, the Honorary President addressed the students, and he took the opportunity to criticise the medical curriculum.  In the manner of a minister addressing his congregation from the pulpit, he took as his text the proposition, “The Aberdeen medical student is an ill-used man, misled, over-worked, badly advised and, to crown all, unaware that he is so”.  He then paraded his beefs concerning undergraduate teaching; inadequate coverage of insanity, diseases of the ears and eyes and many practical aspects of medicine but too much time spent with the preliminary subjects such as Botany, Chemistry and Anatomy.  He prophesied that these defects could not long remain unaddressed.  The students were so impressed with Alex Ogston’s address that they asked permission for it to be published, to which he readily acceded.  He probably welcomed this outcome as a means of gaining further publicity for his views.  At the end of the meeting, Alex Ogston received three cheers from his student admirers.

 

Alexander Ogston marries Isabella Margaret Matthews

The marriage between Alexander Ogston and Isabella (known as “Bella” in the family) Matthews took place on 1 August 1877 at Queen’s Cross church in the West End of Aberdeen.  This was Isabella’s first marriage at the age of 29.  She seems to have been a melancholic person who was not easy to love.  The couple was married by the Reverend Henry Cowan, minister of nearby Rubislaw church and husband of Jane, Alexander Ogston’s older sister.  Frank Ogston, Alexander’s younger brother, was one of the witnesses.  Isabella Matthews’ father, James Matthews, was a prominent architect in the North-East of Scotland with many landmark granite buildings to his credit, including Aberdeen Grammar School (1861) and Ardoe House (1877). This latter commission was for Alexander M Ogston, the soap manufacturer cousin of Professor Alexander Ogston.  In 1877, James Matthews entered into a partnership with Mr Marshall McKenzie.  One of their most noteworthy joint designs was the Aberdeen Art Gallery (1883).  James Matthews became a town councillor in 1863 and later, from 1883 to 1886, he served as Lord Provost of Aberdeen.  Alexander Ogston’s second marriage was a productive one, eight children being born between 1878 and 1889, four of each gender, which required an extra floor to be added to 252 Union Street.

 

“A run to Greece”

On 7^th April 1881 with his second wife four months pregnant with their second child, AO departed on a trip to Greece.  Bella and the rest of the Ogston family were not greatly pleased by his pending absence.  There does not seem to have been any professional reason for the journey and it soon became clear that it was entirely a holiday dedicated to immersing Ogston in classical Greek history and architecture.  As with most other journeys that AO made during his life he felt not only an urge to travel but also a compulsion to record his journey.  There is a record of this “Run to Greece” in the Ogston papers held by Aberdeen University, in the form of a diary recounting the journey in text and through sketches.  Such diaries allowed AO to exercise his talent for creating descriptive prose, which seemed to bring him much pleasure.  Holidays and other journeys for Alexander Ogston always involved imbibing the culture and history of the places to, or through, which he travelled, as well as recording his own personal desires, especially concerning food and tobacco consumption and the retailing of interesting interactions with native populations, together with his trenchant observations on their mores.

On this occasion he travelled, first class, by LNWR sleeper train via Perth and in passing through Stirling sketched the Wallace Memorial.  Although he was in holiday mood, relaxing with his feet on the cushions, the mind of the surgeon did not cease to function as he speculated on what injuries he might receive sitting in various positions should there be an accident.  From Charing Cross, he travelled on via Dover on his way to Paris.  The Channel was calm and he remarked in his disinterested medical way that he could not investigate how much vomiting could be produced by 3 cups of coffee and ham and eggs!  AO’s journey onwards started at the Gare de Lyon where Professor William Robertson Smith from Aberdeen walked into his carriage.  Smith had been born at Keig near Alford in 1846.  He became a Free Church minister and was a scholar of Semitic religions.  Smith had been tried for heresy in 1876 and dismissed from his professorial chair in the Free Church College of Aberdeen.  Clearly this next leg of AO’s journey promised some mental stimulation.  AO commented “Smith is up in everything from aerated water, to evolution, to tree frogs”.  Their train arrived at Dijon at 6pm, where they dined and got fresh cigars.  “Every station in Burgundy speaks of gout and contracted livers”, reported Ogston.  A lady objecting to their cigar smoke, caused him and Smith to smoke all day with their heads out of the window.  AO commented, quite unreasonable, that “Any girl of the present day should be taught at school to tolerate tobacco smoke.  I have smoked while the lady was sleeping.  The lady is ancient, her husband is ugly but they are plainly newly married and are very amusing.  How long will that last in a French ménage?” 

AO and Smith separated in Italy, the latter heading for Genoa, while the former travelled on, via Ravenna, where he spent a “delightful day”, to Bologna and tours of more churches.  In that town he observed that “The Italians dislike the French which puzzles me, as there is little difference between them”.  As can be observed on other occasions, Ogston had no inhibitions about commenting on the prejudices of different nationalities.  Travelling on down the Adriatic coast, he had the misfortune to share a carriage with “one filthy Yahoo and a German barman”.  The Yahoo removed his boots to poison the carriage, so Ogston punished him by keeping the windows wide open, to the foreigner’s annoyance.  (The Yahoos were a race of brutes in Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels”).  Ogston arrived at Brindisi on 14^th April, from where he could take a boat to Greece.  By this time AO was feeling somewhat paranoid about the company he was being required to keep.  The boat was “filthy and decrepit” and the crew had “no pretence of manners”, the soup, which he avoided, was “filthy and the coffee greasy”.  He thought he was the only passenger and the crew appeared to him to be villainous.  He posted a letter to his wife giving her the impression that it would be the last time she would hear from him.  Alec Ogston then kept a loaded revolver under his pillow while he slept.  Perhaps he had been tired because the following morning the situation seemed to be brighter than he had feared.  The vessel, called “Il Principe Amadeo”, had been built in Dundee, there was one other passenger on board, a German, and Ogston breakfasted well on wine and water, fish, sliced sausage with olives and garlic, pastry, fruit, nuts, cheese and a cup of café noir.  “My revolver sleeps quietly in my pocket, and I hope to write to my dear wife many a letter yet”, he concluded.  During the 15^th April, Good Friday, he made the acquaintance of the captain who took Ogston to his cabin and supplied him with “pipes of the strongest tobacco ever smoked by man”.  The ship’s master also favoured him with a private cabin on deck.

The vessel arrived at Piraeus, the port of Athens, during the following night.  Ogston was disappointed by the view, “the approach to Wick would have been more entertaining” and his opinion of the town was equally critical.  “…so bad that the worst part of Rosemount Place is a paradise compared to it”.  At least in Athens his hotel was “nice” and he breakfasted on Kymeltus honey, “as good as heather honey in Scotland”.  As with most tourists, his first archaeological visit was to the Acropolis, a citadel on a rocky promontory overlooking the capitol city which bears several buildings of historical significance, including the Parthenon, a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena.  Feeling overwhelmed by the status of his surrounds, “My prosaic pen declines to render itself an object of ridicule by describing the great scene”.  “… I shut my journal, light the cigar of happiness and, like the true British tourist, pick up a small fragment of the marble pavement at my feet to convey home as a souvenir of the unutterable”.  AO spent four hours at the Acropolis on his first visit and then returned the following day.  “I have come to spend my Sunday morning among the marbles and the Gods”.  He was greatly impressed by the Parthenon and highly critical of the actions of his fellow countryman, Lord Elgin (Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin) in desecrating this temple.   “Adieu! Acropolis! Still fit abode for the Gods”!  “What time could not do, Lord Elgin has done, and the absent columns and sculptures, glaring gaps in its beautiful temples are the imprints he has everywhere left of his thieving fingers.  Shame on the rapacious spoiler!   And shame on the Briton who still retains what his ruthless fingers stole.  The shattered marbles of Athens, broken by his destroying chisel and mallet, will forever cry out against his name and his nation”. 

Impressed as he was by the classical architecture of Athens, he was pointed in his observations on the modern city and its inhabitants.  “I enter the stinking streets of Athens”. “Athens has two sides, ancient and modern.  Nothing is more glorious than the ancient but I will try to forget the modern”.  “Athens is awash with dogs.  The Athenians are like their dogs, wild and savage brutes.  Like the Scotch they know no politeness.  All are Greeks; there are few foreigners”.   Ogston also described the Greeks as “preparing enthusiastically for their war with the Turks”.

Alex Ogston’s tour of ancient sites in Greece continued with a visit to Marathon, famous as the site of a battle in 490 BC in which the outnumbered Athenians defeated the invading Persians.  However, in the late 19^th Century, Marathan was infamous for the brigands who lived there abouts, preying on visitors.  In 1870 four tourists, one Italian and three English aristocrats, were murdered at Dilessi, near Marathon after being captured by bandits and ransomed, only for Government troops to close in, which led to the execution of the captives.  Ogston observed that the Greeks of Attica (the district in which Marathon is located) all wear their national dress and shave everything, save the moustache, but that many of the Greeks bristle “with the growth of several days”.  “There are still brigands in Attica, but they call them guides now and the most notable amongst them is called Denis Klappa”.  Klappa was the guide engaged by Ogston!  AO was lucky, he sketched the plane of Marathon with his revolver in his pocket but he did not have occasion to use it.

Ogston’s tour of Greek sites continued with a crossing from Piraeus to Aegena, where he lunched under a pine tree on the shore.  Then Ogston walked, with some effort, up the mountain to the Temple of Minerva.  “At last, crimson and breathless, we reached the top”, he noted in his diary.  On his return down the mountain he was able to refresh himself by swimming in the sea.  Good Friday was spent in Athens where he enjoyed the many processions, before travelling on to Mount Parnes which lies north of the capital.  He climbed to the top “amid ravines” which reminded him of Rubislaw Quarry!  AO’s final port of call was Corfu before returning by boat to Brindisi in Italy.  On the train journey from Brindisi to Paris Ogston shared a carriage with a Belgian and two Englishmen, arriving at the Gare du Nord in time to catch the evening train to Calais.

There was still time for one more rant about the continental neighbours.  “The French are a selfish swinish folk, with relaxed throats and flatulent bowels”.  “They are not to be compared to my Greeks.  With all their faults the better you get to know the Greeks the better you like them.  The more you know the French the more you dislike them”.  “I am sure that three Frenchmen in this carriage have in three hours indulged in more snoring and snorting and spluttering and choking and sneezing and sniffing and hawking and expectorating and evil smells than would have served a hundred Greeks or a like number of Englishmen for the whole period of their natural lives”!

After arriving at Dover on 30^th April, Alec Ogston called on his former student Dr Matthews Duncan in London before travelling on to Aberdeen.  Perhaps realising, due to his imminent return to his native city, that this had been a rather self-indulgent trip, he bought a garnet necklace “to keep Mrs Ogston in good humour”.  He also got a new supply of cigars to comfort himself with his favourite tobacco.  AO’s train arrived in the Granite City at 7.00pm.  Now it was back to work and to family duties after the freedom of the previous month.

 

A trip to Norway – July 1882                 

Sixteen months after his return from Greece, Alec Ogston departed again on a continental holiday, this time to Norway and in the company of his wife, Bella.  The choice of destination was probably influenced by consideration of his wife’s comfort, interest and safety.  The first leg of the journey, from Aberdeen to Leith, was on the steamer St Magnus and on Friday 21^st July 1882 the couple boarded a ship at Leith destined for Christiansand, Norway on the northern shore of the Skagerrak.  It was only six weeks since their third child, Helen Charlotte Elizabeth Ogston had been born.  AO’s diary entries started immediately and he also contributed a series of illustrative sketches.   He gave his diary account a title, “D’après Nature par A Ogston” (According to Nature by A Ogston), which suggests that this journey across the North Sea had a quite different objective from his previous trip to Greece, nature rather than history and archaeology.  The holiday did not start well, with Ogston suffering from diarrhoea for two days on the crossing, accompanied by foul weather which repeatedly pitched him out of his chair.  This moved AO to describe the maritime environment in the following terms.  “The German Ocean is the navel of hell”. 

Before leaving Christiansand, Alec and Bella shopped for nick-naks, an activity that AO would probably not have pursued had he been alone, before travelling six miles inland along the Otteraa River to the town of Mosby and then returning to the port at the mouth of the river.  They subsequently took a ferry to Stavanger, a major Norwegian town, lying about 150 miles west of Christiansand.  It lies at the entrance to the Boknafjorden with many islands and the entries to several other fjords.  The Ogstons sailed up various bodies of water using local steamers which were small but clean and comfortable and the food was good, much superior in AO’s opinion to that obtainable on similar coasters in Britain.  Alec and Bella Ogston found the local people to be very kind.  A farmer on board brought them a drink of milk from a cow he was carrying home and the captain of one ferry offered them a large kit of wild raspberries and invited them to eat as many as they could.  Skiffs came out from isolated houses carrying passengers for the steamer. 

As in Greece, AO took a delight in describing the structure of buildings, the layout of towns, the characteristics of the countryside and the habits and dress of the people.  It’s as if he could not help observing and recording his surroundings, whatever the subject.  He observed that the local people were “fair-haired and beautiful, like their land”.  The Ogstons stopped for the night in a village called Sandeid located at the end of a small fjiord.  This allowed Alec to investigate the methods of construction of local houses.  All the dwellings they saw in Norway were built of wood and moss was stuffed into all crevices to keep out the winter cold.  Some buildings were slated but mostly birch bark was used as thatching, and then covered with sods which continued to grow.  The exterior walls were made up of overlapping planking and inside they were covered with canvass on which paper was pasted.

They continued their journey along various fjords and through many small villages.  Overland to Oleu on the Oleau Fiord, to Etne by donkey cart, where they attended a church service, to Hero, Odde and the Buar Glacier, eventually reaching Bergen, which, in contrast to Stavanger, they found “dirty and inhospitable”.  They then travelled up the Hardanger Fjord and continued by a combination of overland travel and local ferry boats until they emerged near the coast at Molde.  It is unclear how they then returned to Scotland but it was presumably by ship via Bergen, eventually arriving back at Perth on 1^st September 1882 where Alec Ogston remarked in his diary, “Back to civilization but farewell to the carefree travel”.  It had been a remarkable journey though difficult country but in a civilized nation, which seemed to suit Ogston’s personality and his craving for travel well.  Mrs Ogston’s thoughts were not recorded but one suspects they did not precisely coincide with those of her husband.        

  

Alexander Ogston and Spiritualism        

Spiritualism is not capable of a single unambiguous definition, since it is a term which has been applied to a series of different beliefs.  However, the specific phenomenon to which some people gave, and give, credence can be simply described as mind-reading, the alleged phenomenon where a message can be passed from one person to another by a non-physical route.

Washington Irving Bishop (1855 – 1889) was an American who became associated with stage acts which could be grouped under the general term of mind reading.  By the early 1870s Bishop was the manager of a stage spiritualist called Anna Eva Fay but in 1876 he exposed her act as a sham and then went on to mount his own anti-spiritualist stage shows, openly advertised as de-bunking the claims of the stage spiritualists and exposing them as tricksters.      

He travelled with his show internationally and in September 1879, Bishop fetched up in Aberdeen, where he mounted two anti-spiritualist exhibitions at the Music Hall.  He recruited the then Lord Provost, George Jamieson to preside for each evening performance and also assembled a panel of prominent citizens to scrutinise the proceedings.  The members of that panel were: Alexander Walker, Dean of Guild, Rev Henry Cowan, Rev James McClymont, Rev HW Wright, AD Milne, Secretary Aberdeen Philosophical Society, Professor Smith-Shand, John Webster LLD, Keith Jopp, Alexander Ogston MD and his brother Frank Ogston MD.

Washington Irving Bishop.

The performances by Mr Bishop attracted large paying audiences.  He reproduced tricks performed by other stage spiritualists and then explained how they were achieved.  The Aberdeen Journal was impressed by the performance and also by the public good being done.  “It is gratifying to find a gentleman of such education and social position as Mr Irving Bishop undertaking to expose the trickeries and delusions which soi-disant spiritualists have tried to foist upon the credulous.  America to whom we are indebted for the very questionable benefit of spiritualist teachers has now the credit of sending to us a most effective anti-spiritualist crusader who in addition to affording us an evening of interesting amusement is really doing good service in clearing away a mischievous fraud”.

No record has been discovered of the reactions of either Alexander or Frank Ogston to the exposure that they had experienced, but it is likely only to have convinced them that only the physical world is real, and that the scientific method is the only valid way to investigate and understand that world.   

 

Alexander Ogston’s bacteriological research

In 1878, Robert Koch in Germany published his seminal work on “Unter-sauchangen Ulder die Aetiologie der Wundinfektionskrank-heiten” (The aetiology of the traumatic infective disease), in which he showed that the injection of putrefying substances such as blood and meat infusion into mice or rabbits could cause several different infective diseases, such as septicaemia, abscesses and erysipelas.  In the document’s preface Koch wrote, “The objective of the enquiry was to determine whether the infective diseases of wounds are of parasitic origin or not.  Owing to extraneous circumstances, I found it necessary to confine myself solely to experiments on the action of putrid materials on animals …  In order to obtain a complete answer to the question it would have been necessary to carry out a further series of experiments on animals with materials obtained from persons suffering from, or who had died of, traumatic infective diseases and what indeed seems to me to be the most important, to look for microorganisms in the human body”.   

Ogston, a fluent German speaker and familiar of the scientific scene in Germany, must have been aware of Koch’s work.  Also, as a result of his interactions with Joseph Lister, Alexander Ogston had become intrigued by the precise relationship between microorganisms and wound infection.  “Often, I meditated on the subject (acute suppuration) and became the more convinced that there was a single cause, and that the cause was some special germ.  But it was some time before it was possible for me to verify this conviction.  At length I came upon a case of disease which promised to solve the problem”.  That case was a young Aberdonian who had a serious abscess.  “I had to attend a Mr James Davidson who is still (1920) alive, a young man suffering from an extensive suppurating phlegmon (inflammation of soft tissues) of the leg almost erysipelatoid in its character though not erysipelas.  Procuring a clean vial, I evacuated into it the matter from the phlegmon through the unbroken skin, proceeded home with it and placed a little pus under an ordinary student’s microscope with a quarter inch objective.  My delight may be conceived when there were revealed to me beautiful tangles, tufts and chains of round organisms in great numbers which stood out clear and distinct among the pus cells and debris all stained with the aniline violet solution I had employed to render them more distinct.  The pus on the microscope slide which appeared to indicate the solution of a great puzzle filled me with great hope.  I long preserved it but lately it has been lost or at least mislaid”. This observation of microorganisms in a case of human disease partly filled the gap identified by Koch and preceded a remarkable series of laboratory tests by Alex Ogston on the experimental induction of wound diseases in laboratory animals using microorganisms isolated from abscesses in patients.  He later wrote many informative notes on this work, but there is an extreme paucity of actual dates for each stage in his experimental progression, though some approximation is possible from other sources and from incidental clues that Ogston gave.

Alexander Ogston had a building added to the back of his house, 252 Union Street, in which he could conduct his experimental work.  This can be dated fairly precisely from the application for planning permission to Aberdeen Town Council in April 1879.  “New Buildings.  Additions to the back of 252 Union Street for Dr Alex Ogston per Mr J Duncan Matthews, 15 Albyn Terrace”.  J Duncan Matthews was the only brother of Isabella, Alex Ogston’s second wife.  The father of Duncan and Isabella Matthews was the prominent Aberdeen architect, James Matthews.  Duncan was born in 1851 and initially trained as an architect but in 1869 he contracted typhoid fever and subsequently suffered ill-health.  As a result, he gave up architecture and entered Aberdeen University to study zoology, though the date for this change has not been uncovered but is likely not to have been earlier than 1879.  He became a close friend of James Cossar Ewart, the Regius Professor of Natural History between 1878 and 1882.  Presumably, this architectural assignment at 252 Union Street was too trivial for James Matthews senior to take on, so it was passed to his son, JD.  From the fact that planning permission was required for this building, it seems probable that it was built of masonry and was an extension of the house.  What appears unlikely is that it was a “shed” as it has been claimed elsewhere.

Another significant date comes from the minutes of the Scientific Grants Committee of the BMA.  In August 1879, “It was resolved that it be recommended that the following grant be made: Dr Ogston: For research into the relation between bacteria and surgical disease.  £50”.  The apparatus bought by Alex Ogston included a Zeiss microscope with Abbé condenser and oil immersion lens, a camera and a zinc incubator.  This is a clear indication that the initial observations on pus taken from the leg of James Davidson, which was examined under “an ordinary student’s microscope with a quarter inch objective” preceded the arrival of the state-of-the-art Zeiss microscope and probably also the application for the grant from the BMA, since Onston would have needed preliminary results to justify his application, but since the observations were made after he “proceeded home”, his laboratory, or at least a room in his house, may have been in use, perhaps late in 1879.  However, a student microscope would only produce vague images of bacteria and more detailed observations would require the sophisticated Zeiss microscope with the oil immersion objective lens and staining with aniline-derived dyes, which originated in the burgeoning German chemical industry.  It seems likely that Ogston derived his request for experimental equipment from the BMA largely by copying Koch’s published techniques.  A year after his initial grant from the BMA, Alex Ogston received a second subvention from that source, this time of £10 “for the continuation of Dr Ogston’s research”.

Zeiss microscope (1879), with oil immersion objective lens and condenser.

Another important component of Alexander Ogston’s experimental work was the use of investigations in live animals.  In the 1870s, there was considerable public opposition to the conduct of experimental procedures causing pain in experimental animals, as there is still today.  A Royal Commission was instituted, resulting in the Cruelty to Animals Act of 1876.  This Act regulated the conduct of experimental procedures on vertebrate animals which were likely to cause pain and required experimenters to obtain a licence before doing so.  The animals were to be anaesthetised and, when the experiment was over, killed.  Thus, Ogston had to become licensed before he could carry out experimental work on the production of abscesses.  As an aside, Queen Victoria suffered from an abscess on her arm in 1871.  Joseph Lister had been appointed Surgeon in Ordinary in Scotland to the Queen in 1870 and he was invited to join Sir William Jenner and Dr Marshall in treating this painful swelling, while the Queen was at Balmoral.  The decision was taken to drain the infected locus, which aim was then successfully achieved.  Subsequently, in 1875, Sir Henry Ponsonby, the Queen’s Private Secretary, wrote to Lister on her behalf asking him to make a public statement opposing vivisection, of which she, too, disapproved.  Lister, with great courage, in a long and carefully argued letter, declined to accede to the monarch’s wishes.

By early 1880, when he made public his first results, Alex Ogston’s experimental programme, in his home laboratory and using his new equipment, was well underway.  It is germane to recall that at this time, he was only 36, second surgeon (but would be appointed first surgeon during that year) at ARI and was yet to be appointed to a chair in the University of Aberdeen.  He was a practising surgeon, not an experimental microbiologist, by training, yet he had jumped from nowhere to the leading edge of bacteriological research in the world over a period of a year or so.  The experimental programme continued until 1883 when pressure from his clinical, surgical and teaching commitments forced him to give up laboratory work.  “But the limited time and opportunities I possessed in the midst of a big surgical practice proved to be impediments which were insuperable for me, and I had to leave to others more fortunately situated the pursuit of further enquiries.”

After the initial observation of microorganisms in the pus from James Davidson’s abscess, in Ogston’s own words, “A vast number of observations were made in my little laboratory over a period of many months, even years …”.  What were the significant results that he produced?  One fundamental observation was that the bacteria came in a variety of shapes.  Micrococci were round or slightly oval-shaped and presented either in chains (which Theodor Billroth, the German/Austrian surgeon, had called streptococcus (strepto – chain, coccus – grain, seed or berry in Greek), or clusters, like the roe of a female fish.  To this latter group of organisms, Ogston gave the name staphylococcus (from staphylos, the Greek word for a bunch of grapes) on the suggestion of Professor WD Geddes, the professor of Greek at Aberdeen University.  Alexander Ogston was thus the originator of this name for an important bacterial genus, which nomenclature has long been generally accepted.  Other bacterial types had spirilla (spiral) or fusiform (spindle-like) shapes.  Ogston was able to show that the two different micrococcus colony types were due to the plane of fission of the cells when they reproduced, streptococci always dividing in the same plane, in contrast to staphylococci, which divided in varying planes.  Alex Ogston described his preparations of abscesses as follows.  “In objects so prepared the micrococci are unmistakable.  They are very deeply stained in comparison with the surrounding objects”.  Alexander Ogston sought the opinion of James Cossar Ewart of the Department of Natural History at Aberdeen, who confirmed that Ogston was indeed seeing micrococci and not some artefact.  Perhaps the link to Cossar Ewart came through the architect of Ogston’s home laboratory, J Duncan Matthews, who was studying with Cossar Ewart?

Theodor Billroth.

Alex Ogston set about an extensive sampling of the contents of abscesses, many collected by himself, some collected by his brother Frank, others collected by various general practitioners around the North-East of Scotland, such as Alexander Keith, the Aboyne doctor.  Collaborators were given written instructions on the method of collection.  All abscesses were being sampled for the first time and through unbroken skin using the principles established by Lister, so as to ensure no contamination.  The 82 samples were divided into three groups based on their activity.  Thirteen were deemed to be “cold” in that they had been present for months without growing, four were classed as somewhat chronic, a sort of intermediate category and the remaining 65 were classed as acute, that is, actively growing.  Smears made from the samples were stained and examined at high magnification, when “cold” abscesses were found to lack micrococci.  All other samples proved to contain bacteria, sometimes in chains, sometimes in clusters.  Alex Ogston also estimated the concentration of cells in the pus samples using the haemocytometer and found values which varied from 900 to 45,000,000 cocci per cubic millimetre of pus.  These findings proved that the initial observation of micrococci in the abscess from James Davidson’s leg was not a coincidence but a regular feature of actively growing abscesses.  Of 64 abscesses where observations were made, 17 contained streptococcus alone, 31 contained only staphylococcus and the remainder (16) had micrococci in both chains and clusters.  However, in this last category he observed that the two types were not uniformly distributed through such samples. 

Alexander also examined discharges from disease conditions other than abscesses, including sycosis (inflammation of hair follicles on the male face), the sexually transmitted diseases, gonorrhoea and soft chancre, sputa from patients with phthisis (pulmonary tuberculosis), the discharges from both ulcers and wounds, and common acne.  All these sources, except acne, proved to contain micrococci.  Ogston also confirmed that micrococci could not be found in normal human tissue.

Pus samples from human abscesses were injected “under spray” beneath the back skin of guinea pigs, wild and white mice anaesthetised with chloroform.  Pus from inactive abscesses, which contained no micrococci, failed to produce any reaction at the injection site, while injections of pus containing micrococci generated abscesses at the location of the insertion, “well marked disease was set up”.  This set of observations proved that it was the bacterial component of the injection which was responsible for disease generation, thus furnishing the proof that Koch had been unable to provide, that bacteria from human abscesses induced the same disease in experimental animals.  This conclusion was reinforced by the observation that pus samples first treated with carbolic acid or heat failed to generate abscesses in experimental animals.  Further, if chains were injected, only chains were produced in the resulting abscesses and vice versa for clusters. A further significant generalisation was reached by Alexander Ogston, that the severity of disease in experimental animals was dose-related, the greater the number of micrococci inserted, the greater the inflammatory response.  However, even when extreme dilutions of the micrococci were used for injection, they still produced disease at the entry site.

When Alexander Ogston first started to make his results public, he was met with scepticism and even downright condemnation in some quarters within Britain, just as Joseph Lister had before him.  It was yet another case of “A prophet has no honour in his own country”. (Biblical origin - John 4 43-44).  In 1880, Ogston arranged to present his results to Joseph Lister, whose views he respected, at a meeting which took place in the house of Dr James Matthews Duncan in London.  Joseph Lister had moved to the capital in 1877 to occupy the Chair of Systematic Surgery at King’s College.  Matthews Duncan was another graduate of the Aberdeen Medical School who became a prominent obstetrician, first in Edinburgh and subsequently in London, where he moved after failing to be appointed in place of Professor JY Simpson in the Scottish capital.  Lister “expressed himself satisfied” with the veracity of Ogston’s claims but Lister’s assistant, William Watson Cheyne, another loon from the North-East of Scotland who had studied medicine at Edinburgh University was sceptical.  Watson Cheyne, who was a follower of Listerism, expressed the opinion that Ogston’s staphylococci were harmless bystanders in the disease process.  This posed Alexander Ogston with a problem which he set out to resolve by experimentation.

James Matthews Duncan.

Another Ogston innovation was to develop a technique for culturing staphylococci outside the body, using fresh hens’ eggs as a nutrient medium, kept at blood temperature.  This was presumably the reason for him requesting a zinc incubator from the BMA in 1879.  This use of hens’ eggs was also employed in the same year by Dr Patrick Manson (1844), yet another son of Aberdeenshire, doctor, contemporary and friend of Alexander Ogston, who would be responsible for important work in tropical medicine, particularly the role of mosquitos in transmitting malaria.  It has been speculated that Manson learned of the egg culture technique from Ogston and not vice-versa.  A small sample of pus bearing micrococci, when introduced into the egg, quickly reproduced to generate many more identical micrococci.  By transplantation of a small sample from one egg into a second egg, Ogston was able to isolate pure cultures of micrococci.  Were there strains of micrococci which did not produce suppuration?  This population of independent, passaged isolates gave him a means to test the question.  He found that sub-cutaneously injected micrococci always produced local lesions, while injection of egg albumin alone was without consequence.  Ogston had proved the conjecture of Koch that micrococci isolated from human abscesses produced similar diseases in experimental animals, from which the same microorganisms could again be recovered and treatments which inactivated the micrococci, such as carbonic acid or heat, also removed the ability of the injected material to cause disease.

In 1884, after Alexander Ogston’s research findings had been revealed, Robert Koch published his postulates, a set of conditions which must be met to establish a causal relationship between a microorganism and a specific human disease.  They were as follows.  1.  The microorganism must always be found in individuals suffering from the disease at issue.  2.  The microorganism must be isolatable from a diseased individual and capable of being grown in pure culture.  3.  This isolated microorganism must cause the same disease when inserted into a healthy individual.  4.  The microorganism must then be re-isolatable from the infected individual and shown to be identical to the original isolate.  However, Alexander Ogston had already proved these stages for staphylococcus-induced abscesses in humans.  Koch’s postulates were very important in the early years of microbiology as a set of principles to guide those seeking to establish that a microorganism was disease causing.  They still work, approximately, for bacteria (except for strains of disease-causing organisms which do not produce ill-health) but they do not work for viruses and are no longer revered in the way they once were.

Robert Herman Koch.

Ogston was also able to explain why micrococci were essentially harmless when present on healthy skin but were so harmful when present in deep wounds.  They grow best in anaerobic conditions, such as the damaged and dead tissues of a deep wound, but not so well on the skin with a normal blood supply and exposed to the air.  A further conclusion that Ogston reached was that the various conditions appearing after micrococcal infection may not necessarily be independent of each other.  In some cases, they may be part of a series which starts with a local infection producing inflammation, perhaps progressing to an abscess and finally being generalised by spread through the blood circulation to generate systemic conditions, such as blood poisoning.

One of the most damaging, but unreasoned, criticisms of Alex Ogston’s work came from Ernest Hart (1835 -1898) the editor of the British Medical Journal, ironically owned by the British Medical Association which had twice funded Ogston’s research work.  After publishing a paper (“Report upon micro-organisms in surgical diseases”), from Ogston in March 1881, Hart, in a withering editorial posed the rhetorical question “Can any good thing come out of Aberdeen”?  Further papers submitted by Ogston were refused by the BMJ and so had to be sent elsewhere for publication, such as the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology.  Alex Ogston maintained his dignity, though underneath he was clearly stung by this cheap shot.  “But these rebuffs did not really give me much concern.  The men who mattered knew.  The others were of little consequence”.  Ernest Hart, who trained as a surgeon, had previously been editor of The Lancet, was very successful in increasing the membership of the BMA and in expanding the circulation of its journal, but his campaigning style of editorial could be vicious and sometimes misdirected.  He did, however, do sterling service in debunking the arguments of anti-vaccinators opposed to protection against smallpox.  Alexander Ogston was not Hart’s only illegitimate target. 

Twenty years later, in 1901, Alexander Ogston still felt some animosity towards Hart.  Ogston was the principal guest at the Convener Court dinner held annually by the Incorporated Trades of Aberdeen in their headquarters, Trinity Hall, then located in the middle of Union Street.  This ancient craft guild still exists but has a largely ceremonial function, recognising Aberdeen citizens who have made notable achievements in public life, and it was in such a capacity that Ogston appeared to speak in answer to the toast to “The Medical Profession”.  He gave a witty speech, in which he praised the historical support that the university had received from Aberdeen’s merchants, towards the end of which he referred to Hart’s put-down.  In those innocent times when ethnic origins could be referenced without causing instant offence, Alexander Ogston said the following.  "Once upon a time he had heard with horror that an Englishman had asked a sneering question - "Can any good thing come out of Aberdeen?" (Laughter).  He called him an Englishman.  In one sense he was so, but he was of the same race as the one who first asked the question.  He was an Israelite, indeed, but he believed, was not one without guile.  (Laughter.)  That man was now at the end of his ignorance.  (Renewed laughter.)  If he were to meet with others equally prejudiced or equally uninformed of how they would deal with all students requiring energy, business capacity or learning, they had only to give them the answer that was given to Nathaniel - "Come and see."  (Loud applause.)." (Hart was born in England but had Jewish heritage).  (“And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.” (John 1:45–46)).  Aberdeen citizens, then as now, do not react kindly to any outsider who casts aspersions upon their city.

Trinity Hall, Aberdeen.

It proved to be a difficult task convincing local doctors, too, of the significance of the resultsof his impeccably conducted experiments, which Ogston later admitted.  “The final step of convincing the medical profession of the validity of this discovery proved to be a rather thorny one”.  His best students immediately accepted the findings, but a demonstration before the Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine Branch of the BMA in April 1880 was received with incredulity, principally by Dr Angus Fraser (Senior Physician at ARI and irreverently known as “Anguish Eraser”) and Dr Robert Beveridge (Pathologist at ARI and no fan of Dr Ogston).  They could not believe that there was any connection between the presence of microorganisms and inflammatory disease.  Because of the discouragement he had met in Britain, Alexander Ogston decided to make a presentation of his work in Berlin before the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Chirurgie, of which he was made a member, in April 1880.  The title of his presentation was “Die Beziehung der Bacterien zur Abcessbildung” (The relation of bacteria to abscess formation). This led to leading German doctors, Virchow, Mikulicz, and Czerny accepting his findings.  Also, Dr Rosenberg of Gottingen, repeated Ogston’s experiments, with a confirmatory outcome.  Ogston later wrote, “… my work was accepted in Germany as valid and proved”.

Due to the brief period of time during which Alexander Ogston conducted his bacteriological experiments (1879 – 1883), the fact that his subsequent high public profile was gained largely through his involvement with military surgery and the long delay before the veracity of Ogston’s work on micrococcus was established and eventually accepted by the most senior surgeons in Britain, Ogston’s authorship of this brilliant extension of Koch’s work was largely forgotten.  It was left to those who really understood the historical development of bacteriology, such as Professor William Bulloch to set the historical record straight.  In his book “The History of Bacteriology”, published in 1938, Bulloch wrote, “Ogston was the only worker in England (he should have said “in Great Britain” but perhaps he meant “in the English language”) who now finds a permanent place in the history of pathogenic bacteriology in its classical period.  His observations and views have all passed so much into common knowledge that only on his death in 1929, half a century after his work was published, serves to remind us of the man who correctly interpreted the exact aetiology of acute suppurative processes in man”.

 

Alexander Ogston is appointed to the Regius Chair of Surgery at Aberdeen University 

William Pirrie (1807) was a son of the soil, born on a farm near Huntly, Aberdeenshire.  He studied medicine at Marischal College and in 1839 he became the first holder of the Regius Chair of Surgery at the college.  After the fusion of 1860, Pirrie was appointed to the identical position in the new University of Aberdeen.  The same year he became the Senior Surgeon at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.  He retired in June 1882 and died a few months later at his home, 253 Union Street, a near-neighbour of Alexander Ogston, who was appointed Regius Professor in his place.  However, Pirrie was one of the reactionaries that Alex Ogston battled over the need for reform at the Med-Chi and over the validity of Lister’s methods of antiseptic surgery.  Perhaps, not surprisingly, Pirrie entrusted his personal medical care, not to his neighbour but to Robert Beveridge, Pathologist at ARI and fellow reactionary, who was secretary to the Med-Chi in 1872 when Ogston attempted his reformation of that society.  Beveridge was also one of Alex Ogston’s detractors concerning the relationship between bacteria and suppuration.  There had been a substantial groundswell of opinion in medical circles that the Regius Chair of Surgery should go to Alex Ogston, with even the medical students raising a petition in his support.  Because the Regius Chair was formally in the gift of the monarch, Ogston was informed of his elevation by letter from Lord Rosebery, then the Lord Advocate, the senior Scottish law officer, in October 1882.  Professor Ogston held this post until his resignation in 1909. 

Lord Rosebery.

The Aberdeen United Trades Council held an exhibition of Industry and Art between Christmas day 1882 and 1^st January 1883.  One of the Exhibitors was Mr James Kinnear, of King Street, Aberdeen, who manufactured limb prostheses for use by those who had suffered amputation.  Alexander Ogston visited the exhibition and was sufficiently impressed to buy several of Kinnear’s models for use in his university teaching.  In April 1883, the University Court gave Ogston permission to mount a new course in Operative Surgery, fee 2gns, during the summer session, in addition to his course in Surgery held in the winter session.  The course in Operative Surgery opened in late October.  It was the tradition for professors to take the first lecture of each course and to make an introductory address, which allowed the lecturer to indulge his rhetorical whims but Professor Ogston, never one to follow the herd, declined.  “He said he had become impressed with an unfavourable opinion of them for all he had heard and read he could not recall a single sentiment or observation that was worth the uttering.  They loomed in the horizon that lay behind him, to use a phrase of the late Lord Beaconsfield’s, “like a goodly array of extinct volcanoes”.  The man who would write the first good introductory address had yet to burst upon the public.  A series of providential circumstances prevented his birth into the University world being attended with the usual first ovation and feeling as he did that nature had made him utterly incompetent to do any credit to her or himself in that particular line, he desired with their permission to plunge at once into that which lay before them without the intervention of any prefatory fireworks”.  Alexander Ogston took the same line the following year, too. 

However, in 1890, his friend and fellow disciple of Listerism, Dr John Ogilvie Will, resigned as senior surgeon at ARI to concentrate on his private practice.  Alex Ogston took time out at the start of his first lecture in the summer session to present a précis of Ogilvie Will’s contributions to surgery, particularly antiseptic and urethral surgery.  "Dr Will was one of the first in Aberdeen to examine into and recognise the advantages of the antiseptic treatment of wounds, which had revolutionised surgery and was now acknowledged in its principles by all.  As an investigator and teacher of urethral surgery, Professor Ogston believed Dr Will stood second to none in Britain, and most students now in the University, as well as many generations of them scattered over the world, owe to him the most thorough  and intimate knowledge of all the most modern suggestions and results of experience in that department. "... if a method could be contrived whereby they could retain his teaching of urethral surgery in the University and Medical School it would be of the greatest possible benefit to the students".  In fact, Ogilvie Will remained in association with ARI as a consulting surgeon. 

A similar diversion was also allowed by Ogston if a senior colleague had died.  In the autumn of 1891, "A large class of students met in the Natural History classroom to hear Professor Ogston's introductory lecture in surgery.  The Professor, before commencing the subject referred with regret to the loss the faculty had sustained by the deaths of Prof Smith-Shand and Drs Moir and Hall".  Prof Smith-Shand was Professor of Medicine and was another medical neighbour of Alex Ogston, living at 256 Union Street.  Then, without a word of greeting to the students he launched into his first lecture, the topic of which was surprising as it “treated of life - protozoal and developed - in its growth, maturity, decline and decay".  What a far-sighted person to put a lecture series on surgery in such a broad philosophical context!

Alexander Ogston and the Egyptian Campaign 1884 - 1885

After 1819, when Sudan was invaded by Egypt, that country was governed by an Egyptian administration.  However, the Egyptian Government became heavily indebted, partly as a result of financing the construction of the Suez Canal, and the British stepped in to relieve those debts in return for control of the waterway.  A heavy system of taxation had been imposed on the Sudan by the Egyptians which caused deep resentment and led during the 1870s to a nationalist uprising led by Muhammad Ahmad, the self-styled “Mahdi” (the guided one).  Various Egyptian attempts were made to defeat and capture the Mahdi, but they were unsuccessful, led to the annihilation of the Egyptian expeditions and the seizure of their weapons and ammunition. 

By 1882 the corrupt and incompetent Egyptian Government was largely under the direction and control of the British and a further attempt was made to defeat the Mahdi with a much larger Egyptian force led by a retired British officer, William Hicks, which was sent south in 1883.  This too was heavily defeated by a numerically superior Mahdist force, with mass slaughter ensuing.  There was then a change of strategy to one of Egyptian withdrawal from Sudan, which would become self-governing, but to achieve this, the Egyptian forces present in the Sudan needed to be withdrawn in an orderly way.  General Charles Gordon, who hailed from a dynasty of soldiers, was given this task.  Gordon arrived in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital on 18 February 1884 and immediately realised that withdrawal would be complex due to the scattered nature of the Egyptian occupation.  Gordon remained in Khartoum longer than was strategically wise, his forces were surrounded, the city put under siege and eventually overrun on 26 January 1885.  Gordon himself was hacked to death and his body mutilated.  Widespread killing of the city’s defenders and civilians then followed.  

General Charles George Gordon.

The British Government had been reluctant to become directly involved in the war, looking upon it as an Egyptian responsibility, but came under pressure from British public opinion when Khartoum was put under siege on 13 March 1884.  Gladstone, the British prime minister, agreed to a relief force under Sir Garnet Wolseley being sent to break the siege of Khartoum and to rescue General Gordon.  Wolseley decided the best way to reach Khartoum would be to travel up the Nile to the Sudanese capital.  His force departed Cairo on 26 October 1884, but progress was slow, inducing Wolseley to split his men into two groups, with one section taking a direct route overland to Khartoum, while the remaining men continued upstream.  Wolseley’s relief force failed to arrive in time to save Gordon.  This Nile campaign was still in operation when Alexander Ogston arrived in Cairo, but he said that this expedition was inaccessible to him. 

Alexander Ogston was already deeply interested in military surgery by the 1880s but knew that if his teaching was to be of maximum use to his students, he needed to gain experience of field conditions during a war.  In early 1885, he viewed the campaign in the Sudan as an ideal opportunity to acquire that front-line experience.  The Aberdeen Journal reported on his activities.  “A medical volunteer corps is being organised in Aberdeen for service in the capacity of “dressers” in connection with the Sudan Campaign.  Dr Ogston Professor of Surgery and senior surgeon of the Infirmary took occasion yesterday to moot the subject to his “dressers”, stating that for some time it had been in his mind to spend the vacation in Egypt and while there to offer his services to the Medical Department of the Government.  The campaign now in progress in that country afforded to young men excellent opportunities of gaining experience in their profession while at the same time rendering important aid to the wounded.  There were two ways in which they might tender their services either by applying to the War Office or the St John’s Ambulance Society.  Only those however whose desire was experience should volunteer as the remuneration, if any, would be of the barest kind.  It is understood that between twenty and thirty of those present intimated their readiness to volunteer and many others we understand who only heard of the subject through the pages of the Evening Express are desirous to join the expedition.  It is understood that the corps will start about the end of March and that the class examinations will be held on a date earlier than usual to suit the arrangement”.

Ogston offered the services of himself and his team of dressers to the Medical Department of the War Office.  That organisation quickly replied, about 16 February 1885, declining the offer and saying that “no civil surgeons are to be employed in connection with the Department”.  But Alexander Ogston did not take this rebuff as the final word on his participation in the campaign in the Sudan.  As will be discovered repeatedly in this account of Alex Ogston’s life, he was so well connected that he could pull in favours from many different organisations both at home and overseas.

In anticipation that his services would somehow be required and accepted in the Sudan, Alex Ogston made preparations to leave Aberdeen.  However, he only retrospectively applied formally for permission from his two employers, the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and the University of Aberdeen for leave of absence!  In a letter to the Committee of Management of the hospital, dated 23 February, the day before his departure, he wrote “I trust it will be your pleasure to approve of my having absented myself from the Infirmary for a time in order to familiarise myself with some of the phases of surgery that are not met with at home but which there is at the present moment a favourable opportunity of witnessing in Egypt.  I must offer my apologies for not having first requested and obtained your permission, but I should have missed the opportunity had I waited for this”.  In early March, after Alex Ogston had already left for Egypt, the Senatus of the university approved Alexander Ogston’s absence in the Sudan and appointed Dr Mackenzie Davidson in his place to discharge the duties of the Surgery class during the present session.  Prof Hay was appointed Convener of the Committee on University Extension in place of Prof Ogston.  Later, substitutes were named for Alexander Ogston’ examination responsibilities, Dr Ogilvie Will for Clinical Surgery (he declined the task) and Dr Garden for Systematic Surgery.    Ogston anticipated a return to university and hospital duties at Aberdeen in the autumn of 1885.  

Alexander Ogston then travelled to London, reaching the capital on 25 February 1885.  He immediately proceeded to the War Office, where he was cordially received and obtained the necessary documented permissions, with the help of “my friend Inspector-General Robert Lawson (an Aberdonian who received an honorary LL D from Aberdeen University in 1884) of the army medical service, who introduced me to the Director-General”.  Ogston lost no time in departing.  He left London on 27 February, travelling overland across Europe to Brindisi on the Adriatic coast of southern Italy.  From there he took a ship to Alexandria, the nearest port to Cairo.  But his expedition was thus being undertaken by the Aberdeen surgeon alone, without the participation of the other volunteers he had organised in the city.A force, under the command of General Sir Gerald Graham, VC, was sent, in March 1885, down the Red Sea to the port of Suakin in the Sudan.  It arrived at its destination on the 12^th of the month, with orders to defeat strong Mahdist forces, led by Osman Digna, in the region and thus to protect the construction of the Suakin – Berber railway, which was intended to transport military equipment and troops rapidly from the Red Sea to Berber on the Nile, 200 miles north of Khartoum.  It was planned to use Berber as a base for operations against the occupiers of the Sudanese capital.  The contract for construction of the railway was secured by Lucas & Aird of London and 150 of their navvies, with materials for railway construction, left Tilbury docks bound for Suakin in the Osprey in late February.

In the Egyptian capitol, Alex Ogston found that a former classmate, Dr James Grant, who graduated MB CM from Aberdeen in 1864, was working there on the control of cholera outbreaks and had been given the honorary title “Grant Bey” by the Khedive for his role as physician at that ruler’s court.  Grant Bey helped Ogston to obtain the necessities for his pending journey down the Red Sea.  Alexander Ogston also obtained the services of a devoted Dongolese (native of Dongola in northern Sudan) servant, Mohammed Achmet, who could “cook, wash, groom a horse, and do whatever else was likely to be required of him …”.  Another Aberdeen-trained doctor, Surgeon-Major James Forbes Beattie (MB CM 1863), who was the senior doctor in the military hospital in Cairo did Ogston another valuable service by introducing him to the principal medical officer of Cairo, through whom Ogston acquired a recommendation to the head of the Commissariat Department to be given a passage from Suez at the top of the Red Sea the 900 miles south to Suakin, a natural harbour in northern Sudan and the nearest sea port to Khartoum, in support of General Graham’s expeditionary force of about 12,000 men.  The force was to be equipped with “… all the most up-to-date appliances for the sick and wounded, including field hospitals, bearer companies, and materials for dealing with the difficulties that might be met with under any conceivable eventualities in that part of Africa”.  Although Alex Ogston would have to finance himself, “… but even so it was an occasion not to be lost”.

Before leaving Cairo, Alexander Ogston also toured the military hospital there, which was treating sick troops from the Egypt campaign, the first experience he had had of such a facility.  Later he wrote, “I saw no wounded there, however, the cases being all of typhoid fever, liver, abscess and abdominal complaints, with some slighter ailments”.  This was a lesson that Alex Ogston would learn repeatedly over the coming years, that many casualties of war are not ill due to the fighting but to other causes, such as accidents and, especially, infections.  Another unexpected characteristic, which Ogston regretted, was the absence of female nurses, whom he looked upon as much superior to male orderlies at caring for patients.  He would later find that the Ganges hospital ship, on which he served at Suakin, had on its crew four experienced female nurses from the Netley Military Hospital, near Southampton.

The “Ganges” was a newly built P&O steamer, intended for the run between Britain and India, which was chartered by the Government in February 1885 and converted into a hospital ship, which would carry the symbol of the reversed Swiss flag, ie a red cross on a white background, to denote its status as a neutral vessel treating injured combatants.  All the cabin accommodation was stripped out to create a series of airy wards.  Ganges was painted white to help reflect the tropical sun and the vessel was equipped with several rowed boats and a barge for conveying the wounded, all provided with canvass shades.  The beds had punkas, to cool the patients and mosquito nets, and the vessel also had an ice machine to help keep the atmosphere at an acceptable temperature.   The Ganges was visited by the Prince and Princess of Wales, with Princess Louise of Wales, at the Royal Albert Docks in London on 25 February, the day before she departed for the Red Sea.  This ship, carrying 30 soldiers, arrived at Port Said on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt on 9 March and soon passed through the Suez Canal.  Alex Ogston joined the vessel about this time in Suez at the southern entrance to the canal and, after a pleasant cruise down the Red Sea, reached Suakin on 15 March, where Ogston found that construction of the railway to Berber had already begun.  The entry to the harbour at Suakin required careful navigation through coral reefs and a long passage along the Y-shaped inlet, taking them past the town’s cemetery, with its scatter of crosses, where the British dead were buried, a sobering experience for those on board.  Immediately on arrival a steam launch brought out the first casualty to be treated on board the hospital ship, a guardsman with an assegai (native spear) through his arm and chest, laid low by a camp intruder at night while he slept in a tent.  Not all locals living in Suakin were hostile to the British and Alex Ogston found them to be engaging people.  “The natives were fine-looking people, whom one respected at first sight; they were “friendlies” of course and showed us their spears and shields with a proud defiant air as they chaffed the Britons. The townspeople appeared happy and contented, men, women, and the beautiful chocolate-coloured babies who ran about with nothing on. In the sea between Suakin and its suburb El-Khaf were merry companies of men and women bathing, laughing, and enjoying the sunshine”.

Hoisting a patient onto the Ganges at Suakin.

The British National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded in War had been formed in 1870 and gave help to the wounded on both sides in the Franco-Prussian War.  In 1905 it would be renamed the British Red Cross.  The British National Society sent out a number of medical men (including Drs Squire, Piggot, Lake and Newby) to serve on the Suakin expedition and Alex Ogston worked alongside them, initially it appears, for a short period, on board the Ganges hospital ship between about 15 and 20 March and then intermittently on board, after time spent in the field, dealing with casualties of the fighting.  A first foray into the hinterland between Suakin and Berber by a body of soldiers took place on 20 March.  General Graham, in command of about 8,500 men set out to capture Dihilbat Hill and establish a zeriba (a fortified enclosure, usually protected by a barrier of thorn bushes) there.  Alex Ogston chose to go with them, accompanied by his servant Mohamed and attached to the First Bearer Company, led by Dr Barnett.  They made progress across the sandy plane and soon found themselves in an engagement with the enemy about 10 miles west of Suakin.  A young surgeon was riding a horse near to Ogston when he was shot in the left side of his chest and mortally wounded.  He died the following day.  Alex Ogston was quickly busy tending the injuries of the dozen or so men caught by enemy fire.  One of the Arab leaders was shot in the soft tissues of both thighs, disarmed and captured.  He was sent back to hospital in Suakin, where he eventually recovered and was liberated.  The engagements of that day are generally referred to as the Battle of Hasheen.  About 1,000 Arab fighters were killed while the British lost 48 killed or wounded.  The battle was Alex Ogston’s first real exposure to the complexities of treating warfare wounds in the field.  Treatment consisted mostly of applying dry antiseptic dressings and giving morphia hypodermically, so that the wounded could be transported.  The British force returned to Suakin the same day.  In addition to the facilities on the Ganges, a field hospital was established ashore and some of the nurses from the Ganges sent there to help, much to Ogston’s approval, because they had a great civilising effect on the men in the camps.  Before their arrival there were “unseemly things” visible about the camps, but the presence of the women changed all that.

Two days after the Battle of Hasheen, another local fight took place between the British force and the local Arab militia at Tofrek, which was even nearer to Suakin.  General Graham sent out a force of 3,000 men under the command of Major-General Sir John McNeill to establish two zeribas to act as staging posts for an attack on Osman Digna’s headquarters at Tamai about 12 miles from Suakin.  The first zeriba at Tofrek (which became known as McNeill’s Zeriba) was still under construction when an Arab force was spotted nearby, which then attacked.  The battle lasted about half an hour only and resulted in about 1,000 dead Arabs, 100 dead in the defending group, plus about 150 injured.  On 2 April 1885, a mixed group of British and Indian soldiers broke camp to march to Tamai and Professor Ogston travelled with them accompanied by his servant Mohammed.  He was also joined by Drs Squire, Lake, Piggot and Newby.  On the way, the accompanying engineers put up a captive balloon to spot ambushes ahead and Ogston made a drawing of this activity.  When the forces arrived at Tamai, they found it undefended, but the withdrawn Arab fighters had formed a defensive position beyond the settlement.  The fighting did not last long and resulted in some casualties.  Alex Ogston set to work helping the injured near to his location and then joined the march back to Suakin.  He remained at Suakin for the residue of his time in the Sudan, observing the operations of the National Aid Society.  He treated Kennett-Barrington the local representative of the National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded in War, for sunstroke and was then charged by him “with the organisation of the supply of comforts to the sick and wounded at the base, and in the minor expeditions going on beyond the lines”.  

Area of Sudan near Suakin.

Mr Kennett-Barrington, wrote a letter between the time of the Battle of Hasheen and the march on Tamai, which was sent back to England.  It gave some account of Professor Ogston’s work for the Society.  “We have been very busy here – all our medical staff actively at work.  Professor Ogston attached to bearer corps.  Piggot and Lake attached to base field hospital in attendance on wounded.  Squire also attached at same hospital to administer chloroform and do other work.  Prof Ogston was in Zareba at the fight at Hasheen and has been assisting in various surgical operations since.  He is already very popular here and has free access to all the hospitals.  He will accompany the expedition to Tamai.”  While still in Africa, possibly when Alexander Ogston made his likely way from Suez, via Cairo, to Alexandria at the end of April 1885, Alex Ogston’s efforts in providing medical services at Suakin were recognised by the award of the Egyptian campaign medal and the Khedive's bronze star.

Sometime after the return from Tamai, Alexander Ogston became ill, cause undiscovered, and was invalided home to Great Britain before the end of the Suakin campaign, though by the time he departed on the P&O steamer Deccan, which was under contract as a troop carrier at the time, he was well enough to supervise the care of some of the injured troops who were also being sent to England by the same vessel.  “I was put in charge of some of those who were being sent to England on the P. and O. steamer Deccan, and so was able to follow the patients to Suez, attending them on the way, and afterwards to Netley Hospital, where the cures were to be completed. I do not think there was a single case of a serious wound which I did not follow from the field to Netley”.  The Deccan departed from Suakin about 17 April 1885 and arrived at Suez about two days later.  There some of her passengers, including 39 injured officers and men, were transferred to HMS Crocodile, a 6,211 ton displacement troop ship, which was on a passage from Bombay, for the journey to England.  The Crocodile departed from Suez on 23 April but was then delayed by a stranding in the canal and arrived at Malta on 30 April and Portsmouth on 8 May.  However, it seems likely that Professor Ogston travelled home from Suez by a different route.  One of Alex Ogston’s drawings constructed on his journey home was of “Crete” and was created on 24 April.  On this day, HMS Crocodile was stuck in the Suez Canal.  A close pass of Crete, which would be necessary to make a drawing, would be a route taken by a steamer travelling from Alexandria to Brindisi, a reversal of the journey made by Professor Ogston on his way out to Egypt. His undated drawings of a man and a woman in Alexandria fall in a sequence which supports this hypothesis.  When he got back to England, Alexander Ogston is known to have diverted to the Royal Victoria Hospital at Netley on Southampton Water, where the injured troops that he had accompanied on the Deccan were being taken for further treatment.  However, Ogston could not have seen the injured men he was responsible for on the Deccan because they only reached Portsmouth with HMS Crocodile on 8 May and by that date Professor Ogston had arrived back home in Aberdeen.

HMS Crocodile.

West Wing, Netley Hospital.

After the visit to Netley, Alex Ogston travelled north via Manchester, where the club of Aberdeen graduates in that city held a dinner on 6 May to which he had been invited and at which he spoke.  The purpose of the meeting had been two-fold.  To help with the developing plans at their alma mater for an extension of accommodation, with which Alex Ogston had been closely involved before his departure for Egypt, and to welcome the leading surgeon back to the country from the Sudan.  Professor Ogston made a statement to the meeting on the expansion proposals which led to a resolution pledging the support of the Aberdeen graduates present to assist in the development and to the setting up an executive committee to expedite that purpose.  Alex Ogston spoke again after supper on his Sudan experiences and his reasoning for making this risky trip.  It was for the pursuit of knowledge.  “The truth was that for the last twelve- or fifteen-years military surgery had been growing into such a gigantic and important branch of the profession – had in itself been developing into so large a field of surgery – that a vastly increased attention to it in teaching was absolutely demanded”.  He went out to the Sudan bearing the prejudice that the army surgeons would be inferior to their brothers in civilian practice, due to lack of opportunity to acquire relevant experience, but he found this view to be wide of the mark.  “He met men whom he considered to be as well-informed surgeons as any he had ever met among civil surgeons.  Anti-septic treatment was carefully carried out, and the results were simply splendid.  There was only one case where he saw a man die of a preventable wound complication, and that was not the fault of the medical arrangements, but of the circumstances under which the man was wounded, and the length of time that necessarily elapsed before he could be attended to”.  He also found that there was great enthusiasm to improve their operations and he was given unrestricted access to medical facilities wherever he went.

Alex Ogston’s description of medical treatment in the field pays a remarkable tribute to the skill and bravery of individual army medical staff in operating so far forward during combat.  “No sooner was a man wounded in the field than he was treated, and, except during an active rapid movement made under pressure of circumstances a man was within 30 or 35 seconds in the hands of the surgeons and being treated anti-septically.  Two or three surgeons of the most admirable, sensible and well-skilled type attended him.  The clothing was at once taken off, no unnecessary interference took place with the wound and the wound itself was treated without any of the probing with the fingers which used to be thought necessary, but with anti-septic dressing thoroughly adapted to the case.  Arrangements were made for the man to be sent back to the place where the serious part of the examination was to take place, namely – the field or base hospital.  They had an infinite number of means of transport, so that the difficulties of carrying a man over ground of almost any nature could be overcome. … During the conveyance back to the rear the wounded were provided with everything needful, attention to them being the first object of a large number of thoughtful, skilful and good men who accompanied them”.

The British Prime Minister, WE Gladstone, a Liberal, then in his second period as premier, abruptly changed policy towards the Sudan in May 1885.  The Suakin to Berber railway was abandoned after only 20 miles had been completed at enormous cost, and the campaign against the Mahdi was also terminated on 12 May.  This led to General Graham’s force being evacuated from Suakin five days later.  The Ganges hospital ship remained offshore at Suakin throughout most of the month, though an alarming number of fever cases were present, and the heat was intense.  She finally left the Sudan for Portsmouth on 26 May.  Today Suakin port is known as “Osman Digna Port”, commemorating the Mahdist leader in that vicinity.    

A characteristic of Alex Ogston’s personal make-up came to the fore again on this exposure to new circumstances and new information.  He started to think about how medical services to wounded soldiers in the field could be reformed and improved both with regard to the military and concerning the operations of the National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded in War.  Alexander Ogston had no criticism of the medical and surgical equipment available, but he found that organisational matters were often chaotic, arrangements for transporting injured personnel were “a jumble”, and the rank-and-file orderlies “were not the most able soldiers”.  “When there at Suakin, I, rightly or wrongly, formed some strong opinions about the future of the army medical department and the National Aid Society, which the experience of subsequent years has not greatly altered. I there came to the conclusion that the medical departments of our fighting forces, military and naval, could never quite occupy the proper position or do their proper work so long as they were subordinate to the War Office and Admiralty ; that they should be under a Minister responsible to Parliament, the nation, and the profession, who should be aided by a council composed of officers of the services, and an equal number of civilian experts of the highest standing, possessing rank, pay, and authority equal to the service officers, their colleagues, so as to ensure their status and give weight to their opinions. I also concluded that it was quite necessary that the officers of the medical services should have military rank like the other branches (a thing which has since been conceded); and that as a matter of course the medical services ought to be kept complete and perfect in every point, with their own transport and appliances, and all this in peace as well as in war. As regarded the National Aid Society, it seemed to me, if its work were to be fully carried out, that it also ought to come under the same parliamentary chief as, and through him operate hand in hand with, the medical services, thus diminishing jealousies and ensuring proper supervision, proper responsibility, and proper continuity of policy. My views were possibly Utopian, at any rate they were such as could not well be urged until the times were ripening for them, but I had little doubt but that they must eventually prevail, and one of the results of the experience I gained at Suakin was a resolution which I formed that, if it should ever lie in my power, I should strive to advocate such improvements of the services as might lie in the directions I have just indicated, without regard to the odium which is the sure potion of every one who ventures to suggest reforms in the War Office”.  After his return to Great Britain at the end of April 1885, when he spoke to Aberdeen graduates in Manchester, he expanded on his criticisms of army organisation and that was concerning the storage and transport of all the components of a medical service in the field.  “A hospital with its tents sent out from one quarter, and its beds from another, and its pillowcases and blankets from a third, and its utensils from a fourth, its drugs from a fifth, its servants from a sixth and its medical men from many other places, could not all at once fit together; and that was unfortunately at present the difficulty with which the Medical Department had to contend.  It was not completely within itself, and its carts, its beds, and the like, were all brought together for the first time on the field, each perhaps going out in a different ship. … It was quite evident that to do justice to the Department and to those whom they would have to treat, the hospitals and the bearer companies should work together at home”.

In addition to Alexander Ogston’s surgical skills which were on display during his presence with Sir Gerald Graham’s force, Ogston also found time to exercise his literary and artistic skills.  His description of the landscape at Suakin as his first evening in camp, about 22 March 1885 (see above), made the transition to night, evokes the wonder and awe he felt before this natural beauty.  Alex Ogston’s artistic efforts from the Suakin expedition have mercifully survived and are in the care of the University of Aberdeen.  In the Ogston Archive there is a sketchbook containing Alec Ogston’s impressions of his experiences during his journeys to and from the Sudan and events which occurred while he was there.  The first of the sketches, many of which are dated, is of Corfu from his P&O steamer, “Nizam”, travelling between Brindisi and Alexandria.  (The Nizams were hereditary rulers of Hyderabad).  The first sketch from Souakin, “View from door of my tent in camp at Souakin in the Sudan” was made on 22^nd March 1885.  The last sketch, made on 24^th April 1885, was of Crete on his journay back to Brindisi.  One particularly interesting representation was of a Mahdi’s flag with its Arabic inscription which translates as “(There is) no divinity except (the) Allah of Muhammed.  The Mahdi (is) sovereign (he) is strengthened by (the) Allah of Mohammed (he) is strengthened by Allah may the blessing of Allah (be) on him and peace”.  Ogston also took a camera on this expedition and several photos of activity at Souakin, including two photographs of Suakin harbour with a hospital ship at anchor and the bazaar at Souakin are included in the archive.  Interestingly, there are other sketches included, several being by other artists, especially Walter Paget, an illustrator who was present with the Soudan expeditionary force as a war correspondent.  In one picture Ogston is the subject, kneeling on one knee, ministering to a wounded soldier.

“Nizam” at Venice, 1873.

Walter Paget 1862 – 1935.

Alexander Ogston arrived back in Aberdeen on 8 May 1885, in the company of his wife, Isabella, who had travelled down to England to meet him.  At the Aberdeen Joint Station, the couple was greeted by a large body of medical students.  They found their Professor of Surgery browned and in good health.  He was carrying, in addition to his luggage, an assegai, a native spear made of wood with an iron tip, which he handed round. Three days after his return he addressed a large attendance of students at Marischal College, where he received an enthusiastic reception.  Speaking without notes, he gave an extensive account of his main experiences in the Sudan, thanking the students for their “kind friendliness” though he personally shunned demonstrations of this nature and complained about the pile of correspondence which awaited his attention.  For him, celebrity was a cross he necessarily, but reluctantly, had to bear.  Warming to his theme, he first gave a history of the changes which had occurred in the treatment of the casualties of battle, starting from simply leaving the injured unattended, to carrying the wounded with the fighting army, to the modern arrangement of having a corps whose dedicated role was to treat the afflicted and remove them from the field, but not to be participants in fighting themselves.  Here he had a direct message for his audience concerning the role that medical students could play in war as volunteer bearers, saying that he mentioned this point to the students once before.  This related to the action he had taken in encouraging medical students to volunteer as dressers in the Sudan some months earlier. 

Professor Ogston then related two stories of personal bravery, one from each side of the struggle, which had clearly had a deep personal effect on him.  The first occurred during the action at McNeill’s Zariba.  A body of Arabs charged up to the square formation of soldiers armed only with spears and swords but were cut down by the rifles as they advanced.  However, about 100 of them bearing flags penetrated the defensive square.  Of that 100 determined brave Arabs, not one left the square and among them were three women armed and fighting like the others.  There were even little children of 12 years of age engaged in the fight.  One child was carrying a little hook-shaped knife to hamstring horses or to slash at soldiers.  This lad, in his own courageous way, was dancing around an officer who was being attacked by an Arab with a spear and he was making digs at the officer with his knife on purpose to lacerate his flesh and hamstring him.  He continued doing so until the poor officer who had no other way of ridding himself of the little fiend and yet had it not in his heart to strike a child, hit him with his foot in the pit of the stomach and knocked him over, whereupon he was immediately bayonetted by a less soft-hearted private.  This participation of the women and children in the contest showed the spirit that actuated those brave Sudanese tribes.  The second story concerned a doctor named Osborne, who found himself outside the line of defence amongst those who might be called the stragglers.  Leaving his horse and handing his sword belt and revolver to his servant, he proceeded towards the zareba to get a light for his pipe, or some purpose of that sort.  He had not proceeded half-way when he heard a whooping and shrieking behind him and the tumult, confusion and stampede of the horses and camels.  Turning his head, he saw that the Arabs were within a few tens of yards and before he had time to reach the zareba, a place of comparative safety, one of the leading Arabs was upon him.  He was absolutely defenceless, but he took up a hatchet which had been dropped by one of the engineers and, turning round, he met his opponent who made a lunge at him with his spear.  This thrust the doctor parried with his hatchet and then he struck the Arab a fortunate blow on the top of the head so that he fell heavily and was stunned, whereupon the doctor very rapidly and promptly jumped upon him and smote him repeatedly over the head until he was unable to stir.  Throwing down the hatchet the doctor then made the best of his perilous way into the square to avoid the other Arabs who were now coming up.  He fortunately escaped with his life but with the loss of nearly every article he possessed unless his clothing.

Almost ten years after the start of his journey to the Sudan, in 1894, Alexander Ogston was prevailed upon to contribute to “The Book of Lochnagar”, a commemorative volume edited by Robert Profeit, the talented eldest son of the Balmoral factor, Dr Alexander Profeit and sold to raise funds for the replacement of Crathie Church.  Alex Ogston’s offering was a nominally fictitious story titled "The Capture of Tosheen", which, though its central characters are clearly fictitious, is heavily autobiographical in its descriptions of landscape, advancing soldiers, skirmishes with the enemy, the capture and sacking of the village of “Tosheen” and the devious enemy officer shot through both thighs with a revolver but subsequently treated with consideration and finally released.  It is surely derived principally from the author’s own experiences of the Battle of Hasheen.   Alex Ogston, in the words of the Aberdeen Evening Express, "relates the incident with rare literary skill, dash and humour and the article is illustrated with a sketch of a Mahdist banner and several Soudanese weapons".

 

Alexander Ogston’s involvement in the British Medical Association

After first filling that role in 1885, Alexander Ogston led the Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine branch of the BMA again in 1900 and from 1915 to 1919.  He thus remained a prominent member of this local association for many years and not merely filling a titular role.  In 1899, a group of local doctors, including Alex Ogston, were authorised to approach Aberdeen Town Council with advice on the prevention of tuberculosis.  They gave their opinion that safeguarding the milk supply and inspecting all meat exposed for sale were the most important actions for the Council to take.  In July 1885, the local branch of the BMA held a meeting at 198 Union Street, which was preceded by a visit to the infirmary at Woolmanhill to see a number of demonstrations, one of which was presented by Alexander Ogston on the anatomy and operative cure of flat foot.

Francis Ogston, Alexander’s father, had resigned from the roles of Police Surgeon and Aberdeen Health Officer in 1880.  In 1888, the post of health officer again became vacant, and the local branch of the BMA discussed memorialising its views on the filling of this post to Aberdeen Town Council but there was some disagreement within the group as to its exact position on the subject.  Some felt that this was not a matter on which they should intervene with the Town Council.  Others, including Alex Ogston, felt that they should communicate with the council and press the case that the appointee should be medically qualified and should abstain from private practice.  However, this was a problem for other BMA members that they should expect a qualified doctor to accept £300 as his only annual income.  Eventually, an amended motion, proposed by Alex Ogston, was carried.  “To memorialise the Town Council of Aberdeen that the appointment of medical officer of health at present vacant be filled up by a qualified medical practitioner who shall be excluded from private practice and who shall devote himself to sanitary and medico-legal work”. 

In several years, including 1888, 1889, 1894, 1895 and 1898, Alexander Ogston was chairman of the local BMA’s Parliamentary Bills Committee, which had oversight of pending legislation, looking for measures which might impact the conduct of the profession.  During WW1 when Ogston was chafing at home in Aberdeen through the stasis imposed upon him in 1916 (see later), he used his position as president of the local BMA branch to appeal to other inactive doctors to contact him with a view to becoming employed in war work.

Alexander Ogston also played a prominent role in the BMA nationally.  In 1873 he was elected secretary of the section devoted to surgery at the annual meeting of the BMA held in London.  The 1887 annual meeting of the BMA was held in Dublin and Alex Ogston was vice-president of the surgical section of the program.  He spoke on some lessons from the Egyptian War.  Glasgow was the venue for the following year’s get-together, when Professor Ogston tackled another orthopaedics topic, the surgical aspects of rickets.  Alexander Ogston was president of the surgical section of the BMA when it met in Carlisle in 1896.  The year 1899 saw the BMA venture to the home of the British Navy, Portsmouth for its yearly get-together, when Alex Ogston was again the vice president of the surgical section.  On this occasion he made a trenchant speech criticising the organisation of British military medical services, which caused a major furore (see below).  When the BMA visited Aberdeen in 1914, it was inevitable that the most prominent local doctor, Alexander Ogston should be invited to be president of the meeting.  He also chaired a local committee charged with making the arrangements for 1,500 anticipated visitors, which was a major problem since the local hotels could only accommodate about 500 guests and private homes had to be employed.  There was also a Ladies’ Committee, which met at the Ogstons’ town house, 252 Union Street, to arrange a program for accompanying wives.  By 1915, Professor Alex Ogston felt that he was out of touch with modern developments in surgery and associated basic sciences (he was 71 at the time) and gave an address titled “On the making of a Scottish Medical School”, ie Aberdeen, which has arguably the oldest Medical Faculty in Britain and Ireland.  However, his address concentrated heavily upon the early history of Aberdeen and of King’s College the older of its two universities, rather than the more recent history of the Medical School which essentially grew out of Marischal College.  It is to be doubted if all the BMA members present were still awake at the end of his presentation.  Abstruse as it was, it cannot have been riveting for members from furth of Scotland.  What it did illustrate was Ogston’s own broad interests in history.

 

Mrs Anna Longshore-Potts

In 1885, an American lady medical doctor, appeared on the public scene in Aberdeen and roused strong emotions, both positive and negative, amongst the citizenry because of the subject matter of her public lectures and the direct way she promoted access to information on diseases of women and children, courtship, marriage and lovemaking, subjects not thought suitable for public discussion, or even any discussion, by many in the Victorian, Presbyterian populace.  She also by-passed the local medical hierarchy, which probably made them feel uncomfortable, though they remained silent.

Anna Longshore-Potts.

Anna Longshore had been born into a Quaker family in Pennsylvania in 1829 and with seven other women she graduated, aged 22, from the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, the first such medical school in America, in 1852.  Her passage into the medical profession was not a smooth ride, the male American medical establishment, including male students making their disapproval clear at every opportunity.  However, Mrs Longshore-Potts, as she became known after her marriage to Lambert Potts, soon established her own successful practice.  She became a convert to the cause of preventive medicine and to promulgating useful medical knowledge to her patients through lectures, private at first, but later offered publicly.  Her talks were instantly successful and subsequently taken to a national and, eventually, an international audience, accompanied by a substantial supporting entourage.  For example, in 1883 she lectured to 4,500 attendees in Sidney, Australia.

By early 1885, Anna Longshore-Potts had arrived for a tour of Great Britain, starting in London, where again she achieved great popularity.  She remained in Britain for the next three years.  By late October 1886, she had reached Aberdeen, accompanied by Dr J Charles Harrison, who specialised in “diseases of men”.  The following extract is from an advertisement which appeared in the Aberdeen Journal on the 29^th of the month.

“Music Hall, Aberdeen.  Monday Evening November 1 at 8 o’clock.  Mrs AM Longshore-Potts will commence a series of lectures on Health and Disease.  There will be five evening lectures (to both sexes) and five afternoon lectures (to ladies only).  First lecture to ladies, Tuesday 2^nd inst. at 3 o’clock.  Admission first evening and afternoon FREE.  All lectures illustrated by a magnificent collection of anatomical specimens and life-sized paintings.  The object of the lecturer is to teach people how to live and all the time maintain good health”.  Newspaper advertisements continued on Saturday and throughout the following week.  The Aberdeen Journal’s representative attended the free Monday session and was highly complimentary about the American visitor, her easy conversational manner and her undoubted knowledge of human physiology.  She had been introduced by her male colleague, Dr JC Harrison.  The financial arrangements were gradually revealed.  Although the lectures would be free, there would be a collection taken, which proved to be a silver collection.  Further, both Dr Potts (women and children) and Dr Harrison (men only) were available for private consultation, the consultation being free, but presumable any treatment being on a paid basis.  Also, those wishing to avail themselves of a consultation could pay 1gn to avoid having to queue. The last two lectures in the series, one being to ladies only with no title announced and the other to both sexes on “Courtship” were charged at 1/6 per person.  Further, two personal press announcements have been uncovered which look suspiciously like, in modern parlance, “teasers”, placed to stimulate attendance at the upcoming lectures.  It has to be admitted that this all amounted to a clever marketing strategy and must have seemed utterly foreign, even repugnant, to the Aberdeen medicals, as an approach to generating an income from medical knowledge.

However, not all members of the Aberdeen intellectual fraternity were prepared to stay silent.  On Thursday evening, there was a scene in the Music Hall which the Evening Express described as “most discreditable to the fledging philosophers who attend our University”.  The students, including medical students, had caused a considerable disturbance both inside the hall and outside in the street.  In the hall the students raised the ire of the genuine audience, and punches were thrown, walking sticks wielded and at least one wooden bench hurled, before the student visitors retreated to the street.  There they started beating on the doors of the hall but were eventually cleared by the police.  One group departed for Alexander Ogston’s house at 252 Union Street where they mounted another protest, though the exact reason for such a show of displeasure was not indicated.  Perhaps they thought that, as a prominent member of the Aberdeen medical establishment, he should support their demonstration against the American interlopers with their insensitive public lectures?  If so, he did no such thing. 

The Evening Express was not a supporter of the American visitors, suggesting that the “men only” and “women only” lecture restrictions constituted a ruse to bump up sales, though it had to admit that Dr Harrison’s lecture “was free from anything improperly suggestive to the evil mind”.  This organ of the press also suggested that the motive of the students was hostility to encroachment on their preserve but that hardly looks likely, since they had not reached the stage of making serious money from medicine.

By Monday 8 November, the Aberdeen Journal’s editor had received a substantial number of letters concerning Drs Potts and Harrison.  Some were from indignant correspondents, one of whom questioned the validity of the Americans’ medical qualifications, another urged that such subjects should not be allowed to be discussed in public and further correspondents exhibited shock at the explicit nature of some of the diagrams exhibited, even suggesting that they were obscene.  George E Harrison, possibly a relation, replied on behalf of Dr Charles Harrison, pointing out that Aberdeen was the only city in the world over 100,000 population where such a student demonstration had been mounted and relating that in Edinburgh, medical students had attended Harrison’s lecture with the intention of causing a disturbance if they judged that the lecturer was a “quack”, but that they stayed silent.  It seems likely that the Aberdeen students had simply found the subject matter so embarrassing that they felt impelled to silence the lecturer. 

Mrs Longshore-Potts and her supporting cast departed from Aberdeen for Dundee to continue their campaign to bring medical knowledge to the masses and make a few bawbees at the same time.  The anger of the students calmed down, now that their antagonists had departed and the medical profession continued to serve the community and make a living as they had before the arrival of the transatlantic visitors with their American commercial ways.

 

Alexander Ogston and Mesmerism      

Franz Mesmer was a German physician who held to a now discredited hypothesis of animal magnetism, the supposed flowing of energy between animate and inanimate objects.  James Braid, a Scottish doctor introduced the term hypnosis to describe a state (mesmeric trance) induced in a subject by certain procedures by an operator.  In 1892, the BMA endorsed the therapeutic use of hypnosis, while rejecting the hypothesis of animal magnetism.  However, the procedure was largely ignored by medical schools though it became popular as a music hall spectacle.

In December 1886, Mr Burns and Dr Cavendish were putting on a nightly “mesmeric entertainment” at McFarland’s Varieties, Her Majesty's Theatre in Market Street, Aberdeen, which proved to be highly popular.  On the 8^th of the month, Cavendish laid on a special demonstration of his techniques in the Blackfriars Street Hall for the benefit of professors from Marischal College, which housed the Aberdeen Medical School.  Alexander Ogston was one of the attendees, along with other members of the professoriate, acting as a judging panel, and a gang of medical students.  At the close of the demonstration, Professor Hamilton proposed a vote of thanks to Dr Cavendish.

A letter writer to the Aberdeen Journal, who had attended the show, professed himself as being unsure of the validity of the phenomenon and asking why the medical professors of the town had been silent on the matter.  The answer was probably that the Aberdeen medical hierarchy accepted that hypnotism was a real phenomenon but they had no idea how to employ it beneficially for their patients.

  

Alexander Ogston and the Aberdeen Ambulance Association   

In early 1885, when Alexander Ogston was contemplating travelling to Egypt to offer his services to the military authorities in connection with the Sudan campaign, he broached the subject of forming a corps of medical volunteers with his students in Aberdeen.  Alex Ogston was actively considering taking such a group with him to act as dressers and there was considerable enthusiasm from the potential volunteers to take part in such a venture.  That plan could not be delivered when Ogston’s offer of help was rejected by the military authorities and the Professor of Surgery had to proceed alone.  However, on his return to the North-East he took action to tap into that fund of enthusiasm for voluntary medical work. 

There was a general mood in the nation for the creation of societies to accommodate the services of medical volunteers.  The British National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded in War had its origins in 1870 at the start of the Franco-Prussian War.  In 1905 it was renamed the British Red Cross and in 1907 it was granted a royal charter by King Edward VII.  It catered to the needs for medical volunteers in time of war.  Among the civilian population there was a similar need for auxiliary medical help from societies of volunteers.  In England, the St John Ambulance Association was formed in 1877 with the aim of providing first aid and care to the sick and injured.  In Scotland a similar organisation, the St Andrew’s Ambulance Association, was formed in Glasgow in 1882, though there the driver of this movement was the high level of industrial accidents in this expanding industrial city.  Alexander Ogston described the mood in his native area.  “The north-eastern district of Scotland experienced to the full the fascination of the great philanthropic movement”.  This led to the Aberdeen Ambulance Association (AAA) being formed in 1887.  Ogston later described the aim of the AAA as being “for the succour of the injured in civil life”.  The meeting which launched this new volunteer corps was advertised in the Aberdeen Journal.  “Aberdeen Ambulance Association.  A meeting open to subscribers to the association and to the general public will be held in the Round Room, Music Hall Buildings Aberdeen on Thursday 30th June at 4pm to promote the formation of a Volunteer Ambulance Company in connection with the Aberdeen Medical School and Instruction in the management of Accidents and Injuries among the community.  All interested in these objectives are invited to attend.  Alex Ogston CM, Hon Sec Aberd. Ambulance Association”.  Inevitably, AO was the instigator.  The wording of the announcement suggests that the Association was already in existence and had some subscribers but that its activities had not really got underway.  In addition to the AAA, another corps of medical volunteers also sprang out of the local medical school, the Volunteer Bearer Companies, driven by the enthusiasm of Dr Alexander MacGregor. The two worked together and MacGregor also took charge of the management of the ambulance volunteers.

The AAA soon started running first aid courses, involving both theory and practice, for groups enthusiastic to learn, the earliest such course detected in this study occurring in September 1888 for 209 railway servants.  It was held at Marischal College and “Prof Ogston made freely available specimens from the surgical museum”.  The first AGM of the AAA was held in July 1888 when Alexander Ogston gave an account of the first year’s activities.  At first, they had struggled but “this year everything was brilliantly coloured, and the clouds had rolled by”.  They would maintain high standards and the badge, denoting a meritorious pass in the examinations, “would only be conferred upon competent men”.  He felt that the Association had already been of great benefit to the town, and he was impressed by the way that the volunteers had all cooperated, since voluntary work took away “all mercenary feeling”.  The Association was also proposing to run courses for women to teach them how to deal with domestic accidents.  “There was a great deal to be done in that way for as the medical men knew when an accident occurred very frequently instead of keeping their heads, they lost them”.  Dr Macgregor paid a warm tribute to both Alexander Ogston and his father-in-law, Provost James Matthews, who had shunned the lime-light but had “rendered the greatest service”.

In mid-October 1890, the AAA held a meeting of its council with ex-Provost Henderson in the chair.  It was conducted in the office of William Smith an Aberdeen advocate, honorary secretary and treasurer, and one of the Association’s strongest supporters.  Also present were ex-Provost Matthews, Professor Alexander Ogston, Dr Alexander Macgregor, Dr John S Riddell, surgeon and former student of Alexander Ogston and Mr Alfred A de Lessert , a prominent local dentist.  This influential local committee gave a good indication of the strength of the AAA at that time.  The then present Lord Provost, David Stewart, a successful comb manufacturer, was appointed president for the coming year, along with vice-presidents Dr Alex Ogston and Dr Alex Macgregor.  A grant of £25 was awarded to the Bearer Company Volunteer Medical Staff Corps for running first aid courses for the police force, fishermen, railway servants and others, clearly groups which daily came into contact with accident victims.  In 1893, Alex Ogston was present when medals and certificates were presented to ladies who had passed a public nursing class laid on by the Association.  Dr John Scott Riddell was becoming increasingly important at a teacher on AAA courses and in 1894 he enrolled a course for the remarkable number in excess of 300, of whom 143 presented themselves for examination and 133 gained certificates.  At the ceremony held at the end of the course in January 1895 at which Alexander Ogston presided, he gave praise to Dr Macgregor, the head of the corps, “who had filled the post in a way few men could have filled it”.  Thanks were also proffered to Dr Riddell who had conducted most of the instruction, and his services had been given gratuitously.  In turn, Dr Macgregor paid a compliment to Alexander Ogston.  “With characteristic modesty, Professor Ogston had held himself in the background and put others to the front, but the Ambulance Association of Aberdeen owed its origin and success to him and practically to him alone”, a sentiment which was followed by warm applause.  Alexander Ogston’s role in the origin of the “Medical Ambulance Corps of the Aberdeen University” was also supported by Dr Alexander Profeit, the Queen’s Commissioner at Balmoral until 1897.  In a letter to Queen Victoria, dated 5 May 1895, in which he sought the Queen’s permission for the Corps to be given a field at Birkhall for their annual camp, Profeit added, “I may mention that Professor Ogston first started the Corps many years ago”.  (RA VIC/ADDQ/6/38).

Dr John Scott Riddell.

By 1898, a decision had been taken to merge the AAA with the St Andrew’s Ambulance Association.  This decision was formalised at a meeting chaired by Professor Ogston, to whom it made sense that there should be a single ambulance association covering the whole country.  To replace the AAA, a local branch of the St Andrew’s Association was formed in the Silver City, which was a continuation of the old AAA and carried on functioning in much the same way that its predecessor had done.  Reviewing the success of the AAA, Alex Ogston noted that it had organised “between 50 and 60 separate ambulance classes from Inverness to Kincardine with 1600 certificates and 300 medals being issued”.  It made a good fit with the St Andrew’s Association, which was prominent in the south of Scotland.  The following year, 1899, Professor Alexander Ogston was elected vice-president of the national Ambulance Association and was re-elected each year until 1925.

To mark the inauguration of the new Aberdeen Branch of the St Andrew’s Ambulance Association in the city, Alex Ogston was asked to give an address on ambulance work before a gathering in the YMCA Institute, brought together to form a new ambulance class, in February 1906.  Ogston’s presentation had many of the hallmarks of his style, established on previous occasions.  It was witty, engaging and easily understood by the layman.  Above all, it was highly motivational.  But it was full of speculative statements unsupported by numerical facts.  In Ogston’s defence, it was conceived for popular consumption and not for professional discourse.  The fundamental thesis presented by the speaker to justify the need for ambulance classes was that life used to be simple and relatively accident-free, both for the working man and for his wife and children but risk had greatly increased due to work, leisure and mechanisation.  Had he paid a little attention to the study of ancient skeletons he would have found much evidence of injury and disease from the past.  In making his case, he revealed two of his own risky activities as a boy - playing cricket and getting involved in fist fights “underneath the Union Bridge in the old Denburn Garden”.  One of the outcomes of such events was that some boys ended up with “their noses a little off the straight”!  Of course, his audience lapped up such anecdotes, which both amused them and kept their attention.  Professor Ogston also remarked on the pride he felt when he saw a railway official or a police constable sporting the badge of distinction from one of their ambulance courses and the common observation in the hospital of the benefits of first aid to accident victims.  Lockjaw (tetanus), a frequent agricultural occurrence, which used to be thought of as bad luck, but which was then known to be due to a bacterium present in soil, was also discussed.  Agricultural injuries were now thoroughly washed clean of all soil to reduce the risk of infection.  Another anecdote, which generated applause from his audience concerned bodily cleanliness.  “It was one of the most wonderful things that the marvellous little Japanese should have taught us that the use of antiseptics could be practised with great advantage.  When the Japanese entered battle, whenever it was possible, they all bathed – that was they removed from the surface of the body all seed of disease and blood-poisoning that tended to gather there, and put on clean clothing, with the result that the mortality from wounds had been enormously less amongst the Japanese than it ever had been in the most civilised Western army”.  Both Alexander Ogston and John Riddell had prepared basic first aid kits (though this term was not used) to equip individuals in the event of accident.  Soldiers were issued with them but were sometimes found to have replaced the medical contents with tobacco!  Alex Ogston certainly advocated that citizens should carry such a packet in the corner of a coat.  Finally, he concluded that “for the sake of themselves, their neighbours, the community, and the empire, they ought to cultivate ambulance information as much as possible, and go more and more deeply into the questions, some of which he had touched upon that night”.  He had certainly motivated some of his audience, since between 40 and 50 signed up for the new class.

And so the Aberdeen branch of the St Andrew’s Ambulance Association continued with its good work, with particularly strong support from Dr John Scott Riddell who, in 1906, on being given the class fees of the students on his course, immediately turned over the money to the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.  Dr Alexander Ogston of Rosemount, no close relation of Alexander Ogston of 252 Union Street, also became a strong supporter, regularly acting as an examiner in course examinations.  Support from the Great North of Scotland Railway Company was also consistent and in 1912 the firm hosted a team ambulance tournament at the Kittybrewster Locomotive Works, when four teams (Joint Station 1 and 2, Kittybrewster and Inverurie) competed for recognition as the best performers.  In the year up to the start of WW1, 952 pupils on ambulance courses gained certificates and 972 cases requiring first aid were treated.  Alex Ogston must have been proud of this organisation born of his personal commitment and enthusiasm.    

 

Alexander Ogston and research on bullet wounds

After the events in the Sudan in 1884 – 1885, it was some time before Alexander Ogston couId further his interest in military surgery but from 1898 there were several developments which led, inexorably, in 1899 to him departing for South Africa and the Second Boer War.   

The first of these developments was the initiation of a research program on the types of wounds produced by different types of bullet.  To understand the context in which Alexander Ogston began this research programme, it is necessary to go back to 1863 and the foundation of the International Committee of the Red Cross.  The Swiss businessman, Henry Dunant inadvertently witnessed the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino which took place in Northern Italy in 1859.  About 40,000 dead and wounded soldiers were left on the battlefield because there were no facilities to recover or treat them, which Dunant found utterly shocking, and he then did all he could to help alleviate the suffering that had been caused.  Over the next few years, he began advocating the formation of relief organisations in individual nations which could take on the role of care of the wounded in time of war and also formed a committee of activists, like himself, to bring about this revolutionary change in the conduct of war.  In 1863 Dunant’s committee was renamed the “International Committee for the Relief of the Wounded which then organised an international conference in Geneva to give formal effect to Dunant’s ideas, where the UK was one of the official attendees.  The name of the organisation further changed to the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1876.  Resolutions from the conference proposed the formation of national relief societies, neutral status and protection for wounded soldiers and the utilisation of volunteers to provide relief on the battlefield.  Further conferences were proposed to create a formal framework and the Swiss flag, with the colours reversed, would be used as the symbol of this new set of organisations.  A year later an international conference was convened by the Swiss Government that led to the establishment of the First Geneva Convention, which guaranteed the neutrality and protection of wounded soldiers, field medical workers and specific humanitarian organisations.  The UK signed the convention in 1865.  A further move to establish rules for the conduct of war took place in 1868 with the St Petersburg Declaration.  The Russians had created exploding musket balls which were anticipated to cause devastating injuries.  Fearing an arms race for this type of munition, the Russians organised a conference to negotiate a ban on such ammunition and an embargo resulted for projectiles up to a weight of 400 grams. 

Continental countries then turned their attention to a different kind of ammunition, the rifle bullet.  In the late 19^th century, such powers used bullets with a lead core and a full jacket of steel or nickel which were designed to be used in rifles with spiral grooved barrels and would “take the grooves”, rotating as they were discharged, and thus were stabilised in flight.  Such bullets often did not deform on impact and could pass completely through a small, soft-skinned target, sometimes causing little damage on their passage.  However, for hard-skinned big game hunting, a hard jacket can be useful in penetrating further and thus causing deeper damage, for example, in an elephant.  If, on the other hand, the front end of the bullet lacks a hard jacket, or the tip of the bullet is hollow, it tends to deform on impact causing greater injury in the first part of its passage but losing penetrating power.  Such a bullet is of little use against hard-skinned big game.  Bullets could also be given more penetrating ability by increasing the charge of gun powder, thus increasing the muzzle velocity and the kinetic energy carried by the projectile.  Greater penetration, greater damage and an ability to kill at a greater distance were the result.  In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 – 1871, the French used new rifles and bullets with soft lead noses which produced devastating wounds, especially at short distances but by 1898 when Alex Ogston published a paper in the BMJ on the evolution of bullet design and a critique of a paper by the German, von Bruns on the injuries produced by different rifle bullets, all European nations were using fully mantled bullets with lead cores.

Britain’s long involvement in India had given it practical experience, especially on the North-West Frontier of the use of different kinds of rifle bullet.  Troops found that hard jacketed bullets could be ineffective at stopping an onrushing opponent because of its lack of distortion on passage through the body.  Soldiers then informally started to file away the hard tip of their bullets so that they became distorted on impact, caused more immediate damage and were thus more likely to disable a charging attacker.  As a result, the Dum-Dum arsenal near Calcutta started to manufacture bullets with the lead core exposed at the front end about 1886.  All such soft-nosed bullets, of any origin, then tended, misleadingly, to be grouped under the name dum-dum.

When von Bruns conducted his experiments on the wound characteristics of different types of bullets, he did not obtain genuine dum-dum rounds but used modified Mauser bullets, even though they differed in shape and other characteristics from true dum-dums.  Von Bruns had found, by firing different bullet types into cadavers at ranges up to 200 metres, that his “dum-dum” bullets produced more severe wounds than all the other bullet types that he tested.  This was one of Alex Ogston’s main criticisms of von Bruns’ work, that it was nor valid to extrapolate from modified Mauser bullets to British Army bullets produced at Dum-Dum.  Ogston’s second criticism was that retention of a full mantle did not prevent a bullet from disintegrating on impact at short ranges.  He related a gruesome experience of his own to illustrate this point.  “The writer saw in the sixties a coastguardsman who shot himself with an Enfield carbine by placing the muzzle against the left angle of his lower jaw.  On striking this hard bone with full muzzle velocity the bullet burst into hundreds of fragments which, mixed with pieces of bone, blew brain and skull to the ceiling above in a mingled spray of flesh, bone and lead”.  The only way to stop a full-jacketed bullet from disintegrating at short range was to reduce the muzzle velocity.  Ogston’s third criticism of von Bruns was that he had erroneously referred to dum-dum bullets as “explosive” (truly explosive bullets were forbidden by the St Petersburg Declaration), whereas he should have referred to the bullet as “disintegrating”.  The fourth criticism was that von Bruns’ did not use controls in any of his experiments.

This was not scientific nit-picking by Ogston.  The results of von Bruns’ experiments had generated a good deal of resentment in Britain, partly as a result of a subtle mistranslation of the German text, which Ogston, being fluent in the language, sought to correct.  ““On one occasion von Bruns of Tubingen read with general approval a communication which attacked the English deployment of the soft-nosed or dum-dum bullets in our expeditions against the wild tribes of our Afghan frontiers and showed on cadavers the destructive effects of these bullets.  His paper was styled “Ueber inhumane Kriegsgeschosse”.  The title aroused resentment in England as it was assumed to mean “inhuman” projectiles and I wrote to the medical papers that “inhumane” did not mean “inhuman” but “inhumane”, the German word for inhuman being “unmenschlich””.  There was alarm in Britain because international political pressure sought to commit Britain to abandon the use of soft-nosed bullets and thus reduce the ability of a soldier to stop a charging attacker.  The German newspapers had actually called for the St Petersburg Convention to be modified to include a ban on the use of soft-nosed bullets.  Ogston pointed out the inconsistency between this attempt to homogenise the light weaponry of the foot soldier between nations, which might in future find themselves at war with each other and the acceptance that there would be competition between nations in the design and deployment of heavy weaponry.  In any case there was no prohibition in the use of greater calibre barrels, or increased propulsive charge, both of which would increase the damage caused by a bullet.  Alex Ogston also contrasted the circumstances likely to be met with by German troops in a war against another European country with the situations typically encountered by British soldiers in the more primitive parts of the empire.  “Does it follow that change of circumstances does not in regard to bullets alter the case?  That what is unreasonable in contending with a civilized foe who gives quarter and cares for the lives of wounded sick and disabled men, is also unreasonable when dealing with those who, if successful, wage a war of annihilation, and dispatch armed and unarmed wounded sick men, women and children alike, whether on the battlefield or in cold blood and whether they be overpowered in war or captured by stratagem or treachery”?   

The War Office helped Ogston to conduct his own experiments on wound characteristics produced in cadavers by different bullet types.  He compared the Mark IV bullet produced by the Woolwich Arsenal, which had a full jacket, with the Dum-Dum bullet.  Shots through the thigh of a cadaver produced only flesh wounds, the tracks of which were cast by pouring in molten paraffin wax.  The Mk IV bullet produced the larger entry wound and the Dum-Dum produced the larger exit wound.  He tried to repeat this test using the German Mauser bullet but could not generate casts due to the “gaping crater-like rents” generated by this munition type.  In a second series of tests, Ogston shot the three bullet types through the arms of cadavers to examine the results of bullets striking bone.  The Mauser bullet had the greatest destructive effect.  The results showed quite clearly that von Bruns’ conclusions were “greatly exaggerated” since fully mantled bullets “were quite capable of producing the same devastating results”.  Alex Ogston concluded by saying, “I have contended that the whole question of modern bullet wounds is far more complex and less perfectly known than the advocates of an international agreement excluding the bullets used by the English troops in India and the Soudan would have us believe. … The truth is that the tendency to breaking up of the bullet or to its producing hydraulic destruction in liquid or semiliquid structures is inseparable from high velocities and all bullets so propelled will produce what are called “explosive effects” though some of them are more ready to do so than others”.

The use of soft-nosed bullets was subsequently banned by one component of the treaties (known as the Geneva Convention) produced by the Hague Peace Conference in 1899.  The UK declined to sign up to this ban at the time though it subsequently did so in 1907.  Commenting on this conference, Alexander Ogston concluded, “But it is needless to dilate further on the matter.  Reasonable people who know the subject must admit that our delegates acted wisely – indeed had no other alternative than – to refuse to agree with the majority on this Dum-Dum question; and those who are unreasonable will not be convinced by anything further that can be said”.

 

Alexander Ogston and the Glendavan estate

In 1888, Alexander Ogston bought the Glendavan estate near the village of Logie Coldstone, about 35 miles due west of Aberdeen and located between the Dee and Don Valleys.  It was purchased from the Earl of Aberdeen and had been part of his large Cromar estate.  A year after Alexander Ogston’s purchase, Charles Wilson, MP, the Hull shipping magnate, bought another portion of the Cromar estate adjacent to the southern end of Glendavan and amounting to about 1700 acres.  By 1904, the land to the south of Ogston’s property had passed into the ownership of Mr Barclay-Harvey, owner of the Dinnet estate.  When offered for sale in 1929 after Sir Alexander’s death, Glendavan was described in the following terms by his agents, C and PH Chalmers.  “It consists of a mansion house, a number of farms, houses and moorland.  It extends to about 892 acres. … The mansion house is pleasantly situated overlooking Loch Davan, part of which belongs to the estate”.  Of the land area of the estate, 600 acres was “moor and low ground shooting”.  It also enjoyed coarse fishing rights on Loch Davan, which had a boathouse, with a rowboat.   As Aberdeenshire country estates go, Glendavan was small.  Its “mansion house”, too was modest, with three reception rooms and one bedroom on the ground floor and six bedrooms on the upper floor.  Cousin James Ogston, one of the soap manufacturing Ogstons, had bought the grand Norwood House at Pitfodels on the outskirts of Aberdeen.  In1892, Norwood House’s annual valuation was £145, whereas Glendavan House was allotted a valuation of £50.

Glendavan map.

The Glendavan mansion house was built for Alexander Ogston after he acquired the estate in 1888 and was located with a southerly outlook over Loch Davan.  It was designed by Marshall MacKenzie, the architectural partner of his father-in-law, James Matthews.  Mackenzie was responsible for many significant buildings throughout North-East Scotland, but especially in and around Aberdeen, including Ardoe House for Mr AM Ogston, Aberdeen Music Hall, Aberdeen Art Gallery and the 1906 extension to Marischal College.  Watt and Clark, the Aberdeen builders, who had been responsible for the carpentry work on the Marischal College extension contract were also employed for the same services at Glendavan House.  The nearness of Glendavan to Balmoral and the frequency of Alexander Ogston’s visits to the royal estate brought him into contact with John Michie, at that time the Queen’s head forester on Deeside.  Michie developed a strong liking for the Aberdeen surgeon and in 1890 advised him on some landscaping work at Glendavan.  Michie wrote in his diary, “Came from Aberdeen to Dinnet with Professor Ogston and went over some ground with him to be planted with Scots fir about 25 acres also a belt along east side of Loch Davan with spruce, willows & alder at 12 ft. apart to be filled up by Scots pine & Pinus montana to about 35 ft”. 

 Marshall Mackenzie.

Although the estate was bought in the aftermath of the death of Francis Ogston senior, from whom Alexander had inherited money, he could not buy the estate outright but had to arrange a mortgage.  Later, a family member reported that the estate was not self-financing, the rental income not covering its costs.  It contained about 11 rentable properties, a mix of small farms, houses and a mill, with a total rental income of about £200 per annum

Alexander Ogston’s prime motive in purchasing Glendavan seems to have been recreational.  He always took the month of August away from work, spending much of the time on his country estate.  From there he often organised cycling tours in other parts of Scotland, typically in the Loch Lomond and Galloway areas.  However, his second wife, Isabella Margaret, did not enjoy robust health and could only cycle about 12 miles per day.  To accommodate her, Alexander took an accompanying wagonette to which his wife’s cycle could be attached, when she had completed her daily stint.  In addition to countryside cycle rides and excursions, Glendavan allowed Alexander Ogston to indulge his two favourite sports of fishing and shooting, especially the latter.  He also got many opportunities to shoot roedeer at Balmoral in the company of Alexander Profeit and John Michie.  Indeed, he was such an important part of the Balmoral shooting scene that roe hunts would be postponed if Ogston was unable to attend.  Alex Ogston also received invitations to shoot grouse at James Ogston’s estate at Kildrummy on Donside.

Glendavan also induced Alexander Ogston to take up an interest in the ancient remains of the Cromar area, as his own land contained a number of archaeological sites.  Each summer he devoted time to this novel pursuit.  But, typical of Ogston, this new outlet for his investigative instincts was conducted systematically and with care, the results accurately recorded and prepared for later publication.  In 1903, Alexander Ogston drew the attention of Dr Robert Munro, vice-president of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, to a series of circular enclosures and an underground house on a neck of land between Loch Davan and its neighbour to the south, Loch Kinnord, on land belonging to Mr Barclay-Harvey, who gave permission for an excavation to take place.  Alexander took part in the dig.  In 1912, Alexander Ogston presented a paper with the title “St Machar’s Cross” before the Scottish Ecclesiological Society in St Mary’s Chapel, Aberdeen.  It concerned a stone bearing a Greek cross which he had come across in a pine wood at Balnagowan, Aboyne and named after St Machar by the compilers of the Ordnance Survey map, though apparently without any reliable authority.  It lay on table land at an altitude of about 700ft which abounded with cairns (over 900), the longest of which was over 320ft long.  The paper generated some interesting discussion, including from Professor Henry Cowan, Alex Ogston’s brother-in-law.  Although Alexander Ogston’s archaeological work was essentially ready for publication by 1911, it was only after his death in 1929 that the process was initiated and Ogston’s “Prehistoric Antiquities in the Howe of Cromar” was published by the Third Spalding Club in 1931, though the book only contained a fraction of his total results.

In the last few years of his life, as his mobility declined and perhaps his mental capacity too, since he became rather quiet, he stopped going to Glendavan.

 

Alexander Ogston resigns, for the first time, from the senior surgeoncy at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary

David Littlejohn, who was born in 1841 in Aberdeen, became an advocate (solicitor) in the city and was also the sheriff clerk at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.  In this latter role, Littlejohn was responsible for all administrative matters relating to the procedures of the court, which mostly dealt with criminal cases not sufficiently serious to warrant being heard before the High Court in Edinburgh.  Littlejohn was a law bureaucrat, used to applying fixed rules of process, which perhaps did not equip him well for the trial he was personally about to undergo.  David Littlejohn was also, in April 1892, the chairman of the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary Board of Directors, the employers of Alexander Ogston.  Suddenly, a disagreement which had probably been running covertly for some time between the First Surgeon and the Board of Directors, burst dramatically into public view: Alex Ogston submitted a letter of resignation from his surgeoncy at ARI. 

“Dear Sir,

It is with great reluctance that I have resolved on severing my connection with the Infirmary staff on which I have served for twenty-four years.

My University duties and private work, especially at certain seasons, occupy a larger proportion of my time than formerly, while the work in my department of the Infirmary has increased to a degree that renders it beyond my power to do it justice.

I therefore beg to place in your hands my resignation of the surgeoncy which I hold. 

I am dear sir your obedient servant

Dr Alex Ogston,

252 Union Street”.

This letter, which was dated 12 April, was also leaked to the local press, causing David Littlejohn, in his reply of the following day, to deny that he had been responsible for the release.  Likely, the source of the leak was Ogston himself, perhaps suggesting that he did not really want to leave his post but that he was drawing attention to a contentious issue and that public disclosure might aid in its resolution in his favour.  If this is an accurate interpretation of Ogston’s motivation, subsequent events would prove him to have exercised an effective tactic.  David Littlejohn’s reply to Alexander Ogston follows.

“Dear Sir,

I received on my return home yesterday afternoon between five and six o’clock your letter of yesterday’s date.

The announcement of your resolution to retire came upon me as an absolute surprise.  The regret I feel will, I am sure, be shared by my co-directors at the Infirmary, by the Medical School and by the public.

It is not for me to anticipate the course which the directors of the Infirmary may take when your letter is laid before them; but personally I may be allowed to express the hope that your decision is not final and that the result of a week or two’s rest after the hard work of the session will bring about in your mind a more sanguine view as to your capability for continuing your useful and valuable work at the Infirmary. 

I am faithfully yours,

David Littlejohn.

I am told that an authoritative paragraph appeared in an evening paper yesterday and I see the same this morning.  I am not directly or indirectly responsible for these.  DL”.

When Alexander Ogston read this letter, he must have felt that Littlejohn was patronising him, damning his work with faint praise and deliberately representing a grievance that Ogston nursed as merely a manifestation of tiredness.  It was two weeks before the board of directors met, when Ogston’s letter was considered, but that surely represented a misjudgement on Littlejohn’s part of the seriousness of the situation.  Professor Ogston was, in 1892, a brightly shining star in the medical firmament and his loss from ARI would be sure to be to the detriment of the Infirmary.  If David Littlejohn did not appreciate the seriousness of the situation, the same was not true of local doctors and medical students.  Or, had the chairman of the ARI Board of Directors decided he was not going to bend to the wishes of an employee, no matter how high his status?

The senior doctors at ARI, probably led by Dr Ogilvie Will moved with great speed to mobilise support for Alex Ogston.  Four days after he had submitted his letter of resignation, the following public notice appeared in the advertising columns of the Aberdeen Journal.  “The Resignation of Dr Ogston.  A meeting of medical men will be held at 379 Union Street (the home of Dr Ogilvie Will) on Monday next, April 18^th at 3.15pm for the purpose of considering what steps should be taken to induce Professor Ogston to re-consider his determination to resign the office of Surgeon to the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.  It is hoped that all Medical Men will attend”.  Ogilvie Will presided at the meeting, which was attended by both city and country doctors.  Two (and possibly three) resolutions were proposed and passed unanimously.  Firstly, "That this meeting regards Dr Ogston's withdrawal from the staff of the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary as a serious and almost irreplaceable loss to the institution, to the University and to the general community; and that it pledges itself to use every effort to induce Dr Ogston to continue in the office which he has for so long conspicuously adorned."  The second resolution, which was suggested by Dr Alexander Profeit, the Queen’s commissioner on the Balmoral estate who had been trained at the Aberdeen Medical School, read, “That a deputation from this meeting be appointed to wait upon the directors of the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for the purpose of urging on them the extreme advisability of their using every means in their power to retain Dr Ogston’s invaluable services for the institution”.  The delegates nominated at the meeting were - Dr Ogilvie Will, Dr Jackson, Dr Profeit and Dr Macgregor.  The involvement of Alexander Profeit was significant as it implied that the affair would likely reach the ears of the monarch, either directly or via her physician-in-ordinary, Sir James Reid, yet another graduate of the Aberdeen Medical School. 

Monday 18 April 1892 saw a further gathering opposed to Alexander Ogston’s resignation, this time by Aberdeen University students.  This mass meeting took place in the Natural History classroom at Marischal College.  The gathering was described as “enthusiastic” and it was agreed to send a delegation to meet with Dr Ogston at his house on the following Saturday and to ask him to reconsider his position.  The student delegates were cordially received by Alex Ogston and part of the conversation which took place was leaked, to the consternation of some students, to that day’s Evening Express.  Ogston was quite open, even indiscrete, about the terms he required to withdraw his resignation.  “Dr Ogston intimated that if the directors were prepared to remove certain obstacles to his work in the Infirmary, he would be quite willing to resume his position but, as matters stood, he could not see his way to comply with their request”.  This was the first public disclosure of the issues at dispute between the senior surgeon and his employer, but what was the nature of the “obstacles”?  There was a further mass meeting of students on Monday 25 April when the delegation reported back, which then led to the following resolution being adopted.  “That this meeting, having heard the report of the deputation appointed to present to Dr Ogston the resolution  - a copy of which was sent to the directors of Aberdeen Royal Infirmary - feels that Dr Ogston’s reluctance to resume office might be overcome by the directors facilitating his work there and would therefore in the interests of the students of Aberdeen University urge on the directors the necessity for their doing everything in their power to bring about this happy issue.”

The directors of the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary – Mr David Littlejohn, Dr Mitford Mitchell (Minister of St Nicholas Kirk and chaplain to the Queen in Scotland), Mr William Alexander (author of “Johnny Gibb of Gushet Neuk” and Editor of the Aberdeen Free Press), Matthew Hay (Medical Officer of Health for Aberdeen and Professor of Medical Logic and Medical Jurisprudence), Mr James Kinghorn (Draper), Mr Theodore Crombie (owner of Grandholm Mill, where the famous “Crombie” overcoat was manufactured.) and Mr Alexander Aitken (of J Garvie and Sons, builders, joiners and painters) - met on 27 April, surely aware by this date that they had to contend with a major headache.  They were presented with Professor Ogston’s resignation letter, with David Littlejohn’s reply and with other related communications from the Medical Faculty, the meeting of medical men and the medical students.  The delegation of medical men was then admitted, and Littlejohn shared the correspondence between himself and Professor Ogston with them before claiming that the board had “no knowledge whatever” of the reason behind Ogston’s move, though hinting that he suspected ill-health might be involved.  This statement sounded disingenuous, since Ogston had directly referred to his increased workload at the infirmary and the need for the directors to “remove certain obstacles” if he was to return.  The leader of the delegation, Dr Ogilvie Will then made a presentation to the board.  “He thought that medical men could make a better judgement of Dr Ogston’s status than members of other professions”, a rather pointed reference to the lack of medical expertise on the board of directors, only Matthew Hay being a member of the healing profession.  Ogilvie Will gave his personal opinion.  “Dr Ogston’s position in the Infirmary as a practical surgeon, as a scientific man and as a clinical teacher could not be very well overestimated.  Dr Ogston was not a man of mere local celebrity but a man of world-wide fame.  He was sure that the status of ARI was much higher with the association with Dr Ogston than without it”. Another delegate, Dr Jackson urged the board to “stretch a point and endeavour to retain the services of Dr Ogston”, Dr Profeit spoke in general terms of the desirability of retaining Ogston’s services and Dr Macgregor said that the profession would not have the same confidence in the institution if Dr Ogston left.  In turn, Mr Littlejohn agreed with everything that the delegates had said, but they had been bending the rules to help Dr Ogston in the past but were bound to work within those rules.  No regulation of the institution could be altered without going through a very long process.  But when they did send up regulations to the managers, they would be framed in a way so as generously to recognise the great gratuitous service of such men as Dr Ogston.  He could say no more than that when the regulations came to be considered they as directors were anxious to take the most generous view of their position.  All this verbal skirmishing suggested that everyone in the room knew the nature of Alexander Ogston’s gripe, but no one was prepared to speak its name.  The holding position of the board was expressed in a resolution passed at the meeting.  “The directors of Aberdeen Royal Infirmary fully recognising the eminent skill and high reputation of Professor Alexander Ogston and the great value of his services to the Hospital, have received with deep regret his resignation as senior surgeon.  The directors sympathise most heartily in the efforts being made to induce Dr Ogston to reconsider his decision to retire from Infirmary duty and they will be much gratified to find that these efforts prove successful”.  The directors requested the chairman to offer Ogston 6 months’ leave of absence and to allow his resignation to lie on the table.  They hoped he would withdraw his resignation before the end of six months.  This was another miscalculation by David Littlejohn and his fellow board members.  Littlejohn seemed to be sticking to his hypothesis that all Ogston needed was a rest and he would probably throw in the towel.  In truth, Ogston clearly needed help to sustain the surgical load he was carrying, which was probably being generated by his status in the profession, and the board was resisting because it would be unfair to other clinicians, even though some of those clinicians were urging such a change.  It was claimed that to give him more would require a change of the rules and that would be difficult to achieve.  But was this justification for inaction true?  Usually, where there is a will, there is a way.  David Littlejohn and his colleagues had now, in addition to earlier miscalculations, badly underestimated the determined nature of Alexander Ogston’s personality, if they thought he would simply withdraw to lick his wounds before capitulating.

Although the text of Alexander Ogston’s reply to David Littlejohn has not been uncovered, the gist of its content did appear in the local papers.  The Aberdeen Evening Express published the following.  “Dr Ogston it is said has acknowledged receipt of Mr Littlejohn’s letter on behalf of the directors of the Infirmary but the Professor, while thanking the Board for their kind offer of 6 months’ holiday points out I believe that he happily does not feel the need of much rest (a polite repost to David Littlejohn).  In effect his reply is that he cannot withdraw his resignation until the management consent to give him such facilities for his work as, in his judgement, are absolutely requisite.  The profession at large and his friends among the general public intend, if necessary, to bring further pressure to bear on the managers to accede to the Professor’s requests”.  At that point, the dispute seems to have been put on the back burner for the six-month period.  Alex Ogston’s resignation stood, and his status at ARI changed from First Surgeon to Visiting Surgeon.  He was showing no sign of backing down.

On 31 August 1892, Sir George Husband Baird Macleod, Professor of Surgery at Glasgow University, where he had succeeded Joseph Lister, died.  At that time, he was also Surgeon-in-Ordinary to Queen Victoria in Scotland and the Queen had just arrived at Balmoral Castle three days earlier for her regular late summer holiday on her Scottish estate.  A replacement for Sir George was needed in a hurry, in case the Queen required medical help while resident on Deeside.  The Royal Court must have sought opinions on this important appointment.  Sir William Jenner, the Queen’s Physician in England, is known to have recommended Alexander Ogston, though the two were not personally acquainted.  Almost certainly, Sir James Reid, Physician-in-Ordinary to the Queen and a trusted advisor to the monarch would have been consulted too, and perhaps Dr Alexander Profeit, her Balmoral Commissioner, who provided medical services to the Balmoral staff at that time.  Alexander Ogston was chosen, and the offer of this prestigious position came in a letter from Sir James Reid on 13 September 1892.  Ogston must have quickly accepted, because the appointment was gazetted on 16 September and the new royal appointee received his royal warrant three days later.  Writing some years after the event about his appointment, Alexander Ogston was thoroughly self-deprecating, though his stance looked over-egged and more like false modesty.  “I was but an obscure provincial surgeon whose dreams never rose above being a moderate success as such …”.   “It was true that besides having written a good deal of trash of which I am nowadays rather ashamed, I had published some professional work that had been well received but it was not of the highest quality.  Its success was more the result of happy chance than of great ability and there was nothing else to mark me out for this great honour”.  Was Alexander Ogston’s membership of the Aberdeen medical chumocracy, along with James Reid and Alexander Profeit, a significant factor in his appointment?  It is possible. 

In September 1892, David Littlejohn must have realised that his plan to resolve Alex Ogston’s resignation was not working.  The six-month period of absence by Dr Ogston was coming to an end and he had not made any approach to the management of ARI.  To make matters worse, much worse, Ogston now had a royal appointment adding a new dimension to his status.  There was another Royal problem looming too.  Princess Louise, Marchioness of Lorne, the Queen’s sixth child, who had been born in 1848, was due to open the new infirmary extension at Woolmanhill on 4 October.  There must have been enormous pressure on the chairman of the board of directors to resolve the dispute with the Queen’s surgeon-in-ordinary in Scotland ahead of the pomp and ceremony of a royal visit.  It is not known if any external pressure was applied to David Littlejohn to find an accommodation with Alexander Ogston but such an outcome was announced at the meeting of ARI directors held on 28 September.  The Aberdeen Evening Express had the story.  “Professor Ogston’s resignation withdrawn.  The Board of Infirmary Directors met this afternoon at the hospital – Mr David Livingstone (this was a typographical error for “Littlejohn”) presiding.  In the course of the business the chairman said the directors would remember that in April last the Board received a letter from Professor Ogston intimating that in consequence of his University duties and private engagements occupying a larger portion of his time than formerly, while the work of the Infirmary had greatly increased, he was reluctantly compelled to sever his connection with the hospital.  This communication was received by the Board with the deepest regret and called forth from the public - private and professional – strong expressions of a hope that the retirement of Dr Ogston from the Infirmary might by some means be averted.  This gratifying result the Chairman said he was glad to announce had now been brought about.  With Professor Hay he (Mr Littlejohn) had been appointed to have a conference with Dr Ogston and, without going into details, the directors and everyone concerned in the welfare of the patients requiring the benefits of the Infirmary as well as all interested in our medical school would be pleased to learn that Dr Ogston now saw his way to continuing his valuable services at the hospital.  The board received this intimation with warm approval”.  A secret deal had been done behind closed doors which allowed Littlejohn to control the public message and to emerge from the affair with a modicum of dignity.  It was only later that it transpired that Littlejohn had capitulated.

The fourth of October 1892 saw Princess Louise, Marchioness of Lorne travel to Aberdeen accompanied by Princess Henry of Battenberg, the monarch’s youngest daughter, to open the surgical and pathological pavilions at Woolmanhill, the first buildings to be completed as a consequence of the Jubilee Extension Scheme initiated six years previously to commemorate 50 years of Queen Victoria’s reign in 1887 and funded by public donations.  This would have been a proud day for David Littlejohn as he and the Lord Provost took centre stage in the ceremonial programme.  Littlejohn gave a speech in which he outlined the history of the Woolmanhill site on which the foundation stone of the original building was laid in 1739 and that the present extension was the 6^th reconstruction or enlargement of accommodation, which increased bed capacity from 175 to about 240.  Part of the opening ceremony involved the presentation of senior medical staff to the princesses followed by a tour of the wards.  The staff who received this special recognition were Drs Angus Fraser and Blaikie Smith, Professor Findlay, Dr Ogilvie Will, Professor Ogston, Dr Garden, Dr McKenzie Davidson, Dr McKenzie Booth, Professor Hamilton and the pioneering nurse and medical administrator, Miss Rachel Lumsden.  When Alexander Ogston, who was proudly wearing his two medals from the Sudan campaign, received the Royal introduction he was cheered by the assembled guests, which must have caused David Littlejohn to reflect upon the events of the previous six months.  This focus upon Professor Ogston and the general regard for this distinguished Aberdonian was repeated at the private lunch for the Royal guests when Baillie Lyon spoke to the proposition “Continued success to the Royal Infirmary”.  The Aberdeen Journal report noted that “He particularly dwelt on the gratification which had been afforded the citizens in general by the withdrawal of Dr Ogston’s resignation.  If proof were needed of this gratification, it was to be found in the hearty manner in which Dr Ogston was cheered by the assembly when presented to the Princess at the Infirmary that afternoon”.  David Littlejohn had learned in a direct way that Alex Ogston needed to be treated with great respect, even deference, if his services were to be retained at ARI.

For his part, Alex Ogston did not appear to harbour any grudges at the patronising way he had initially been treated.  At the opening of the new medical session, he made some introductory remarks to his class which were reported in the Evening Express.  “He referred to his appointment as Surgeon-in-Ordinary to Her Majesty and said that the honour conferred upon him reflected honour at the same time on the importance of the Aberdeen Medical School.  He also spoke of the kindness shown him by the directors of the Infirmary (author’s emphasis) and he was glad to say that he would have more opportunity of meeting with the students at the Infirmary than formerly”.  A week after the opening of the Woolmanhill extension, the board of directors of the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary announced that “Dr J Scott Riddell, meantime assistant surgeon, should be specially attached in that capacity to Prof Ogston and that the appointment of an additional assistant surgeon should be made at the next meeting of the Board”.  Alex Ogston could afford to be magnanimous.  He had achieved his objective, despite the allegedly immutable rules of the institution!

 

 Princess Louise, Marchioness of Lorne.

 

Alexander Ogston and the Royal Family   The Ogston family had for a long time been royalist in its outlook.  When the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) was married in 1863, a celebratory banquet, followed by a grand ball and supper were held in the Music Hall buildings, Aberdeen to honour the happy event.  The festivities were attended by the great and the good of the Granite City, including Professor Francis Ogston and Mr Alexander Milne Ogston, the soap and candle manufacturer.  There was also a more popular and public demonstration of loyalty on the streets of Aberdeen where many houses were suitably decorated in honour of the royal nuptials.  It was reported that “Mrs Ogston’s house in Broad Street had its windows coloured red, white and blue”.  At the time, the parents of Francis and Alexander Milne Ogston (Alexander and Elliott Ogston) were still using 84, Broad Street and 2, Gallowgate as a town house.  Queen Victoria’s consort, Prince Albert, had died tragically early, in late 1861, and the national outpouring of grief led to a variety of memorials being raised to the monarch’s late husband, including in Aberdeen, where a statue was erected by public subscription.  Professor Francis Ogston was both a subscriber and an official attendee at the unveiling almost two years after the prince’s demise.  Similarly, when a statue was raised to Queen Victoria in 1867 after 30 years on the throne, Francis Ogston was again a contributor.

In the book “Alexander Ogston, KCVO” published after his death, amongst a plethora of biographical musings mostly by family members and former colleagues, there is a suggestion that Professor Francis Ogston had been consulted by Queen Victoria concerning illnesses to servants and members of the Royal Family, but Ogston senior did not want this work to be publicised.  No independent verification, including in the Royal Archives, has been uncovered, so it is difficult to assess the claim.  However, in early September 1872, Queen Victoria left Balmoral to travel, by train to Dunrobin Castle, the family seat of the Earls of Sutherland.  “Professor Ogston” was part of the welcoming party when the Queen passed through Aberdeen.  This person could only have been Francis Ogston.  Being asked to join a royal welcoming assembly at Aberdeen station was reserved for prominent people in civic life, in the railway company, or in the service of the monarch.  Giving medical advice to the Royal Family might have been the reason for the presence of Ogston senior.

It is unclear exactly when Aberdeen’s rising star in the surgical firmament, Alexander Ogston, came to the notice of senior members of the Royal Family.  Perhaps it was not a single event but an accumulation of mostly minor incidents.  In 1880, he had been appointed First, or Senior, Surgeon at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and two years later, he ascended to the Regius Chair of Surgery in the university, which would have required a reference of his candidacy to the Queen.  In the year 1884, James Matthews, Alex Ogston’s father-in-law, was Lord Provost of Aberdeen and during the year, the Prince and Princess of Wales attended a ceremony in the city at which new colours were presented to the 3^rd Battalion of the Gordon Highlanders.  At the conclusion of the ceremony, one of Lord Provost Matthews’ granddaughters presented a bouquet of flowers to the prince, while master Alfred James Ogston, aged five, eldest son of Prof Ogston and second wife Isabella Margaret Matthews, and grandson of the Lord Provost, handed bouquets to each of the Princesses Louise, Victoria and Maud.    In 1885 Alexander Ogston saw service in the Sudan which was widely reported in the local Aberdeen papers.  Queen Victoria is known to have read the Aberdeen Journal.  The personal friendships between Alexander Ogston, Dr James Reid and Dr Alexander Profeit may also have been important.  However, Alex Ogston’s purchase of the Glendavan estate, near Dinnet in 1888, by which he became a neighbour of the monarch, could well have been the most significant event.  Glendavan lies about 12 miles from Balmoral and landed neighbours were often invited to social events at the Royal Deeside castle.  After the acquisition of Glendavan, where he used to take family holidays in the summer, he visited Balmoral more often in a private capacity as a friend of Dr Profeit.  Alex Ogston’s son, Walter (b 1873), wrote that after the purchase of Glendavan, “He took me with him occasionally to Balmoral when he had been invited to fish for salmon or to shoot hinds by his old friend Dr Profeit, Queen Victoria’s Commissioner, when the Royal family was not in residence at the castle”. 

Sir James Matthews.

 

Dr Alexander Profeit.

 

Sir James Reid.

Also in 1888, Alex Ogston was called upon to conduct the Marquis of Lorne, husband of Princess Louise, around Marischal College on the occasion of the Marquis’ visit to Aberdeen to open the Industrial and Art exhibition at Schoolhill.  It is possible that by this year Alex Ogston was already under consideration for some official role with the Royal Family.  In a memorandum (RA VIC/ADDJ/275) from Sir Henry Ponsonby (Keeper of the Privy Purse and the monarch’s private secretary) to Queen Victoria concerning the proposed membership of a Committee for the Scottish branch of the St. Katherine’s Council, he suggested that Professor Ogston’s name should be removed on the advice of Dr James Reid, because Reid considered that Ogston was already very busy with his professional tasks.  Was James Reid trying to keep Ogston’s diary sufficiently clear to take on some other role?  Even before he was appointed as the Queen’s surgeon in Scotland, Ogston was treating staff on the Balmoral estate.  In 1891, it was reported that he was treating a Mrs Napier for some unspecified condition and that the Queen had enquired about this lady’s condition (Mrs Napier was slowly improving), suggesting the lady was either an employee or a guest at Balmoral.    

As has been outlined above, 1892 was a momentous year for Alexander Ogston and his royal connections, when he was appointed Surgeon in Ordinary to Queen Victoria in Scotland.  Alex Ogston was not a man who manoeuvred to gain personal prestige and he did not attempt to call in favours by having others seek advancement on his behalf.  However, he discovered that Prof Gairdner the Senior Physician to the Crown in Scotland had lobbied for Hector C Cameron of Glasgow, a friend of Ogston, to get the position.  “So far as I ever knew no one had been using influence on my behalf, though I do not doubt that I may have had a word said in my favour by Dr James Reid, the Queen’s private physician and Dr Profeit her Commissioner at Balmoral.  Possibly after all the fact that I resided near Balmoral may have had some influence on my being appointed”.  After the event of his royal appointment, Alex Ogston learned that Sir William Jenner (Queen’s Physician in England) had supported his candidature, though the two were not personally acquainted.  Ogston wrote to Jenner thanking him but received no reply and realized that he had made a mistake.  Jenner was a man who only acted out of a sense of duty, and he held that solicitation of an appointment was, in itself, grounds for rejection.  When first offered the position, Alexander Ogston was undecided whether to accept but, under his wife’s influence, he made up his mind.  “Then as now, my inclinations and disposition did not lead me to desire to come in contact with the great though in common with all who knew the character of Her Majesty I could not but desire to be of service to, and to be esteemed by, so good a woman; and these were inducements to accept the situation greater than any ambition to be attached to the Sovereign of the greatest Kingdom and Empire of the World.  On these grounds I had almost decided not to decline the honour when my wife’s evident wish that I should accept it finally confirmed my decision to undertake its duties”.  It appeared that Bella quite fancied being known as “Lady Ogston”.

Also in 1892, Alexander Ogston was presented, accompanied by loud cheers, to the Princesses Louise and Beatrice at the opening of the extended Aberdeen Royal Infirmary at Woolmanhill.  The royal princesses would surely have noted this public acclamation of Ogston’s status in the eyes of his senior colleagues, would have remembered this tall, dignified, handsome surgeon and would have recounted this incident when they returned to Balmoral at the end of their day in the spotlight in Aberdeen.  Certainly, Princess Louise remembered him.  On a later occasion when Alex Ogston was trying to lurk inconspicuously at the back of a crowded welcoming party at Aberdeen station for a group in which Princess Louise was included, she spotted Ogston and deliberately sought him out to shake hands and to open a conversation, much to the surprise of others who were present. 

Alexander Ogston’s royal appointment was gazetted on 16 September 1892, and he received his royal warrant three days later.  The appointment required his attendance at Balmoral to be introduced to the monarch and this meeting was quickly arranged for 20 September.  He travelled by train to Ballater and then took the coach to the Crathie post office, opposite the Balmoral estate entrance, where he was met by Alexander Profeit with whom he walked to present himself at the Castle, which he had never before visited.  He was received by Sir Arthur Bigge, the Queen’s Private Secretary, who noted in a memorandum written that day, “Profeit’s pal Ogston, our new Surgeon in Ordinary, is here to be presented” (RA VIC/ADDA34/71). 

 

Sir Arthur Bigge.

Bigge and Ogston had never met before and inevitably there was something of a mutual sizing up between the two prominent men.  “I was accustomed from my profession to read men and Bigge’s face was a book in which no one could have failed to read eloquent things.  To some degree there was the same lesson to be read on Reid’s face and afterwards I found it on all the Officials of the Court.  But most of all on Bigge’s.  I don’t know whether I can rightly convey it.  It was the face of a man shaped for years though still young by having to write one hundred letters a day amidst disturbances occurring at any moment, to have dozens of interviews, to form dozens of rapid decisions, to deal with unforeseen emergencies, to remember everything and forget nothing, to foresee all manner of unforeseen possibilities, to have his intellect forever on the spot and never by any chance to fail in courtesy with others, and to have unerring tact for any emergency; never in a word to make any mistake. … I fancy he was sizing me up, as I was him.  I have ever since then found him very kind and friendly to me as in fact all the other Court Officials have been”.   

The prospect of meeting the Queen and having to converse with her threw the great surgeon into something of a panic.  He had naively thought that the meeting would be nominal, but then found that he was expected to hold a conversation with the monarch.  Not only had he failed to change his work clothes (he was wearing a coloured shirt and was shod in an old pair of shoes), but he had also given no consideration to how he should describe himself in the visitors’ books of both the Queen and Princess Beatrice, which he was first required to sign.  “In each of the books Profeit directed me to sign my name and with some little pride I wrote into each “Professor Alex. Ogston, Surgeon to H.M. the Queen”, the first time I had used the new title.  I now think this was rather pompous and not in very good taste to flourish the new designation but without more time than I was allowed for consideration it was difficult to decide what better to do.  On every subsequent occasion when visiting the Castle, I simply signed “Professor Ogston, University of Aberdeen”. 

Alexander Ogston later described his feelings prior to meeting with Queen Victoria.  “I confess I was thrown into a dreadful state of nervousness such as I never afterwards experienced in the presence of any other Sovereign.  I had before then and often since been in situations demanding what is called “Nerve”.  I have lectured before hundreds of the most famous men in the world; I have done for the first time great and dangerous operations; I have seen men shot down at my side; I have enjoyed my luncheon and pipe when bullets were rattling all round; have sat on horseback sketching battles  while shots were kicking up the dust about me; have lain in camp in the dark while shots were fired into it and rang loud as they struck; have been in what was almost a rout in battle; have seen men blown into a bag of bones and dozens of dead and wounded carried by; have stood in front of a big gun battery in action and seen the shell of the enemy burst on it in the spot where I had been standing the moment before and my comrades run to see if any fragments of me remained; and cannot remember that these things discomposed me at all.  But to know that in a few minutes I was to stand before the Empress of Britain and India, the ruler of our great colonies and of more quarters of the world than I could remember, the descendant of our Saxon Kings from before the Conquest, made my heart sink within me”.  Alexander Profeit did not help Ogston’s state of mind by telling him of Sir James Reid’s reaction on being taken to meet the Queen for the first time.  “…he was so nervous that he had to turn back half fainting in the corridor”.

Bigge informed the Queen of Ogston’s arrival, and she sent back the message that she would see her new surgeon after lunch.  This unanticipated delay at least gave Ogston extra time to compose himself while conversing with members of the royal household in the dining room.  He decided that his best strategy would be to say as little as possible, so as to at least appear collected.  At last, he was given the message, “The Queen is ready to see you”, and he was ushered down a corridor to the Queen’s room, meeting with Princesses Louise and Beatrice on the way, perhaps not by chance.  Alex Ogston was greatly attracted to Princess Louise, as were others, both by her looks and her manner.  He followed Bigge into HM’s presence and she was helped to her feet, bowed to him and he reciprocated, noticing to his alarm that he had a hole in the upper leather of his left shoe.  “I have often heard of you Dr Ogston”.  “You have attended some of my servants”.  Ogston did not detail his responses, perhaps because he was unsure of what he said.  “Is Aberdeen in a good state of healthiness just now”?  Mumbled response.  “Are you prepared for the cholera”?  All Ogston could do by way of response was to bow.  A further exchange of bows was followed by Ogston backing to the door with Bigge, who left Ogston in the corridor.  Eventually he returned to the Billiard Room where Alexander Profeit was waiting for him and he was asked to sign the Queen’s birthday book, again using his new title.  He would find on future occasions too that Queen Victoria was inevitably well briefed.

Following his appointment as the Queen’s Surgeon in Ordinary in Scotland, Alexander Ogston was routinely asked, indeed expected, to join greeting parties at Aberdeen’s railway stations when members of the royal family were travelling through the city.  Possibly the earliest example of such an attendance occurred when Princesses Louise and Beatrice arrived in the city in mid-October to open the Scottish Home Industries Exhibition in the Music Hall.  Alexander Ogston was on duty again a month later to greet the Queen at Ferryhill station on her way south after her extended late summer sojourn on Upper Deeside.  Ogston was also frequently added to the guest list for social and cultural events occurring at Balmoral castle, for example the supper and ball held at Balmoral in celebration of the marriage of the Duke of York to Princess May.  Most of the Profeit clan were present, as were John Michie, (head forester and another Ogston acquaintance at Balmoral) and his wife, and Alex Ogston with his spouse, Isabella.  On one such duty occasion in September 1900, a lady collapsed at the Ferryhill Junction station suffering from a heart condition.  Alex Ogston immediately attended the collapsed lady but could not return her to consciousness.  She died at ARI a few days later.

After his appointment, Alex Ogston was frequently at Balmoral attending to the sick and injured amongst staff, family and guests, and so conversed with the monarch from time to time, which allowed him to develop more confidence in speaking with her.  Alex Ogston gave a fascinating account of a meeting with Queen Victoria in September 1896, when she was 78 years of age.  The conduct of the interview was similar to that Alex Ogston had experienced four years previously.  “I made a bow and advanced and she then seated herself and remained so during our interview while I stood two feet in front of her.  There followed a long conversation about the health of Dr Profeit, the Queen’s Commissioner then”.  Profeit’s mental condition and capacity to perform his job were deteriorating rapidly at the time.  He was being attended by Professor Ogston.  The conversation then moved to such topics as the weather and ended with a very interesting exchange.  “You have had trouble in Aberdeen with Professor Johnson”, said the Queen.  “Great trouble Your Majesty; it has been a serious matter for us”.  Ogston then gave an account of some aspects of Professor Johnson’s bizarre behaviour. “But he must be crazed Dr Ogston”.  “I said that he was and that he was wanting in the good sense necessary to one in his high position and she assented emphatically”.  “Her whole conversation and bearing were absolutely natural with no touch of pride or hauteur, perfectly human, womanly and sweet.  I felt that she was a most intelligent person with a marvellous memory and a genius for detail.  She had, in spite of her advanced years, a surprisingly intimate knowledge of all that was going on about her and a deep interest in all her dependants.  Only in regard to the Profeit boys who were seven in number did she make an inaccuracy by mistaking Leopold as having suffered from “his leg” (really his hip) instead of George who was ailing with it.  And even this she corrected herself in a moment, almost before I could do so”.

 

The eccentric Professor David Johnston

Professor David Johnston (not Johnson, as Ogston relates) was the Professor of Biblical Criticism at Aberdeen University between 1893 and his death in 1899.  He could have been the academic upon whom the apocryphal “mad professor” was based.  Johnston was coincidentally a brilliant scholar, a wild eccentric and a hopelessly incompetent teacher and disciplinarian.  He had been born in Sunderland to Scottish parents in 1836, graduated MA from St Andrews University and attended lecture courses at all four ancient Scottish universities before entering the ministry at Unst, Shetland in 1865.  Johnston had a life-long zeal for scholarship and his thinly populated Shetland charge allowed him plenty of time for the exercise of the intellect.  However, he was accused of deserting his parish, tried before an ecclesiastical court and found guilty but, being very knowledgeable, he successfully defended himself before the Synod.  Johnston immediately left Shetland and was appointed to the parish of Hurray and Birsay in Orkney where he remained hefted to this new charge for the remarkable period of 28 years.  Here David Johnston continued with his preferred style of life, devoting as much time as possible to divine scholarship, often furth of Orkney.  Along the way he collected the degrees of BA from Oxford University, BD and DD from Glasgow University and secured the Kennicott Hebrew Scholarship at Oxford.  In addition to his status as an outstanding Hebrew scholar, he also became an acknowledged expert in Church law and procedure. 

On the recommendation of the Secretary of State for Scotland, Dr Johnston was appointed to the chair of Divinity and Biblical Criticism at Aberdeen University in 1893 at the rather advanced age of 57.  The move into academia proved to be a disaster both for Johnston and for the university.  He did not acquire the necessary skills to teach orally before a class of sometimes boisterous and even unruly undergraduates.  The students started to treat the new professor as an object of merriment, even derision, and started to play practical jokes on him.  But the levity turned to annoyance, and complaints were made to the university authorities that he was disorganised and eccentric and that he held unconventional views on various topics.  This forced the hand of the University Court, which established a committee to examine the situation in the Biblical Criticism class.  In the summer of 1896, the committee of inquiry concluded that Professor Johnson was guilty of unmethodical treatment of his subject, which gave it a justification for not evaluating the other two charges against him, that he was inadequate and that he had lost the respect of the students through his treatment of the class.  It recommended that the professor of Biblical Criticism should be retired but compensated for his loss of position, a proposal accepted by the Court which, after a degree of prevarication, offering him £250 per annum to be sourced from the future emoluments of the chair.  This solution needed the approval of the Privy Council, which was probably the route by which the matter came to the notice of Queen Victoria.

Johnston did not meekly accept his dismissal.  He defended himself both skilfully and vigorously, and counter-charged some of the students with conspiracy, ungodliness and want of principles.  The Court did not accept these claims against the students but did accept that they had been guilty of disorderly conduct.  The case and the University’s proposed solution then passed to the Privy Council.  In the meantime, the institution had to appoint an interim professor of Biblical Criticism to take on that department’s teaching load.  Johnston continued to employ his considerable intellect and detailed knowledge of church law and procedure in his own defence, issuing long, closely argued tracts in support of his conduct and also mobilising his own supporters.  The decision of the Privy Council came in May 1897 and concurred with the removal of Johnston from office but refused the University permission to meet the costs of Johnston’s forced retirement from the income of the chair.  This put the University in a bind because it had no alternative source of finance for this purpose.

Johnston continued to live in his university accommodation in Old Aberdeen and to turn up to teach his class, though no students attended.  The impasse was finally broken by Johnston’s early death in the summer of 1899.

 

Balmoral servants operated on by Alexander Ogston

One of the more prominent members of the servant staff at Balmoral who required surgical intervention by Alexander Ogston was William Paterson, the Balmoral head gardener.  He had been born at Marnoch in Banffshire, the son of a farmer, in1823.  Paterson served an apprenticeship as a nurseryman and worked as a gardener, ending up with the Duke of Leeds, who was renting Mar Lodge near Braemar at the time.  On the recommendation of Mrs Farquharson of Invercauld he was appointed, in 1847, head gardener to Sir Robert Gordon, the then lessee of the Balmoral estate.  Only three days after Paterson took up this post, Sir Robert died suddenly after getting a fishbone stuck in his throat.  The balance of the Balmoral lease was then taken up by Queen Victoria and her consort, Prince Albert and the estate was eventually bought by them.  As with other senior servants then in post with Sir Robert, William Paterson was retained by the monarch as head gardener in August 1848 and subsequently served her for a total of 44 years, retiring in 1892 as a result of his declining health.  William Paterson suffered from an enlarged prostate, possibly prostate cancer, and in 1891 Alexander Ogston performed an operation on the royal gardener to relieve his symptoms, which probably extended his life.  However, he then developed pyelitis, a painful, chronic bacterial infection of the urinary tract and it was this debilitating condition, which nowadays would be alleviated with antibiotics, which forced his retirement.  As with all servants giving long and devoted service to the royal family, Paterson was treated generously in retirement, being granted a pension and free occupancy of the Dairy Cottage at Balmoral.  During his final illness he was attended daily by Dr James Reid and the Queen frequently asked for reports on his condition. He died in October 1896 and was buried at Crathie.

Johanna Campbell was born at Khantore, Crathie in 1852, the daughter of a labourer.  She was initially employed as a housemaid and was eventually appointed to the Queen’s service as housekeeper at Glasalltshiel, the Queen’s retreat on the shores of Loch Muick.  There she developed a reputation for being welcoming to both visitors and passers-by.  Her brother, Sandy, was also in royal employment as a keeper and was well-known for his trout fishing acumen.  In December 1898, Johanna Campbell became ill and was referred to Professor Alex Ogston in Aberdeen.  After examining Miss Campbell, he wrote to James Forbes, the new commissioner on the Balmoral estate and successor to Alexander Profeit (RA VIC/ADDQ/7/65) to inform him of his opinion.  “My Dear Sir, I was favoured with your letter about Miss Campbell and saw her when she called today.  She has cancer of the left breast which requires to be removed forthwith.  And I have arranged that she will come into the Infirmary on Thursday at 12.30, when I shall be pleased to do all in my power to cure her".  Sadly, the referral was too late, as was often the case in those days, and Johanna Campbell died in January 1900, the cause of death being given as “… carcinoma of the breasts and secondary thoracic and abdominal deposits of 4 months’ standing …”, as certified by Alexander Hendry, at the time a general practitioner in Ballater.  In her final days, Johanna Campbell was cared for in the Balmoral estate sanatorium.  She too was buried in the Crathie churchyard.

 

Private individuals treated by Alexander Ogston

From 1880, when he was appointed First Surgeon at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, Alexander Ogston’s private surgical cases were occasionally reported in the local press, though his public patients treated by surgery were rarely exposed to public curiosity in this way.  An examination of these reported cases is instructive, but the selection cannot be considered as a random, or near-random, sample of all his private cases, since other factors, such as newsworthiness, probably came into the choosing process.  With this reservation in mind, the following points can be made.  Although Ogston was a surgeon best known for his work in bone surgery and amputation, he would apparently tackle operations on any part of the human anatomy.  The Professor would also consult on non-surgical cases.  Alex Ogston was often called to the patient’s location and, in urgent cases he even travelled by special train, which can only have been possible for very wealthy clients.  In many cases the patient was in desperate circumstances, often with the medical condition being complicated by old age, and death was a frequent outcome, sometimes from infection, such as gangrene, or septicaemia.  Cancer cases were invariably late referrals and mortality almost inevitable, despite his intervention.  This was truly the age of heroic surgery.

 

Alexander Ogston and the extension of Marischal College

The history of the University of Aberdeen, formally dating from the fusion of 1860, truly started with the foundation of Kings College in 1495 by Bishop William Elphinstone.  Two years later, King James IV endowed the first English-speaking Chair of Medicine at Kings when the position of Mediciner was established.  Subsequently, medical teaching there was intermittent.  The second component of the merged university, Marischal College, originated in 1593 in the New Town and was accommodated in the buildings of the monastery of the Greyfriars, which had been constructed almost a century previously, though they proved to be unsuitable for their novel purpose.  Newly built accommodation gradually replaced the old during the 17^th and 18^th centuries using donations of building materials and some money.  In the early 19^th century, the college and the town turned to raising sufficient monies to construct a new academic building with an appropriate lay-out and of a sufficient size.  In 1826, the Government set aside £30,000 for the benefit of the Scottish Universities and eight years later £15,000 from this sum was granted to Marischal College for its reconstruction.  Kings College got nothing.  Marischal subsequently received a further contribution from the Government, being the interest accrued on the whole of the £30,000 set aside for Scottish universities.  Further money was derived from the Town Council and from public donations.  The new building was designed by Archibald Simpson (1790 – 1847), progenitor of the plans for many prominent buildings in Aberdeen.  Builder Alexander Rainnie was contracted to erect the new structure, which was achieved between 1835 and 1840.  The foundation stone of the new Marischal College was laid on 18 October 1837 by the College Chancellor, the Duke of Richmond.  In 1839, Queen Victoria instituted two new chairs at the College, the Regius Chairs of Anatomy and of Surgery.  By 1839, when university courses were being advertised for the coming session, Dr Francis Ogston’s course in Medical Jurisprudence was publicised, along with other medical courses, all were to be accommodated in the new buildings.  The recently constructed college buildings were in the form of an open quadrangle with north, south and east wings and an entrance to the quadrangle being gained from Broad Street via a pend.  It was this scene – a busy academic space criss-crossed by students and gowned academics – which lodged in the earliest memories of the young Alexander Ogston, who was born in 1844 at 84 Broad Street, a dwelling overlooking the Marischal quadrangle.

As has been dealt with above, the fusion of 1860 was not welcomed by the staff at Marischal College, including Francis Ogston, or by many residents of the New Town.  However, one consequence was the centring of medical teaching firmly at Marischal College, along with significant science subjects, such as Botany and Natural History.  But by the mid-1880s, the University was becoming very concerned again about the adequacy of its accommodation for the student numbers it had to support.  All faculties, with the possible exception of Divinity, had expanded their student numbers but the growth of Medicine had been spectacular.  At the time of the fusion, there had been 150 medical students but by 1885 this number had grown to 350.  In October 1884, on a motion from Professor Alexander Ogston, who had been appointed to the Regius Chair of Surgery two years previously, the Senatus established a committee, with Ogston as convenor, to produce a plan for alleviating the growing space shortage.  The proposal produced by this committee was for a major expansion at Marischal College involving the closing off of the quadrangle with a new frontage on Broad Street, at an estimated cost of £80,000.  A more modest expansion, costing about £20,000 was proposed for Kings College.  It is not known for certain that Ogston was the author of the proposed Marischal College lay-out but, as convener of the committee, he would at least have had to give the idea his approval.

A deputation from the Senatus, led by Alex Ogston, then met with the University Court.  The Professor of Surgery explained that the members had drawn up a specific plan for the extension of Marischal College because, otherwise, they would not know the likely cost.  The plan had not been endorsed by Senatus.  If implemented, there would need to be the purchase and demolition of a number of houses but, these were available for a price of 15x or 16x annual rent.  However, the committee was not wedded to that specific plan and would consider alternatives, though none was forthcoming.  An examination hall was the main suggested extension at Kings College, plus some classrooms and museums.  The Court indicated its general approval for the Marischal scheme and appointed a committee to cooperate with the Senatus committee on developing the proposals.  The Court also expressed the general view that they should not just be building to alleviate the present shortage of accommodation but to deal with the needs of the future.  The Government had recently given money to both Edinburgh and Glasgow Universities to expand their accommodation, but nothing had been given to Aberdeen for the past 20 years.

Alexander Ogston was absent from the University between late February 1885 and early May of the same year, serving as a surgeon in the Sudan and Professor Matthew Hay substituted for him on the Senatus committee in his absence, though Hay only seems to have played a holding role.  Ogston resumed as convener on his return to Aberdeen and was almost immediately pitched into a deputation which went to meet Lord Rosebery, then in charge of Scottish affairs in WE Gladstone’s second Liberal administration.  The purpose of the meeting with Lord Rosebery was to brief him on the University’s expansion plans and to seek his advice and influence in approaching the Government for a major contribution to the costs.  The deputation consisted of Dr Bain, Lord Rector of the University, Principal Pirie, Professors Ogston, Donaldson, Geddes and Struthers.  It was accompanied by local men of influence, the Earl of Aberdeen, James A Campbell MP, Dr Farquharson MP, Sheriff Dove Wilson and Dr McIntyre.  Alex Ogston opened the presentation but others, including Professor Struthers, chipped in with contributions.  Aberdeen was very poor in respect of endowments, and they had no building endowments.  Their Income mostly consisted of graduation and matriculation fees, which required them to look to the Government for financial help.  The presentation focused mostly on the needs of the Medical Faculty, that being where their greatest space deficit lay, but they would also need funding to equip any expanded space.  Glasgow and Edinburgh were much wealthier universities, and it was estimated that Aberdeen might be able to raise £20,000 of the £100,000 needed locally.  Rosebery’s response was cautious.  They would need to convince the Treasury of the justice of their case for almost doubling the size of the University, but this was not a good time to ask for money.  In any case he had little influence and could not interfere in Treasury matters.  Principal Pirie pointed out that they were looking for advice on how to approach the Treasury but did not intend to do so immediately.

The draft scheme for the extension of Marischal College was approved by both Senatus and the Town Council in 1886 and then put before Mr Balfour the Secretary of State for Scotland.  He in turn agreed to represent Aberdeen’s case to the First Lord of the Treasury, but personnel changes led to this proposal being set aside to be replaced by a further application to the new First Lord in 1887.  However, he was not minded to support the grant that the University sought on the grounds that not much money was being raised in the North-East.  The University then changed tack, dividing the project into three phases, South Wing, North Wing and West Wing, fronting Broad Street.  Professor John Struthers claimed that this was his idea and that Alex Ogston’s scheme to attempt to implement the whole extension plan in one go was “castles in the air”.  A grant of about £6,000 was forthcoming from the Government, sufficient, with a £3,000 supplement from the University, for the extension of Marischal College’s south wing towards Broad Street, which was completed in 1891.  The main beneficiaries were the departments of Physiology, Materia Medica, Medical Jurisprudence and Public Health, Natural History and Midwifery.  The remaining departments of Botany, Chemistry, Pathology, Surgery and Practice of Physic were still being taught in overcrowded conditions.  Also, the Faculty of Law, the other main occupier of Marischal College, was yet inadequately housed.  It was likely that they would be accommodated in the future extension of the north wing.  This situation did not please Alex Ogston, since his Department of Surgery would still have to teach in very poor conditions.  He attended a meeting of the University Court to appeal against a decision taken by the Senatus Academicus in March1889 regarding the extension of the Marischal College buildings.  When he had brought his proposal forward for additional accommodation of Surgery in the proposed north wing it had been in ignorance of a restriction on the spending of the Government grant, which was restricted to the south wing.  The Aberdeen Evening Gazette summarised his position.  “The pith of his (Ogston’s) appeal lay on this - that the surgery department was one of the most important in connection with the Medical School and it was also the one most in need of increased accommodation.  He did not believe there was a single point in the University in which class-room accommodation was so entirely defective.  They had now to teach surgery in a very different way to how it was taught a few years ago.  It was understood up until the last meeting of the Senatus that the money could be applied over the building but when the plans were brought up it was found that the money could only be applied to the south wing.  He did not think that that was in the interests of the University.  He thought that there were very serious objections to carrying out the proposed extensions without taking up matters more urgent.  The whole of the new buildings were for non-compulsory classes.  That seemed to him to be a matter that should not be permitted.  He had again looked over the plans and was quite satisfied that the wants of the surgery department could be accommodated without seriously affecting any of the professors who were at present proposed to be accommodated".  Struthers supported the decision which had been taken by Senatus and argued that surgery teaching was well provided for “in that great laboratory for practical surgery” – Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.  But the Court accepted Ogston’s position and referred the matter back to Senatus with an instruction to take account of the Professor of Surgery’s objection.  It is not clear if Ogston and Struthers had got on well together before this incident but there was certainly froideur in their relationship afterwards.

Professor John Struthers.

Detailed planning then went ahead for the full extension of the College out to Broad Street.  Marshall McKenzie, the prominent Aberdeen architect, was engaged by the Court in 1890 to prepare the detailed design and in May of 1891 he met with the joint Court-Senatus committee, chaired by the Rector, the Marquis of Huntly and with Alexander Ogston one of those present, to examine two alternative outline proposals, in each of which the College church, Greyfriars, was preserved.  The total cost of the new works was anticipated to be about £80,000.  In September, the Town Council, in a radical move, suggested that the existing buildings of Marischal College should be demolished and replaced by a completely new building.  However, the University rejected this idea, not for sentimental reasons, but because they could not live with the loss of so much accommodation for a significant period of time, as their teaching space needs were pressing.  Professors Ogston, Hamilton and Japp were particularly hostile to the Council’s idea, which was not surprising given that their departments would have been badly impacted.  The following month, the Court/Senatus committee again met with Marshall McKenzie, when he produced detailed drawings of his proposed college extension.  Alexander Ogston was again one of those present.  The north wing was designed to terminate in the Chemistry Laboratory and would be called the "Chalmers Laboratory" in recognition of a recent bequest by Mr JG Chalmers.  The new building along Broad Street would be in white Kemnay granite and would contain an entrance to the completed quadrangle through the exact centre of the new wing.  When this this new extension was delivered, Marischal College would have approximately doubled its pre-existing size.  The top of the main tower was initially proposed to terminate in a pinnacle supported on eight flying buttresses in the style of St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh and the King's College tower.  However, this proposal was eventually dropped for four pinnacles at the corners of the tower.  The following departments were proposed to be accommodated in the Marischal extension.  Chemistry, Pathology, the Bacterial Laboratory, the Museum, Botany and Medicine.  The older part of the building would house Anatory, Natural History, Physiology, Materia Medica, Midwifery, Medical Jurisprudence, Law, Modern Languages, a Library, the Natural History Museum and the Archaeological Museum.  About £60,000 was the estimated cost of the scheme.

Marshal McKenzie’s frontage of the new building would be much more ornate than the existing College because of the invention and use of hydraulic cutting tools in the intervening period, which allowed finer carving of granite, which is a very hard stone.  This new technology was demonstrated in Aberdeen in 1895.  "An exhibition was given yesterday afternoon in the aerated water works of Mr William Thomson, Lemon Street of pneumatic appliances for cutting granite which have newly been taken across from the United States where the patent for them has been in operation for about 12 years.  Many influential members of the granite trade in the city were present".  The new technique was reckoned to be 6x - 8x as quick as one man with hand tools.  

A University Extension Fund was set up to attract contributions for the completion of the new buildings.  Professor Alexander Ogston gave £100, as did Professors Hamilton and Finlay.  The soap manufacturer, Alexander Milne Ogston of Ardoe House, Professor Alexander Ogston’s cousin, donated £200 and James Matthews of Springhill, Alexander Ogstoin’s father-in-law contributed £50.  At the end of 1891, the fund stood at over £17,000. Later, Alexander Ogston strong-armed the local branch of the BMA into giving 20gns to the fund.  A few months later the joint Court/Senatus committee announced that the Government had agreed to provide £40,000.  The extended tower in the centre of the east wing and the graduation hall behind were financed with a donation from Dr Mitchell of Newcastle and today are known as the Mitchell Tower and the Mitchell Hall respectively.  The Lord Rector of the University, the 11^th Marquis of Huntly, was an energetic and engaging advocate on behalf of the University in raising finance.  For example, both he and Alexander Ogston attended the London - Aberdeen University Club half-yearly dinner in November 1895 when Huntly appealed to the members to help in raising finance for the Marischal extension.

One of the casualties of the Marischal building program was Ogston’s Court, 84 Broad Street, where Alexander Ogston had been born but, before its demolition, it had a limited role as temporary administrative offices.  The extension of the north wing into the space once occupied by Ogston’s Court became the new home of the Chemistry Department, at that time headed by Professor Japp.  By September 1894, the contractor, Edgar Gauld, had the building work well underway, and it was anticipated that by the end of summer 1895 accommodation for Surgery and Chemistry would be handed over, not a moment too soon in the case of Chemistry.  The Aberdeen Journal related the story.  "The urgency for pushing on this part of the work will be apparent when it is mentioned that during the last two sessions numbers of students became indisposed in consequence of the room being ill-adapted for carrying off the fumes from the chemicals.  It is also stated that Professor Japp's health was affected from the same cause".

Another casualty of the remodelling of Marischal College was the old Greyfriars Church.  Although Marshall McKenzie had wanted to keep the old building, he was obliged to have it demolished and a new Greyfriears Church incorporated as the terminal part of the western end of the south wing.

At this time, the open quadrangle at Marischal College was home to a large, red granite obelisk, which had been erected there in 1860 as a memorial to the life and achievements of Sir James McGrigor (the same James McGrigor who had been a founder member of the Aberdeen Medical Society in 1789).  He went on to have a distinguished career as a military surgeon, serving as Chief of the Medical Staff in Wellesley’s (later the 1^st Duke of Wellington) army during the Peninsula Wars and in 1815 becoming Director-General of the Army Medical Department.  He remained in that post for 36 years.  McGrigor was the founder of the Army Medical Service and he served as Lord Rector of Marischal College in 1826, 1827 and 1841.  The granite obelisk to his memory remained in the Marischal College quadrangle until1905 when it was moved to Duthie Park, Aberdeen, where it stands to this day.

McGrigor Obelisk, Duthie Park.

The Court/Senatus Committee had been very successful in analysing the needs of the University, evaluating the constraints of the site, commissioning the architect and working with him as the proposals evolved, and in helping to raise the necessary finance.  Marshall McKenzie, the chosen architect was the former business partner of James Matthews, the father of Alexander Ogston’s second wife, though it is unclear if this family connection was influential in any way in sending the project in McKenzie’s direction.  The work of the joint Court/Senatus Committee was now almost complete.  Alexander Ogston had played a leading part throughout this challenging project.  The extended Marischal College was finally opened officially by HM King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra in a grand ceremony held in late September 1906, during the monarch’s annual visit to Balmoral.  It was thus fitting that Professor Alexander Ogston should be one of the senior professors who was presented to the King.  Mr CW Mitchell of Newcastle, whose father had been a major donor to the extension project, was honoured with the Freedom of Aberdeen in 1901.  Marshall McKenzie was rewarded for his role with an honorary degree in 1906. 

 

Alexander Ogston and the Lord Lieutenancy

The United Kingdom is divided into Lieutenancy areas, usually coinciding with county and city boundaries. For each such area, the monarch appoints a Lord Lieutenant, his or her personal representative.  In turn, the Lord Lieutenant appoints several Deputy Lieutenants to help with the duties of the office.  Originally the Lord Lieutenant had a military function in organising the militia for the area but, by the time of Alexander Ogston’s service, the role was largely ceremonial and the appointment as a Deputy Lieutenant had become a reward for public good works.  Both the City of Aberdeen and the County of Aberdeenshire had its own Lord Lieutenant, in the case of the city, the role was a formal undertaking of the Lord Provost.  In the 1890s the position of Lord Lieutenant for Aberdeenshire was fulfilled by John Campbell, the Earl of Aberdeen.  During 1896, he appointed Alexander Ogston to the role of Deputy Lieutenant.  It was a mark of the status that Ogston had achieved by that time.  In 1899, the Deputy Lieutenants of Aberdeenshire met to organise a ball for the Gordon Highlanders, which was held in the Music Hall at the end of September.  Professor Alexander Ogston of Glendavan with Mrs and Miss Ogston, and Alexander M Ogston of Ardoe with Mrs Ogston and Miss Ogston were all present.  Much later, in 1913, Alexander Ogston was offered, and accepted, nomination by Lord Provost Maitland as a Deputy Lieutenant for the City of Aberdeen.  However, since he had not served for a sufficient time in the Territorial Force, the War Office blocked his appointment.  Rules, of course, are rules.

 

Dr James McKenzie Davidson, Professor Alexander Ogston and the introduction of Roentgen-ray photography to Aberdeen

Wilhelm Roentgen was the first person to produce and detect (by photography) x-rays, electromagnetic radiation of shorter wavelength (and therefore more energetic) than ultra-violet light.  This achievement took place on 8 November 1895.    Roentgen later used the designation “x”, for the unknown, to label this new form of radiation, because its physical nature was a mystery at the time.  He immediately realised the potential of his discovery for application in medicine.  One of his earliest radiographs was of his wife Anna Bertha’s hand.  When she saw it, with the bones and her rings showing in dark shadowed detail, she exclaimed “I have seen my death”.  Roentgen’s work was first published on 28 December 1895, though his results had been publicly announced earlier.  Roentgen was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1901. 

Wilhelm Roentgen. 

Radiograph of the hand of Wilhelm Roenten's wife.

Roentgen’s findings caused an immediate stir in the medical world because of the obvious applications that the new technique promised, and other medical and non-medical scientists quickly began experimenting with Roentgen rays.  Reports of successful imaging of parts of the human body came both thick and fast.  Dr John Hall-Edwards of Birmingham, a keen photographer, was credited with making the first Roentgen-ray photograph in a clinical setting, when he demonstrated the presence of a sterile hypodermic needle under the skin of a colleague on 11 January 1896, barely two weeks after Roengen’s publication.  But similar moves were afoot elsewhere in Great Britain, especially in Scotland. The earliest example that the present author has been able to discover from north of the border was that of Dr Dawson Turner, lecturer in physics at the Surgeons’ Hall in Edinburgh, who had by 29 January 1896 produced radiographs of a lady’s hand and foot.  In Glasgow, Lord Kelvin had built a Roentgen ray machine but was ill and unable to be present at the first demonstration of its use.  This task was delegated to Dr John Macintyre who showed the machine in operation at Glasgow Royal Infirmary on 5 February 1896.  Further north, in Aberdeen, the discovery of Roentgen had also caused a flurry of activity.

James McKenzie Davidson had been born in Argentina to Scottish parents but returned to Great Britain to study medicine, graduating MB CM from the Aberdeen Medical School in 1882.  He soon came under the influence of Alexander Ogston when he served as his assistant and, in 1886, Davidson was appointed Ophthalmic Surgeon at ARI.  McKenzie Davidson had always been an adept physicist and instrument designer.  On learning of Roentgen’s discovery of the penetrating rays while travelling on the Continent, Davidson visited him at his home in Germany and on returning to Great Britain he managed to construct an apparatus for generating the newly discovered radiation.  McKenzie Davidson’s first public demonstration of x-rays was made to the Aberdeen Philosophical Society on 11 February 1896 in the Surgery classroom at Marischal College.  Being a public demonstration during an advertised lecture, McKenzie Davidson must have succeeded in taking radiographs sometime before this date and he showed the audience a number of photographic negatives that he had already produced.  The title of his talk was “Light and Colour, which suggests the work on Roentgen rays was a late addition to his text and there was no mention of Roentgen rays when the talk was previewed in the Aberdeen Journal on 8 February.  The detection device was an ordinary photographic plate covered by a sheet of vulcanite to prevent fogging by visible light.  On top of the light-proof sheet was a small aluminium box containing some rubies and pearls, a gold wedding ring and an iron key, which were to be photographed using McKenzie Davidson’s apparatus.  The gems had been lent by Alexander Ogston in whose classroom the meeting was taking place.  An exposure time of five minutes was sufficient to produce an image.  McKenzie Davidson was being assisted by the prominent Aberdonian photographer, George Washington Wilson, who developed the exposed plates.  At the close, Alexander Ogston proposed a vote of thanks to Dr McKenzie Davidson and asked the lecturer to comment on the nature of the new rays, but McKenzie Davidson declined, though he did say that he did not see how they could be short light waves (which they later proved to be).  Dr McKenzie Davidson continued his investigations into Roentgen rays in Aberdeen but, in 1897, he left Aberdeen on his appointment as consulting surgeon at Charing Cross Hospital, London.

Dr James McKenzie Davidson.

 

George Washington Wilson.

John Hall-Edwards has been credited with the first use of a radiograph to inform a surgical procedure, which took place on 14 February 1896.  However, it was announced in the Aberdeen Journal on 15 February 1896 that “Dr McKenzie Davidson has been the means of conferring on Aberdeen no small distinction in connection with a clever operation in surgery, which was performed yesterday (ie, 14 February 1896, the same precedence date as claimed for John Hall-Edwards) as a result of a photograph which he took of the foot of a child which a portion of a needle had penetrated.  The child, a girl of nine years of age, who was a patient of Dr Gibb, was taken to the residence of Dr Davidson (343 Union Street) for the purpose of having the foot photographed, and an operation subsequently performed.  Dr Alex Ogston (possibly Dr Alexander Ogston the Rosemount GP, rather than the famous surgeon) was present as chloroformist, and Dr Gibb performed the operation.  In taking the photograph of the foot, Dr McKenzie Davidson placed a copper wire round the limb at a certain small distance from the puncture wound where the needle was supposed to have entered.  After an exposure of forty minutes an excellent shadowgraph was obtained and to the experienced eye of the doctor, who had made numerous previous experiments, the exact position and inclination of the needle were revealed.  A measurement was taken from the black line made on the photograph by the copper wire to the portion of the needle nearest the surface of the foot, and Dr Davidson was able to point out the exact spot where the incision should be made.  Dr Gibb in a moment found the object, and in less than five minutes the whole operation was over, having been accomplished in the most successful manner”.  Interestingly, the Aberdeen Journal was aware of the operation which had been performed in Birmingham, also on 14 February, which was a remarkably similar case of a needle completely embedded in a patient’s flesh, in this second case of a hand.   Although the Hall-Edwards operation took place in the morning and may just have a temporal precedence over McKenzie Davidson’s case in Aberdeen, it would be churlish to deny McKenzie Davidson a near-equal place to Hall-Edwards in the radiologists’ hall of fame.

The presentation and demonstration of Roentgen-ray photography before the Aberdeen Philosophical Society in February 1896 by Dr McKenzie Davidson had proved so stimulating that, by popular demand, it was repeated on 3 March 1896 at the same venue.  Professor Alex Ogston was called to the chair before a large audience.  This time the aluminium box contained a deer's tooth, a moonstone, a Ceylon garnet and a half-sovereign, all provided by Professor Ogston.  The same objects were also photographed simply wrapped in paper, which halved the required exposure time of four minutes.  (Had McKenzie Davidson’s apparatus been upgraded by that date)?  George Washington Wilson again developed the photographic plates which had been exposed at the beginning of the lecture.  McKenzie Davidson also showed radiographs of embedded needles and even of a bullet lodged in the badly swollen hand, which had prevented the location of the missile by probing, of a boy from Keith.  Similarly, Professor Ogston treated James Ellis, a crofter from Kildrummy who received a gunshot wound in the left leg about five months previously.  At the time, Ogston had managed to locate and remove 28 pellets from the limb but a radiograph by Dr McKenzie Davidson revealed another 16, which the surgeon would further attempt to extract.

Radiograph of hand with two embedded pellets.

In 1898, after he had moved to London, James McKenzie Davidson published, in booklet form, a description of his apparatus for generating Roentgen rays, so that others could build their own equipment.  Alexander Ogston did not hang about.  McKenzie Davidson said, “I am informed that the first independent application of this method has been carried out by Professor Ogston of Aberdeen and his assistant Dr Irvine Fortescue (a son of the ancient family whose estate, Kingcausie lies on Lower Deeside).  From my written description an apparatus was constructed which enabled them to locate a needle precisely in a woman's foot and even to estimate its length correctly to a millemeter.  It is of interest to note that the patient had had previously a skiagraph (then current term for a radiograph) taken showing the presence of the needle and had undergone two unsuccessful operations for its extraction.  This case pretty clearly establishes the advantage of exact location preceding operative interference".  Alexander Ogston also demonstrated his locally-made Roentgen ray apparatus before a meeting of the Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine branch of the BMA in 1898.

Walter Henry Ogston was the first son and fourth child of Alexander Ogston’s first marriage to Mary Jane Hargrave.  Walter was born in 1873 and in 1909 he married Josephine Elizabeth Carter.  Writing much later Mrs WH Ogston recalled being invited into Alexander Ogston’s consulting room one day prior to her marriage and asked if she would like to see that her future husband’s heart was in the right place.  Alexander Ogston had an X-ray apparatus there projecting an image of a beating heart onto a fluorescent screen.  She also recalled her fist sight of this miraculous new investigative technique, though she did not remember the date.  Dr William Henderson had brought along in a cab to 252 Union Street a gunshot wound case and a fracture-dislocation.  “We all saw with wonder the revelations of the X-rays.  I shall never forget that moment – it was a Sunday morning - the church bells were summoning the people to service.  I can still hear those bells”.

Sir James McKenzie Davidson (he was knighted in 1912) died in 1919 at the age of 63.  Most of his working life, after he left Aberdeen in 1897, was devoted to the development and advancement of the science of radiology and today, he is justly known as the “Father of British Radiology”.  In 1920, shortly after Davidson’s death, a letter appeared in many newspapers appealing for support for The Mackenzie Davidson Memorial Fund.  The principal purpose of the fund was to establish a diploma in radiology and electrology (redundant term for the science of the applications of electricity) at some university in London, to match a similar course mounted by Cambridge University, and to fund a Mackenzie Davidson Chair of Radiology.  A further hope was that, if sufficient funds could be raised, they would stretch to creating an institute of radiology which would have a remit much wider than the medical uses of x-rays.  The appeal letter was signed by a distinguished group of 30 sponsors from many walks of life, politicians, such as Stanley Baldwin and Andrew Bonar Law, Nobel Prize winning physicists, JJ Thomson and Ernest Rutherford, architect Gilbert Scott and numerous eminent radiologists, physicians and surgeons, including Alexander Ogston.  McKenzie Davidson was held in high regard throughout the land.

 

Alexander Ogston and the deputation to Lord Lansdowne, Secretary of State for War

Lord Lansdowne, the 5^th Marquess of Lansdown, had been Viceroy of India between 1888 and 1894.  On his return to the UK in 1895 he was appointed Secretary of State for War in Lord Salisbury’s Conservative administration.  He was later blamed for the lack of preparedness of the British army for the Second Boer War.  At this time there was a good deal of dissatisfaction among the medical officers of the Army Medical Service.  They had obscure titles which did not fit into the command structure of the army.  The dissatisfaction was such that it was proving increasingly difficult to attract sufficient candidates to apply to the annual entry competition for filling vacancies in the AMS.  These grumbles from the medical officers in the army led to their representative body, the British Medical Association sending a substantial delegation to meet with Lord Lansdowne, though the BMA was largely concerned with the conditions of service of its military members.  The leader of this group was Dr Robert Farquharson, Chairman of the BMA Parliamentary Bills Committee and MP for West Aberdeenshire.  Alexander Ogston was a member of the delegation representing the interests of the Aberdeen University Medical School.  Lansdowne, a consummate politician, listened carefully to the points made by the delegation and agreed with them on some of the issues raised.  They urged him to make concessions to the profession in the direction of ditching the present cumbersome titles in use and replacing them with military ranks, and also urging the formation of an Army Medical Corps.  While Lansdown saw no problem to forming a medical corps and agreeing that present titles were cumbersome, saw no quick solution to the question of rank.  However, applying soft soap in best political tradition, he gave them hope that he would soon be in a position to announce some changes, without giving any firm commitment to do so.  Within a year, on 25 June 1898, the Royal Army Medical Corps had been formed and army ranks added to the form of the medical job titles of serving medical officers though these moves were almost without impact on the recruitment problem they were designed to address.

Lord Lansdown.

 

Alexander Ogston and Russian, German and French military medical services

Alexander Ogston arrived back in Scotland in May 1885 with many negative views on the organisation of medical services of the British forces.  In the following 14 years he deliberately set out to compare the military medical services at home with those of the major continental powers, Germany, Russia and France.  This involved frequent travel to the Continent and to British military establishments, including several classes of warships.  He was often aided in this quest for knowledge by enlisting letters of introduction from Queen Victoria.  Ogston found things to admire in the medical services of all the major European powers, which made him all the more determined to expose British deficiencies and bring about reform at home.

Germany was already a well-known country to Alexander Ogston, He had visited there many times, starting with his student days and he was fluent in the German language.  “In the interval (1885 – 1899) I had repeatedly visited Germany and became acquainted with many of its leading army medical officers, and so acquired a tolerably accurate knowledge of the conditions of their service”.  As has already been pointed out, the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 – 1871 was the event which first stirred Ogston’s interest in the delivery of medical services in time of war.  The conflict between the Prussians and the French proved to be a major test of the principles of anti-septic surgery developed by Lister, and the Germans made full use of his findings. The German surgeon, von Esmarch had introduced a field dressing during the war which was carried by every soldier.  It contained two balls of sterile material, one for insertion in the entrance wound and one for the exit wound.  The package also contained a triangular bandage.  Later, “the Russians improved on this arrangement by clothing the operatives in sterile suits, cleaning their exposed arms and hands antiseptically and using sterile forks to handle the dressing material”.

Ogston also admired the way that the Germans involved civilian surgeons in military structures, rewarded them with both pay and status and effectively obliged them to join the war effort in times of conflict.  “Thus, the University professors hold high military rank, corresponding with their eminent civil position and scientific attainments, and are required to give annual courses of instruction to the medical officers serving in the army and navy.  Such well-known surgeons as Bergmann, Bruns, Trendelenburg and Mikulicz have to teach these classes during the Easter holidays, so as not to interfere with the winter and summer sessions of the Universities.  Each professor has his fixed military rank assigned to him in case of war; most of them rank as lieutenant-generals, some as generals and even higher, and in the event of war they act as consulting surgeons to the medical officers of the army or base hospitals.  They receive the same pay as the military surgeons, as do also the other surgeons who are liable to be called out in time of war; some of the latter have places assigned to them in the Sanitary Corps, etc, so that their skill and experience are utilised in every department of the service … All surgical instruments and appliances in the German army are supplied by the State, and in the navy, this is likewise the case; every hospital in which the medical officers serve has its complete armamentum provided for it, so that no unwise economy hampers the most thorough and modern practice of the healing art; and the same thing is true in regard to the naval medical service”.

In December 1898, Aberdeen’s wandering Professor of Surgery visited the Imperial Military Academy of Medicine in St Petersburg, on the occasion of this institution’s centenary.  It was to be a grand occasion packed with ceremony and formal events.  Ogston described the Academy as “…one of the greatest medical institutions in the world”.  Queen Victoria was involved in arranging Ogston’s visit to Russia and during the same visit he also studied Russian military medical arrangements.  Ogston later wrote, “With her (Queen Victoria’s) sanction and an introduction to our ambassador in St Petersburg, I also went to Russia, obtained from Count Mouravieff permission to see whatever I wanted to inspect, and made the acquaintance of General Kouropatkin and Dr Emmert, the very enlightened and progressive Director-General of the Russian army medical department.  

Wearing a Norfolk jacket, he departed from Aberdeen at 3.30pm on Christmas Day, 1898, by sleeper car, bound for King’s Cross.  AO had coffee and biscuits, Bradshaw’s Guide and, inevitably, a cigar with him.  Bradshaw’s Guide was a series of books of railway timetables and travel information first produced in 1853 by George Bradshaw.  Indeed, the diary (in the Aberdeen University Archives) that Ogston compiled detailing his journey and his experiences often reads like a tourist travelogue rather than an account of a serious investigation of military medical provisions in a foreign country.  The Aberdonian also had with him a box containing his robes and uniform of the Deputy Lieutenancy of Aberdeenshire.  As usual, Ogston had prepared thoughtfully for his journey and had taken carriage candles with him, presumable those produced by his Aberdeen relatives, so that he could read after dark.  After breakfasting at the Charing Cross Hotel, Alex Ogston’s journey took him across the English Channel to Ostende in Belgium, on to Berlin and across Eastern Prussia to the frontier with Russia where he spent the night in a border town.  His crossing into Russia was aided by the ambassador, Sir Charles Stewart Scott, who had arrived in post just three months earlier.  Ogston changed money at the frontier.  He travelled on by train, reaching St Petersburg, then the capital of the Russian Empire, at 8.00am on 28^th December.

On 30^th December, a Friday, he attended a meeting in the Salle de la Noblesse which, unlike many buildings in the Russian capital, was not particularly striking.  However, the attendees at the event were impressive, many wearing “rich and beautiful uniforms”.  Several historical speeches were made, in Russian, a language that Ogston did not speak, though he had bothered to learn the Russian alphabet before his departure.  Later he was received by the Ambassador and Lady Scott in their drawing room and AO was introduced to their four daughters.  His talk with the ambassador was mainly about military medicine and Sir Charles made a request to the Russian authorities that Ogston be allowed to see over the medium and larger Russian warships.  The day ended with a ball, which also took place in the Salle de la Noblesse.  AO attended but said he excused himself “shortly after 10.00pm”, which is curious because he also wrote that he did not reach his bed until 2.00am. Ogston recorded that at the ball “the Aberdeen dress was an object of curiosity”, which may indicate that he attended wearing the kilt.

The following day, Professor Ogston attended the historic Mariinsky Theatre to hear a performance of an opera by Alexander Borodin.  This Russian composer was also a chemist and medical doctor of note, and a former professor at the Academy of Medicine.  Indeed, he considered himself to be principally a scientist and his musical activities to be merely a diversion.  Ogston left after the second of four acts to prepare for the evening banquet, where attendance in uniform was expected.  The event was held in the Kononova Hall and Alex Ogston attended in his Deputy Lieutenancy uniform, which was red, the only official garb present in that colour.  Another Scot, Professor Ferguson, a noted chemist from Glasgow University, was also in attendance, dressed in the green and gold of the Royal Scottish Archers.  AO was compelled to drink a glass of vodka and eat two pickled mushrooms as an hors d’oeuvre.  There followed a lot of dram-drinking and he was forced to take another glass of vodka but declined the unwholesome food.  The gathered dignitaries then entered the dining hall after this preliminary indulgence, where they found themselves to be surrounded by busts of famous doctors.  AO was seated opposite the President, 5^th on his left hand and 2^nd from Bergman.  The dinner and the wines were “most select”.  The speeches and toasting began as sweets were brought round.  The first toast was to the Russian Czar, Nicholas II, then to the German Emperor, Wilhelm II, and lastly to Queen Victoria.  Although he was not present, the French President, Félix Faure sent an effusive telegram which read as follows.  “If France could conquer by phrases she would soon overpower the world”.  After the alcoholic excesses of the evening, AO seemed glad to retire to his bed.

James Wylie had been born in Tullyallan, Kincardine-on-Forth in 1768 and studied medicine at Edinburgh University, though he did not graduate and in 1890 he moved to Russia at the suggestion of another Scottish doctor, Dr Rogerson, who had moved as part of Catherine the Great’s attempt to modernize the practice of medicine in her country through the importation of medical expertise from abroad.  The natives of his new country of abode found Wylie’s name impossible to pronounce and it was russified to Yakov Vasilyevich Villiye.  Wylie had a long and distinguished career in military medicine, serving in many campaigns and establishing a reputation as a skilled surgeon.  Finally, in 1794, he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from King’s College, Aberdeen.  He became a medical advisor to several Russian czars and noble families.  James Wylie never married and lived an austere life.  He became very wealthy and on his death some of his money was returned to his family in Scotland while the bulk was devoted to the foundation of the Clinis Villiye, part of the St Petersburg Medical University.  On 1^st January 1899, Alex Ogston visited this august medical establishment.  At the clinic AO was shown through only one of the departments (surgical), of which there were five in total.  He found that each department was complete in itself.  Also, there were museums, laboratories and operating theatres.  Dr Kirikov, whom he met at the hospital, subsequently sent him a book on Wylie’s life.  Remarkably, one of Wyllie’s relatives was still trading as a merchant in St Petersburg.  As usual, when he was on his travels, Ogston recorded a number of observations on the people and social circumstances that he encountered in the Russian capital.  He considered that Russian jewellers made some fine enamelwork but their efforts were expensive.  Was he looking for a gift to take back for Bella?  The upper classes spoke French but the shopkeepers did not speak English and there were few English or American tourists on the streets.

*On Monday 2 January, Ogston went for a walk in the city and noted that most of the bridges over the River Neva were built on boats.  On returning to his hotel he received a letter from the Minister of War (in Russian, though AO helpfully gave a rough translation into English in his diary).

“Urgent.  To the Honourable Prof Alex Ogston.  Inspector General of the Military Medical Department, actual Private Counsellor in Remmert takes for his pleasant duty to invite the Honourable Professor A Ogston to visit the Manufacture of the Military Medical provision (Island of the Apothecaries) which will take place tomorrow morning 22 December at 10 ½ and has the honour to inform that Professor H Turner is charged to attend in this visit, 21 December 1898.” 

AO had to sign for the receipt of this letter.

Professor Turner proved to have an interesting background.  Henry Ivanovich Turner had been born in St Petersburg in 1858 to English parents who had settled in Russia.  He studied medicine at the Imperial Military Medical Academy and subsequently had a distinguished career as an orthopaedic surgeon.  Indeed, he is considered to have been the founder of Russian orthopaedics and established the first department and clinic of orthopedics in Russia at the Military Medical Academy.  On Tuesday 3^rd January 1899, Professor Turner called for AO with his private sledge.  The pair of them got icicles on their moustaches as they drove in the frosty weather.  They went to inspect the medical factory of the Russian War Department, where “40 or 50 people had assembled to greet them”.  The first section the pair visited was the instrument factory.  They also viewed the bandage and dressing factory.  Most of the workers were women who were required to don sterile clothing on entry.  Ogston and Turner saw machinery in use for cutting and rolling bandages.  Antiseptic dressings were manufactured by impregnated them with “sublimate” (possibly of lime, though AO did not record the chemical compound).  All the sublimated dressings were pink in colour, presumable to identify their antiseptic status.  All handling of materials was done in a glass case with a sheet of glass that the operative looked through, a sort of primitive sterile cabinet.  AO also saw the factory where drugs were manufactured.  All the factories were made of wood which caused Ogston some concern in case of fire.  Unfortunately, because it was mid-winter, Ogston was unable to see over the warships as they were all laid-up and boarded-up, but he was allowed to see over the Moskva Maritime Hospital and the Vaval  Hospital at Cronstadt.    He had been impressed by the Cossack soldiers he saw but felt they lacked the fire and élan of the French and English troops.

There had been other visitors on this tour of inspection and each was given a bottle of mulberry juice as a souvenir.  After pickles and lunch, speeches were made, following which Ogston replied on behalf of Britain, he then drove with Turner to visit the latter’s own rooms and department.  Turner’s museum collections were, in Ogston’s opinion, very good.  Before taking him home his host drove AO to get two enamel breast decorations that had been created by the Czar for the members of the academy and the delegates present at its centenary.  These were to be worn by all who received them for life, one when in uniform, the other when in civvies.  Back at his hotel AO found a letter from the Ambassador about the warships and he had also received an invitation from Lord Aberdeen to attend at Mr Smiths on Friday week.  Ogston accepted.  There was a further invitation to a private view the following Monday, after which he was to be presented to the Czar.  Ogston had to turn down a dinner invitation from Professor Veliaminoff, the Court Surgeon, which he was able to do by telephone expressing “my regrets at being unable to come”.  He also wrote to Veliaminoff giving an explanation for his absence.

Wednesday 4^th January was the day of the ceremony when the Czar, Nicholas II, would be present.  Ogston arose early and put on his tunic and the badge he was to wear below his medals on the left breast.  Professor Turner called for him and the pair then sledged to the Hotel de France for Owen and Cross, but they had already left.  However, AO did have the pleasure of seeing Dr Ferguson in the green of the Royal Scottish Archers.  Turner then drove to the Michaelovski Manege (Riding School) where the review was to be held.  Ogston was impressed by the display of many brightly coloured uniforms.  The Czar appeared and first a religious service was held, followed by ten consecrations of ten military colours to the accompanied of “beautiful music”.  This was followed by the presentation of the delegates.  AO was presented after Cronin the representative of Oxford followed by “Owen and Cross, then Belgians, Sweeds and others, 15 or 16 in all”.  “The Czar came along, shook hands and spoke with each of us”.  He “spoke English better than some of our Royal Princes”!  “To me, the Czar spoke of having been at Aberdeen and Balmoral and I told him we hoped he would come back.  He was so like the Duke of York that I once at least called him “Royal Highness” instead of “Majesty”.  The Czar conferred the Order of the Empire on Ogston, in recognition of his professional eminence.  After the ceremony the delegates lunched with Kouropatkin, the War Minister.

Alex Ogston arrived back in Aberdeen early on Saturday morning, 7^th January 1899 after a week in Russia packed with experiences.  He noted in his diary, “Passed Tay bridge at 5.30am”.  The wandering surgeon arrived home in time to take breakfast with his children and to give them presents.  He did not mention a present for Bella.  Three weeks after his return, Ogston received a letter from Lord Salisbury informing him that that the Queen had approved of his accepting and wearing the Centenary Decoration of the St Petersburg Imperial Academy of Medicine.  Prof Farmer also wrote to AO, telling him that he had been made an Honorary Member of the Academie de Medecine Militaire de St Petersburg.               

Later, Alex Ogston summarized his visit to Russia in the following terms.  “The Russian military hospitals were shown to me, and the army medical manufactory, where the instruments, dressings, and appliances for the army were prepared, and were being arranged in the most admirable and practical manner for their destined employment”.   Alexander Ogston had been impressed by the information he gleaned on Russian military medical services.  “Russia possesses six large and three hundred small hospitals connected with the army, besides smaller lazarettos (quarantine stations); and in some of these the equipment is far in advance of anything the services possess in this country.  Thus, the military hospital of St Petersburg, wherein are treated all medical, surgical, gynaecological, ophthalmic and other diseases, consists of five separate clinics or infirmaries, each of which is complete in itself and possesses departments for every class of disease, and even wards for paying patients.  The wards are excellent and replete with appliances of every kind; there are bandage rooms, purifying rooms, operation theatres, bacteriological departments, rooms for physical research, laboratories for teachers, and for students, all excellent and complete.  Each clinic possesses 850 beds … And about 45,000 patients are treated per annum … Russia has 3,000 surgeons in her army, and any of these may, if he show ability and powers of work, apply for and be ordered to return to study in the hospitals for a period of two years.  The Russian naval hospitals are arranged like the army hospitals”.

It is interesting that though Alexander Ogston had visited Russia in late 1898, long before the Russian Revolution of 1917, when the monarchy of the Czars was replaced by the Communist state, on his death in 1929, a telegram of condolence was received from the Military Medical Academy of Leningrad (the then new name for St Petersburg) by Alex Ogston’s family.  “The military Medical Academy of Leningrad deplores the loss of the brilliant scientist Sir Alexander Ogston remembering his great services to science and suffering mankind.” Signed The President of the Academy Vojatchek; The Commissary of the Academy Lamkyn”.

Alexander Ogston credited the French with having initiated military surgery late in the 18^th century.  The Aberdeen professor also said that he “studied” French military medical organisation, though he did not make clear if he visited French military establishments.  He was particularly impressed by the French arrangements for postgraduate medical education of French military surgeons.  “In the French army, post-graduate courses, expressly for medical officers, are conducted by professors at the different Universities throughout the republic, and the cost is borne by the army medical department, while a certain number of the medical officers of the active and reserve army are every year ordered to attend them, extra pay being drawn by those who do so”.

When Ogston subsequently criticised the organisation and conduct of British military medical arrangements, he did so from a position of substantial knowledge and in possession of clear ideas, often culled from his studies of other nations, for meaningful reform.  Inevitable he met with criticism and stiff opposition to change, but Alexander Ogston too was made of stern stuff and was not cowed by negative views of his beliefs expressed in high places.

 

Alexander Ogston resigns, for the final time, from the senior surgeoncy at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary

On 1 September 1898, Alexander Ogston sat down at his home, 252 Union Street, to compose a letter of resignation from the Senior Surgency at ARI.  He had been there before, in April 1892, when he had submitted his resignation as a lever to extract extra support for his hospital role.  On this second occasion, too, his workload was the given reason for his action, but this time there was no cryptic motive: he felt it was time to step back from hospital work and allow a younger man to take the reins.  Alex Ogston was now 54 years old and had been a member of surgical staff at ARI for 30 years, 18 of them as Senior Surgeon. 

“Colonel J Allardyce, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.  Dear Sir.  May I solicit your good offices in laying my resignation from the surgeoncy to the infirmary before the Board of Directors, and recommending them to accept it?  My sole reason for asking them to permit me to retire is that I feel the work is too much for me to carry on along with my university and other professional engagements.  Everything the directors could do has been done to facilitate my continuing to act as their surgeon, and especially since, in 1892 I withdrew my intention of retiring from the hospital, everything I could wish and ask for has been placed at my disposal to render my work lighter and enable me to carry out surgery in the institution in its highest and best forms.  During these additional six years, I have made use to the full of all the assistance the directors have put at my disposition: but there is much falling to a surgeon of the infirmary which can never rightly be delegated to another, and for some time I have been conscious that I have not the strength to face, with efficiency, the gradually increasing quantity and onerousness, of what necessarily falls to do.  It will therefore be a kindness to me, for which I shall be most thankful, if the Board of Directors will permit me to relinquish my present duties before the commencement of the university winter session in October next.  I wish it were in my power to put into words the deep sense I have of the kindness and enlightened aid I have received from the directors, and not the least during your chairmanship.  I am truly grateful for their enlightened support, and for the privilege of having been allowed to aid in the immeasurably great work which the directors have done to help those who are sick, suffering, or injured among the poor.  I am, dear sir, yours faithfully, Alex. Ogston”.

Colonel Allardyce tried to persuade Ogston to reconsider but soon reached the conclusion that his mind was made up and that the Board of Directors had no alternative but to accede to his request.  The Board framed a minute expressing their appreciation for Professor Ogston’s work and to ask him to retain his connection with the infirmary by assuming the status of consulting surgeon.  Alex Ogston readily agreed to this request.  Of course, Ogston had only partially retired from practice.  He remained the occupant of the Regius Chair of Surgery in the University, he continued to see private patients and his service to the royal family was unchanged.  Alex Ogston was also free to devote more of his time to his interests in military surgery.

 

The Portsmouth address to the British Medical Association

The British Medical Association was, and is, the representative organisation for medical doctors of all stripes throughout the United Kingdom.  In the late 19^th century, it held an annual meeting which moved between different locations, with an extensive programme of lectures broken down into sections to suit different medical interests.  In August 1899, the 67^th BMA annual meeting was due to be held in Portsmouth and Alexander Ogston was elected the Vice-President of the surgical section of the meeting and in that role was expected to make a substantial address to the meeting.  That year was the culmination of a long series of investigations by Alex Ogston into the provision and organisation of medical services in the armed forces of the major continental European countries, France and Germany and also Russia.  Ogston also set out, armed with introductions from Queen Victoria to examine the major British military hospitals and the medical arrangements on several classes of British warships.  Some of these British visits occurred in May 1899 when his destinations were "Portsmouth Docks and Warships and Netley Hospital on this (4 May) and the following two days to examine their medical equipment".  He may also have visited the Royal Hospital, Haslar, located in Gosport on the western side of Portsmouth harbour, the principal Royal Navy medical facility.

At the close of these investigations, Ogston concluded- “With such sources of information I could not fail to see that our country was seriously falling behind the other European Powers in its medical and surgical provision for war; and when the duty fell to me of delivering the Address on Surgery at the Annual Meeting of the British Medical Association, held in Portsmouth in 1899, it seemed fitting to devote it to a discussion of that subject”.  To tackle such a topic at the home of the Royal Navy, with the Royal Hospital Haslar nearby and the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, just a few miles away on Southampton Water, and to deliver it in Ogston’s fearless style, was akin to poking lions with a stick through the bars of their cage.  Indeed, Ogston said in the introduction to his address, “I venture to believe that in the city of Portsmouth it will not be out of place, perhaps even specially appropriate, to advert to the condition of our army and navy medical services”.  Alex Ogston understood the significance of the geographical location of the BMA meeting.

Realising that his address would receive close scrutiny, Alex Ogston put a lot of effort into its preparation, even enlisting the help of his son-in-law, Professor of English, Herbert Grierson, to review the draft of the text.  He intended his message to be patently understood and not obscured by being couched in diplomatic niceties.  “I felt that I was justified in making use of the occasion to speak plainly”. According to Grierson, the title of Alex Ogston’s address was “The Position of Medical and Surgical Service in the Army and Navy”, though no such title appears to have been published in the press reports of Ogston’s address.  Ogston’s presentation was delivered at the general session on the afternoon of Thursday 3 August 1899, in the Upper Albert Hall, Portsmouth.

Sir Herbert Grierson.

Ogston opened with a reference to the spectacular advances that had been made in surgery during the previous 30 years.  “For the first time in all the centuries that have flown, our profession has changed from a craft into a science, a result that though many have contributed to it, we owe mainly to Lister”.  He then went on to lay the basis on which the country in his view was obliged to act.  “Our own country which can boast of having produced the great reformer, who is yet amongst us, witnessing the fruition of his work, is under a greater obligation than any other to profit by his discoveries and it may be well leaving the unalterable past that has gone from us to make use of the present occasion to consider if we are sufficiently discharging our whole duty in this respect towards the immediate future in which it is still ours to think and act”.  But Alex Ogston perceived obstacles to progress.  “… in some quarters the changes and modifications necessitated by the progress of science are even yet meeting with obstacles that ought not to exist and that some of our medical and surgical brethren are still hampered by systems which must be swept away if we are to ensure that none of our fellow countrymen shall be denied those benefits which are now within the reach of the humblest and poorest”.

At this point the senior military officers present probably shifted uneasily in their seats, realising that some trenchant criticisms were, like bullets, about to come their way.  The civilian medical men present probably sat up and listened with interest, like spectators at the battle about to unfold before them.  Ogston was convinced that war was not far in the future and that they were at a point where urgent preparation was required.  “The present time is suitable beyond any in the past half-century for drawing attention to the reforms that may be necessary to ensure that when the supreme moment arrives the medical departments of these services (ie army and navy) will be found adequately prepared to undertake the duties they will be called upon to discharge”.  A European, or even World war, involving both army and navy, could break out at any time.  With the nearest he came to lathering Ogston soft soap, he praised the then Secretary of State for War, Lord Lansdowne, for being “enlightened” and for initiating some welcome reforms in the Army Medical Service, and pointed to the favourable state of public opinion on the armed forces.  Now was, in Ogston’s opinion, the best time for action.

Then the criticisms were rolled out, and the first one concerned officers in the Army Medical Service.  Ogston claimed there was great disillusionment amongst this group.  “Those medical officers who possess a few years’ experience of the services, however much loyalty seals the lips of most of them and influences all, show themselves disappointed and discouraged with the professional life they have to lead and admit they have made a mistake in entering them and would gladly, were it possible, sacrifice the years they have spent in them and quit them entirely even for some comparatively unpromising post in civil life”.  Alex Ogston recalled the authoritative opinions he and other civil surgeons had given to Lord Lansdowne the previous year on this issue.  These views could not be dismissed as they were generally held by many senior members of the profession.  Issues of title, military rank and pay had dominated that discussion with Lord Lansdowne concerning military medical officers, but in Portsmouth, Ogston concentrated on another matter, the absence of appropriate peacetime training within the military services for times of war.  “Attendance on minor ailments, trifling complaints and the few serious diseases and injuries occurring amongst bodies of men in the prime of their age and health selected for strength and soundness and the other routine duties which together constitute the whole ordinary work of the immense majority of the medical officers  serving in our forces form so great a contrast to much that would be expected of them in an active campaign against European troops, that comparison between them is hardly possible”.  One consequence of this disillusionment among serving medical officers was that the best medical graduates could not be attracted to serve in the armed forces.  A related problem to the lack of appropriate training for serving medical officers was the inadequacy of army and navy medical facilities.  “Moreover, the destitution of the army and navy of institutions where surgery can be practised is very great.  Netley Hospital, limited as it is to the treatment of soldiers and Haslar to that of sailors, do not offer such varied material as is required by surgeons and physicians to cultivate the practical branches of their art”.

The next issue that Alex Ogston tackled was the lack of integration of the different elements of the medical services of the forces in times of peace, extending to manning, training, storage and transport of supplies.  How could all these components be expected to integrate and function efficiently when they were sourced independently and arrived at the destination haphazardly?  He illustrated this problem using his own experience from the Sudan campaign of 1884 – 1885.  Expense had been thrown at some aspects of the medical service, such as the provision of well-equipped, but expensive, hospital ships but the service was hamstrung by the chaos on land at Suakin.  “Yet in the bearer companies, the men were from Aldershot, the carts and harness from Woolwich, the mules and muleteers from Spain, dhoolies and dhoolie-bearers from India, and camels and camel-drivers from Aden.  The wagons arrived in one ship, the harness in another, the mules in a third and all at different times.  When the ambulance waggons were landed along with several carts, the pieces were mixed up and the men had to fix them as best they could.  When the mules and harness turned up, it was found that while the wagons were made for one kind of draught the harness was made for another, and so on.  And the officers, non-commissioned officers and men knew nothing of one another.  For the medical part of the expedition, generally the stores came without storekeepers and without proper outward indication of what the packages contained.  Chaos reigned and I am assured that if there had been an engagement on the day the forces landed, there would not have been a bandage forthcoming for the wounded.  And very much the same state of matters exists today”.  Clearly, in the late 19^th century, logistics was not an army specialism.

Alexander Ogston also laid out his solution to the lack of integration within the medical service.  “So complex an organisation as the Royal Army Medical Corps ought to be kept in a high state of efficiency and be vitalised by continual practice.  It ought to consist of separate units, each complete in itself and familiar with its equipment and work.  Each field hospital should be completely furnished and frequently practised in its duties.  Every corps should be ready to act in other departments the moment it takes the field and not have to learn its duties there when the day of trial comes in a campaign.  Whether stationed at home or abroad, the officers should be provided with all the proper means of keeping themselves informed regarding the advances that are forever being introduced into their science”.

To this point in his address, Alex Ogston had concentrated his fire on the army, but the navy did not escape the assault.  “In the event of a naval engagement of any magnitude the wounded on board our ships of war would have to be attended to in a small dark room unprovided with any save the rudest appliances and a few cots where at most half a dozen men could be handled; and which is moreover in many vessels as much exposed as any other part of the ship to the fire of the enemy.  Everything on board ship that can destroy life is in the highest perfection; everything that can save it is of the rudest description and beyond the age.  In the case of a gunshot wound through the abdomen the only chance of recovery is laparotomy performed within twelve hours; but on board none of Her Majesty’s fleet is there any possibility of performing such an operation; there are neither accommodation, instruments nor accessories. … On torpedo boat destroyers there are no materials for making splints, only a box of antiquated remedies like those supplied in the vessels of the mercantile marine, where the sailing master acts as the doctor. … No person will impugn the principle that the efficiency of war vessels as fighting machines has first to be considered.  But the principle may be and is being carried too far; for it is a duty to see that short of interfering with the perfection of the fighting machine no suffering is left unrelieved, or life needlessly sacrificed”.

Alexander Ogston then went on to compare the medical arrangements of the British armed forces unfavourably with the provision made in other advanced nations, including Germany, Russia and France, as has been outlined above.  Ogston perceived that there was an erroneous view abroad that any deficiencies could be overcome by engaging civilian help at the time of need by then throwing money at the problem.  Alex Ogston denied that that was a competent strategy

In closing, Alexander Ogston appealed for his criticisms not to be misconstrued.  “I trust it is not necessary for me to say that under what I have stated regarding them, there lurks no hostile undervaluing of the services of those who are in the ranks.  The system is at fault, not the men.  But I hope my motives will not be misjudged and that what has been said may contribute in some degree to stir the profession generally and this powerful association in particular to increase efforts to open the eyes of the British nation to the real state of matters regarding which it is at present blind: so that when the Temple of Janus (located in Rome, its gates were closed in times of peace but opened when war broke out) once more opens in our midst the services may be found in such a state of preparation and efficiency as is demanded by the honour and wellbeing of our country and the interests of humanity”.  A vote of thanks was proposed by General Harvey, late of the Indian Medical Service, who welcomed Ogston’s criticisms and the motion was seconded by Dr Clement Lucas, a distinguished surgeon from Guy’s Hospital, who thought it possible that Ogston’s remarks might engender a Royal Commission.  But this was the calm before the storm.

The immediate response from the press to Alexander Ogston’s address was to sit up and realise that the Professor of Surgery had said something highly critical of both the army and navy, which organisations most people took for granted were competent and modern in their thinking.  Terms such as “extraordinary”, “important”, “a sensation”, “severely criticised”, “Attack on War Office” and “trenchant” were used in the papers, but only rarely was there an editorial position taken on the veracity of Ogston’s claims.  The Pall Mall Gazette remarked that “Professor Ogston has done good service …”.  The Leeds Mercury called Ogston’s remarks “a sensation” but qualified this statement by “If we are to believe the Professor …”.  The Fife Free Press and Kirkaldy Guardian was a little bolder. “If Dr Ogston is anything like correct in his statements, he did well to speak out and speak out so boldly as he has done.  Clearly there is much room for improvement”.  Basically, the press was sitting on the fence, undecided on which way to jump.

The main defender of the performance of the medical services of the armed forces was The Times, a traditional supporter of the Conservative party, then the party of government under Lord Salisbury.  The Aberdeen Journal, perhaps wanting to do its bit to support the local hero, had a wry comment on “The Thunderer’s” performance.  “Professor Ogston’s vigorous criticism of the Army and Navy Medical Departments has set the official dovecotes fluttering, the Times has thought it needful to come forward with a word of defence.  It describes Professor Ogston’s address as “belated”, but the same may be said of the “Times’” comment, which only appeared on Saturday”.  “The Times” claimed that the recent Lansdowne reforms had solved the problem, which was clearly untrue.

The day after Professor Ogston gave his address, Friday 4 August, Parliament was in session and the Professor’s views were widely known to members.  The MP most willing to talk to the press was Sir Walter Foster, MP for Ilkeston in Derbyshire, a doctor who had been trained at Trinity College Dublin, who had fulfilled a number of senior roles, was a noted supporter of scientific medicine and was a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.  He was interviewed by a representative of the Daily Telegraph.  Sir Walter said that Ogston’s high reputation meant that his words should be considered seriously.  No one outside the army was better qualified to give an opinion on its medical service.  Remarking on the recent creation of the Army Medical Corps, he said that the War Office was alive to the need to popularise the service but that the issues of status and monetary reward needed to be attended to.  He also accepted that the present Army Medical Corps was not up to date in numbers or efficiency.  Sir Walter took issue with Alex Ogston on the claim that army surgeons were not being adequately trained to deal with wounded men.  He found this “a strong statement” because surgeons had usually shown they were equal to whatever task was placed upon them.  But he still agreed that they should be better trained in times of peace.  He also considered that the British Army medical services were not up to those of the major continental countries.  Clearly, he largely agreed with the criticisms that Alex Ogston had made, without passing comment on Ogstons suggestions for solutions.

There was no immediate official response from either the army or the navy to Professor Ogston’s critical analysis.  It appeared that the two military forces were probably seething but taking time to work out their lines of response.  When those responses came, the rejoinders of the military dwelled on the person making the criticisms and his proposed solutions, rather than on the deficiencies claimed.  The newspaper Army and Navy Gazette, whose target readership was “Journal of the Militia and Volunteer Forces”, possibly reflected the thinking of the military community both on land and afloat.  It ran two articles on Alex Ogston’s address.  The first, published on 12 August, mostly confined itself to summarising the content of the professor’s case, under the following headings, “the unsatisfactory condition of the services, the standard of military surgery, the want of adequate training and the under-manning of the medical establishments”.  It accepted that Ogston’s status meant that his views should be taken seriously and also his point that army surgeons lacked training in the procedures they would be expected to undertake.  It ended with the statement, “Professor Ogston’s address deals fairly with matters of vital interest to our Army and ought to carry weight”.  There was no specific mention of the navy in this report. 

The second report in the Army and Navy Gazette was quite different in tone, critical of Ogston personally and defensive of the navy.  It was published on 19 August.  “The medical department of the navy, we learn, has failed to keep pace with the progress of scientific surgery, whilst its general organisation is equally obsolete.  Following the professor’s address further, we find that his alarming indictment dwindles down into a somewhat insignificant complaint against the provision of quarters for the wounded.  This, to be sure, is no insignificant matter, but the defect of the limited accommodation of warships scarcely justifies the professor’s startling prelude, from which his audience must have expected to learn that Army and Navy surgeons were grossly incompetent.  There is, no doubt, good sense in the suggestion that naval surgeons should be afforded more opportunities of study in the great civil hospitals of the kingdom; but something in this direction is already being done, whilst the naval hospitals provide a great deal of valuable experience to a certain proportion of medical officers of all ranks.  In the ordinary course of service nearly all naval surgeons are attached to these hospitals, although it is true pass the bulk of their service afloat.  In these days of naval expansion, when every branch of the service is deficient in officers, it is not so easy as Professor Ogston imagines, to detach surgeons from the routine of duty.  The improvements in accommodation for the wounded so glibly advocated by the learned professor are quite impracticable, and yet, from the medical standpoint, we cannot dispute his conclusion that wounded seamen are likely to suffer horribly owing to the lack of adequate surgeries in ships of war.  Professor Ogston showed blissful ignorance of naval construction when he avowed that our marine architects could find no difficulty whatever in providing large spaces below the water-line for the accommodation of the wounded.  Every square inch of a modern ship of war is already required for the storage of coal, food and munitions, so that the problem of which the land surgeon speaks so lightly is full of difficulty.  As a lands man he may be excused, though the cobbler should stick to his last and leave ships to the seamen.  The alternative suggestion of building special hospital ships to accompany our fleet and attend upon them after an action is not of course new.  It was broached in another form at the Peace Conference and provisionally accepted.  But even here there is a difficulty for it is not clear how ships protected by the Red Cross can be prevented from obtaining such information as may influence an admiral’s strategy”.

It seems likely that the reporter at the Army and Navy Gazette had been briefed by a navy representative between the publication of the two articles and that the latter contained clues to the navy’s view of Ogston.  Alexander Ogston must have found it disappointing that so much of the counter-criticism was ad hominem and dealt with the suggested solutions, not the problems which generated suggestions for resolution.  He had gone out of his way in introducing his address to make clear that the defects he perceived were not personal (“The system is at fault, not the men”).  Perhaps a scapegoat was needed by the armed services?  If the navy, in particular, was populated by experts, why did its personnel not suggest their own solutions?  But such a positive line would have involved admitting, at least implicitly, that the present systems were inadequate. 

The Second Boer War broke out on 11 October 1899, and this must have immediately distracted Alex Ogston from the furore which resulted from his Portsmouth address, as he searched for a way to travel out to South Africa.  He left Aberdeen, with the monarch’s endorsement of his mission, on 15 December, but not with the blessing or support of the top brass of the army.

 

Alexander Ogston and the Second Boer War (11 October 1899 – 31 May 1902)

The journey out to South Africa

The complex ethnic makeup of the present-day Republic of South Africa is the result of many hundreds of years of population movements, by black tribes within the African continent, by white immigration from outside and by racial mixing.  Almost inevitably, such situations lead to inter-group conflict and there have been many such events in the history of the geographical area now encompassed by the Republic.  Dutch colonisation of parts of South Africa started with the Dutch East India Company establishing a trading post in Cape Town at the end of the 17^th century.  A British military expedition attacked the Dutch colony and brought about its surrender.  The colony was later returned to the Dutch but then reconquered during the Napoleonic Wars.  This led, in turn, to the exodus of many Boers (farmers of Dutch origin) in the Great Trek north from the Cape, leading to conflict with the indigenous ethnic groups whose territory they passed through and the eventual establishment of several inland Dutch settlements.  The discovery of diamonds in 1866 on the banks of the Orange River and of gold in 1886 in the Transvaal (both predominantly Dutch states) greatly increased the determination of the British to take control of the whole of South Africa and a policy of uniting all the separate colonies and settlements under British rule within the British Empire was pursued.  The British annexed the Boer-populated Transvaal republic in 1877 which provoked a Boer rebellion in 1880 and the First Boer War.  The British were soundly beaten at the Battle of Majuba Hill in 1881 and the Transvaal became independent again.  That did not stop British scheming and a major attempt was mounted in 1895 by Cecil Rhodes to take over the Transvaal using mercenaries.  This attempt failed and the Transvaal then formed an alliance with the neighbouring Boer Orange Free State.  However, tensions remained high between the Boers and the British, especially concerning the exclusion of the many British immigrants in the Transvaal (by then known as the South African Republic) from the popular franchise by the government of premier, Paul Kruger.  British forces were massed on the border between the British Cape Colony and the Boer South African Republic, and demands were made for the franchise to be granted to the mostly British immigrants.  Kruger refused and instead declared war.  This was the outbreak of the Second Boer War in October 1899 between the British on one side and the two Boer republics of Transvaal and the Orange Free State on the other.

South Africa in 1885.

Cecil Rhodes (1853 – 1902) was the son of a vicar and, due to chronic ill-health, he was sent out to South Africa at the age of 17 in the hope that the climate would ameliorate his medical condition.  A year after his arrival, using funds provided by bankers Rothschild & Co, he systematically bought out and consolidated diamond mines until he had created a near monopoly.  He founded the diamond company De Beers in 1888.  In 1881 Rhodes entered parliament in the Cape Colony and was prime minister between 1890 and 1896, when he had to resign over his organisation of the Jameson Raid, which had attempted to overthrow the Boer administration in the Transvaal.  The territory of Rhodesia was named after him.  Rhodes’ poor health finally saw him off when he died in 1902.

Cecil Rhodes.

Alexander Ogston viewed the outbreak of war in South Africa in October 1899 as another chance to further his knowledge of the provision of medical services to the sick and wounded in time of war and, inevitably, to practise his own surgical skills in the extreme conditions of (then) modern warfare.  However, earlier that year, in August, he had delivered his address to the BMA conference in Portsmouth on the status of medical services in the British armed forces and had found them decidedly wanting, when compared with what was being achieved in other European countries.  His son-in-law, Herbert Grierson, Professor of English at Aberdeen University and husband of Alexander Ogston’s daughter, Mary Letitia, recalled the military reaction to Ogston’s views.  “The address I fear did him no good with the heads of the Medical Service and but for Queen Victoria he would not have seen anything of the war in South Africa, which in many ways confirmed what he had said”.  The Royal Army Medical Corps did not want Ogston out in South Africa where he was sure to find aspects of the medical service to criticise.  They took the attitude that in the fog of war military commanders just had to pursue objectives unflinchingly with the resources they had available, no matter what the deficiencies or defects and without outside interference.

In 1892, Alexander Ogston had been appointed Surgeon-in-Ordinary to the Queen in Scotland and subsequently got to know the monarch tolerably well.  He provided medical services to the Royal family and their guests while the Queen was staying at Balmoral, which was for about four months of each year. Alex Ogston was also a regular invitee to social events held at the Castle since his own estate of Glendavan was nearby.  Queen Victoria’s eighth child and fourth son, Prince Leopold, was born in 1853 and endured poor health due to being a haemophiliac, this X-chromosome linked condition having been inherited from his mother, who was a carrier of the defective gene.  On 6 October 1899, Queen Victoria wrote in her journal, “Poor dear little Leopold is laid up again with a bad leg, & suffering great pain, which is very distressing. Professor Ogston, from Aberdeen, came to see him, & said complete quiet was the only thing”.  Prince Leopold had probably suffered a bleed into a joint.  Alex Ogston visited Balmoral again two days later, probably to see his Royal patient again.  "On the 8th of November 1899, when I was as Balmoral Castle, Queen Victoria was so good as to interest herself in my going out to South Africa to the Boer War, and promised introductions to the military authorities there".  It is unclear precisely how Ogston broached the subject with the Queen, and he may not have needed to do more than hint that he wanted to go but had no introductions.

Queen Victoria 1899.

The letter from Queen Victoria to Alexander Ogston, signed by Sir Arthur Bigge, her Private Secretary, has survived.  It was written at Windsor Castle and is dated November 24^th, 1899. 

“My Dear Professor Ogston, The Queen is much pleased and interested in hearing of your intention of visiting South Africa, for the purpose of studying military surgery in the operations of our troops; and Her Majesty highly appreciates your self-sacrifice in thus at your own expense going to the seat of war, with the intention of giving your valuable services to the wounded.  By Her Majesty's command I am writing to the military authorities to render you all possible assistance.  Please refer at once to Sir R. Buller (Sir Redvers Buller, overall commander of the British forces until 23 December 1899, then the commander of the Natal Field Force) on arrival, from whom I am sure you will get all necessary help.  Yours very sincerely, Arthur Bigge”. 

Ogston was later to reflect on the military attitudes he encountered when he arrived in South Africa.  “The Queen's letters (more than one?) had the effect of my obtaining assistance in everything I requested from the military authorities in South Africa, but I even yet feel a sense of humiliation in saying that such impediments as were placed in my way came from the head of the army medical department there. While this was so, and while it threw into relief the behaviour of the military chiefs, I feel bound to add that nothing could have exceeded the kindness and frank friendliness of the subordinate officers of the army medical service, with the exception of a very few who sided with the party which believed itself wrongly assailed in my Portsmouth address. Still the result was that I did not see so much in some directions as I had hoped, and had reason to congratulate myself on having gone out on my own charges and responsibility, without having asked for the countenance of the then Director General, for I fancy, had I done the latter, my opportunities might have been even fewer. As the event proved, and as good fortune would have it, I obtained the most valuable insight into matters which I might have entirely missed had I been able to carry out my original intentions”.

The Aberdeen University magazine “Alma Mater” reported that Professor Ogston “had been requested to proceed as soon as possible for South Africa in order that his valuable advice and assistance may be at the disposal of the medical authorities there”, which brought a sharp rejoinder from Ogston that this statement was inaccurate and asking for a correction in the next issue.  This intervention by Alex Ogston suggests that the initiative had come from him and was merely supported by the monarch.  Before leaving Great Britain, Professor Ogston resigned his presidency of the “the section of navy, army and ambulance at the AGM of the BMA”.  Alexander Ogston left Aberdeen Joint Station on the evening of Friday 15 December 1899 to make the journey overnight to London before travelling on to Southampton.  There were no formalities at the station, only his wife, Isabella and two daughters with their husbands (Professor and Mrs Cowan, and Professor and Mrs Grierson) being present to bid him farewell.  Dr Dawson Williams editor of the BMJ, met AO at Waterloo station.  AO was asked to send communications to the journal but he declined, except that anything really important would be communicated. At Southampton he boarded the 4,661-ton Union Line steamer “Mexican” which had a regular run between Southampton and Durban, calling at Madeira, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth.  The vessel sailed on the afternoon of 16 December.  Farewell telegrams arrived at the steamer from Mrs Ogston, Prof and Mrs Grierson, Mrs Cowan and the Earl and Countess of Aberdeen.  Queen Victoria sent a first consignment of Cadbury’s chocolate for the troops via the “Mexican”, which perhaps indicates her own confectionary preference, as well as her concern for the comforts of her soldiers.  The “Mexican” had also taken on board a large number of boxes of stores mainly of a medical nature, but also ammunition, including Lyddite shells, as well as mail for Cape Town, Durban and other South African ports.  Lyddite shells were high explosive artillery shells designed to explode on impact and named after Lydd in Kent where they were manufactured.  They were first used in combat during the Second Boer War.    The “Mexican” reached Madeira on 20 December and Cape Town on 3 January, where Ogston disembarked.  Two other steamers, one the “Gascon”, left Southampton on the same day that the “Mexican” departed, both carrying many troops.

ss Mexican.

At the start of the war in October 1899, before British reinforcements began to arrive, Boer forces attacked the British territory of Natal and put the town of Ladysmith under a siege, which would last for a total of 118 days.  Through a mixture of incompetence and inexperience, the British suffered many casualties in the fighting around the town, the Boers proving to be adept at combat in the local conditions.  The first attempt at relief resulted in a British defeat at the Battle of Colenso (15 December 1899) but the siege was finally broken on 27 February 1900.  The diamond mining town of Kimberley in the Cape Colony also came under siege, which trapped Cecil Rhodes in the settlement.  The first moves to break the siege by forces led by Lord Methuen were blocked by the battles of Belmont (23 November 1899), Modder River (28 November 1899) and Magersfontein (11 December 1899).  Relief finally came on 15 February 1900 through the actions of a cavalry division under Sir John French.  Immediately after the siege was removed, action against the Boers continued at the Battle of Paardeberg (18 – 27 February 1900), where General Piet Cronje and his Boer forces surrendered.  Another town, Mafeking, in the north of Cape Colony was also put under siege by the Boers from the day after the declaration of war.  Robert Baden-Powell (founder of the Boy Scout movement) played a key role in organising the defence of that town, which was relieved after 217 days in May 1900.  When British reinforcements started to arrive in South Africa, the priority was to relieve the besieged settlements before diverting resources to advances on the Boer territories.  Alexander Ogston’s sojourn in South Africa took place between 3 January 1900 and 11 July 1900.  It covered the period between the first arrival of reinforcements on a large scale, the relief of the besieged towns and the over-running of the Boer heartlands, but not the subsequent guerrilla campaign conducted by the Boers.

When the “Mexican” reached Funchal in Madeira on 20 December, Ogston learned that the opening phase of the war had not gone well for the British.  Sir Redvers Buller’s troops had been defeated at the Battle of Colenso on 15 December, with over 80 killed, 600 wounded and 300 missing.  Buller took the blame for this reverse and was moved sideways, Lord Roberts (popularly known as “Bobs”) being made commander in chief of the forces in South Africa in his place, with Lord Kitchener appointed as Roberts’ chief of staff, effectively second-in-command.  Ogston’s response to this reverse was bleak.  “What grim resolution must be the frame of mind of Government and country when it has come to this”.  “Clearly we are all going out at the right time.  We were not much wanted before, but are sure to be so now”.

AO found a curious mix amongst his fellow passengers on the “Mexican”.  Between 1/3 and ½ of the passengers after Madeira were going out in connection with the war.  Two Dutch families on board were returning from tours in Europe.  There was a mixed lot in the First Cabin with AO,  including Hugo de Bathe who had crowned his career by marrying Mrs Langtry, the former Royal mistress, and been sent out, according to Ogston, to give him a chance of “death or distinction”.  Major D Tyrie Laing was also on board.  He was a Scot by birth, hailing from Edzell in Forfarshire.  As a boy he enlisted in Aberdeen in the 93^rd Highlanders.  Tyrie Lang so distinguished himself that he received a commission.  He then left the army, refusing further promotion and moved to South Africa where he was entangled in the Jamieson Raid, a botched raid against the Transvaal at the end of 1895.  Tyrie Lang had become wealthy through his involvement with various mining and other businesses.

Christmas Day was spent off the Cape Verde Islands when the health of “the Queen, the President of the United States and those at home” was drunk.  The “Mexican” arrived at Table Bay on the evening of 3 January and docked the following morning.  Ogston called on Mr Richard  Solomon, the Attorney General, and a friend AO had first met in 1894, and they dined together, which gave Ogston a chance to catch up with the news.  He heard that his long-time friend, William Stokes (now Sir William) was coming out as a consultant to the army at Cape Town.

 

The visit to Belmont and Lord Methuen’s forces

Alex Ogston did not want to hang around after his arrival in Cape Town.  On 5 January 1900, he left Cape Town station with a number of officers going to various locations.  Along the railway, every bridge and culvert in the Karoo was guarded by a picket of Cape Mounted Rifles.  Ogston learned from Major Shute that many ladies having nieces in Cape Town were anxious to help in the hospitals there and at the front and that there was a very great need of their services due to bad cases of typhoid.  However, the military authorities were looking only to male nurses, whereas in the UK females would have been employed to help.  He reached De Aars Junction on Sunday 7 January., where a military hospital train was receiving invalids from General French’s column.  Ogston made an “imperfect examination” of it.  The rear carriage was for nurses and doctors and had corridors, the next was the pharmacy and kitchen unit.  The front carriage was fitted with bunks like steerage bunks on a ship.  AO was not impressed with the train but he found the sister in charge to be “very impressive”.  On 8 January he caught a train to Belmont, where he was able to visit the battle sites of Belmont, Modder River and Magersfontein and make significant observations, some recorded as sketches in a notebook, which survives in the Aberdeen University Archives.  Lord Methuen was in command of the troops in this area.  The following is a passage from Ogston’s book, “Reminiscences of Three Campaigns”.  “On the 23rd of November 1899, when the battle was fought, the British force, about 8700 in number, and consisting largely of the Guards Regiments, was drawn up in line opposite the fortified hills, at some distance to the west of and parallel to the railway. Our bearer companies were with this line, and our field hospitals on the right rear, near some buildings called Thomas's farm. The cavalry were on the flanks. The attack was a frontal one, and when it had advanced and reached the railway, the artillery were established there and came into action. As the line advanced farther in open order across the plain, where there was no cover, the Boers opened fire, and the first casualties took place at about twelve hundred yards from the enemy. Owing to the height of the Boer positions, it seemed to me when examining the ground that the zone of their fire would have had a breadth of only about seventy yards, for their missiles must all have been directed at an angle downwards. Before the hill was reached, our men had to ascend slopes, at first of five to ten degrees for over a thousand yards through short, prickly bushes; but at the hill foot the slope increased to twenty degrees, or over, with scattered rounded stones a foot and a half in size, giving no cover; and finally, beneath the Boer breastworks, the slope increased to forty degrees and the stones became almost continuous. On both sides it seemed to have been the rifle fire and the bayonet which decided the result, for the shrapnel had, as I calculated by carefully cutting down the sparse bushes over areas of twelve by twelve feet and minutely examining the hard dry earth, reached a severity of not more than one bullet in every forty-eight square feet”. 

Lord Methuen.

But his wanderings about the site of the battle were observed by the understandably suspicious British forces.  “My study of the field of battle was not entirely uninterrupted. When commencing them I observed, away to the south, Colonel Pilcher leading a column of mounted men, infantry, guns, and wagons, off to the south-east towards the Orange Free State boundary, and when I was espied measuring and photographing, a mounted officer was detached from them to inquire what I was doing, but the exhibition of my pass satisfied him…”.  This interdiction of Ogston was actually carried out by an Aberdonian NCO, Corporal John Youngson, who was attached to the Canadian Rifle Infantry.  The story was carried by the Aberdeen Peoples’ Journal.  "He (Youngson) says he was on outpost duty, and a mile off observed a stranger wandering on the veldt (open, uncultivated country or grassland in southern Africa).  He took a file of men with him to inquire the man's business, and from his pass he saw he was Professor Ogston, Surgeon to Her Majesty in Scotland.  "I handed it back to him." says Corporal Youngson, "with the remark - "I ken whaur you come frae - Aberdeen, bonnie Aberdeen.  That's whaur I belang.  My name is Youngson.  We shook hands heartily".

As well as making investigations of the density of incoming missiles, Alex Ogston also collected information on the performance of the army medical services.  “The work of the Army Medical Corps, under the direction of Colonel Townsend and Major B (Major Beevor.  Ogston was coy about naming many individuals in his book dealing with his war experiences, but the individuals are fully identified in his war journals), had been admirable. When the bearer companies brought in the casualties, the field hospitals were moved forwards to the railway station and a ganger's hut farther to the south, while dressing stations were established under the shelter of the projecting spurs of the first hills, which I have likened to the fore and hind feet of the recumbent rhinoceros. From the accounts I obtained the surgical work was recognised by all as having been most excellent”.  Alex Ogston returned by train from Belmont to Modder River and on his journey met with some NCOs and privates who had been wounded in the fighting and were returning to their units at Modder River and he questioned them on their experiences.  “All agreed in criticising unfavourably the army hospitals, where they had been denied those small luxuries which meant so much to them and would have relieved their sufferings and discomforts during their convalescence. Some had been treated in a hospital which was provided, they understood, by the Good Hope Society, and there, in contrast to the others, they had had daily gifts, such as cigars, fruit, and newspapers. I was told that when they were in camp in Cape Town there were many who wished to send to the private soldiers such things as effervescing drinks, Eno's fruit salt, tinned and fresh fruit, and tinned dainties, which would have been very welcome and which they missed in these hot days, but that such things were not allowed to reach them. Some of them who had, during the cold weather, been occupying tents, longed for the simple indulgence of nightcaps to cover their heads at night, but such things were either not sent to them or, if sent, not issued”.  Ogston’s return train journey was delayed for almost six hours at De Aar Junction, where several military hospitals were situated, and he had time to visit them.  He found 160 patients, 35 in bell tents and the rest in wooden huts.  His findings were not wholly positive.  “The typhoid fever cases only seemed to have their temperatures kept; the arrangements for treating fractures of the thigh by extension could have been improved had better beds been provided; and there were few comforts for the inmates. There were no antitoxin serums. I was shown a tent crammed with all sorts of gifts for the patients, such as fruits, fresh and preserved, tobacco, clothing, etc., which were, I was told, being distributed as seemed judicious. There was no X-ray apparatus, and the instruments, sterilisers, irrigators, etc., were somewhat ancient in type and not quite what one would have expected in the Third Stationary Hospital of the Lines of Communication. There were, moreover, at that time no nursing sisters at De Aar”.  As noted earlier, Alexander Ogston consistently favoured women over men in nursing roles.

When Alexander Ogston first arrived at Belmont station he was greeted by Major Beevor an army surgeon whom he had met at Tamai during the Sudan campaign, though at first he did not recognize Beevor.  By that year, Major Beevor had become a prominent military surgeon due to his work on bullet wounds.  Walter Calverley Beevor was the son of an MP, had been trained at Edinburgh University and had had experience in many military campaigns.  He subsequently called and asked Ogston to consult on two patients, which indicated that he had a substantial regard for the medical skills of his civilian compatriot.  There was later a further reference of a wounded soldier to Ogston by Major Beevor who had been wounded in the Barah Valley on the North-West frontier of India.  This patient was Major Norie of Thainston House, Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, an officer in the Ist Battalion 2nd Goorkha Rifles.  Norrie was shot with a Snyder bullet which entered his left humerus from the elbow joint and exited at the shoulder, even damaged the acromion (an extension of the scapula).  He had grasped the wound with his left hand to check the free bleeding and continued commanding and ordering his men.  At a lull in the fighting, he had a tourniquet put on by a sergeant and was put on a dhoolie and carried over rocks and streams, in which the dhoolie dipped in the water, until he could be treated.  The main vessels in the upper arm had been shot through and all tissues below the tourniquet had become gangrenous.  Mr Beevor thought his chances of recovery were poor but Norie assured him that he would not die.  His arm was amputated at the shoulder, with part of the acromion also being cut away.  Norie had been carried for four days by his Goorkas, who remained outsde the operating tent, refusing to leave him.  He recovered well and returned to service in the army in South Africa, a remarkable example of courage and devotion to duty.  He was one of three soldier sons of Major-General Evelyn Norie, and had been awarded a permanent wound pension of £100 per year  

Colonel Townsend agreed to attach AO either to a bearer company, or to a field hospital in his command, provided that Ogston would give a helping hand if needed.  AO readily agreed.  Ominously, even at this early stage in the war, typhoid fever was becoming a major cause of illness amongst the British soldiers.  Alec Ogston summarized his findings on military medical services observed during his visits to Belmont and Modder River.  He concluded that wagons are superior to bearers, who could not carry a man as far as was required.  Bearers could walk about 200 yards behind the front line.  They were very heavily worked in the last fight and had very little rest for four days and nights.  The Boers, with a few exceptions, behaved very well and never fired upon ambulance and bearer parties.  The ambulance wagons, which were drawn by mules, performed well.  All wounded men were evacuated at once.  The Boers used country wagons to transport their wounded.  They were rough but generally worked well.  Some German doctors were ministering amongst the Boers, and even amonst the British for a day or two, though the German nation was generally supportive of the Boers.  Ogston also made observations on the ammunition being used by the Boers, as a result of his own research into the wounds caused by different types of bullet. The Boers were using small Mauser bullets of 6 or 7 mm diameter and also Remington, Winchester and Snyder rounds.  Some soft nosed and flat ended bullets were employed, or with about ½ in lead exposed (ie rounds which would deform or fragment on impact).  Ogston also expressed negative views on the avoidance of water-born diseases like typhoid fever, and on the conditions under which wounded, or sick, men were being housed.  No antitoxin serums or anti-streptococcus serums were provided for the troops at Modder River.  Although water taken for cooking was initially drawn from the Modder River upstream of the camp, drinking water was often not boiled due to a lack of time, or a lack of fuel.  There were 19 typhoid cases at that time, all segregated in a former school house, but it was overcrowded and staffed only by male attendants.  These patients received few comforts and no medical charts were being kept.  Ogston concluded that the whole place required “a woman’s hand”.

 

The visit to General Gatacre’s forces

On 10 January, Alex Ogston caught a train back to Cape Town.  At the station he met Charles Profeit, the second son of Alexander Profeit, the Balmoral Estate Commissioner between 1875 and 1897.  Charles was a senior doctor serving in the army.  After crossing the Karoo desert at night, Ogston breakfasted at Worcester on Friday morning where he learned that 25 refugees from Vryburg were on the train.  Part of the group consisted of seven or eight women with children.  The group had done much trekking in wagons to reach De Aars and many of their number were in utter poverty.  AO took pity on them and in an act of generosity he invited eight of them to join him for breakfast.  More could not be accommodated due to a lack of places, but he also ensured that all 25 got “a good feed of bread, meat and coffee”.  After eating he continued his journey to Cape Town arriving on 12^th January.

William Forbes Gatacre, a career soldier with a record of success in India and the Far East, had been appointed head of the 3^rd Division in the Second Boer War, which was allocated the task of securing the Cape Midlands close to the border between the Cape Colony and the Orange Free State.  However, he soon had a set-back and suffered damage to his military reputation.  Boers from the Orange Free State made a limited incursion into the Cape Colony along the Stormberg Valley and General Gatacre decided, perhaps impulsively, to make a quick counterattack.  This led to the Battle of Stormberg which took place on 9/10 December 1899 and resulted in a bad defeat for the British, including the surrender of almost 1,000 men.

General Gatacre.

On 13 January 1900, Alex Ogston embarked on the ss “Dunottar Castle” of the Union Castle Line at Cape Town, bound for East London in the Eastern Cape.  The ship, which had brought out Lords Roberts and Kitchener, had been requisitioned as a troopship.  East London was reached early on 16 January, having called at Port Elizabeth (Algoa Bay) on the way.  This latter port was favoured over East London for the importation of heavy machinery for the mines in the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, due to the difficult landing conditions which often obtained at its rival further north.  Professor Ogston also noted that the export of wool, mohair and ostrich feathers also tended to go through Port Elizabeth, while gold and diamonds generally left the colony via Cape Town. Ogston’s landing was a bit precarious.  The passengers were taken ashore in a strong wind by a steam tug, Ogston dressed in his uniform to smooth his passage through officialdom.  The ladder for getting into the steam tug was rather slippy and one man fell off and was prevented from entering the sea by a hemp defender.  AO got rather wet, though he had on a light Mackintosh.  Some ladies were less fortunate and had their dresses ruined.  On arrival at the jetty, Ogston had to jump to the steps holding a swinging rope when a favourable chance came.

Alex Ogston went up into the town leaving his cloak at Mr Julius West’s office.  He was a young and capable businessman providing transport in the current war.  Julius West gave AO a letter for his brother in Queenstown, who would assist with Ogston’s travel arrangements.  The Aberdeen surgeon then bought newspapers, posted letters and took photographs.  He planned to travel across the disturbed district between the columns of General Gatacre and General French.  Next Ogston bought a basket of oranges, grapes, pears, peaches, bananas and mangoes, returned to the jetty and was taken back to the Dunnottar Castle.  However, the wind had freshened almost to a gale, the sea was very rough and entry to the boat was rather difficult.  Ladies, children and tipsy men also had to make the jump, which was accomplished without loss, though the children had to be carried by sailors.  The trip back to the Dunnotter Castle led to scenes which Ogston later described colourfully in his diary.

“The drunken men boasted and quarrelled, made friends, vomited and sang patriotic songs, God Save the Queen and Rule Britannia, horribly profane, then profoundly and grotesquely polite as they observed ladies on the other side, hugged their vomiting comrades from imagined kindness into upright and uncomfortable positions, fell down amongst the washing water and puked material and so on”. 

AO kept his stomach and was grateful for the water coming aboard as it tended to quell the drunks.  He was sorry he could not photograph the jetty as they left.

“It was packed like the gallery of a theatre with faces, tier above tier, black grinning faces with short woolly mops of hair, glistening skins, black beady eyes, white rows of teeth and open red mouths; black women with red handkerchief caps on their heads, coloured men and women, yellow men and women, a few whites, dock men and friends of the passengers, and a sprinkling of Khakie clad soldiers”. 

Ogston could not recall how he and his basket of fruit got back to the ship, though his Mackintosh kept him largely dry. 

“Groups of negro deck passengers, merry, glossy and of course, grinning, perched on the top of staunchions, sitting tailor-fashion on the luggage wrapped in their blankets and negro women with groups of their children and tenderly cuddling their little black babies”.      

The base commander at East London was Major Smyth of the Royal Scots Fusileers.  Ogston got a permit from him to travel to Sterkstrom camp and also a note of introduction to Major Hart of the Royal Army Medical Corps.  AO was shown around the Trojan hospital ship by Hart.   The vessel could accommodate 70 convalescent men and 70 men requiring to be forwarded and, in effect, it was acting as a base hospital for Gatacres columns. Alexander Ogston had an appointment to meet with General Gatacre at his headquarters in Sterkstrom, Cape Midlands, about 130 miles north-west of East London and close to the border with the Orange Free State. 

At 7.45am on Tuesday 16 January, Ogston’s train started for Sterkstrom and he arrived at Sterkstrom Camp on Wednesday morning.  On the journey he had picked up a deal of scuttlebutt about General Gatacre, all of it derogatory.  He was greeted by Lieutenant-Colonel Dallas Edge, principal medical officer at the camp.  Alexander Ogston found General Gatacre “living in a state of almost Spartan simplicity” in a railway carriage in a siding.  He put Ogston at his ease and was completely open about his military plans and status at Sterkstrom, even drawing diagrams in Professor Ogston’s own notebook.  Alec Ogston was given complete freedom to go where he liked and to take photographs and make sketches about the camp.  “He finally offered, quite unsolicited, to place at my disposal an armoured train in which I could proceed to the outlying parts of the country held by the forces under his command and obtain a closer view of the Boers' entrenchments at Stormberg kopjes (Boer word for small hills in a generally flat area). I need hardly say I was grateful for such kindness and willingly accepted the offer of the armoured train, which he forthwith ordered to be in readiness for the afternoon”.

Ogston’s description of the armoured train was interesting.  He photographed it and was introduced to Lieutenant Gossatt of the Royal Irish Rifles who had charge of this fortified curiosity.  This was the only armoured train anywhere in South Africa which was still in use, due to care and skill of its custodian.  The vehicle was used both for fighting and for repairing railway lines.  Many attempts had been made by the Boers to disable the train, which consisted of two castle trucks with an engine between, all protected by ½ in iron armour along the sides and over the top.  The armour gave full protection against small arms fire.  There was a platform on the outside on which soldiers could stand while fighting and also a slit at eye level through which soldiers could fire.  Wooden shutters were fitted which closed the slit at night to give a measure of insulation against the cold.  When fighting, half the soldiers would lie down on the floor and fire through iron sliding shutters.  A Maxim gun, an early machine gun design, could be fired through a small door at each end of the carriage.  Bells and whistles were used for signaling and the total weight of the train was about 120 tons.  At 3pm AO and Colonel Edge, with 25 soldiers, got on board and steamed north towards the Boers at Stromberg.  The train climbed a range by taking loops and turns and passed through cuttings and over bridges.  When the skyline was reached they got out and mounted horses to ride up to the fortified peak, called Bushman’s Hoek, where Maxim guns were in place for defence.  Ogston was able to walk about and observe the Boer positions for some time before returning to the protection of the armoured train for the journey back to Sterkstrom Camp.

ss Dunnottar Castle.

Ogston was also shown the local field hospital “where there were eight or nine cases of typhoid fever, fifteen or twenty of gastro-intestinal disturbances, a few wounded or injured, mostly from horse accidents, a couple of eye cases, and some minor ailments. The hospital consisted of ten double bell tents under the charge of Major Laing. There was a fairly good operation tent in which there was a simple and convenient operation table, the invention of General Gatacre himself”.  However, the hospital had no X-ray apparatus.  One had been applied for, but the request had been refused.  Professor Ogston also discussed the role of female nurses with Colonel Dallas Edge, “… he held advanced opinions as to the employment of nursing sisters in field hospitals, such as that at Sterkstrom, where typhoid and pneumonia had to be nursed. But others of the medical officers under him held other opinions, maintaining that nurses usurp the functions of the trained orderlies of the R.A.M.C., interfere with their training and so lessen their efficiency; that there were difficulties about 'conservancy'; that their tents could be seen through at night, and that with the young officers lounging about them scandals arose; that some of the army nurses were 'above' performing certain services for the men patients, and that many of the officers preferred men to render these special services, and would not have women about them at any price. This rather astonished me, but I may say that these views were quite exceptional and seemed to be held by those who had had only limited personal experience of army and other trained nurses”. 

Alex Ogston was aware of the criticism that had been levelled at Gatacre’s conduct of the Battle of Stromberg and of the rumours about this officer’s unconventional views, so he was keen to test the rumours through personal experience.  Professor Ogston had been rather blunt with Gatacre in conversation, saying that he had made a mistake in ordering his officers to remove all badges of rank, as in battle officers of different units often got mixed up and needed to know the status of a stranger.  But Gatacre had been open and friendly with him and that had clearly coloured Ogston’s personal view of this senior officer.  Writing much later in his book “Reminiscences of Three Campaigns”, he gave his overall impression of Gatacre.  “Finally, I lunched with the General and took leave of him. It was with sincere regret that I said good-bye, for no one had showed me more goodness than he and his officers, and no one interested me more deeply than did General Gatacre. I have devoted a good deal of space to my relations with him and his staff, collecting my materials partly from memory and partly from notes made at the time, for I had heard so much gossip and so many strange tales that I greatly desired to arrive at the truth regarding him. It was well known at Sterkstrom and elsewhere that he was most unfortunate in the very beginning of his command with the calamitous attack of the 10^th of December on the Stormberg heights where the Boers were entrenched. Many of the officers in the Sterkstrom camp described and commented in various ways on the affair to me, and wild rumours were afloat; but no one concealed his conviction that, however happily it may have been conceived, it was badly carried out. It is certain that the General, who possessed immense endurance and a tireless physique, overrated the capacities of the soldiers under his orders. The troops who were to carry out the enterprise, after working hard during the day, were put in the evening into crowded trucks at Putter's Kraal and despatched by the railway to the Stormberg junction, reaching it about 2 a.m. They had then to march for twelve miles, instead of the ten which were expected, and arrived at their destination after daylight instead of before it, in an absolutely exhausted condition, without having had any food, and being short of water as well. After they had arrived at the Boer positions, they were themselves taken by surprise, as it was the wrong part of the entrenchments which they attacked, with the result that large numbers of them were captured by the Dutch and the rest badly routed”.  Ogston clearly agreed that Gatacre had been guilty of a serious misjudgement.

While he was in camp at Sterkstrom, Alec Ogston discovered that a local newspaper had announced his arrival in the following terms.  “He is a handsome man of fifty six and he does not show any frills”, which meant that he did not give himself airs.  This description fitted Ogston’s view of himself, as he wrote in response, “My best thankyou, Mr Editor”.

 

The visit to General French’s forces   

Three railway lines, running roughly parallel to each other, passed from the coast of the Cape to the Orange Free State, one starting at Cape Town, another began at Port Elizabeth and the terminus of the third was located at East London.  The armies led by Lord Methuen, General Sir John French and General William Gatacre were located on those lines in the same sequence.  Alex Ogston had visited Lord Methuen shortly after his arrival in Cape Town, he had interviewed General Gatacre at Sterkstrom and now he wished to make the rather hazardous journey across country from Sterkstrom to meet with General French’s army.  His plan caused some alarm amongst Gatacre’s officers.   “After breakfasting with General Gatacre, I returned to the hotel, wrote up my notes, packed my small baggage, and arranged for its being sent to the station. My intention was somehow to pass across the disturbed country lying between Gatacre's and French's columns, along the southern front of the Orange Free State. This was considered to be rather hazardous, and my friends in Sterkstrom therefore provided me with a Red Cross brassard (arm band), the wearing of which was likely to diminish the risk, and I fell in willingly with their suggestion to do so”.  For his risky journey, Alexander Ogston hired a Cape cart from Queenstown, which lay about 35 miles south-east of Sterkstrom. This was a two-wheeled, four-seat, horse drawn vehicle which was suitable for travelling over rough country.  Ogston left Sterkstrom at 4pm on Thursday 18 January. 

Cape Cart.

 

General Sir John French.

Alexander Ogston set out from Queenstown in his Cape cart on the morning of 19 January 1900 to travel across country in a westerly direction to Tarkastad, which was half-way on the 60 miles journey to Craddock.  This area was settled mostly by Dutch people but, while travelling, he met an English settler who told him that the local Dutch population was not actively hostile to the British and this view was cemented during the rest of his drive.  “During this cross-country journey I gained the conviction that the Dutch residents as a whole, with the exception of the young, ignorant hot-bloods, were too well satisfied with the government of the country under the British rule to be exceedingly desirous of any change. Most of them were kind and courteous to me when I stopped at their houses for meals or other requirements and were quite frank in expressing their opinions. There seemed to be little doubt that a majority of them, however reluctantly, would have risen in rebellion had the Boers from the Transvaal and Orange Free State obtained a victory and invaded the province, though even then there would have been a large minority undesirous of this; but there was nothing resembling race hatred between the two nationalities, and those who had been long in touch with the British had experience of the advantages of their just and sympathetic rule, and desired no change which might have been for anything but the better”.   However, the situation was different at Tarkastad, where he hired another cart to take him on to Cradock.  “There were a good many Boers gathered in the Molteno Hotel; they were evidently unfriendly, some of them intoxicated, and a few remarks were made about me and my wearing the Red Cross, which though spoken in the 'Taal' (Limburgish Dutch, spoken around Limburg which straddles the Dutch, Belgian and German borders, and imported to South Africa by the Dutch immigrants) I managed to understand from my knowledge of European Dutch. They did not actively interfere with me, however, and I should have been comfortable enough had I not, when I retired to bed, had to hold it like a besieged fort against strong investing cohorts of bugs, who stormed it and attacked me whenever my candle went out or I fell into a short nap”.  Alex Ogston reached Craddock, which was located on the railway line coming up from Port Elizabeth, safely at 2pm on Saturday 20 January.

Having gained the railway line, it was Alex Ogston’s intention to travel north the 70 miles to Rensburg where General French’s forces formed a front against the invading Boers who were located nearby at Colesburg and Naauwport.  When Ogston arrived at Rensburg, General French was absent, so he introduced himself to Lieutenant-Colonel Donovan, who was the Principal Medical Officer to General French’s column.  Sir William MacCormac, a prominent consultant surgeon from St Thomas’ Hospital. London and surgeon-in-ordinary to the Prince of Wales, was there too.  Ogston described MacCormac as “looking old and haggard in his war paint”.   Donovan was polite but reserved at first, though he thawed after some conversation with the famous visiting surgeon and took him to a high point where they could overlook the Boer positions.  Subsequently, he visited the medical facilities, where he found the staff to be highly competent.  “The medical staff at Rensburg were doing excellent work. There were two field hospitals and two bearer companies; one pair was distributed over the extensive front, a section being at Slingersfontein, ten miles to the east of the camp, and another even farther away, seven miles beyond that. The work was mostly surgical, only one case of typhoid being in hospital at the date of my visit. One dreadful case of amputation at the hip joint, magnificently managed, was on the way to recovery under the care of Captain P” (actually Captain Carter).  But, as Ogston had found in other locations, medications and equipment were severely lacking.  “It was disappointing to find that such officers were so badly provided in some respects. They had no serums, and no operation table beyond the army panniers. The packets of first dressings were somewhat rude affairs, and had been coarsely made up by a firm in Cape Town; and the two railway ambulance cars they possessed, though most cleverly fitted up on trucks by Major A (actually Hamilton) , were, as may be imagined, but poor substitutes for properly constructed cars, for I travelled down by the train on which they were running, and the journey in them was a rough experience for invalid or injured soldiers. An ambulance train for which Colonel Donovan had telegraphed had been refused to him on account of the expense”.

Sir William Macormac.

Having completed his investigations at Rensburg, Alexander Ogston then travelled on by van to Naauwport (by then in British hands) and caught the train travelling from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town.  On the last part of his journey, AO had many war correspondents for company in the guard’s van and they annoyed him by sitting on his kitbag and threatening his cigars and photographic film.  He was told Fred Villiers was one of them.  As a result he left the train at Naauwport and waited for the train from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town where he arrived on 23 January 1900.  He hoped to see his friend Stokes while he was there.  This was achieved that evening when he saw Stokes at dinner.  It was a joyful meeting.  Stokes had come out on the Carisbrook Castle, was staying at the Grand Hotel and was going on to Natal.  He too had seen Surgeon General Wilson and found him frigid.  There was nothing for Stokes to do in Cape Town as there were only a few minor ailments in the hospitals.  Ogston concluded that the military in the RAMC were jealous, or hostile, to civilian doctors.  They were also jealous of the Red Cross Society.  Many people complained to him of obstruction from Wilson.  Stokes told AO that Watson Cheyne was also there and being posted to De Aar and that Mr Cheatle was going to Modder River.  George Cheatle was a prominent surgeon who had been trained by Lord Lister.  Ogston last saw Stokes on 27 January before the latter left for Natal.  They said goodbye to each other, though Ogston observed that he was white and thin and wondered if Stokes should be leaving, but he had been given no choice by the imperious Wilson (see below).  Stokes died of pleurisy on 18 August 1900 in Pietermaritzburg.

Ogston had now visited three of the four armies arrayed  against the Boers (he had not visited General Buller’s group operating in Natal) and Ogston had now to decide where he would spend the rest of his time in South Africa.  General Buller had been displaced to command of the Natal Group following the early setbacks for the British forces, to be substituted by Lord Roberts (with Lord Kitchener as his Chief of Staff).  British military fortunes started to look up immediately upon the accession of Roberts and Kitchener.  Alexander Ogston wanted to be present where there was likely to be the most action, his own view being that this would be around the besieged town of Kimberley, given its importance to the diamond trade.  He decided to visit Lord Roberts, who was present in Cape Town, to ascertain his views and was able to obtain an appointment.  Roberts suggested that Ogston should wait for two weeks before making a decision and, in the meantime, to visit the medical and other facilities around Cape Town.  Roberts was clearly planning his campaign for relieving the besieged towns at this time.

 

Visits in and around Cape Town

As usual, Alex Ogston did not squander his opportunities.  He had called on General Wilson, the chief principal medical officer, who was clearly not overjoyed at Ogston’s presence in the Cape Colony, keeping him waiting for a long time before receiving him, being “frigidly polite” and questioning Ogston’s army rank, or service, since he was sporting a quasi-uniform bearing his Sudan medals.  Ogston described his meeting with Wilson as “the last that shall take place with my will”.  At least Wilson did not get in the way of Ogston’s visits in and around Cape Town.  Alex Ogston found the failure to employ Red Cross resources dispiriting.  “On a visit to the Red Cross Depot in Parliament House, I found plenty of useful stores accumulated there, but a want of proper organisation for their distribution; they might almost as well have been left in England for all the use they were in Africa. … The Good Hope Society was introduced to my notice by Dr. David Gill, a former class-fellow, then Astronomer Royal at Cape Town. It was originated to provide luxuries and comforts for the sick and wounded, but I was informed that the attitude adopted towards it by the Red Cross Commissioner, Colonel Young, and by the R.A.M.C., had chilled their hopes of being of much service, and I found them deeply concerned to find their benevolent intentions being rendered futile. They had collected funds to the amount of £3000, of which they had already expended half; they had many women anxious to nurse, though perhaps only a limited number of them were trained and fully qualified, and of these no use was being made as far as I could learn. … On the afternoon of the 26th of January, I attended a meeting of the Society, and heard addresses by members who reported upon the work of the association. What I there learned convinced me that, except in a few very important directions, their work was rendered of almost no avail by the unspoken but clearly shown jealousy and even hostility of the army medical department. It was plainly most galling to that body of warmly patriotic Britons and Colonists that their earnest efforts to place their services and wealth at the disposal of our country should have met with so chilling a reception. All the best of the British residents were present at the meeting and in sympathy with its objects, and it was deplorable to realise that their endeavours for the good of the motherland were being frustrated by those who represented the British Government”. 

Moving around in the upper echelons of Cape society brought him into contact with “Many ladies beautiful women who at first appeared to be butterflies come to flutter in the eyes of the military”, but he found that he had misjudged them and that they were intent only on doing good.  “I think it was there that I first fully appreciated the immense power which voluntary aid is capable of rendering to a nation in time of war”.  One impressive lady he met was Lady Cavendish Bentinck (Lady Olivia Cavendish Bentinck, wife of Lord Henry who was a captain in the Derbyshire Yeomanry serving in South Africa).  This lady was mentioned in dispatches in 1900 for providing civilian services in the Boer War.  She explained the working of some of the medical charities for the sick and wounded to Ogston and told him of the Claremont Sanatorium for officers.  It was arranged for AO to visit the next day, Thursday 25 January, followed by the Portland Hospital which was tented and was sent out by her brother-in-law.  Four nurses had been sent to Modder River and two more to De Aar.  She also told Ogston that Surgeon General Wilson had turned down the offer of Logan’s Hospital and also another one nearer to Cape Town.  She told the Aberdeen surgeon that all the army medical officers were in terror of him!  Further, the two discussed sending materials to men at the front who were not actually ill but needed comforts, and also sending houses and nurses to the required places.  Realising that Ladysmith, Kimberley and Mafeking would soon be relieved, they talked about the help that would soon be needed.  The two arranged to lunch together the next day at Mr Cecil Rhodes’ house, Groote Schuur (“big shed” in Africaans), which lies under one of the most easterly cliffs of the Table Mountain range, where she was living. 

AO also saw Stokes after dinner on 24 January and again the next morning, “after seeing my patient Mrs Impey” (presumably a private patient), though the two surgeons soon had to part because Stokes was leaving for Wynberg Hospital.  About this time Ogston learned more about the obstructive, hostile behavior of Surgeon General Wilson, who did what he could to minimize the Red Cross, volunteer surgeons and volunteer aid in general.  He appeared to think that the Red Cross were spying out defects in the military medical provisions but that there were none, or very few.  He had refused the offer of Sir James Seivewright’s house near Cape Town, as well as Logan’s hospital.  He has filled Lady Randolph’s hospital ship “Maine” with a number of people he wanted sent to Natal and sent it off there without Lady Cavendish Bentinck’s consent or approval.  Watson Cheyne had been sent to De Aar and told he was not to open an abdomen and “must dress his wounds in such and such a fashion”.  He told Stokes that he must go to Natal but that there would be little for him to do there, save to treat typical fever cases.  Ogston was finding repeatedly in South Africa that the criticisms he had made in his BMA address in Portmouth of the provision of medical services by the military had been entirely justified.

On the afternoon of Thursday 25 January, Ogston visited the Portland Hospital which was under the effective control of Mr Anthony Bowlby a distinguished consultant surgeon from St Bartholemew’s Hospital in London, though formally it was under the command of Major Kilkenny.  Lady Cavendish Bentinck drove AO over to the Portland hospital.  She and Mrs Bagot had brought it out from England and Lord Portland, her brother, had fitted it out.  It acted as an annex to the No 3 Rondebosch Military hospital and was composed of quilted bell tents under the charge of Colonel Wood.  Ogston was introduced to Lord Henry Bentinck and Mrs Bagot.  She had four sisters at work, all trained in London and they deal with all the dressings for the 104 beds.  Additionally, there were a dozen or so orderlies from the RAMC but Mrs Bagot said they were quite incapable of dressing unseptic wounds and they lacked skills in other ways too.  The Portland was far better managed than any other military hospital that AO had, to that point, seen in South Africa.  It was well equipped, especially its operating theatre which contained an x-ray apparatus.  The only thing lacking, in Ogston’s opinion, was an electric drill.  Otherwise, it was well equipped with instruments.  Mr Bowlby told him that some of the military patients had not been provided with proper splints.  Bowlby showed AO a horseman who had been shot by the Boers in his leg and elbow with explosive bullets.  His leg had been splinted with his rifle and his arm with a newspaper.

On 27 January, Ogston visited the Wynberg Military Hospital, which had two parts able to house, in total more than 1500 patients.  It had a mix of military and civilian surgeons and was generally well equipped and competently managed.  This hospital was lit by electric light and had a good supply of water derived from Table Mountain.  However, there were some defects.  There were no electric saws or drills, no antitoxin serums and no bacteriology department.  The pavilions were full of bugs and the feet of the beds had to be put in kerosene to deter the insects. Alec Ogston was introduced to Colonel Pretorius the Boer leader, with whom he shook hands.  He had had his left leg amputate at the thigh.  Ogston described the Boer as, “A great solid, courageous, yellow-haired man bearing his troubles bravely”.  He was in a ward with the other wounded Dutch prisoners and AO spoke to and examined several of them.  After his recovery, Pretorius was returned to the Boer community by order of Lord Roberts, on account of his bravery.     

However, by the end of January 1900, Alex Ogston was chafing because his activities were of marginal significance for the central aim of his mission.  He even become “heartily sick” of staying in the luxury of the Mount Nelson Hotel.  On 29 January he started preparations for his assumed next mission by buying a variety of things, in anticipation, including a mercury thermometer reading from 0 to 200 degrees Farenheit to make observations of the temperature of the soil and its consequent disinfecting power in the camps.  Colonel Richardson had managed to obtain one of the boxes of Cadbury’s chocolates which had been sent out on the command of Queen Victoria to comfort the troops in South Africa.  They were commanding high prices, up to £5 each (about £535 in 2026 money) and Alec Ogston sent his precious box of confectionary home by registered parcel post to be kept as a souvenir.  Ogston was still utilising his time to the full before his departure from Cape Town.  He visited the hospital ship “Prince of Wales”, with the permission of Surgeon General Wilson!  The Aberdonian also boarded HM Transport ship “Catalonia” moored in Simonstown Bay, which housed 440 prisoners of various nationalities, but mainly Boers, one or two of whom Ogston described as “evil-looking”.

Ogston decided to return to the headquarters of General Roberts on 2 February and left an application with his secretary “to be attached to some part of the forces where I could study the methods of bringing aid to the wounded under the modern conditions of warfare”.  He did not offer his services as a surgeon because there were, in his view, sufficient trained operators available.

General Lord Roberts.

Before leaving Cape Town, Alec Ogston made one final visit to local medical facilities and this was an unusual example.  It was to Robben Island, which translates from the Dutch as “Seal Island, on 5 February. The island is located in Table Bay and is roughly oval in shape, 2 miles x 1 mile.  It started to be used as a prison, leper colony and animal quarantine station in the early 19^th Century.  When Ogston visited this location it was essentially divided into two halves by a fence, one part for housing the lepers and the other containing the prisoners.  A whale boat crewed by “four brown boy convicts in white suits stamped all over with arrows” rowed Ogston out to the island.  The passengers got on board and were transported to the jetty where AO was presented to Mr Pearce the Commissioner.  There was a mixed bunch of 100 criminals incarcerated at this location, including some who had been found guilty of unusual offences, such as illegal diamond buying.  There was separate accommodation for men and women and outside work.  Lepers to the number of 500 – 600 were mostly native blacks but some inmates were Dutch and other whites were also seen.  Some children were present and one or two babies had been born to leprous parents.  Maimed people lay or crawled about the wards and deformed hands and feet were common.  Patients managed to do work with deformed limbs, such as sewing with stumps of hands.  Cases were grouped in the different wards, for example the paralytic kind, were all in one ward but cures were rare.  However, there had at least been no known infection of a healthy attendant.  The patients had games, football, fishing and various festivities at New Year.  There were several churches, a mortuary and a cemetery, with graves marked by handsome headstones and crosses, on the island, which also had a clean water supply.  The food provided for the inmates was good and there were four or five windmills to provide power.  The steamer from Cape Town visited on four days per week, but the passage was often very rough.  After taking lunch with Dr and Mrs Black, AO went to see the pathology and bacteriology labs of Dr Mitchell.  There he saw some nice preparations of the leprosy bacillus.  Dr Black had found that such bacteria were always and early present in the discharge from the nose.  Ogston also saw the section containing 300 criminal lunatics.  All sections were quite clean, airy and nice.  There was a quarantine compound for dogs on the island, which was needed due to the prevalence of hydrophobia.  After tea with Mrs Atherstone, AO returned to Cape Town, which he reached at 5.30pm.

 

The Modder River camp

On the morning of 6 February, AO went round to General Roberts’ office and Colonel Cowan told him that he was to go to Modder River tomorrow night, where he would be attached to the forces under the command of Lord Methuen.  Ogston was provided with the necessary passes.  This news delighted the Aberdeen surgeon, as he would have chosen this destination had he been free to decide his own fate.  His guess was that Methuen’s column would be the focus of coming military activity in making a push to relieve Kimberley.  But the medical military command was not enthusiastic about Ogston’s presence.  He was warned by General Wilson that the coming activity would be “no kid glove campaign”.  Ogston asked to be attached to Colonel Townsend’s forces and, reluctantly, Wilson agreed.   Perhaps in a further attempt to discourage Professor Ogston from embarking on this venture he was refused all support, such as a tent and transport on the day of departure.  It would have been impossible in the six hours available to organise horse, cart, tent and servant.  “But I was not a man of feather beds”.  He left his gold watch, medals and decorations in deposit in the head office of the Standard Bank and with AR Mackenzie and Co, Waterkant Street he left his rifle and umbrella, a wooden wine box of instruments and clothes, a leather hat box, a small canvas valise, a game bag with netting containing instruments, and a haversack of brown canvas containing more surgical instruments.  AO obtained a receipt and insured his belongings for £125.  Mackenzie and co would keep them for me and send them, singly or together, as required.  “I take with me only my leather portmanteau, big kit bag and Ulster coat, which contain all that I shall require in this phase of the campaign.  I am taking, after due reflection, no weapons”.  He had placed his Mauser pistol in the wooden wine box.   “My decision to go without more than a small portmanteau of clothing did not cost me an instant’s thought”.  This was the evening of 7 February 1900 and he had a journey of about 470 miles to his destination, which was reached at midnight on 9/10 February.  AO then slept on the train because he did not want to rouse Colonel Townsend at that late hour. 

At this point in his diary is a finger (or thumb) print, presumably made by AO.  Was this a deliberate attempt to leave a mark of his identity for posterity, in case he should expire during this expedition?  At that time fingerprints had been in use for this purpose for about 50 years.When Alexander Ogston had last been at Modder River camp, it had held 12,000 men.  Now it held about 60,000.  On 10 February 1900, he reported to Colonel Townsend, to whom he was to be attached, and found him welcoming. It was also fortunate that he already knew several members of the medical staff.  There were some hospitals close to Methuen’s headquarters and a small number of experienced nursing sisters, but the conditions inside the hospitals were appalling.  There were flies everywhere, swarming around the faces and even inside the mouths of unconscious men.  Enteric fever (typhoid or paratyphoid fever) was rife and getting worse, with significant mortality.  Ogston, with his literary bent, described these horrific conditions.  “Many men were dying, and in the evening the bagpipes were wailing the “Flowers of the Forest” as small sorrowful groups of kilted men went slowly and solemnly across the veld to the cemetery carrying the uncoffined bodies of some poor Highlander comrades who had given their lives for England (Ogston often uses “England” when referring to the United Kingdom) and died far from home amid rough, though kindly strangers”.  Of the injured who were being evacuated down the railway to Cape Town, he wrote, “The poor lads knew and had experienced what were the realities of war; a brief fight or two; brief joys bought at the price of cartloads of dead comrades, and probably never a visible foe; the malaise; the illness; the dread hospital or sick tent, crowded, hot, noisy; food which they loathed; restless days of heat and flies superadded to their sickness, nights of fever-tossing or snatches of rest broken by the groans, the sufferings, the smells, the death noises and cries and the passing away of two or three daily of their companions in the ward, whose last agonies were hidden from them by no friendly screen”. 

In Cape Town the forbidding Wilson had told AO that he would only get food and nothing else and that very little could be carried.  “But I did not come here to be frightened out of my purpose by anything, even by far worse than he hinted at”. …“And things came right enough”.  Coutts got him a tent, though it was one out of which a typhoid patient had just been carried.  A mess sergeant undertook to fetch him a bucket of water every morning – there was his servant provided.  His two feet would form a means of transport and he anticipated he would also find a light kitbag which he could stow it in some baggage van.  Ogston also anticipated that he would be able to buy a horse, or mule and a cart. 

It was about 30 miles from Modder River to Kimberley and on the morning of 11 February, when Alex Ogston awoke, he found that the tents which had housed half the soldiers were empty, the occupants having risen during the night and marched out towards Kimberley.  These were the first moves by General Roberts in his plan to relieve “diamond city”, using those classical military weapons, force, speed, deception and surprise.  Fighting with the Boers soon started and continued until 14 February, including the removal of the Boers from Jacobsdaal, east of Modder River.  Two days later the enemy was cleared out of Magersdorf and Kimberley was entered by the cavalry force commanded by General John French.  The Boers then retreated towards Bloemfontein just over the border in the Orange Free State and were harried by the British forces ending in the Battle of Paarderberg which was fought between 18 and 27 February and resulted in a British victory, but at enormous cost.

The remaining half of the personnel in the Modder River camp were told to evacuate and move towards Johannesberg but on 18 February that plan was aborted as their carts were needed by General Roberts.  Also, wounded soldiers started coming in from Jacobsdaal, so the hospital tents had to be re-erected and Alex Ogston seems to have been involved in treating the wounded.  About 18 February, Ogston was able to visit and make a survey of the battlefield at Magersfontein, gaining great respect for the tactics and ingenuity of the Boers when they defeated Lord Methuen there on 11 December 1899.  Instead of building stone breastwork on the top of the kopjes the Boers had constructed deep and narrow trenches on the plain at the foot of these hills.  The British had pounded the hills with artillery, which achieved almost nothing.  However, when they advanced over the plain towards the kopjes, they were raked with withering rifle fire from the trench systems over a distance of about 1,000 yards according to Ogston’s estimate.

The period before Ogston was able to move out of the Modder River Camp towards Kimberley was characterised by rumour and a lack of reliable information about the state of the struggle taking place ahead of them, though they could hear gunfire and refugees had started to flood in from Jacobsdal.  Ogston spent time with Major Coutts, his former pupil, in his fever hospital on 15 February in order to study the organisation and effectiveness of nursing in the Army Medical Service.  Very few of the male orderlies of the RAMC were to be trusted with the management of the sick in Ogston’s opinion.  His solution to the problem was the empowerment of women in nursing, cleaning, disinfecting, feeding, tending, thermometry and so on.  Women would be much better and there was no reason, in AO’s view, why they should not be used in all buildings utilized as hospitals.  He believed that even in tent hospitals and field hospitals a trial of female nurses should be made.  Ogston was confident they would save life and suffering and that cleanliness in hospitals would gain mightily.  It was also on this day that he saw Charlie Profeit, the son of his friend, the Balmoral Estate Commissioner, whom he found “well and hearty”.  There were other distractions which caught Alec Ogston’s attention.  The army was using observation balloons and on 16 February one such device was sent to up in order to determine if the Boers were holding their positions.  Another intrusion upon Ogston’s observation of the war was the size and variety of invertebrate wildlife.  A large centipede of 4in long was caught and also two large tarantula spiders.

The management of the camp and its hospitals, as well as the fighting and advancing, were being regularly disrupted by major sand storms.  On 17 February, AO was in the group which had started to strike camp but, as they were doing so, they spotted a sand storm approaching from the south.  It lasted for several hours before abating.  Ogston’s revised schedule was then to move out with a party at 6am on 18 February but the plan was again disrupted by a serious stand storm, the worst Ogston had ever known, which came on at 11pm that night.  A few days later he experienced clouds of locusts.

Ogston had been growing increasingly concerned about the rising incidence of enteric disease, especially typhoid fever and while the hospitals at Modder River Camp were reasonable well equipped to deal with wounds, they were poorly prepared to deal with typhoid.  Ogston thought there should be special fever trains with more space and compartments and provision for nursing and comforts.  He also perceived need for special lavatories and washrooms and that there should be a sanitary corps to look after the state of the camps and the use of wells, rivers and drinking water supplies, the state of garbage, cleanliness of latrines and disinfection of faeces.

 

Life in Kimberley, the treck to Kimberley and a brush with Cecil Rhodes

During the night of 20/21 February, AO had another attack of choleric diarrhoea.  He put himself on a biscuit diet and hoped that his malady would clear up, otherwise he miught have to abandon travelling to Kimberley.  After a second bad night marked by sickness and vomiting he decided, after breakfasting on sweet biscuits and consommé soup, that he would continue his travel by train towards Kimberley.  When his party arrived at Kimberley station it was deserted.  AO and others walked up to the town and though some houses were shut up, apparently there was no damage.  Remarkably, near the middle of town the trams were running, drawn by three mules.  Ogston met various acquaintances during his ambulation and eventually arrived at the sanatorium belonging to the De Beers Company where Mr Cecil Rhodes lived.   Ogston had a letter of introduction to Cecil Rhodes, who had been holed up in Kimberley during the siege which ended on 15 February but, on arrival at his residence, AO found that Rhodes was eating lunch.  Ogston sent in his card and a letter, hoping that Rhodes might invite them to join his table, as they had not eaten since early morning.  They waited half an hour and also hinted to the porter that they would appreciate some refreshment, but nothing happened.  As a result of this treatment, which Ogston clearly felt was off-hand and inhospitable, he departed leaving a message that they could wait no longer.  Later Rhodes sent an invitation asking Ogston to dine with him that evening but the famous surgeon, still smarting, perhaps from what he perceived as a failure to recognise his status, delivered his own snub, sending a verbal message that he was unable to accept the invitation.  “So, I lost the only opportunity I ever had of making the acquaintance of Cecil Rhodes”.  Perhaps Alex Ogston later regretted his self-important impetuosity, which may have been precipitated by the illness gestating inside his alimentary canal?

The same evening Alex Ogston caught the 7.00pm train back from Kimberley to the Modder River Camp.  The train was made up only of trucks but a Mr. Pullen had gone to the station people and told them that AO was “an enormous swell”, so they had put on a carriage in front for him.  AO called Pullen “a good liar”.  The ride back to Modder River was described by Ogston as “darkling”.  Back at the camp he found that instead of shrinking further, it had grown with a substantial influx of sick and wounded from the Jacobsdal fight and a great shortage of medical and non-medical stores was developing, though the camp’s military significance was substantially diminished.  To make matters worse, the area was subject to tremendous thunderstorms and deluges of rain, both day and night.  In Jacobsdal there had been a serious outbreak of typhoid fever which was being treated by volunteers from Germany, a country sympathetic to the Boer cause, there being no Boer medical staff to minister to the sick.  Also, very ill Boer fighters with serious wounds to the head or spine were being brought in by ox wagon, as there was no alternative, more suitable transport available.  It was important therefore to move out the sick and wounded down country as soon as possible to accommodate the incessant newcomers.  To make matters worse, typhoid broke out in the camp with a mortality rate of about 24%.  The situation was very stressful and not just for the patients.  Ogston witnessed several cases of mental breakdown requiring evacuation amongst the officers.  Was Alexander Ogston actually taking responsibility for patients at this time?  That was unclear, because he always preserved patient confidentiality and never talked about the people he personally treated, though he certainly was proffering his opinion, which was frequently sought by other doctors.  But medical resources were so stretched that it seemed he must have been acting in a medical capacity.  In one difficult case his advice was to carry out Garden’s amputation of the thigh.

Ogston’s dramatic prose described the situation brilliantly in all its human suffering and anguish. 

“Sunday 25^th February.  Very early in the morning a large number of patients were seen approaching from Jacobsdal over the plain and before breakfast was finished they were streaming like armies of ants towards us.  All kinds of carts were being used for ambulance transport.  Some had no covers, others good covers.  Often two wagons were linked to the same team.  Men with dysentery, men spitting blood, men with torn hands and limbs with broken bones on laths of rude splints or a mere bandage and no splints at all. Men shot through the head, through the chest, through the hip, through the shoulders or arms, men with every kind of injury that could be aggravated by movement.  Often they had nothing to soften the bare boards.  Some sitting, some lying, heaps and clusters of suffering humanity scorched by the sun, chilled by the night cold and drenched through by the tremendous tropical thunder rains that constantly fall until their clothes dried upon them, through the night or day.  And for three nights and days they had ploughed over the rough sandy veld and ploughed through fords and jolted over rocks.  And here they came many with the white sick, pinched faces of men in deadly pain others with the grim locked jaw of men sternly bearing pain that can be born by pluck: and others, less ill, helping the others in any little poor way they could.  All brave and uncomplaining.  These were the slighter cases that had been sent on.  Those called severe are left at Jacobsdal or elsewhere where we hear that they have hardly any blankets a tent or other necessities.  And what kind of cases they were and what their condition we can only imagine from the milder cases that they have sent on here in such a condition.  Most of the cases were shot on Sunday 18 February and they arrived here on 24^th, 6 days more or less en route, or waiting to get en route and they have actually been travelling in the wagons for 3 days and nights.  Some had their wounds dressed at Klipdrift and again at Jacobsdal.  Dressings seem to have been well done, some with German materials.  Although everything seems to have been done for the patients that it was possible in the circumstances to do, their condition is nonetheless pitiable.  They have had little food and their cots were verminous, all adding to their other troubles.  About 430 cases came into No 1 Divisional Field Hospital and Major Peard’s hospital close to us got another 400.  And now ensued a busy day attending to the needs of these patients”.

In spite of this difficult combination of circumstances, Ogston’s tourist aspect occasionally surfaced.  On 27 February 1900, Mr Whitehouse presented AO with an ostrich egg that someone had given him.  It was opened and the yolk turned into an omlette which was quite palatable.  The shell was then preserved to take home as a souvenir.  Dr Russell, the house surgeon at Kimberley Hospital visited AO on his way through Modder River and called on the Aberdeen surgeon, presenting him with a local newspaper from Kimberley, which Ogston also retained as a keepsake.        

Later, this representation of hell got, if that were possible, even worse.  The camp was visited one night, probably 4/5 March, by a violent storm with heavy rain.  Alex Ogston described the scene. 

“One day we had just returned from dealing with a case of secondary haemorrhage from an amputation stump, where the common femoral artery had to be tied …The major heard a marquee near at hand go down, for he was one of those who missed nothing, and called for volunteers to carry the officers who were under it into shelter.  All who were in our marquee followed him out and found a wet flat mass flapping on the ground where the marquee had stood.  We uncovered and pulled out the wounded officers who had all been in their beds, some of them almost naked, heaped everything upon them, waterproof or otherwise, that would cover them, and bore them on their beds through the deluge into our half-dismantled marquee.  Excepting myself, having had the foresight to throw on a mackintosh cloak, every one was drenched in the process.  As we were carrying over the last bed, behold! half of the camp seemed to sink into the ground before our eyes; tents shrivelled and sank down like tinfoil melting in a fire, and in two or three seconds, while we stood wonder-stricken, thirty or forty tents were gone, and in their place were sodden flat masses of writhing patients covered with tent poles, wet canvas, and nooses of tent ropes.  Naked men struggled out, blinded men, wounded and helpless men, and men with rheumatic fever, wailed and groaned, and an insane negro who had been tied to a tent pole shouted and shrieked, while down ever came the torrents of solid water.  From every quarter there seemed to rise from out of the ground pillars of lightning flame like torches, as if sent to light up the scene, and the thunder stunned us at rapid intervals as it crashed overhead.  Such a thunderstorm I had never seen before, but I was immediately to see one yet worse”. 

Alex Ogston then endured a hailstorm which rained down icy missiles more than an inch in diameter.  He had been exposed to heavy rain and strong winds in the Highlands of Scotland, but nothing before like the fury of these South African storms.  AO recorded in his diary, “It has been an evil time indeed”. 

The dreadful conditions in the field hospitals soon became a topic of conversation and complaint, especially in Cape Town civic society and the responsibility for this state of affairs was laid firmly at the door of the principal medical officer, who did not react well to being criticised.  Alex Ogston wrote the following about the army medical authorities.  “I myself was often the recipient of complaints as to the condition of some, particularly of one, of the hospitals, of the indifference with which the efforts of ladies and gentlemen to be serviceable in attentions to the sick and wounded were met, that ladies wishing to give voluntary help were refused admission to the wards, and even that offers of beds for sick men lying on the ground were refused. … In truth it seemed to me that there was abundant evidence that the heads of the Army medical department in Africa were out of sympathy with progressive ideas.  The principal medical officer in especial was the usual product of the department in those days.  A man of ability and a good administrator, he believed, and expected others to accept, that the army medical service was perfect; he had no proper appreciation of the value of the civilian consultants who were sent out by the authorities at home, told them there was nothing for them to do, and that there were only a few minor cases of ailments in the hospitals (one of his staff told me personally the same story), and presumed to direct eminent metropolitan surgeons exactly how they were to deal with penetrating abdominal wounds , and even the fashion in which they must dress the wounded men …”.  The principal medical officer also had an overweening disdain for the Red Cross.

The food available in the military hospitals was poor.  An officer in the Army Service Corps even complained in the correspondence columns of the newspapers.  “My official position is sufficient authority for the truth of the statement that deficiency of milk and medical comforts is quite inexcusable.  The supply officers place no limit on either.  The army doctors can have them without limit; but they refuse for reasons best known to themselves, to avail themselves of the opportunities offered.  The cooking is execrable.  Food, as cooked here, is barely eatable by a sound man.  The only excuse the army authorities can offer is that it is wartime”.While Alexander Ogston had unbounded praise for many of the Red Cross’ volunteers and donors, he was critical of the self-aggrandisement followed by some senior officials of the organisation.  “As regards the British Red Cross Society, its attitude, as reported by prominent and patriotic citizens of Cape Town, was not altogether a satisfactory one.  Some of their officials seemed to suffer from the arrogant idea, which elsewhere and often has been one of the weaknesses of that organisation, that no voluntary assistance to the sick and wounded can be rendered otherwise than through the Red Cross Society, and this had caused it to be regarded with some dislike and indifference.  Their chief officer had, by some representations of this sort, manoeuvred the Good Hope Society, whose good intentions I have already described, into making him its agent, intimating that in no other way could they render effectual service”.  Although in his book on his experiences in three military campaigns, Alex Ogston did not identify this incompetent man by name, he was, in fact, Mr Abbott who represented both the Red Cross and the St John’s Ambulance Association.

During the advance rowards Kimberley, Alex Ogston had made repeated, unsuccessful attempts to locate and meet his cousin, Charlie Ogston who was serving in the Gordon Highlanders in South Africa.  Finally, on 5 March, the two of them met, when Charlie limped up to him.  He had been in the trenches at the Battle of Paaderberg.  The Canadians had been running back from the Boer guns and jumped into the trenches.  The Gordons bayonetted some of them before they realized who the entrants were.  One of the Canadians landed on Charlie Ogston’s ankle and crushed it.  The “fog of war”, a term introduced by the Prussian von Clausewitz in 1832, certainly applied to the situation decribed by Charlie Ogston.  Alexander shared his tent with Charles, which led to an amusing but macabre incident.  When Charles Ogston started scraping a hollow for his hip before retiring, Alexander said “Be careful what you’re doing, I’ve got an arm buried there”! 

On 9 March 1900, before leaving the Modder River camp, Ogston, in the company of Captain Lawson of the RAMC, went to visit the site of the Battle of Magersfontein, located a few miles from Modder in the direction of Kimberley.  This fight had taken place on 11 December 1899, and Ogston and Lawson surveyed the places which had been occupied by the field hospitals.  They passed over the area where the Highland Brigade had charged the Boers over open ground and where Major-General Wauchope, the commander of the Highland Brigade, had been killed.  Ogston surveyed and photographed the trenches and the tops of kopjes.  Entrenchments on the kopjes were in the form of circular stone breastworks.  The protective trenches were nearly bomb-proof and the sides of the kopjes were pock marked with Lee Metford bullet holes.  Ogston counted 19 in area 3ft x 3ft.  In another place he counted seven shrapnel fragments in an area 3ft x 3ft.  Most of the shell cases had remained intact after they had exploded and not fragmented.  However, the Lyddite cases had fragmented into many pieces.  The Aberdeen surgeon collected many shards of metal and other souvenirs.  The British bombardment of the kopjes had been ineffective because the Boer shelter trenches had been placed in front of these low hills.  As a result, in the following charge the British losses were very heavy and the result was that the advance on Kimberley was significantly delayed.  AO picked up three pebbles from the spot where Wauchope was killed and they will reappear later in this story.  The two investigators then visited the Boers’ laager (entrenched position).  Ogston likened some of its features to the Pictish remains found between Lochs Davan and Kinnord.  They found much detritus of both war and domestic living left scattered about in the laager.  Ogston found the area around Magersfontein to be the most picturesque he had seen in South Africa.  The two medical men returned to camp by the Kimberley road and Ogston subsequently remarked that he was impressed by the flowers on the veld.  But, in spite of his continuing activity, Alex Ogston’s heath was far from satisfactory.  He admitted that he had had repeated strong attacks of dysentery, but claimed they were “always stopped by chlorodyne” and always occurred after drinking the water when not boiled.  “But I shall carry on to the end were it to cost me my life – for I am doing some good here and today the Colonel thanked me for the good work I had done among them”.  Many of the officers and men were also ill, some with typhoid fever. Late on 11 March 1900, after a dust storm had delayed his departure, Ogston continued his treck towards Kimberley in the company of Major Coutts, Mr Longmore and another doctor by the name of Thomas.  A new hospital was to be created in Kimberley and the old site at Modder River would then be abandoned.  These four would share many distressing events over the next few weeks.  The Modder River was putrid and stank with the corpses, mostly of horses washed down from Paaderberg.  Ogston was glad to get away from the chaos and stench.  Their train had many wagons, each pulled by 16 oxen and each with two Kaffir boys as drivers.  They did their jobs noisily and when all the wagons were moving the air was thick with the crack of whips and the throaty sounds of the drivers.  The whole wagon train was about a mile long.  It was supposed to have an armed escort of 25 men but they never appeared, leaving the column to travel in Free State territory with only three or four mounted infantrymen.  The travelling caravan managed 12 miles on the firt day and six more on the following day, camping outside Kimberley..  For part of the journey Coutts and Ogston shared a horse.  The medical unit to which Ogston was attached was travelling light, so as to maintain mobility and be able to react quickly to where they might be needed in the field.   

Kimberly proved to be a haven of civilisation compared with the conditions that Ogston had endured at Modder.  As soon as they were free, Longmore, Thomas and Ogston went down into the city and washed at the Military Club.  Ogston, in an act of generosity, arranged with the Grand Hotel to give dinner to all the officers of the field hospital. Ogston’s relief at being free of the dangers of Modder were freely expressed in his diary. “While we were at Kimberley it was a source of delight to us all, after the imperfect sanitation of Modder, to have supplies of water which we could drink without the constant thought that we might be swallowing typhoid death, that we were able to touch our lips with our bathing and washing water in safety, and that cleansing our teeth was no longer done at the peril of our lives, which was ever present to all of us at Modder”.  But one aspect of camp life remained the same: maladministration.  It took 2 ½ days for proper latrines to be fitted up, even though most of the 60 patients being housed were suffering from typhoid or other abdominal infections and sewage was gathering around the hospital.  “All this was not the fault of the medical officers; they were mostly indignant and outspoken about such a state of matters, but what could the overworked and undermanned staff do where no sufficient provision had been made in advance to meet such conditions?  I often thought that my Portsmouth Address was as milk compared with their condemnatory remarks.  One esteemed and most devoted officer (Captain Coutts) expressed openly the hope that a history of the medical aspects of the war in all their naked truth might some day be published, and someone meet with severe punishment”.  Coutts could not have guessed that his companion, Professor Ogston, would at least partially fulfil his desire.

It was at Kimberley that Alex Ogston finally managed to catch up with Barney Grierson, the younger brother of his son-in-law, Herbert Grierson, husband of Ogston’s eldest daughter, Mary.  Early on 13 March he made a strong effort to find Barney by visiting the camp of the Diamond Fields Horse.  There was a Corporal Grierson in camp and an orderly was sent to get him.  On the appearance of Barney, Ogston exclaimed “This is my man” and the next moment they were shaking hands.  Corporal Bernard Grant Grierson had seen a deal of military action but had completely avoided any injury.  “His comrades had been shot beside him and had bespattered him with their blood and brains, yet he himself was never even grazed”.  Barney showed Ogston the fields where he had been involved in the fighting.  The roads which had been constructed during the siege were paid for by Cecil Rhodes.  Ogston also saw “Long Cecil” a 28-pounder which had been manufactured in the De Beers works.  Both Alex Ogston and Barney took the opportunity to have a haircut, though Ogston said Barney’s cut was “to within 6/10in all over”.  Barney shared AO’s tent that night and Coutts provided a stretcher on which Barney could sleep.  Ogston also sent a telegram to Herbert Grierson saying that he had met Barney and that he was fine.  A few days later Barney called to let Ogston know that he had been promoted to sergeant and that a commission was in the offing.

Alex Ogston and his medical colleagues then enjoyed a short period of relative calm in Kimberley before moving on in pursuit of the advancing columns of troops.  He commented that he was living in the comparative lap of luxury and was not overworked.  AO even found time to send 60 negatives home and 60 more to be developed by Duffus Brothers in Cape Town.  One injured soldier he saw was Private Comben of the Royal Engineers who had a thorn embedded in his hand causing a serious infection.  Ogston operated on him under chloroform and the following day his temperature had come down.  But this lull did not last for long.  On Sunday 18 March 480 patients arrived from Paaderberg accompanied by only one surgeon.  Many of these men had dystentery and they had to void their bowels over the side of the carts transporting them.  Even the water buckets were found to be full of excrement.  One patient had his clothes covered from head to foot with his own faeces when he arrived at the Kimberley field hospital.  Major Coutts’ opinion was that nearly all his men had typhoid fever.  He has been put in charge of sanitation at the new camp but given no men or the officers necessary to implement a plan.  This was a most horrific demonstration of the validity of Ogston’s charge, repeatedly made, that the army needed to give as much attention to sanitation as it did to medical services, since so many men were being incapacitated by infectious disease caused by faecal contamination.

 

In and around Boshof

However, in advance of moving on from Kimberley, Alex Ogston was again showing signs of being unwell and he admitted on 23 March that he had just had a second attack of dysentery, which apparently passed off by the following day.  He had been treating himself with bismuth and chlorodyne.  Ogston’s colleague, Captain Lawson, also became ill on 23 March and was somewhat better the following day but unable to get up and still had a high temperature on 25 March.  Ogston was becoming weaker and feeling the need for transport, so that he could carry some instruments with him, if he were to move on from Kimberley.  Although the prospects for acquiring such help looked slim, he did manage to buy a Basuto pony for £27-10s and a Cape Cart for a similar price. (£56 in 1900 was equivalent to more than £6,000 in 2025 money).  Ogston tried out the combination, and pony and cart seemed to move satisfactorily together.  However, all was not well with other medical colleagues.  Lawson developed what appeared to be enteric fever and had to be sent to the City Hospital in Kimberley and another doctor, Thomas, became “very dangerously ill”.  On 27 March Ogston and Coutts went down to see Lawson but all AO could think of taking was a nice pair of ladies’ pocket handkerchiefs and a bottle of scent.  He planned to bathe Lawson’s hands and face with these.  But when they saw Thomas they realised that he was way beyond such an indulgence being of any practical benefit.  Two days later, Thomas’ state of health was still causing concern and Ogston wanted to write to his mother to let her know about her son’s condition.  However, Thomas refused to divulge his address because he did not wish to alarm his parent. Typhoid and other infections of the alimentary canal were gererally becoming a very serious issue and a day later (28 March) Sister Snowdon of the Army Medical Nursing Sisters fell ill with the disease.  Ogston learned, perhaps from Sister Snowdon, that there had been friction between the nurses, army and private, and the RAMC in some hospitals in Kimberley and several nurses had resigned in consequence.  The nurses felt they were being undervalued by the RAMC and were insisting on proper treatment from the army medical service, including messing with the officers and not with the NCOs.General Roberts’ army pressed ahead after relieving Kimberley, with Lord Methuen’s force making progress across the Orange Free State to the north of the Vaal River, while Sir Archibald Hunter’s group pursued a similar mission to the south of that watercourse.  The unit to which Alex Ogston was attached travelled on the first stage of their trek in a north easterly direction to Boshof, about 30 miles from Kimberley, the journey occupying four days, much of the time passing over immense grassy plains.  As they left Kimberley on 2 April they encountered a swarm of locusts “so thick they could not see clearly”.  Three days into the journey, Ogston awoke to find that his pony had escaped.  Initially he could not be found but later the truant was recaptured and returned to his owner.

On 5 April, Lord Methuen’s force learned from an informer that there was a Boer commando of mixed nationalities near the town of Boshof, which intended to attack the British.  It was led by a French volunteer, Major-General George de Villebois-Mareuil.  Methuen’s superior numbers surrounded the commando.  The Boers urged de Villebois-Mareuil to retreat but he insisted on fighting on, was soundly beaten and the General was killed.  Captain Mason, RAMC, and his bearers were ordered out at 30min notice to advance to the battle site, while Ogston and the rest of the medical staff stayed in camp.  Mason returned the following morning with a few wounded, though Ogston’s help was not needed in treating them.  He did learn the story of the battle from Mason.  Villebois had been killed about 3pm, his shoulder being torn open. There had been a nasty incident towards the end of the fight when a Boer raised a white flag on his rifle.  Assuming a surrender, Lieutenant Williams and another soldier rose from behind their boulder.  Williams was immediately shot dead and his companion wounded.  The troops then charged in and captured the remaining Boers.  It was all over by 5.00pm on 5 April.  The cost to the British side was three men killed and 10 wounded.

Ogston was able to examine the battlefield at Boshof.  He saw two buckwagons gathering up the dead, British and Boer lying side by side.  During his survey he found piles of cartridge cases where each Boer had lain.  Expanding bullets had been freely used by them. Ogston made a collection of bullets and other curiosities.  The types used included  Jeffries’ expanding, and dum-dum pointed bullets manufactured by Eley Brothers.  When it came to the variety of bullets on display, Ogston knew what he was talking about as a result of his own research on bullet wounds.  Later, Ogston was taken to examine three wounded men and found them all doing well and fit to be moved. 

Alex Ogston found when the column reached the town of Boshof that it was full of embittered Boers.  “The women were the most irreconcilable and did not hesitate to show it”.  After a redundant stove had been requisitioned from one Boer woman, “The lady, after coming to the hospital and abusing us all round in pointed terms, broke, I believe, her way into Lord Methuen’s room where he and four of his leading officers were in conference, shook her fist in the face of each individual, gave them an address of eloquent abuse and frightened them all”.While at Boshof, Alex Ogston also witnessed the funeral of Major-General Villebois-Mareuil, who had been killed on 5 April in the fighting there.  This was on the urging of his companion Captain Mason.  Villebois-Mareuil was a French army officer who volunteered to fight for the Boers in the Second Boer War and was promoted to his exulted rank because of his leadership capabilities.  Villebois-Mareuil was put in charge of all foreign volunteers, which included many Germans.  After his death, he was given a funeral with full military honours, by the British, paid for by Lord Methuen personally, who viewed Villebois de Mareuil’s stand as being characterised by great bravery in a noble military tradition.  Alex Ogston recorded a moving account of the scene he witnessed.  “It was growing dark as we walked out for a hundred yards or so behind our hospital camp, and we saw drawn up in two rows facing one another a thousand soldiers, each with his rifle held vertically with its muzzle resting on the ground, while his hands were folded over its butt at the level of his chin.  The ranks stood motionless, on each side of a white path which ended, a furlong away from us, in the square-walled enclosure where the Boshof dead are laid to rest, and over its walls towered the pines and poplars and blue gum trees planted beside their graves.  Down the lane formed by the soldiers walked four British officers bearing a litter, carried at the level of their thighs, on which was the body of General Villebois de Mareuil wrapped in a red rug, and at a slow pace they went on until they had entered the gate and disappeared within the burying ground.  M and I walked to its north-eastern corner, as many others were doing, and looked over the wall … The body was lowered into the grave and the earth filled in upon his corpse amid absolute silence on the part of the whole army and spectators, while the pines above them were as if etched by the blackest funereal ink against the golden yellow patch still lingering in the sky where the sun had set and against the leaden gloom of the rest of the horizon where the thunder clouds were again gathering and the twisted streams of the lightning were playing”.

Major-General Villebois de Marais.

Apart from his medical duties, Alex Ogston also examined the battlefield at Carter’s Ridge and confirmed his impressions from other scenes of conflict that the Boers were superb military engineers and constructed trench systems far superior to those manufactured by the Kimberley defenders.  In one of his few criticisms of Boer cautionary tactics, Ogston also said, “if they had possessed as much resolution as engineering genius, they would have had a very good chance had they boldly rushed Kimberley …”.

At first the Boers had hoped to retake the town of Boshof but, with time, that outcome became increasingly improbable.  While he was camped at the town, Alexander Ogston had the honour of dining with Lord Methuen and his senior officers, though he was somewhat embarrassed to attend in his now tattered clothes.  All he could don to disguise his condition was a white shirt and he hoped he would look clean by candlelight.  Ogston thoroughly enjoyed his evening.  “Nothing could have been kinder or more free from condescension than my reception; Methuen talked freely, and everyone round the table joined in a footing of equality, so that conversationally it was as pleasant an evening as I ever spent.  Beginning with the subject of tortoise tents, the talk ranged over other kinds of tent, portable hospitals, Modder River hospital arrangements, the fever there, typhoid in general, Boshof water supply, germs, the wounds of the campaign, the individual wounded, the Yeomanry, expanding bullets, shrapnel, Vickers-Maxim guns, the RAMC, and the various battlefields of his column.  Methuen was interested in my work, as were members of his staff, and they promised me samples of the different expanding bullets and pom-pom shells. … After enjoying the unwonted treat of a couple of beautiful Havana cigars, I took my leave”.  Alex Ogston had no small talk but toss him a meaty topic and he would devour it enthusiastically.

While Alex Ogston was at Boshof, a rumour started that the enemy was using poisoned bullets, which he was able to scotch in quick order.  “The bullet and front part of the shell of the cartridge were, for lubricating the grooves of the rifle, dipped in fat, and after some time the fatty acids acting upon the copper of the shell produced a green coating of stearate or other salt of copper, which had an alarming appearance, but would, owing to its anti-septic properties, have benefitted rather than harmed a wound inflicted by the bullet, even had the coating not been thrown off by the rapid revolutions (2,500 – 3,600 per second) of the missile as it passed through the air”.

Medical conditions at the Boshof hospital were similar to those he had experienced elsewhere.  The medical staff was excellent and worked both hard and skilfully but the organisation was deficient and medical supplies and equipment were largely absent.  “We would want coverglasses to make blood films, there were none; microscope slides, they did not exist; a microscope, Boshof did not possess such a thing; staining reagents, such things were never heard of.  Adhesive plaster ran down; so did calico bandages; there was gypsum but no muslin bandages for applying it; the alembroth bandages were of only one size, and that was too narrow to be of much service; there were no abdominal binders; there was no proper operation table; there was hardly a parish doctor in Scotland who would not have been better supplied”.  Ogston laid these deficiencies firmly at the door of the RAMC.

Alex Ogston remained at and around the Boshof camp for a considerable time, until 18 May 1900.  During this time he apologised to future readers of his journals for the amount of petty material that he had included but he had set out to describe things as they were.  He indicated that when he had time to write, though he may have been wearied and tired, he had put down whatever he could remember.  This situation was explicable, even for Ogston, usually the master of prose, by his age (53), the stressful conditions under which he had been travelling and working for several weeks and the indifferent state of his health.  On 9 April he wrote “Typhoid has not ceased to scourge us here”.  Many of the injured Boer prisoners amongst whom he was working were suffering from the disease before they arrived at his field hospital but he did not admit at this time to be suffering from any illness himself.  Periodically, the Boshof camp was subjected to heavy downpours of rain and to secure his belongings from damage due to water running through his tent, Alex Ogston built piles of stones on which to place his most important impedimenta.  This relative inactivity was continually frustrating for restless Ogston.  On 12 April he complained again that he was writing about nothing and a day later he was occupied studying the geology of the Boshof district.  He also used his pocket folding Kodak camera to photograph the small entry and large exit bullet wounds of Private Fisher.  On 17 April, the day before his departure from Boshof, Ogston wrote, “It is high time that I were thinking of packing up and going home, or at least leaving this, where I find such twaddlesome writing as I observe in the last two days’ notes in my diary”.  He thought that he had exhausted all of interest around Boshof and perceived a peculiar restlessness coming over himself.  After thinking this matter over Ogston decided not to leave but to remain with Methuen.  He could go to Bloemfontain, but “everyone goes there”.  This frustrating hiatus was caused by Lord Roberts pausing to prepare his forces before continuing with the campaign. 

It became clear to this author that what Ogston wrote in his diary concerning his activities at Boshof and beyond was often at variance with what he subsequently wrote in his book on his three military campaigns and this appeared to indicate that Ogston’s underlying health was beginning to deteriorate significantly.

 

Alexander Ogston and the American Hospital

In addition to the medical services provided by the Royal Army Medical Corps, there was a number of other support functions present during the Second Boer War, which had been financed privately.  One of these was the Portland Hospital in Cape Town.  Another was a field hospital funded by a wealthy American Mr Van Alen, who agreed to supply the equipment and transport necessary to sustain the facility.  In return the War Office consented to transport the components to South Africa and to return them to the UK once they were no longer needed.  Captain E Powell of the Royal Army Medical Corps was placed in charge of this facility which was introduced to the war in March 1900 after General Roberts had relieved the siege of Kimberley by defeating the Boers at the battle of Paardeberg.  The hospital then travelled behind the troops under the command of Lord Methuen as they advanced to Boshof where Methuen’s troops defeated the Boers in a drive towards Mafeking, which was still under siege at that time.  Thus, Alec Ogston was travelling in the same column as the Van Alen, or American Field Hospital, or American Ambulance.  I shall use the term “American Hospital” unless an alternative was employed in a quotation.

James J Van Alen was a Rhode Islander who had been born into a wealthy family.  Mostly he lived in New York but was an Anglophile and moved permanently to the UK once America introduced prohibition (1920 – 1933).  He led a life among the upper classes in Britain which was marked by controversy and sensation.  Although it was a condition for admitting the American Hospital to South Africa that it should be commanded by a British Army officer, Captain E Powell, its senior civilian medical officer was a prominent British surgeon, Mr Samuel Osborne.  He became an FRCS in 1876.  However, his career was particularly marked by his contribution to the St John Ambulance, founded in 1887, which sevice extended for over 40 years.

Mr Samuel Osborne, FRCS.

Ogston first mentioned the American Hospital in his journal on 18 March 1900 when he, “Spent the day quietly in camp (in Kimberley) and watched Captain Powell of the American Ambulance putting up tortoise tents measuring 20ft x 20ft.”.  Six days later Ogston could report that the American Field Hospital was complete and consisted of three tortoise tents for patients and three ambulance wagons.    However, AO gave the opinion that Mr Van Alen himself was largely “an ornament”.  He was a fiercely proud American millionaire and, in Ogston’s cynical opinion, probably hoping for a title as a reward.  The American Hospital had been forbidden by General Roberts to go to Bloemfontein, where he was heading and it was thus likely to go north in the direction Ogston would be travelling, which would allow him to see it at work.  AO thought their ambulance wagons, which cost about £90 each, at least as good as the British Army equivalents.  A few days later, the curious Ogston “Examined and photographed the Nortons stretchers belonging to the American Field Hospital.  They have folding legs and can be changed into beds.  Also a pillow pocket”.  Subsequently, Ogston observed that the American Ambulance had “four nice little shelter tents”, but he thought that his tent was more serviceable “but time will tell”.  The American outfit presented a major advantage by its presence.  AO had drawn a blanket from Army stores but found it infested with bed bugs.  He was able to replace this unsavoury item with a new blanket, which he bought from the American Ambulance.

At the end of March, Mr Van Alen invited Alec Ogston to dine with him.  His hospital had admitted its first patients the previous day, 24 March.  Ogston discovered that Mr Van Alen had served in the American War of Secession (American Civil War).  He had taken part in the Battle of Chickahominy River on 27 June 1862.  Ogston had a “fine dinner such as is not often seen in the camps here”.  It consisted of tomato soup, curried chicken cutlets and peas, plum pudding and tomato chutney, piccalilli and pickled gherkins and “other fine things”.  Pineapples were served for desert, and coffee.  Ogston pronounced the meal to be “Gorgeous!”  However, he was glad to escape at 9pm to finish smoking his pipe before he turned into bed.  It was clear that Mr Van Alen had no intention of slumming with the military involved in the war.

It quickly became clear that Alec Ogston was developing a jaundiced view of the American outfit, its limited capacity for hard work and for a timely provision of the services required of a field hospital supporting active combat.  On 2 April, Ogston reported that the Americans had been given the job of being the Divisional Field Hospital, “which they do not like as it means hard work and their staff and equipment will be sorely tried.  It will render them really useful not just ornamental”.  Later that day, Lord Methuen rode up to see the Americans but no one was about, so he went away.  Ogston thinks the Americans are lazy and as he and his colleagues in the American Hospital prepared to travel from Kimberley towards Boshof about 4 April, Mr Van Alen rode out from Kimberley and caught up with the unit he had funded.

In the evening of 5 April preparations were made to dispatch a force of 3,000 – 4,000 men.  They marched out in a south or south-easterly direction at 6.00am the next morning.  The enemy was thought to be present in force there.  However, Van Alen refused to send his field hospital with the force.  So, Major Coutts arranged that Newman and Ogston should take part in the field hospital instead.  Captain Mason of the RAMC and his bearers were ordered out at 30 minutes’ notice on 5 April to deal with the anticipated action.  They returned early the following day with a few wounded men.  AO got up to see if his services were needed but the American Hospital had agreed to admit them.  Captain Mason could not hide his disgust with Mr Van Alen, who had objected to his ambulance wagons being used to carry “fat-arsed Boers”.  Ogston thought than Van Alen was “running his hospital out of vain glory” (excessive pride). 

Having moved on from Boshof, where the Boers were defeated on 5 April, Lord Methuen undertook a mopping up operation but had returned to the town by the 20^th of the month.  At the time Mr Van Alen was in Boshof, having come out from Kimberley.  In addition, his field hospital soon arrived, its ambulance wagons carrying about 20 sick patients.  AO then found that the Van Alen hospital staff behaved in an extraordinary way, and it did not please him.  They were needed immediately to relieve pressure on the other hospitals and they could accommodate 40.  Further, they had all the medical provisions needed and had three surgeons available.  But, instead of getting down to work immediately in treating the sick and wounded, the first action they took was to set up in camp and have a gargantuan meal.  This left Ogston’s hospital struggling with 20 sick and about 12 wounded not 70 paces from the Americans.  To Ogston, who always put the needs of patients above his personal comfort and convenience, subsequently remarked in his journal, “It is more than annoying … and the operation tent with two stable lamps and a candle was a busy scene for an hour or two.  There we could see who were the workers.  Coutts, Longmore, Anderson, Mr Duffield and I were busy and helpful while others, I will not name them, loafed about and smacked their legs with their sticks”.  Alec Ogston was particularly impressed by the leadership shown by Major Coutts, the most senior member of the RAMC present.  “I never admire Coutts so much as when work and duty have to be done”.  Coutts and Ogston clearly adhered to the same personal philosophy.

Four days after the weak performance by the staff of the American Hospital and with disapproval still simmering in Ogston’s mind, he and Major Coutts were invited to dine with Van Alen and his staff.  Dining well and engaging in stimulating conversation did not ameliorate Ogston’s views of his American host.  The following day part of his journal entry recorded his thoughts.  “Van Alen is a clever man but from vanity and inconsiderateness.  He makes the mistake of staying with his hospital and hampering them very much.  He insisted last night, for example, that if there were a night attack, one of the ambulance wagons should be retained for his own personal use”.  This position clearly breached one of Ogston’s principles, that the needs of patients should always be prioritised.  Ogston’s journal entry for 25 April also revealed his mixed views about the staff of the American Hospital.  “Mr Dungarvan is an empty man come here to see the fun merely.  Mummery is a bumptious boy but has the makings of a good, useful man in time.  Powell (Captain Powell, RAMC) is a man who worries himself and has anything but a happy time in command, nominally, of the hospital.  The men are a set of lazy, incompetent but, I fancy, respectable steady dolts”.  Perhaps Alec Ogston was reassured to find that it was not solely himself who had a poor opinion of the staff and functioning of the American Hospital, as he had heard “contemptuous remarks being made about the outfit” by others.  Although the American Hospital had taken in some patients, he still felt that the money spent on the hospital had been “thrown away”.  A few days later Ogston included a poem in his journal, apparently based on the American Hospital, which he called “Van Houten’s Hippodrome”.  While the original meaning of “hippodrome” is a place where chariot races were held, it was later applied to any venue for public entertainment.  However, it had also acquired a perjorative meaning as a place where fraudulent sporting activities are mounted.  Ogston’s poem also contained a reference to himself, one line reading, “We have a dresser young and bold, A surgeon too, though somewhat old”.  At the time, Alec Ogston had just passed his 56^th birthday.

Tensions were clearly in evidence between the two field hospitals operating side by side.  The hospital commanded by Major Coutts, in which Ogston worked, was formally designated as the 20^th Brigade Field Hospital and this recognition, according to Ogston, “caused envy” in the Van Alen outfit.  By the beginning of May 1900, Ogston’s field hospital was ensconced in a new camp south east of Boshof but it was unclear when they would next be on the move, though Lord Methuen was expected to head off in the direction of Mafeking.  By their very nature field hospitals follow the advancing troops.  Ogston wrote in his journal, “Bearer companies and field hospitals do not march at the front”.  In Alec Ogston’s opinion, the performance of the American Hospital was still declining and that was having an effect on the attitude of both its staff and its sponsor.  Ogston wrote on 2 May, “…Van Alan is talking of breaking the whole thing up” and this was a rumour he heard again ten days later.  The following day’s journal entry showed explicitly the growing antagonism between the two outfits.  “Van Alen hospital continues to look like a fiasco”.  Ogston then made a disparaging remark about the hospital’s senior surgeon, Mr Samuel Osborne, “Osborne who knows nothing of military matters, having it seems been campaigning only from a steamer in the Piraeus on the treck here, assuming the direction of everything”.  This acid disparagement of Mr Osborne seems to have been a reference to his previous appointment as a surgeon to the Red Cross during the Graeco-Turkish war of 1897 and perhaps its aftermath.

Ogston continued.  “Last night he (Osborne) sent a soldier to ask Coutts to take 12 patients into our hospital, as he was going out in the morning”.  Major Coutts refused without receiving an order from the Principal Medical Officer, sending back a stiff, military message that he could take no orders from Osborne.  AO supported Coutts’ stance, “Quite right, too!”, though eventually the necessary order was issued and the transfer of the sick took place.  Ogston had not yet exhausted his observations on the American Hospital, describing it as an “absurd display”.  “It pretends to be a field hospital where convenient for display and backs out of it where it is convenient to show off as a bearer company”.  AO thinks the authorities would get rid of it altogether, as they have no control over it, were it not for “their excellent ambulances which are in short supply”.  But even Ogston, having formed his opions of the American Hospital, conceded that “they are beginning to wake up from their inactivity”, probably due to the imminence of fighting.  A reconnaissance force was due to leave the Boshof camp that day (3 May 1900) and the American Hospital had been tasked with accompanying it, and Captain Mason was tasked with providing the bearer party.  He invited Ogston to accompany him but Mason’s ambulances had not returned in time from a different assignment for the arrangement to be implemented.  On 14 May, the American Hospital was given a further commission.  A troop left the camp heading in an easterly direction, probably for Hoopstad, and Powell’s outfit was ordered to follow them.

A week later, on 11 May, while Van Alen and Dunganon (status unknown) were away in Kimberley, Captain Powell, the nominal military commander of the American Hospital invited Ogston and Newman to dine with him.  The absence of the sponsor of the field hospital meant that conversation would be “unconstrained”, which suggests that Powell, too, was not comfortable with the performance of his charge.  As usual, the meal consisted of “fat things” - tomato soup, roast mutton with potatoes and vegetable marrow, roast Koraan “of Mason’s shooting”, jelly, cheese, whisky, coffee and brandy.  Although Alec Ogston probably enjoyed eating the meal at the time and he would certainly have been entertained by the conversation, the consequences for his alimentary system were unwelcome.  “But rather rich for my old tum, and I had to lie awake until 1am while nature struggled to eject it upwards in the form of acid lava, and eventually to get up at 4.30 and get rid of it in another way.  I must never no more take such risks lest I break down utterly”.

Near the end of May 1900, Ogston chanced upon Mummery of the American Hospital and learned that the outfit had been having a dull time but were caring for “many sick”.  However, what shocked, but not surprised, Ogston was to hear of Mr Van Alen’s self important, even selfish, behavior.  “Mr Van Alan occupies one of the ambulances and one of the tortoise tents himself, though the patients need them so sorely.”  AO was also alarmed to hear of surgeon James Osborne’s actions.  “And Osborne is very foolish.  He dismissed a man very ill with jaundice and another one with an enormous phlegmonous foot yesterday on the pretext that he needed the places.  These men would have to return to their units and march for many miles of sand and scrub and at the end of the day fell trees and dig trenches for latrines.  The Yeomanry doctor in whose regiment they were came up tonight and spoke out bitterly, but manfully, his opinions of such doings, for which I admired him.  Powell offered to do what he could for one night, but Coutts spoke out manfully and came to the rescue with “Send your sick in and I will see that, somehow, they have what attention is possible, be treated as sick.  That is what we are here for and somehow it will be done”.  Ogston had a deep admiration for Major Coutts and his military determination, by some means, to get done those tasks which needed to be achieved.

At the end of May 1900, the decision was taken that the American Hospital, which had been a thorn in Ogston’s side almost from the day of its arrival at Kimberley in March 1900, was finally broken up.  Captain Powell and ten men would remain in theatre but the rest of the staff would be leaving.  The physical kit of the hospital was handed over to the British Army at Paardekraal, Transvaal in July.  Ogston’s reaction to this development was predictable, “A piece of good news indeed”, not just because of the irritation he experienced with the conduct of this unit, but because he felt that with a set of capable officers under Powell it could deliver good work “free from the Incubus of Panjandrum”, an incubus being a male demon and a panjandrum a pompous, self-important official, presumably a reference to either Mr Van Alen or to Mr Osborne.

 

Typhoid fever and Alexander Ogston’s near-death experience with the disease

There is a number of different human infections caused by bacteria whose symptoms include affectations of the intestines and sometimes it can be difficult to differentiate between the various conditions on the basis of clinical signs alone.  Such illnesses may be identified only by a symptom, such as diarrhoea (a condition in which faeces are discharged from the bowels frequently and in a liquid form) or dysentery (an infection of the intestines resulting in severe diarrhoea with the presence of blood and mucus in the faeces).  However, infections with intestinal symptoms constitute a family of conditions with specific bacterial causes and different, though frequently overlapping, clinical signs.

Typhus, or typhus fever is not a single disease but a group of infections caused by different bacterial species and with varying modes of transmission.  Typically, the source of infection is an insect bite.  For example, epidemic typhus is caused by Rickettsia prowazekii and is spread by body lice, and murine typhus is caused by Rickettsia typhi and is spread by fleas.  Typhoid (which means typhus-like) fever is distinct from typhus and is caused by a different bacterial species, Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi.   It is acquired by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the faeces of an infected person and there is no animal reservoir.  The bacterial agent of typhoid fever can only live in the human gut.  

Paratyphoid fever is related to typhoid fever and is caused by three particular serotypes (A, B and C) of Salmonella enterica.  Collectively, typhoid fever and paratyphoid fever are known as Enteric fever, though the two separate conditions can be differentiated on the basis of clinical signs alone and this distinction was first made in 1837.

Throughout recorded history campaigning armies have been afflicted by enteric fever, not infrequently proving to be a cause of more casualties and fatalities that those produced directly by hostilities.  The reason for this association is that static, but temporary, military camps are often characterised by poor sanitary arrangements, allowing faecal contamination of drinking water, or water used in the preparation and cooking of food.  During the Spanish American War of 1898 about 21,000 American troops developed typhoid fever, with about 2,200 deaths.  Napoleon’s disastrous retreat from Moscow in 1812, saw many of his troops die of an enteric fever.  Recently it has been proved, on the basis of DNA analysis, that at least some of these fatalities were due to paratyphoid fever.  The Second Boer War (1899 – 1902) when 556,653 men served in the Briish Forces, resulted in 57,684 developing typhoid fever and 8,225 dying from the condition, which exceeded the number (7,582) killed directly in combat.

Not everyone who contracts the bacterium responsible for typhoid fever obviously develops the condition.  But when the overt disease appears the symptoms can include raised temperature, feeling unwell, headache, cough, tiredness and lethargy, delirium, rose-coloured spots on the chest and abdomen, diarrhoea, an enlarged liver, dehydration and malnutrition leading to emaciation.  The death rate for untreated cases can reach as high as 25%.  Readers should remember these symptoms and compare them with the signs which progressively manifested themselves in Alex Ogston during his Second Boer War service.  Almroth Wright, who had graduated in modern literature before also qualifying in medicine, was appointed to the chair of pathology at the Army Medical School, Netley, near Southampton, in 1892.  He began a research program aimed at producing a vaccine against the bacterium responsible for typhoid fever.  In 1897 – 1898 there was an outbreak of typhoid fever in Maidstone, Kent, when at least 1,847 people are known to have contracted the condition.  Almwroth Wright’s anti-typhoid vaccine was offered to 200 healthcare professionals and administered to 84.  Of those vaccinated, none developed the condition, while in the unvaccinated group of 116, four cases were recorded, an interesting hint that the vaccine had provided some protection, though the difference in disease incidence between vaccinated and unvaccinated groups was not statistically significant.

The Second Boer War broke out on 11 October 1899 when the Boers declared war on the British and besieged garrisons at Ladysmith, Mafeking and Kimberley.  In response, Britain sent out an expeditionary force to supplement the garrison, which arrived on 31 October.  Alexander Ogston left Aberdeen on 15 December 1899 and arrived in Cape Town on 3 January 1900 aboard the ss Mexican.  It did not take long for mentions of infectious disease amongst the British troops to appear in his war journals.  On 8 January 1900, while he was present in Lord Methuen’s camp at Modder River, he noted that there were “about 6” cases of typhoid fever which were being isolated in a separate building from other patients.  By 9 January that number had increased to 25, who were being cared for by “an old friend”, Major Coutts of the Royal Army Medical Corps in a typhoid fever hospital.  Ogston found the situation concerning typhoid to be similar with General Gatacre’s forces when he visited them at Sterkstrom in mid-January 1900. There he inspected a field hospital which had “eight or nine cases of typhoid, 15 or 20 of gastroenteritis, a few wounds, or injuries, mostly from horse accidents, two cases of eye disease and a few minor cases”.  At this early stage of the war, though typhoid fever was present, it had not yet become a major logistical problem for the RAMC doctors and their civilian colleagues.  Sensibly, a typhoid fever hospital was in preparation.  It would be covered with corrugated galvanized iron and provide accommodation for about 25 patients in all.  Its latrines and cooking sheds would be placed outside the main building and it was planned that it would be staffed by a sister and a trained nurse.

By 10 February, Ogston had completed his planned treck across potentially hostile territory from General Gatacre’s area of operations to Lord Methuen’s camp at Modder River.  This facility had completely changed since AO had first visited the location, with a great increase in the number of troops being accommodated.  He was shown a hospital about a mile from Lord Methuen’s headquarters.  Most of the local casualties were handled there and it had two enteric fever hospitals attached to it.  Typhoid fever had increased enormously in case number and becoming a serious issue in the camp.  At that time there were over 100 cases and increasing.  At least at that time the fever hospitals were “cleaner and brighter with pictures” compared with when he was there previously.  Charts were being taken, the buildings were better and more female nurses had been employed.

With his previous experience of typhoid fever from his service in the Sudan in 1885, Ogston, almost from the start of his presence in South Africa, was alarmed to find that the British Army seemed not to have learned the importance of sanitary measures to guard against enteric fever.  On his first visit to the camp at Modder River he was concerned that, although water was supposed to be taken from the river above the camp’s location for drinking and cooking, due to a lack of time and deficiency of fuel for boiling drinking water, this instruction tended to be ignored.  Ogston’s alarm at the conditions present in the Sterkstrom camp increased and his journal entries were particularly gloomy.  The UK was a country which was rich but did not provide sufficient funding to care for the sick and wounded in time of war.  “I wish I could do something to help this matter in future years”, was his aspiration.  “The want of things which should be here is disappointing. …  Wounds are few but fever cases are many. …  Fevers sap an army’s strength”.  Also, there was no means of applying Widal’s test (developed in 1896 and able to confirm typhoid with reasonable accuracy) to ascertain if the many doubtful cases were in fact typhoid.  Another deficiency he observed related to insect-born disease.  There were clouds of flies in the camp but no means to control their numbers.  He suggested using a mixture of strychnine and treacle.  As well as proposing measures to reduce the rate of infection with typhoid, Ogston also thought that, with care, the rate of recovery could be improved.  At this time about 10 February 1900, AO expressed the view in his journal that he was glad he had come to the front, rather than stayed at the base hospitals, “where there are many critical eyes”, because it was at the front where the real problems lay.

Another of Alexander Ogston’s persistent criticisms of the RAMC was its failure to employ women sufficiently.  Now Ogston did not believe that women should aspire to become doctors but, on the other hand, he thought that women were superior to men as nurses, a sort of medical apartheid (the Africaans word for “separateness”).  He gave an account of these views, at least regarding nursing, in his journal on 15 February.  “Few male orderlies of the RAMC are to be trusted with the management of the sick.  Empowerment of women in the nursing, cleaning, disinfecting, feeding, tending, thermometry and so on, women would be much better and there is no reason why they should not be used in all buildings utilised as hospitals.  Even in tent hospitals and field hospitals a trial of female nurses should be made”.  AO was confident that women would save life and diminish suffering.  Further, cleanliness in hospitals “would gain mightily”.

Although Alexander Ogston was never officially appointed as a civilian surgeon to the armed forces, throughout his time in South Africa he often fulfilled that role unofficially and with the support of local medical officers in the RAMC.  He developed a particularly close and mutually respectful relationship with Major Coutts.  Ogston was particularly concerned with caring for those suffering from fever when he was stationed at the Modder River camp towards the end of February 1900.  “The fever cases occupy me much here.  Most things they have to deal with are wounds and typhoid cases.  Good preparations have been made against wounds but virtually nothing against typhoid.  Fever houses should be prepared in anticipation of war”.  In the same section of his journal, AO expressed the view that there should be special fever trains, with more space and compartments and the provision for nursing and comforts.  There was also a need for dedicated lavatories and washrooms.  He also thought that there should be a special sanitary corps to look after the state of the camps and the use of wells, rivers and drinking water supplies.  Ogston was also concerned about the failure properly to dispose of garbage in the camps, with the state of latrines and with the failure to disinfect faeces.

In his journal for 18 March 1900, Alec Ogston relayed a most distressing incident concerning patients, many of whom were sick with typhoid fever.  By this date he had reached Kimberley and the hospital where he was serving received a consignment of 480 patients from Paardeberg where a major confrontation had been fought between 18 and 27 February, with Major General John French trapping the Boer leader Piet Cronje and his troops in the town and forcing their surrender.  On Sunday 18 March 480 patients were sent down from Paardeberg to Kimberley, accompanied by only one surgeon, in dreadful conditions as was previously recorded. 

After dealing with many patients with intestinal infections and living in proximity to poor sanitary conditions, it was perhaps inevitable that Alec Ogston would at some stage contract an infectious condition.  In his journal for 21 February 1900, he reported that he had suffered “another attack of choleric diarrhea”.  Clearly, this was not the first such attack but, as Ogston would subsequently demonstrate repeatedly, he was most reluctant to admit to serious illness in himself.  Ogston’s treatment of his own illness was to put himself on a “biscuit diet” and hope that the illness would simply decline and disappear, “otherwise I may have to give up”.  In his journal entry for 9 March, on the eve of the field hospital’s move from Modder River towards Kimberley, Alec Ogston admitted that he had recently suffered repeated attacks of dysentery but that the attacks were always stopped by taking chlorodyne (a mixture of chloroform and morphine, at that time used to control pain). 

On 23 March, while still based at the hospital in Kimberley, Ogston admitted in his journal that he had just had a second attack of dysentery “which was passing off”.  This statement by Ogston was a triumph of hope over reality as this must have been at least his fifth such attack.  Also, it emerged that his medical colleagues were becoming concerned at his deteriorating health, Captain Lawson had been very kind and put him on a special diet.  However, Lawson himself was becoming Ill and two days later had a high temperature, suggesting that he too might have acquired an enteric fever.  He was withdrawn back to Kimberley on 26 March but three days later he was on the road to recovery.  Interestingly, Lawson had been inoculated with the Almroth Wright typhoid serum on the way out to South Africa.  By 27 March, another medical colleague of Ogston’s, Thomas, was also “very dangerously ill” and a few days later Sister Snowdon of the Army Medical Nursing Sisters also went down with typhoid.  There was serious concern that Thomas might die but Major Coutts was thwarted from writing to Thomas’ mother by the sick man himself who refused to divulge his home address, justifying his action by saying that he did not want to worry her.  By 29 March Thomas was no better, still having a high temperature and vomiting.  Two further days on Ogston feared his colleague was dying, “but there is still some hope”.  The depletion of medical personnel was throwing a heavy load onto the shoulders of the survivors, one of whom, Ogston, was himself periodically debilitated by infection. 

Major Coutts had been instructed by his superior to draw up a report on the typhoid outbreak at Modder River and, illustrating the close and respectful relationship between himself and Ogston, he asked the latter’s help in its composition.  Ogston drew up headings of what should be covered, with notes, and Coutts found that very helpful.  One of the Aberdeen surgeon’s conclusions from his Modder experience was that sending typhoid patients by rail risked relapses and death on the journey.  Four weeks later, Coutts passed his report on typhoid at Modder River to Ogston.  The report recorded 275 cases of typhoid there with 60 deaths, or 21.8% mortality. 

On Saturday 30 March, Ogston and Coutts walked from their camp into Kimberley to spend some time at the Officers’ Club but found that the town and the club were almost deserted.  The following day, Alec Ogston reported in his journal that “My dysentery is now nearly gone and with same I believe I shall be able to go through the hard times that lie before us.  I have told Coutts if anything happens to me that I wish the whole of my baggage my papers and journals included to be sent home to my wife who will like to have them”.  But this no doubt precautionary action on Ogston’s part revealed that he feared that he too might succumb to the dreaded typhoid fever which was delivering serious morbidity and mortality all around them.  And the hospital served by Coutts and himself was due to move forward from Kimberley soon in pursuit of the advancing British forces of Lord Methuen.  However, it was 1 April before they left their site outside the town and it was about 6 April before they were re-established outside the town of Boshof. 

This was a period of relative inaction and Ogston recorded that, “the wet is keeping up their cases of dysentery and diarrhea, if not fever”, though a few days later he admitted that there was a “great lull in their sickness just now”.  In the previous three weeks they had sent down about 320 patients to Kimberley, about 6% of the force of 5,000 – 6,000 men, “but have now cleared out the weaklings and retained only the really strong”.  On 21 April, he received the tragic news that three of their Modder nurses had had typhoid fever and that Sister Bell had succumbed to the disease.  The following day, Ogston and Newman tested all the water supplies in the camp for contamination using permanganate.  Every sample turned puce, showing the presence of organic material possibly, or even probably, of faecal origin. The following day, Lord Methuen came round and was informed of the concerns about the water supply.  He wanted to allay the fears of the people of Boshof and his solution was to move his camp further into the veld, so the town would be kept clear of the possible contamination from that source.  It was a sensible move but did not resolve the problem.  Ogston later observed cooks washing dirty pans in puddles and wondered if that was the source of typhoid in the camp.  “Boshof ought to be a healthy place but isn’t”. 

At the end of April 1900, Alec Ogston, despite his bulldog-like determination to hang on by disregarding his own health issues, had to admit in his journal on Sunday 29^th that he had been too ill “since Friday” to write, due to diarrhea accompanied by dysentery.  He felt so poorly that he seriously considered if he should return home, so he must have been feeling badly under the weather.  He also confessed to his journal that recently, when walking with Dr Newman, he had twice felt faint.  “I am loath to go but may be compelled to do so”, was his prophetic conclusion.  However, by Sunday, he declared himself “decidedly better today”.  The apparent improvement in his condition did not long persist.  By Friday 4 May he was feeling “rather seedy again” due to bad diarrhea and three days later there was a more truthful admission that all was not right with the Aberdeen surgeon.  “I am not well.  Every morning before dark (he probably meant “light”), I have some hours of dull grinding abdominal pain in the right side (caecum or ileum) and would have constant diarrhoea if I did not control it with opium and bismuth”.  He admitted that he had had the condition for about two weeks (ie, since late April) and recognised that he might have contracted typhoid fever.  In typical Ogston fashion, he decided to hold on to the last, because he was sure that the fighting would start soon and his surgical skills would then be needed.  It seems likely that this repeating pattern of advance, followed by retreat, of his condition was due to his medications, especially the opium, temporarily suppressing the symptoms of his illness, without curing the underlying condition.  Two days after his admission that he was more unwell that he had previously cared to admit, he declared himself to have had “the best night for a week”!

After the battle, Boshof was fortified against attack and left with a small garrison while the bulk of the soldiers moved out on 13 May1900 to continue the advance on the line from Bloemfontein, the capital of the Orange Free State to Johannesburg, a major city of the Transvaal, their immediate destination being Hoopstad, about 100 miles north-east of Kimberley.  The force was split into two columns, one being led by Lord Methuen and the other by General Paget.  The general pattern of the operation was to march out each morning at 6.00 am, rest from 9.00am or 10.00am until 4.00pm, then march again until 7.00pm or 8.00pm, to avoid the heat of the day.  Scouts were sent out in front and the ambulance units were in the rear.  They were told to expect to be marching for 21 days.  The march was punishing for both animals and men, many oxen simply falling down and dying of exhaustion.  Typhoid fever also broke out and Ogston’s unit was caring for 25 men sick through this cause.  Ogston had managed to acquire a pony and cart for the coming treck from Boshof towards Bloemfontein for, in truth, he could not otherwise have made the journey.  On 10 May he had admitted, “I am very weak, walking round Boshof yesterday tired me out, but I think I can stand the work before us by serving myself”.  But then his medication kicked in again and two days later he declared that his health was much improved.  “A glorious thing it is to feel well”.  The medical officers left Boshof on 14 May heading in the direction of Hoopstad, the initial objective of Lord Methuen who was travelling ahead of them.  Methuen reached that town on 18 May with the field hospital trailing about 10 miles behind.  AO was still feeling very weak from his recent illness and he found that making camp exhausted him.  His solicitous comrades looked after him as much as they could.  Ogston recorded that he was glad to go to bed after he had fed and smoked.  Sleep appeared to rejuvenate him and he would wake about 4.00am “ready for another day”.  The Freestaters in Hoopstad had surrendered to Lord Methuen, which made the necessity for the medical cohort to catch up with the soldiers less urgent.  However, the journey had brought its own problems in the form of their almost constant companion, fever.  On Friday 18 May, Ogston recorded, “Fever dogs our steps”.  Twenty-five men were accommodated in their operation tent with about ten suffering from typhoid, all developed since leaving Boshof.  Further, they were short of water and were ordered to complete the journey to Hoopstad as quickly as possible, where on arrival they found medical problems mounting and their services in great demand.  The sick grew at an alarming rate with 17 being under care by the afternoon of the day of their arrival, which number then grew to 110 by the same evening.  Although some of the ill-health was trivial, many patients were very seriously ill with typhoid fever.  Soon the medical team was on the move again, following the path of Lord Methuen.  Remarkably, Alec Ogston’s health had seemed to improve after their medical caravan had left Boshof, but any exercise still fatigued him, his diarrhoea persisted and he was dependent on opium to keep his symptoms of ill-health in check.

When they were nearing Hoopstad they started to carry out night treks.  Along the way, Boers were surrendering to the army without a fight and when Hoopstad was reached about 19 May, a building in which to locate the hospital was quickly secured.  Initially, the hospital only had to cope with 17 patients but that quickly grew, mainly due to typhoid cases and injuries such as sore feet brought on by the forced march.  But at least the hospital was well-equipped with good beds, clean linen and blankets, though medical and surgical materials were in short supply.  Initially the hospital had only one broken thermometer but a complete and functioning one was somehow obtained, and two women volunteered to help with the nursing.  When the medical unit moved on, a civilian doctor was left in charge of the facility.

The march of the column continued on 21 May along the southern bank of the Vaal River, again resting during the heat of the day.  About this time the Boers had effectively given up direct armed confrontation with the overwhelming numbers of the invading British forces.  After leaving Hoopstad, Alexander Ogston developed an illness and he became progressively weaker with swollen legs, so that he had difficulty getting his boots on.  He could barely walk by the time they reached Bothaville, which was still about 115 miles from Johannesburg.  The 24^th of May was Queen Victoria’s birthday and Major Coutts gathered his now close band of medical men together to give three cheers for Her Majesty.  This celebration was, however, marred for Ogston by the appearance of new symptoms of illness.  He had had a disturbed night due to rheumatism and he also started to suffer from an inflamed right knee, which he ignored, but which was the harbinger of the serious illness which subsequently laid him low at Bloemfontein.  Despite the lack of local fighting, the sick continued to arrive at the field hospital, 16 on the monarch’s birthday of whom ten had typhoid.

The treck continued, reaching Bothaville on 25 May, but Alex Ogston found its rigours increasingly difficult to bear.  He was constantly tired, found difficulty in writing his journal and constantly wanted to lie down.  By 26 May he was too ill to write, due to diarrhoea and weakness.  The following day, which was a Sunday, he had recovered a little.  “I have now written up the above and can continue.  I had a bad night last night.  Got up 3x to take ½ grain opium each time”.  But this medication strategy of dosing himself with opium was becoming inadequate to control his worsening symptoms.  Although Ogston managed to depart at 6.00am on the next leg of their journey towards Bothaville and Kroonstad, he had a problem to overcome first because his pony was sick.  Ogston could not walk and only managed to travel by squeezing onto an ambulance cart.  His solicitous medical friends continued to help.  Captain Powell, the nominal head of the American Hospital, managed to get Ogston’s cart onto the road which gave a smoother ride than travelling over the veld.  AO’s condition apparently improved during the day and Dr Langmore gave him some chlorodyne, but that development was not maintained.  The Aberdeen surgeon was becoming emaciated, having lost 5in from his waist since contracting his illness.

It took the party four days to travel from Bothaville to Kroonstad, with Alex Ogston’s condition progressively deteriorating.  His diarrhea had never truly cleared up.  It returned badly and he now had to take 2 x 1g opium pills at intervals.  He was so poorly between the two doses that he hardly noticed what was going on around him and during most of the journey he was unable to tend to his war journal due to mental confusion.  His medical colleagues, Drs Coutts, Packer, Whithorn, Newman and Langmore tended to him regularly, a service for which Ogston was deeply grateful.  He later wrote that he “hoped to remember them with gratitude for many years”.  “I don’t feel like dying, but when the diarrhoea is very bad I feel as powerless as if I had just been bled”.  In spite of his condition, now becoming serious, Ogston, in typical style, tried to look on the bright side of life, “my right knee is improving, thank God”.   On the morning of Monday 28 May, Alec Ogston had a bad time and when outside his tent he became disorientated.  He dropped his money belt as they were starting and had to search for a long time with a lantern before it was recovered.  Later that day, Newman had to put up his tent as he was too weak to perform that task.  Ogston remarked in his journal once he was well enough to write again, “I think we passed the Lace Diamond Mines on our left today”, which indicated his lack of awareness of his surroundings.  The following day, AO was still very weak and Newman stayed with him on the journey.

On reaching Kroonstad, he recorded that, “Kroonstad is a village much like Torphins and looks more English than Dutch.  Saw a train steaming away which reminded me of the Ballater train starting for Aberdeen”.  Were his thoughts of home and the country around his beloved estate at Glendavan, being brought on by a fear that he might not see Aberdeenshire again?   

Between 26 May when he left Bothaville and 1 June 1900, when Bloemfontein was attained, although his war journal gives an account of the events which befell him, Ogston was confused for most of that time and his journal was clearly completed at a later date.  Thus there is some confusion over the location, sequence and timing of individual happenings.  With the Boers now seriously in retreat, every settlement that they stopped at, or passed through, contained a significant complement of sick people, accompanied by a lack of food and an insufficiency of medical supplies and doctors.  “Many sick” as they found when they reached Kroonstad, where several buildings had been pressed into use as hospitals.  The situation was similar in Brandfort, and at Bloemfontein there were 4,000 sick patients, dying at the rate of 18 or 20 a day, typhoid being the main agent of mortality.  Ogston appeared to have moments of lucidity interleaved between the periods of confusion.  “I had been becoming aware that I was not very clear in the head, though sound at heart and interested in anything”.  But this was more special pleading by Ogston, as he spent much of his time asleep on the ground due to exhaustion.       

Alex Ogston was lucky to enjoy the attention of five other doctors who, probably because of his status, had been treating him too deferentially and not giving him frank advice concerning his condition.  However, in Bloemfontein at the beginning of June 1900, his illness had become so severe that the reluctance of the other doctors to speak out was finally overcome.  In truth, Alex Ogston was becoming a liability to the work of the field hospital.  He later wrote, “Mason had warned me that I was running into danger.  Now all the others warned me too”.  Major Coutts went to him and told him that “if he were an officer, or a soldier, he would make him go sick and give it up”.  Ogston was now past caring what might happen to him and told Coutts to dispose of him as he would.  He had been living for two months, or more, with nearly continuous diarrhoea, which could not be kept in check by “constant daily doses of opium, Dover’s powder, bismuth and chlorodyne, and a fine array of astringents. … for I was too weak to walk a hundred yards and I was wasted till my limbs were contemptible and my stomach had become a deep hollow”.  His self-justification for hanging on had been that he might be needed again to deal with the casualties of the war but he could now see that the fighting was coming to an end.  The Orange Free State had given up the fight and only the Transvaal was still resisting.  He had seen all he wanted, and more than he had expected to see.  He had been prepared to die for the cause that he had come out to support and he would have stayed on to help if there had been any chance of him recovering in time to be of use.  But that clearly could not be the outcome of the events then impacting him.

On 30 May Ogston wrote, “I do not recollect much of what happened (that day)”.  “Coutts came and told me that I could go to Cape Town in a guard’s van attached to a freight train, or by an ambulance train that was leaving later for Bloemfontein, where I could catch the mail train and saloon carriages, if I could stand the journey of many days.  Otherwise I would have to go into hospital”.   AO felt that he could not travel in a van but could manage in an ambulance train.  If his strength failed he would go into a military hospital along the line.  Then came a poignant meeting when he said goodbye to his colleagues who had been so supportive to whom he had become increasingly close.  He divided up his possessions which would have to be left behind amongst his colleagues. His horse and buggy went to Major  Coutts, Newman received his old Norwegian knife and a good blanket, Langmore was gifted an antique wooden snuff box which contained some studs formerly the possessions of Ogston’s father or grandfather, Packer acquired a silver watch box which Ogston’s son Walter had sent from Bombay, Whitehouse received his folding camp table.  The parting of Coutts and Ogston was particularly moving.  Coutts, “so sparing with words, spoke highly to him and of him”.  He thought Ogston had been treated shabbily by the military medical authorities by not being appointed a civilian surgeon on the same terms as the others.  “All the words I treasured up”, Ogston confessed.  Ogston told Coutts that he would not have accepted the role of civil consultant for emoluments or any honour attached, “as it would have robbed me of the freedom to go where I pleased and see what I wanted”.  Mason visited bearing letters sent to AO by his wife.  Newman and Langmore also rode over to bid him farewell.  “And with soft, sad eyes and soft kind words they went away to their fate and left me to mine”.  It was a poignant parting for both Ogston and his medical friends.    

Ogston caught a train from Kroonstad for Bloemfontein “on the evening of 30 May 1900”, according to his diaries but the date is different in his book, “Reminiscences of Three Campaigns”, where it is given as “by 4^th July”.  It is clear that his confused state brought on by typhoid, and the fact that he had to fill up his journal well after the event, led to several discrepancies between the two sources.  It is unclear which, if either, is the more accurate.  I will continue to use the dates given in the journal for consistency but with an acceptance that there might well be timing errors within this account. 

Alec Ogston was accommodated in a “special doctors’ carriage” but spent most of his time sleeping and “sucking in renewed strength like a leach”, a colourful but sadly inappropriate phrase.  He then added another colourful and informative section on his emaciated state which, by its positioning, suggested that it took place on the train, but that seems improbable.  “But when I ventured to have a bath and beheld the spectre of a gaunt old man whose long grey hairs, eyebrows and moustaches overhung a face the size of a child’s, whose great, great limbs showed only bones (and) snakes of empty muscle like dead, flaccid eels hanging from his skeleton like the cordage from the masts and yards of a ship, I hurried into my clothing again thinking of the poor horses who had been left on the veld to their fate.  It was too awfully suggestive a shock to see myself”.  When Ogston arrived at Bloemfontein on the morning of 31 May he discovered that there was a carriage going through to Cape Town the following day, climbed in with his luggage and immediately fell asleep.  Later he managed to wake up and go to the station refreshment room before returning to his former location and more slumber.  AO then recorded in his subsequent notes that he was woken up by the “deserters from the hippodrome”, which appears to be a reference to the former staff of the American Hospital who were leaving the front after that unit had been disbanded.

When he finally woke on the morning of 1 June he realised that his conditioned had worsened and that he could not continue.  He was sufficiently in control of his faculties to write a letter to Captain Sutton, the Railway staff officer at Bloemfontein station, explaining his predicament.  Sutton contacted Major Tilley of the RAMC who went to examine Ogston and must immediately have recognised Ogston’s precarious state of health.  The Aberdeen surgeon was immediately sent by military ambulance to a hospital which had been established in the buildings of the Upper Dames Institute, Bloemfontein, where he was “put to bed and only on cold milk and a “mixture” … and there I lay”.  He did manage to write a letter to his wife, Bella, explaining where he was and what had happened to him before he lapsed into semi-consciousness.  At that point his chances of survival were very poor.

For about the next week it was touch and go whether Ogston would survive or succumb to typhoid fever, as so many others had done who were caught up in this Second Boer War.  He was delirious and drifted in and out of consciousness.  He could not compose entries in his war journal at that time and only at a later date did he record what he could remember.  But his account is dramatic, eloquent, verified by witnesses and probably represents as close a description of what it must feel like in the days before death from typhoid as one is likely to find anywhere in the literature.  Alec Ogston’s entry is given verbatim.

“Of the days that followed the 2^nd of June I remember very little.  My disease was at first doubted as being typhoid fever, but as it ran its course it was treated for that ailment.  I had been going about duty for 25 days with the fever upon me, at least 8 days with phlebitis in the veins of my right leg and on admission my temperature was 104 deg F and such circumstances usually involve an attack of the greatest danger with probable intestinal perforation or haemorrhage. … But fortunately it went more favourably with me. … Night and day made no difference to me.  I lay and slept near the door of the 4 bedded ward they placed me in, a constant stupor concluding any fears and thoughts.  I knew that the huddled mass lying like a tumbled chair near the door was me yet it was not I, for I used regularly to get up with something dark and soft in my left hand, I know not what, and wander away under grey sunless, moonless, starless skies, wandering and wandering to the horizon seeing other shades glide silently by and solitary but not unhappy, till something stirred the mass by the door.  Then I was drawn back to it and it became I and was fed, or spoken to, and cared for.  And when they left it again, I wandered off as before by the side of a great slowly flowing flood through my fields of asphodel knowing no difference between daylight and darkness with no thought of religion and no fear of the death I knew was near and roamed through black grey skies apathetic and content till they disturbed my body lying near the door and I was again drawn back to it and entered it with something like disgust.  (The fields of Asphodel were one of the three sections of the Underworld in Greek mythology, where most ordinary souls are sent to live after death).  And so the days went on, and when good news of Lord Roberts Japery (at) Pretoria came I was able on the 5^th to raise my head and give two faint hand claps at the relief it brought to his poor wife.  But I knew no more of my sickness than that and that my wanderings through the dusky asphodel fields seemed to be more constant and more distant until the 7^th of June.  The end of the first week of light fever where as I was summoned back to the huddled mass with something now like loathing.  I heard them say or think as I drew near “he will live” and found the mass less cold and clammy than of late and ever after that my wanderings seemed to be fewer and shorter and the mass at the door and I grew together and ceased to be separate and never again ceased to be one and the same.  I remember too that I could see through the buildings: I saw a por(?) RGMC swagger grow very ill and serious and die away to the cemetery.  When afterwards I told the sisters they said it was all just as I had described”.

Subsequently, Ogston started to recover from his brush with death, slowly at first and then more rapidly.  “I felt new life pouring into me like a cascade”.  He managed to write home on 1, 9 and 15 June, he had many visitors and was able to deal with other correspondence, too.  AO was not able to return to writing his journal until 12 June 1900, the catching-up process not being completed until 22 June.  He was easily wearied and found it difficult to think and write.  Reflecting on his typhoid symptoms, Alec Ogston reported that the disease had drained away all bodily and mental strength.  His incident was a typical case of typhoid fever, with well-marked spots and a high temperature, though throughout its course he never experienced headache.   In Bloemfontein at that time his type of case bore a high mortality rate. Five nursing sisters had died there besides many army medical officers.  Also, he had had two additional risk factors not present in most of those affected, an advancing age (53) and phlebitis of the veins in his right leg.  Major Greenaway of the RAMC pronounced him convalescent on 21 June and declared that he should be able to travel in about two weeks and advised to go straight back to England.    Ogston was forbidden to return to serving with Lord Methuen’s force.  The phlebitis in his right leg was cured about 27 June and the same afternoon he enjoyed his first cigar since his recovery. “Ah, how it tasted!”  On 28 June he lay on the verandah in the sun and the following day, he was allowed up and sat in an armchair.  But that was the limit of his physical recovery for the present, as his legs were still powerless.  Although Ogston was very satisfied with the medical and nursing help that he had received in Bloemfontein, he was less than impressed with the state of hygiene there, noting in his journal on 1 July 1900, “Disinfection is neither understood nor practised in this hospital which is otherwise well run”.  He could see no reason why armies in the field should not be free of typhoid as they were at home.  Indirectly, this return of interest in sanitation in medical facilities was a strong indicator of the recovery of AO’s mental faculties.  Before leaving South Africa he returned to this subject in more trenchant terms in his journal.  “It is all a great pity! Instead of England leading in all these things, she is dragging along years behind other nations, obstinate, ignorant, self-satisfied, narrow minded, bound up in red tape and pipe clay.  I wish I were minister of war for five years”.

Once he was sufficiently recovered from his brush with mortality, Alex Ogston made a tour around Bloemfontein, contrasting unfavourably the name, “Well of Flowers” with the reality of a desolate, muddy town.  He made a particularly moving visit to the local cemetery, recording the scene and his thoughts in his distinctive prose.  “Entering through a dilapidated turnstile and a tottering gate, where the spade had been recently so busy that one’s first impression was that of looking on a surface mine where prospectors had been throwing up mounds and forming pits in the search for gold.  Only here the mounds were regular, lay in squares, row behind row, with walks between the squares and the heart sickened to see this garden of the dead, planted with the bodies of British heroes.  Here was a square of the Guards, there one of another regiment, here lay a parterre of Roman Catholics, there a bed of Nonconformists …There were rows upon rows, and squares upon squares of such mounds, all of them recent, and without a blade of grass or a single leaf to cover the gaunt stony gravel.  Perhaps a little tombstone or a wooden cross, a stray in the waste, was put up by some comrade or friend to rescue the remains underneath from oblivion; here and there a withered flower was laid, or a little British flag of the size of one’s palm had been stuck into the soil by some one who had nothing else to give, and whose heart was perhaps too full to be aware of anything incongruous in his offering of a doll’s flag.  It was only with dim eyes and constricted throat that one could look round this plantation of brave men in that foreign ‘Acre of God’”.

 

Cape Town and the return to the UK

Alec Ogston soon started to contemplate his return to the UK and received a welcome offer of accommodation in his house in Cape Town from his friend Mr. Justice Richard Solomon.  Solomon and Ogston had first met in 1894 when the latter visited Kimberley.  Justice Solomon subsequently served as Chief Justice of South Africa.  Alec Ogston sent a grateful message of acceptance to his friend, provided he could also accommodate Ogston’s servant, Denholm, an essential personal adjunct to his travel plans in his continuing, arriving weakened state.  Alec Ogston left the military hospital in Bloemfontein on the evening of 4 July 1900 to catch a train to Norval’s Port station.  Sister Murphy had provided him with a box of provisions, including champagne and port, to sustain him on his journey!  From Norval’s Port he travelled by sleeping car through to Cape Town on the morning of 6 July.  Maude Solomon came out from Ballyrush House to greet Ogston but both were silent, “being choked at the thought of her dead brother”.  The Solomons were most hospitable to their famous surgical guest and in particular Ogston observed that, “The hot baths are a great luxury to me”.   His only negative observation while staying at Ballyrush House was that his right leg was growing “somewhat angry” again.  His phlebitis had returned and would trouble him for some time after his departure.  In response to this flare-up he started keeping his leg raised when he rested in a chair.  Mrs Solomon particularly fed him on fish and puddings, accompanied by champagne, which he was happy to do, asserting that it would do him good, “… for I am become a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber among the kind people here”.  Although he indulged himself, he appeared to realize that his self-gratification must have limits.  “I am subject to temptations … worse than those of St Anthony … I fatten like a pig under all this kindness and restfulness and which is very welcome to me, and necessary – for a time”.  Mrs Solomon later presented AO with a “beautiful long Caffre staff from Transkei”.  (“Caffre” appears to have been Ogston’s spelling of “Kaffir”, a corruption of the Arab word “kafir” or non-believer, ie non-Muslim.  However, in South Africa at the time, it was used to refer to members of black ethnic groups, not a pejorative term as some believe it to be today).

Ogston secured a berth for 11 July on the ss Briton of the Union Line, sailing from Cape Town to Southampton.  This ship had been converted to a troop-carrier at the start of hostilities in South Africa and subsequently continued in the service of the Union Line on the Southampton – Cape Town run after the war.  Alec Ogston sent a cablegram to his wife giving her the details of his return.  At that time he expressed concern for the anxiety his absence and illness must have caused to Bella.  Ogston then visited his bank in Cape Town, closed his account, received the balance due and reclaimed the parcel containing his watch and valuables.  He then secured a haircut and bought “shoes, hat, etc. to appear less wild and savage”.  Two days before his departure, he claimed to have had his first continuous night’s sleep since becoming ill.

ss “Briton”

The journey to Southampton proved to be highly therapeutic for Alec Ogston, who observed, ““Briton” is the steadiest of boats”.  He carried his Kaffir staff, but hardly needed to use it.  One wildlife highlight on the return journey was the sighting of flying fish.  Ogston found that several of his fellow passengers were of similar prominence to himself and he was transferred to the Captain’s table where the ship’s master presided and where the diners were all high-ranking crew members or high-status passengers.  Mr Cheatle the surgeon was on board and he and Ogston discussed the performance of the RAMC.  Two officers from the “Mexican”, whom Ogston had met on the journey out to South Africa, were now serving on the Briton.  They had been on the “Mexican” when she was wrecked by collision with the merchantman, Winkfield, off South Africa in 1900.  Ogston had intended to give up wine but he had turns of faintness come on and resumed using port for 3 days until his strength improved!  His journal had by then been revised and written up and all his photographic negatives had been catalogued.  When the vessel was opposite the Cape Verde Islands he recorded that he was still weak from the bout of typhoid.  He had almost regained his flesh but was now aware of being slightly deaf and slightly dim-sighted, since being ill.  AO also retained a tendency to bowel weakness and by evening his leg “often resembled that of a washer woman” from swelling up and it frequently hurt him.  He met another passenger who was suffering from phlebitis after fever and suggested that the two of them should run a race!  At least his sense of humour had fully returned.

Not all the VIPs received Alec Ogston’s approbation.  He was not impressed by the dukes on the ship.  One he described as “a fair-faced, pleasant-looking nonentity”.  On board there were also one or two “ruddy-gilled, rotund, old gentlemen”.  A more interesting category of passenger was the newspaper correspondent, about a dozen of whom were returning from the war.  At least one, Duval, had been present on the Boer side.  One Frenchman gave his view that the British had been using expanding bullets.  This offended some of the officers on board and rhe Frenchman was banished from the table.  Ogston proffered an alternative view.  “Some expanding bullets had been used on the way out for rifle and pistol practice but were not used in the campaign itself, except for some revolver ammunition.  But revolvers were never fired”.  Another of Ogston’s fellow passengers on the Briton was Arthur Conan Doyle, who became Sir Arthur in 1902.  He qualified in medicine at Edinburgh University and was not successful practicing as a doctor but in other spheres of life, especially as an author, he was very successful.  On 21 July, with the Briton south of Madeira, after deck games had been concluded, there was a fancy dress ball in the evening.  One of the enthusiasts for this mode of entertainment was Arthur Doyle who dressed up as Chang, the Chinese Giant, a real person who toured around the world displaying his physical stature and was claimed to be over 8ft tall.   Such a theatrical activity was not Ogston’s cup of tea, especially in his post-war frame of mind. His dark thoughts were recorded in his journal.  “The faces of the dead men I have known since last I passed here kept coming up before me, and I went early to bed.  I think many others had like thoughts”.  Was he suffering from PTSD (PostTraumatic Stress Disorder)?

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

On 23 July, the ship touched Madeira and Alec Ogston was able to telegraph his wife to let her know that he would be catching the boat train from Southampton on Friday morning, 27^th July.  It had been an exceptionally cool and quiet passage and the journey up the Channel on the approach to Southampton was in misty, choppy conditions.  Bella travelled down from Aberdeen to greet her returning spouse and at 4.45am he saw his wife standing on the wharf looking out for him as the steamer docked.  His journal recorded, “And my campaign was ended”.  A few further snippets were added to his written record of his South African experience.  The Aberdeen surgeon had been absent from his native city for 7 months 15 days.  And his expenditure (the trip was self-financed) had been £367 11/8 “exclusive of £100 to Dr Fortescue and other outlays connected with my absence”.  Presumably, Dr Fortescue, thought to have been William Fortescue, MB CM 1896, had been standing in for some of his medical or academic duties.

 

Postscript to Alexander Ogston’s Boer War experiences

The last entry in the Ogston diary of his Second Boer War experiences was a very sad event for Alex Ogston, as he recorded the death of his long-standing friend, Sir William Stokes, who died at Pietermaritzburg, Natal, of pneumonia on 15 August 1900.  “The sweetest soul that ever looked with human eyes.  God rest him”.  Although not recorded in his war journal, it is important to remember that Alec Ogston’s estranged son, Francis Hargrave Ogson, was killed on active service at Reitkuil, near Klerksdorp during the Second Boer War.  He died on 17 April 1901 and was initially buried where he fell but his body was afterwards, in 1904, removed to Klerksdorp Cemetery, where a gravestone was subsequently placed in his memory.  He is also memorialised in a wall plaque in St Nicholas Kirk, Aberdeen.

Memorial to Francis Ogston senior and Francis Hargrave Ogston, West Kirk.

Before Alexander Ogston left Cape Town for Great Britain, a major public debate had started, both locally and back in the home country, concerning the provision of care for the British sick and wounded in the field.  In early 1900, Ashmead Burdett-Coutts, MP, had travelled to South Africa to investigate the treatment of British troops who were sick or wounded.  He had been critical of the treatment of war casualties during the First Boer War a decade earlier and in the latest conflict he reported at intervals in the pages of “The Times”, pointing out the wholly inadequate provision of medical resources for an army the size of the one mustered in South Africa.  Burdett-Coutts’ reports fully supported the observations that Alex Ogston made.  The MP also found that the personnel of the RAMC had gone above and beyond the call of duty in many circumstances where they were really overwhelmed with casualties.  On the other hand, he complained regularly about red tape, lack of organisation and failure to utilise voluntary resources that were proffered.  Locally in South Africa, the Archbishop of Cape Town was one of the first out of the traps.  He remarked that “… it fairly made his blood boil to think that there was such disgraceful neglect, particularly at Rosebank Hospital … There has been a growing feeling of dissatisfaction on the parts of both public and patients with the way in which the military hospitals and convalescent wards are being managed.  Grave complaints are made, anonymously for the most part, in the press, but the greatest difficulty is experienced in obtaining definite details, with proofs, owing to the unwillingness of the men concerned to make charges openly”.  Julian Ralph, a reporter for the Daily Mail wrote, “I have no hesitation in saying that I considered the treatment of the sick and wounded – especially after the main advance from Modder River – primitive, cruel and almost barbaric, as well as needless and inexcusable”.  A further contribution from Julian Ralph referred to the unbearable bureaucracy encountered. “A civilian who spends hundreds upon hundreds of pounds in buying common necessities for the field hospitals told me that he was informed the army medical men could not purchase a thermometer except at the risk of personal pecuniary loss.  It wanted three months, he said, for a field hospital to observe the formula for getting supplies which he used to buy at an hour’s notice”.  Alex Ogston, in his book, “Reminiscences of Three Campaigns”, also referred to the statements of Surgeon-Captain Brownlee who accompanied the Highland Brigade during the advance on Bloemfontein.  He was “… quoted as stating in plain terms that he had not enough men or ambulances to cope with the heavy work to be done.  At one time, it is stated, two ambulances, with accommodation for four patients lying and six sitting, were all he had to wait on the sick and wounded of a body of 4,000 men”.

William Burdett-Coutts.

The debate continued while Ogston was journeying back to Great Britain and, after reaching home, he followed its continuing twists and turns, as the military tried to justify its actions.  Alex Ogston returned to the matter in his book, “Reminiscences of Three Campaigns”.  “Every medical officer who was in the Orange Free State at the time knew that Burdett-Coutts’ statements were nothing more than the bare unvarnished truth, and the scenes there were such as have never left the memories of those who witnessed them.  At home his reports created a great sensation, and along with much support he received a deal of obloquy; but his statements were never denied or disproved; they were notoriously too true.  Hence the War Office had to be whitewashed.  Eminent authorities replied to him that “War is War”, and seemed to think that solved the question.  Others missed the point of the matter by defending the medical officers, whom Burdett-Coutts had never attacked … Public opinion was roused, and something had to be done.  Mr Balfour defended the War Office in Parliament.  A South African Hospitals Inquiry Commission was appointed, at which experts talked vaguely about the necessity of having elasticity in the army medical arrangements and large reserves at the base. … The director general of the army medical department was reported to have said; “All I can tell you is that, whatever has happened, the department has done the right thing”. … And the following burlesque was solemnly enacted.  I quote from the Pall Mall Gazette of 29^th June 1900.  “A further £5 required. – Included in the parliamentary papers today is a copy of the Army Supplementary Estimate, dated yesterday for the nominal sum of £5 for the army medical establishment, which the Government have submitted as a vehicle for today’s discussion on the charges of hospital mismanagement and insufficiency in South Africa.  The document sets forth that it is an “Estimate of the further amount that will be required during the year ending March 31, 1901, to meet the expenditure in excess of that provided for in the original army estimates for the year for medical establishment and for medicines”.  The original estimate for medical establishment, pay, and so on, was for £555,000.  The “revised estimate” is for £555,005; additional sum required £5.  And it ended at that!  Who can marvel at my holding more strongly than ever the conviction that, whether it comes to pass sooner or late, the army medical service will never take its rightful place in the nation’s defence until it is made independent of the War Office, and has its own heads directly responsible to Parliament?  In whatever shape, or however late, it must come to that”. 

One interesting postscript to Alexander Ogston’s sojourn in South Africa was a public exhibition that was mounted in Aberdeen in February 1901 of war relics collected by the wandering surgeon.  It was held on the upper floor of the large warehouse of Sangster and Henderson (drapers and house furnishers) at 32 - 38 Union Street.  The purpose of the exhibition was to raise funds for the “Daily Telegraph” and “Scotsman” Shilling Fund which supported the 5,000 working class war widows and their children, created by the recent conflict in South Africa.  Many upper-class Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire ladies agreed to become patrons of the exhibition, including the Countess of Aberdeen and (well down the pecking order) Mrs Alexander Ogston.  The official opening by Colonel Mathias took place on 9 February with Lord Provost Fleming presiding.  Professor Ogston was present and gave an informal account of his experiences in South Africa, illustrated by slides.  At the end of his talk, Lord Aberdeen proposed a vote of thanks and asked those present to contribute to the Shilling Fund. 

The exhibits were placed in a separate glass case, in the centre of which was a medal sent to Professor Ogston by Queen Victoria only two months before her death.  The Aberdeen Journal had a full description of this Royal accolade.  "On one side is a representation of an angel with laurel branch in her hand bending over the form of a stricken soldier on the battlefield.  On a scroll at the top are the words, "To the memory of those who gave their lives for Queen and country".  On the obverse side there is a figure of Britannia with drawn sword leading the troops who can be seen in the background while there is also a representation of the British Navy guarding the shores.  The sun rising above the hills bears on it the word "pax".  The whole design is symbolic and suggestive".       

Major-General Andrew Wauchope was in command of the 3^rd (Highland) Brigade in the abortive advance on Kimberley early in the campaign, seeing action at the battles of Belmont and Modder River before leading his men at the Battle of Magersfontein on 11 December 1899, where he was killed early in the attack on Boer positions by rifle fire.  Less than a month later, Alex Ogston was able to examine the battlefield closely and, while there, he picked up three pebbles which he subsequently had mounted on gold rings on his return to Britain.  One was given to Queen Victoria, one to Wauchope’s widow and the third was retained by Professor Ogston and was included in the exhibition.

Another significant relic of the South African campaign which was exhibited was the sjambok, a long, stiff horsewhip, which had belonged to Frenchman Major-General Villebois-Marais who was killed fighting for the Boers near Boshof on 6 April 1900.  Curiously, the Aberdeen Journal attributed the collection site and location of Villebois’ death to the place where the Battle of Tweefontein (north-east of Pretoria) was fought but that engagement did not occur until 1901, long after Ogston had departed from South Africa.  In any case he did not penetrate as far as Pretoria.  It seems likely that Ogston obtained the keepsake at Boshof, which he did visit.  Another Boshof relic on display was the swagger stick of Lieutenant Cecil Boyle of the Imperial Yeomanry, “whose death was due to the treachery of the Boers exhibiting a white flag and then shooting when the lieutenant looked up”.  Boyle had been an international rugby player for England.

Alexander Ogston also brought back a variety of munitions, including a pom-pom shell, an elephant gun cartridge used by the Boers and green-tipped bullets which were initially suspected of being poisoned, though Ogston had quickly dismissed that fanciful notion.  It is unclear from which force the pom-pom shell came since the British pom-pom cannon was used by both sides in the conflict.

Books and documents were also well represented in the exhibition.  The Aberdeen Journal had a full description.  "In the way of books and documents there are a Dutch book "Prince of the House of David" picked up in the Boer trenches at Magersfontein (which Ogston had visited in January 1900); one of the beautifully illustrated Bibles distributed to the British and Colonial troops in South Africa; one of the Boers' Red Cross certificates and the last number of the "Diamond Fields Advertiser" published at Kimberley on 10th February 1900.  This paper was suppressed because of an article which appeared entitled "Why Kimberley Cannot Wait".  The sheet announcing the stoppage of the paper is also shown bearing the significant announcement:-"We beg to inform our readers that for reasons which we shall fully explain at some future time it has been decided to suspend publication of the "Diamond Fields Advertiser" until further notice.  The printing department of the "DF Advertiser" will also be closed down until further notice".  There is also the first number of the "Government Gazette" of the Orange River Colony - bearing the date Friday June 29 1900 - containing the proclamation regarding the burning of farms, etc".  The reason for the suspension of the “Diamond Fields Advertiser”, which was owned by Cecil Rhodes, was that while Kimberley was under siege, Rhodes ignored the military censor and published information that was judged useful to the enemy.  It was then closed down by the commander of the Kimberley garrison, Colonel Robert Kekewich.

Also on display was a full set of Kruger money, the currency established in the South African Republic (Transvaal) of which Paul Kruger was president between 1883 and 1902.  Coins on display were the sovereign, half-sovereign, half-crown, florin, two-shilling piece, sixpence and penny, all bearing Kruger's portrait. Other historical items were a uniform button of the Kruger Volunteer Corps, a section of the Vriekleur national ribbon and a Boer Red Cross brassard.  Alexander Ogston, a keen photographer, brought back a number of scenes, including the graves of Colonel Downman (commanding officer of Lieutenant FH Ogston, who was killed at Paardeberg), Captain Wingate (1^st Gordon Highlanders, killed at Magersfontein), Lieutenant Cran Campbell and General Villebois-Marais.  Another grave was that of Mr Allan Johnson, an Aberdeen medical student who had gone out to South Africa as a member of Sir James Sievewright’s ambulance party.  This group offered to work for the Boers in the Transvaal but was turned down by Kruger.  As a result, it attached itself to the British forces.  Johnson caught enteric fever (probably typhoid) and died.  He was buried at Bloemfontein.

 

Alexander Ogston and the State of the Army 

St John Brodrick was Secretary of State for War (1900 – 1903) during most of the Second Boer War, when the performance of the British Army received so much criticism for its performance, including the early defeats to the Boers, the high casualty rate during the campaign to relieve the towns besieged by the Boers, the inability to foresee and deal with the subsequent guerrilla campaign, the use of concentration camps and the performance of the Army Medical Corps.  Brodrick’s predecessor, Lord Lansdowne, took most of the blame for these deficiencies.  Only 27,000 hospital admissions were due to enemy action, but an overwhelming 450,000 were due to disease, mainly enteric infections.  More deaths resulted from gut infections than from all other causes.  There had to be a reaction to these reprovals, and Brodick responded by pursuing a programme of reform.  Feeding into this process was a number of inquiries to which Alexander Ogston contributed.

St John Brodrick.

The Director General of the Army Medical Department, Surgeon-General Jamieson went into defensive mode in response to the criticisms that the service he headed had performed badly.  In July 1900 he gave a speech at a dinner commemorating the 50^th anniversary of the founding of the Epidemiological Society.  Firstly, he listed the prominent people who had praised the performance of the service, the civilian surgeons, Sir William MacCormack, Frederick Treves, the German military medical attaches and the army leaders in South Africa, Lord Roberts and Sir Redvers Buller.  They had the requisite number of beds and there was ample medical equipment to the extent that he was implored not to send more.  When problems arose it was because of unforeseen circumstances which could not have been predicted, such as a serious outbreak of typhoid fever.  And they had to prioritise the feeding and equipping of the fighting men.  When an inquiry was held, he was confident it would be discovered that his service was not wanting.  The editor of the Aberdeen Journal was not so sanguine.  “We do not forget, however, that so late as August last (1899) Professor Ogston, at a meeting of the British Medical Association, formulated a severe indictment against the methods and administration of the Army and Navy Medical Departments – an indictment which has never been answered authoritatively by either branch”.

In June 1901, the Secretary of State for War announced the membership of an expert committee to inquire into the reorganisation of the Royal Army Medical Corps.  Five members were civilian medical men who had seen service in South Africa, including Alexander Ogston.  No member of the committee was a senior officer in the service under investigation, but the secretariat was drawn from that organisation.  Of the civilians, Alexander Ogston had, by far, been the most critical of the RAMC, both before and during the campaign.  There was a variety of editorial comment on the makeup of the committee.  The Aberdeen Journal, in welcoming Ogston’s inclusion, praised the Government for having the courage to appoint a known critic of the army’s medical service.  The British Medical Journal complained that the War Office had, for the last fifty years, been resistant to reform.  Although the views expressed by Alex Ogston at Portsmouth “were distasteful to some, there is no doubt that he had the interests of the Service at heart”.  One of the most enthusiastic newspapers was the “Morning Leader”.  Commenting on the address that Ogston had given at the BMA annual meeting in 1899, the paper noted, “He predicted what would happen in the case of an important war with remarkable accuracy, and perhaps no critic has ever been better justified by events”.

In early August 1901, St John Brodrick wrote to the King (RA VIC/MAIN/W/22/45) with the report of his committee into the reorganisation of the Royal Army Medical Corps and a summary of its main recommendations.  He also asked the monarch for his help with matters relating to army ranks over which he had no control, and for the King’s support in ending the practice of blackballing Army Medical Corps candidates applying for membership of Military Clubs

The report was published at the end of September 1901.  Its main recommendations were that the RAMC should be under the supervision of an Advisory Board, rather than the Director-General of the service.  “The chief duties of the board will be to report on all matters connected with medicine, etc, deal with hospitals, submit a scheme for the expansion of the service to meet the needs of war or serious epidemics and the promotion of officers. There was also a major development with regard to the merger of the Army and India Nursing Services.  A new organisation should be created, to be called “Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Nursing Service” to be under the immediate control of the Queen, who would become president, and a nursing board.  Also, the pay of serving army medical officers was substantially increased and promotion would no longer be by seniority but by qualifications.  There was also a proposal to establish a medical staff college in association with a major London hospital.

Although he signed the report, signifying that he mostly agreed with its recommendations Alexander Ogston authored an addendum making some significant criticisms of the main findings on the general grounds that they did not go far enough.  “I consider that the scheme falls short of what is requisite among other things in the following matters, viz. 1.  It does not provide for the formation of a sanitary corps, consisting of officers specially charged with the duty of carrying out proper sanitary measures in peace and war, and a staff of men trained to ensure the requisite measures being carried into effect.  2.  It does not provide such study leave as the advanced state of medical science now demands, and is likely in the future to demand even more, nor such liberal privileges in this direction as have been found necessary in the armies of the other great European Powers.  3.  It makes no provision for placing at the disposal of the many medical officers serving in remote and isolated stations abroad such information as will enable them to familiarise themselves with the advances of medical science, and as is called for in the interests of those who are placed under their care.  4.  It fails to provide for medical officers being trained by attendance upon civilian patients in all the branches of their profession, so that they may become equally skilful with their civilian brethren and may avoid the narrowing influences which act so injuriously upon medical officers who have to deal only with the treatment of soldiers and military officials”. 

St John Brodrick, though he was regarded as having not been a very successful Secretary of State for War, had made major advances in the reformation of the Royal Army Medical Corps.

Another significant response to the debacle of the Second Boer War was the establishment of a Royal Commission to inquire into the state of the army.  This was chaired by the Earl of Elgin and Kincardine and started work in September 1902.  Its remit was as follows.  “The King has been pleased to appoint a Royal Commission to inquire into the military preparations for the war in South Africa, and into the supply of men, ammunition, equipment, and transport by sea and land in connection with the campaign, and into the military operations up to the occupation of Pretoria, and to report thereon”.  This was a very wide remit which covered the performance of logistics in relation to the medical services but this aspect did not loom large in the overall picture. 

In October 1902, Alexander Ogston was asked to appear before this Royal Commission and to present evidence “as to the equipment and organisation of the Army Medical Corps, compared with those of Germany and Russia”.  On the day, Lord Esher chaired the meeting in the absence of Lord Elgin.  Later, an official communique was issued covering, in rather dry and superficial terms, the evidence that Ogston had provided.  “His evidence related to questions of the sufficiency of the strength and training of the Royal Army Medical Corps officer and men, as to the medical and ambulance equipment in the field, to the sanitary arrangements, and to the organisation of voluntary aid and its relation to the regular medical service.  He compared the British system in these respects with those prevailing in the German and Russia armies.  Professor Ogston made several suggestions for the improvement of the British system”.

When the report of the Royal Commission was published in total at the end of August 1903, the devastating reality of Alexander Ogston’s actual evidence was laid out in horrifying detail.  But it sat alongside many other examples of political and military ignorance, naivety, unpreparedness and incompetence.  The Aberdeen Journal gave a good account of what Aberdeen’s Professor of Surgery had said- 

“The provision of officers and men was quite inadequate.  He judged they had provision for about 40,000 of an army only, straining their provision to the utmost.  When the wounded came back from Modder River to Paardeberg the provision of officers and men of the RAMC was very deficient, and they had exceeding difficulty to deal with the sick and wounded in the convoys and at the hospitals.  At Modder River on one occasion 800 men were brought in in one day, and they had to be accommodated in two field hospitals which only had equipment for 100 men each.  On 24^th February there were three medical attendants to look after 400 sick and wounded.  As there were typhoid and very badly wounded cases, they ought to have had four times the number of medical attendants to do anything like justice to the patients.  There were by no means enough hospital orderlies either.  He could give no data regarding the hospital orderlies as they were such a fluctuating body.  They were attending the typhoid cases, and themselves were feeling ill and dying daily with typhoid fever.  The non-commissioned officers and men could not, he thought, be accused of any lack of zeal and devotion, but he draws a terrible picture of the results of their ignorance.  Many of them came into it untrained from other regiments, and if they received training there, it was merely a little training in first aid, and carrying wounded on the field.  Many of them – most of them I should say – were absolutely ignorant of anything like what was required for attending on the sick.  They were utterly unaware of how to deal with a sick man or of what was an absolute necessity for him and hence, in spite of their goodwill they failed him from the want of this training.  There were, of course, exceptions, and some of them were exceedingly good, but they were few.  Most of them seemed to have joined, whether they were regulars or volunteers, with the idea that their duty would be to go into the field behind an advancing regiment to pick up the wounded, to stop their bleeding and then to carry them to the tents; and then when they found that their duties were nothing so brilliant as that but consisted in the tedious watching night and day over men who were sick, delirious and dying and when their comrades were taken ill daily and dying around them they often lost heart.  It required in fact a quiet heroism that very few of them possessed to enable them to carry out their duties especially in attending on the sick and the fever cases which were very numerous.  Disinfection one might almost say was absolutely unknown.  The men knew nothing about disinfectants.  They did not even know which were good and which were bad.  They had no training in keeping themselves disinfected.  In fact, it seemed to me that many of them looked upon it as a species of cowardice if they attended to such things as avoiding infection – a sort of shirking of duty.  The hands were not disinfected, the utensils were not disinfected, and the wards were not disinfected.  In one hospital made to contain 53 cases almost exclusively of typhoid the only source of disinfection for the orderlies was one enamelled basin containing creoline and water which was placed in the veranda at the exit from the hospital and this they might or might not use as they thought proper.  This was in a hospital in Bloemfontein.  No blame attached to the officers for this.  He says that they did all that men could do”.

“German military hospitals Professor Ogston considered are superior to ours and a sufficient number of orderlies are carefully trained in times of peace.  Our army surgeons are inferior to civilian surgeons because from the time they enter the army they are cut off from the constant practice that is necessary.  Professor Ogston pointed out how that in Germany and Russia the medical service of the army is organised so as to be in touch with civilian medical institutions and army surgeons are afforded opportunities to keep abreast of the advances in their profession.  This is not done in the British Army Medical Corps”.

Alexander Ogston’s status with the Royal Commission members was substantial.  In a letter from Lord Esher to King Edward VII in October 1902 (RA VIC/MAIN/W/38/47), giving the monarch information on the progress of the Royal Commission, Esher wrote, “Perhaps Your Majesty may recollect Professor Odstone (Ogston) – of Aberdeen who was sent privately to Africa by Queen Victoria and who brought home most interesting details – Lord Esher had the advantage of seeing the Professor at Windsor about two years ago, and learnt from him many details about the medical services in the German and Russian Armies, the arrangements in which had been carefully studied by the Professor, who is the greatest English authority on comparative military medical science.  Lord Esher has obtained the assent of the Commissioners to call Professor Odstun and Sir Frederick Treves, and he hopes most valuable results may follow from their evidence.  Neither of the Medical Officers called today have visited Germany nor Russia, nor were they familiar with any of the foreign systems, nor the most recent scientific improvements in field equipment, as described at Windsor by Professor Odstone, whose statements showed that the Russians are in army medical sciences, far ahead of all European nations”.

St John Brodrick, who had introduced a programme for army reform, lost his job in Government in 1903 and it was left to others, particularly Sir Richard Haldane who was Secretary of State for War from 1905 to 1912 to bring about real reform of army structures, training and organisation.  However, there can be no doubt that Alexander Ogston’s fearless exposure of army deficiencies played a significant part in alerting politicians to the need for reform in the army medical services. 

One of the most significant agents of further reform of the RAMC was Sir Alfred Keogh, an army doctor who had served with distinction in South Africa during the Second Boer War.  On his return to Britain, he was appointed Deputy Director General of the Army Medical Services (on the recommendation of St John Brodrick) and then Director-General in 1905, at the same time being promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-General.  In October 1910, Sir Alfred visited Aberdeen and held a conference with leading medical men and officers of the Volunteer Force in the North-East of Scotland.  The meeting was chaired by Lord Provost Sir Alexander Lyon, who was also, ex-officio, Lord Lieutenant of the County and City of Aberdeen.  It was held in the Albert Hall, the HQ of the Aberdeen companies of the RAMC (Volunteers).  There was a large attendance, and the doctors present included Professor Alexander Ogston, Dr John Scott Riddell and Professor Matthew Hay.

When Sir Alfred had been appointed to his present role, he quickly realised that the Volunteer section of the RAMC was entirely insufficient should there be a major conflict.  He then formulated a plan to rectify the deficiencies and Sir Richard Haldane approved his proposals and gave him a free hand to implement his plan.  Keogh resolved to seek the advice of civilian doctors, since that group would be called upon to help if there were to be a major conflict.  Any proposal for reform would need to be flexible and adaptable to meet the needs of busy individual doctors.  The continental powers had schemes to mobilise civilian medical men in time of need, but Britain had none.  “Up until now, men in the highest ranks of the profession – with few exceptions – were compelled to hold aloof from the Volunteer Army Corps because the conditions of training and service were too stringent to allow them to give their time for the necessary training.  Let such men enrol themselves as volunteers to be called upon to act on the personnel of general hospitals.  Let others, as heretofore, take part in the training and organisation of the field ambulances.  Then, as regarded sanitation, he proposed to invite men trained for public health appointments and medical officers of health to take their part in the work.  They were not only useful but necessary units in the scheme.  Let them enrol themselves to be called upon to act in time of invasion.  Then there must be nursing establishments, the details of which he would not enter into.  He thus built up the medical profession of the country into one great corps to act along with the Territorial Army if need be”.  “Sir Alfred Keogh then concluded with an eloquent appeal to the profession to assist him in furthering the scheme and promised that he would do everything in his power to support the medical service of the territorial forces to make the work as light as possible for medical men who were to form the chiefs and staffs of the general and stationary hospitals”.

At this point, the Lord Provost had to leave the meeting and Professor Ogston took the chair for discussion of the issues which had been raised and finally proposed a vote of thanks to Sir Alfred.  He “assured him of the sympathy of all the medical men present with the scheme which he had so thoroughly worked out, and which they would all do their utmost to further”.  Keogh had been smart enough to ask for the help and advice of the senior doctors and his reward was that he earned their respect and gained their cooperation.  Alex Ogston must have been gratified that at last the RAMC had a chief who did not try to dictate to the profession and thoroughly understood the need for reform of army medical services.

 

The death of Queen Victoria

The last time Alexander Ogston met with Queen Victoria was on 8 November 1899 when he visited Balmoral before his departure for South Africa.  Three days later the monarch left Deeside for Windsor Castle at the end of her Scottish sojourn.  Ogston arrived back in Aberdeen on 29 July 1900 and was informed that the Queen had expressed a wish to see him, but her health was failing, and no meeting was arranged before her departure for the south.  She died on 22 January 1901 at Osborne House.  Later, Sir James Reid told Alexander Ogston that the Queen had intended to award some honour to him.  Two days after Queen Victoria’s passing, Alex Ogston, clearly moved by the loss that he felt personally, gave his estimation of the dead monarch’s legacy to his surgery class.  The Aberdeen Journal reported on his impromptu valedictory address.  "In the surgery classroom, Professor Ogston, surgeon-in-ordinary to her late Majesty, in the course of a reference to the great loss sustained by the nation in the death of the Queen, spoke of his inability to do justice to the subject or to say what ought to be said in such circumstances as well as some men could do.  Referring to the close connection which Her Majesty had with this part of the country, he said that if she had not been a Queen, they in Aberdeen would have looked upon Her Majesty as one of themselves, she having spent one third of her time each year on Deeside.  Speaking of Her Majesty's personal character, Professor Ogston referred to the great amount of good she had done to the country by her example.  They could have no idea of what the Queen had been as they had lived during her reign, but those who had lived before her ascension were able to realise and appreciate the good she had done.  Referring to her goodness and kindness of heart, Professor Ogston spoke of the great interest Her Majesty had always taken in her tenants and said that she always saw to it that the lowliest crofer on the estate got the best medical attendance.  She was constantly inquiring after the welfare of her tenants, and in cases of bereavement or illness she never failed to give comfort.  Speaking of the attitude of Her Majesty towards medicine and surgery, he said that she had often been in advance of some of our greatest medical and scientific men.  Professor Ogston then went on to refer to the great advances that had been made in the departments of surgery and medicine during the long reign of Her Majesty, and the discoveries that had been made for the alleviation of suffering and the lessening of danger to life, especially mentioning the discovery of chloroform and antiseptics, both by subjects of the Queen, one of these being a Scotchman (Simpson) and the other an Englishman (Lister).  So great was the influence of Her Majesty that many living at the present day whom we recognized as great men, would in after time be remembered simply as having lived in the Victorian era.  The students, at the request of Professor Ogston, followed an old Continental custom of rising from their seats and standing for a moment in silence.  When they had resumed their seats, Professor Ogston intimated that they would not go on with the work that day, and the class then dispersed".  

 

Frederick Treves (1853 – 1923) and Alexander Ogston

Frederick Treves was the son of a Dorchester upholsterer who attended the London Hospital Medical College and became a prominent London-based surgeon, specialising in abdominal surgery.  Treves carried out the first appendectomy performed in England in 1888.  He developed an association with Aberdeen University which began with his appointment as an examiner in Medicine, a role he fulfilled between 1882 and 1885.  The start of this period coincided with the elevation of Alex Ogston to the Regius Chair of Surgery, so it is quite possible that Ogston was involved in the nomination of Treves as an examiner.   However, it is more likely that Professor John Struthers (Professor of Anatomy 1863 – 1889) was his sponsor, as Treves was a noted specialist in anatomy and was described by several sources as having been an examiner in anatomy at both Aberdeen and Cambridge.  Also, Struthers and Ogston did not get along well together and on one famous occasion Ogston sent a message to Struthers via Mr Booth (Ogston’s attendant) telling the dictatorial professor of anatomy to “Go to hell”.  This period as an external examiner at Aberdeen coincided with Treves’ rise to prominence as an abdominal surgeon.  In 1884 he was awarded the Jacksonian Prize of the Royal College of Surgeons for his essay entitled “The Pathology, Diagnosis and treatment of Obstruction of the Intestines in its various forms in the Abdominal Cavity”.  Treves is reputed to have become very popular while serving at Aberdeen University, especially and remarkably with the students.  That feeling seems to have been reciprocated.  Treves was reported to have liked “the thorough and conscientious work turned out by the students of Professor Struthers”.  Ogston and Treves must have become personally acquainted from this time, as well as being aware of each other’s surgical and scientific achievements.  In 1884 Treves was a summer visitor at the Fife Arms hotel in Braemar, possibly to attend the Braemar Gathering, which was held in front of Braemar Castle on 4 September.

Sir Frederick Treves.

About 1883, the Aberdeen University Club in London, an association of prominent Aberdeen graduates in the capital, began to hold bi-annual dinners, which prominent members of university staff would attend and would typically then update its high-status southern alumni on developments at their alma mater.  Members of the club took it in turn to chair these six-monthly jollies.  Although not a graduate of the university at that time, Treves became a frequent attendee at these dinners, in effect being granted an informal honorary Aberdeen University status.  At the November 1886 dinner of the club, Frederick Treves was present and proposed a toast to “The Guests”.  Eight years later in November 1894, Alexander Ogston, by that year playing a prominent part in the management of the university, chaired the club dinner.  He spoke at length on the recent changes imposed by the University Commissioners on the university, relating to both the governance structure and the curriculum.  Ogston was supportive of some of the changes, such as the extension of the period of study for the medical degree from four to five years but was particularly critical of the reduction in time to be devoted in future to the teaching of practical surgery.  Frederick Treves also gave a speech at the dinner in which he “alluded to the feverish attempts which were made to obtain something new and sensational in surgery.  It was pleasant to turn from these theatrical practices to the great school of surgery in Scotland.  The utterances of the Scotch school (of which Ogston was a prominent member) were not quite so numerous as they might be, but they were remarkably wise and solid.  Nothing of an emotional or ephemeral character had ever come from the Scotch school – it had been characterised throughout by sober wisdom”.  Treves then went on to pay a particular tribute to the bacteriological research of Alexander Ogston, whom he described as “a pioneer” whose “conclusions had absolutely stood the test of subsequent investigations”.  He also praised “the profound personal influence of Professor Ogston on his old students”.  The following toast was accompanied by the singing of “For he’s a jolly good fellow”.  Ogston then rose to reply to this paean, from a man whom he must have held in high regard as a surgeon, with a response which reflected the deep pride Alex Ogston felt for his hometown and its university.  “I am happy to say that all my life has been spent in connection with the University.  My father was a professor.  He resided for many years in a house, the windows of which overlooked the quadrangle at Marischal College, which house is now demolished to make way for the new University buildings.  In that house I was born.  My first view of the world was across the quadrangle of Marischal College, and I am told that I learned to walk in it.  One of my earliest recollections was seeing the black robes of the professors as they assembled to inaugurate the new buildings of that day and in my youth the stormy war cries of Fusionist and Non-Fusionist resounded in my ears as the well-fought battle was waged to the very end.  Since 1859 as student, graduate, assistant lecturer and professor, the connection has been an unbroken one and I have been ever sensible that to be connected with our university and to occupy one of the most important of its chairs is one of the greatest subjects for pride and satisfaction in my life”.

The growing status and reputation of Frederick Treves as a surgeon led to him being appointed Surgeon in Ordinary to George, Duke of York by 1898 and as Surgeon Extraordinary to Queen Victoria in March 1900.

However, an event soon loomed on the horizon which would divide these two giants of the surgical world - the Second Boer War.  Alexander Ogston’s service in South Africa between December 1899 and July 1900 has been detailed elsewhere.  Although he went with the blessing of Queen Victoria and bearing letters of introduction to the military from her, it was not an expedition formally sanctioned by the military and Ogston paid his own way to and from South Africa and frequently within the territory where the conflict took place.  Frederick Treves also served as a surgeon in the conflict, but his contribution took place under very different circumstances and sanctions.  At the end of October 1899, Treves was appointed a consulting surgeon, along with a number of other leading medical men, to the British troops being sent to South Africa.  Frederick Treves participated with the approval and active support of the army, and the good wishes of the heir to the throne, the Prince of Wales asking to see him just before his departure from London.  On the platform at Waterloo on 11 November 1899, Treves had a noisy send-off from both his senior colleagues and a number of boisterous students, who carried him shoulder-high to his carriage.  The London-based surgeon was back in the British capitol by mid-April 1900, a rather shorter period of service than that delivered by Alexander Ogston.

After the return of the two surgeons in 1900, the separate accounts they gave of their experiences were like chalk and cheese.  Ogston and other non-army observers of ambulance and medical services in the field, such as Mr Burdett-Coutts, while praising the efforts of army surgeons, were highly critical of senior officers in the RAMC, the lack of logistical organisation, the lack of medical and food supplies, the lack of appropriately trained nursing support and a generalised failure to utilise volunteer help which was proffered.  In contrast, Treves and the other civilian surgeons operating under the aegis of the army, gave benign accounts of field and hospital conditions, in line with the official army position, that medical services in South Africa had generally been satisfactory.  This difference in point of view can only partly be explained by varying conditions being experienced at different battles and in different geographical areas of conflict.  (Treves had only served in Natal).  Did the “official” surgeons turn a blind eye to inadequate medical services for sick and injured troops, perhaps out of consideration for their own interests?  It would be a serious charge to make but it may well have been true, given the details provided by Burdett-Coutts, Ogston and others.

The treatment of Ogston and the official group of surgeons after their return to the United Kingdom from the war again could not easily have shown a greater contrast.  Alexander Ogston’s war contributions were recognised with gratitude locally and in the University of Aberdeen by his own, but officially and nationally the reaction was muted.  He received a gold medal from the rapidly failing Queen Victoria but no other, formal honour.  The divergence of the official group soon became apparent.  Within days of the return of Treves in April 1900 it was announced that the Reform Club would be arranging a complimentary dinner for Sir William MacCormac, the leader of the South Africa surgical team and Frederick Treves, both of whom were members of this august gentlemen’s club, in late April 1900.  Two months later, at a celebratory banquet in his native Dorchester, Frederick Treves tried to back two horses in the same race.  He was quite firm in his belief that Burdett-Coutts’ charges were at least exaggerations but at the same time stated that he did not wish to say that Mr Burdett-Coutts was lying.  “The picture, while not being untrue, might be so coloured as to misrepresent the real condition of affairs”.  “War was war, and no one who had not seen what it was could have any idea of its horrors.  That the AMC should have been charged with brutal neglect had aroused his indignation, for from what he had experienced of the campaign he was sure the charges were simply coloured and exaggerated”.

In April 1901, the group of civilian surgeons who had served in South Africa with the assent of the army started to receive formal honours for their work.  Frederick Treves was one of a group of nine who became Companions of the Bath and within three weeks Treves was also invested with the insignia of Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order.  He was also appointed as Sergeant Surgeon to the King.  Aberdeen University also added its accolade to the now-famous surgeon when he was invited to preside at one of the regular dinners of the university’s London Club in November 1901.  Treves referred to his experiences as an examiner in Aberdeen and expressed a high opinion of the students, but his speech steered clear of the controversies surrounding medical services in the Boer War.  The most significant contribution in his speech, which was seized upon by the press, was to deny that the “wicked rumours” concerning the health of the King bore any truth.  It appears that Alexander Ogston was not present. 

It is to be wondered if Alex Ogston felt any bitterness at the paucity of official recognition for his work in South Africa.  Perhaps not, as he was a man who did not seek personal aggrandisement, or care much for the opinions of others.  It was reported by one of his students that Ogston had criticised the surgical techniques of Frederick Treves in his surgical classes, probably in or after 1901, in relation to abdominal bullet wounds.  “A London surgeon by the name of Treves used to operate and open the abdomen: they invariably died; we left them alone: the majority recovered”.  Given Ogston’s personality, this remark was probably made because he thought Treves’ approach was simply inferior to his own, rather than that he resented the glory being heaped on the London surgeon.  However, this view of Ogston’s on the treatment of abdominal bullet wounds, if accurately reported, was at variance with views he had himself previously expressed. 

On the death of his mother in January 1901, Albert Edward, the eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, ascended to the throne of the United Kingdom as Edward VII.  Two months later, Alexander Ogston was appointed Surgeon in Scotland (Honorary) to the new monarch, but it was late September of the same year before King Edward and Queen Alexandra visited the North-East of Scotland to holiday on the Balmoral estate.  Ogston, with his new royal appointment, was on the station platform at Aberdeen as part of the reception party to welcome the King and Queen as they passed through the city on their way to Upper Deeside.

King Edward’s coronation was initially planned for 26 June 1902 at Westminster Abbey but two weeks before his significant date with destiny, Edward became fevered, accompanied by significant lower right quadrant abdominal pain.  He had been visiting Aldershot at the time he was taken ill and was quickly returned to Buckingham Palace.  His medical advisers diagnosed acute appendicitis, an inflammation of the vermiform appendix, usually caused by a blockage and concomitant infection.  The leading authority on appendicitis and its treatment was, of course, surgeon Frederick Treves and he was called in to counsel the monarch and his assembled medical team.  The advice was clear, the King needed an operation urgently, but he resisted the guidance, hoping first to be able to complete his coronation at Westminster Abbey.  Treves had tragically lost his own daughter to peritonitis caused by a burst appendix and knew to his personal cost the dangers of delay. He is reported to have spoken bluntly to the monarch and told him he would attend the Abbey as a corpse if the operation did not take place immediately.   At this the King assented to the procedure.  On 24 June, under anaesthetic, Treves made a small incision in the wall of the corpulent monarch’s abdomen and drained the swollen appendix, but left the vestigial organ in place, as peritonitis did not appear to be present.  The King quickly recovered from the procedure and his rearranged coronation took place on 9 August 1902.  Professor Alexander Ogston was an attendee.

Treves’ reputation, already high, now ascended to stratospheric levels and he became known as the surgeon who had saved the King’s life.  He was inundated with requests to perform appendectomies by wealthy people willing to pay handsomely for his services and yet more formal recognition came his way.  He became a regular royal guest at Balmoral, visiting the castle each summer in 1902, 1903 and 1904.  In 1903 he was awarded an honorary LL D degree by Aberdeen University and in the same year he was elected by the students there as the Lord Rector.  When he was presented by the Dean of the Faculty of Law for conferment of this degree, the students wittily opened up with a loud rendition of “God save the King”!  Not all Treves’ high-status patients enjoyed a happy outcome from his ministrations.  In November 1902, Treves was attending His Highness Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar, who was suffering from appendicitis, but the surgeon judged that an operation was not necessary.  Sadly, the patient suddenly worsened and died due to “congestion of the kidneys”.  Perhaps Frederick Treves had enjoyed a measure of luck with his decision not to extirpate King Edward’s appendix?

Alexander Ogston suffered a bout of appendicitis in 1912 and was successfully operated on by his successor, Professor John Marnoch.

Now wealthy and overworked, Frederick Treves retired from public surgery in 1903, while retaining his royal appointments, in order to travel, write and generally enjoy the fruits of his labours.  He was barely 50.

 

Alexander Ogston and the risks posed by the use of celluloid

Celluloid is a thermoplastic produced by treating nitrocellulose with camphor.  It was invented in the mid-19^th century and quickly found many uses because it was tough and easily moulded into complex shapes.  One of the early uses of celluloid was in the manufacture of combs, in place of the traditional use of animal horn.  However, the material has one significant drawback in that it is easily ignited.

In 1902, Alexander Ogston published a paper in The Lancet dealing with burns produced by the ignition of celluloid and related the story of a lady from Fraserburgh who was sitting by her fire with a celluloid comb in her hair.  The comb ignited with the radiant heat of the fire and before the flames could be extinguished, she had suffered a third-degree burn covering an area of four by one and a half inches, which took many months to heal.  The fire had totally destroyed her hair in the scarred region.  This incident caused Alexander Ogston to seek the help of Professor Japp from the Chemistry Department at Marischal College to investigate the flammability of celluloid, with a view to producing guidelines for its use.

Based on these experiments, Professor Ogston concluded as follows.  "1.  It is evident that celluloid articles of uncertain composition and dangerously explosive quality are everywhere sold and are in constant use and that the conditions under which they may ignite in varying circumstances cannot be fully inferred from regarding their ignition point made in a physical laboratory.  2.  Badly-manufactured celluloid ignites at variable temperatures too low for it to be safely used.  3.  It also follows, I consider, that restrictions should be imposed upon the sale of all such articles which do not sustain without ignition, a temperature equal to that sustained by well manufactured celluloid.  4.  It is worthy of consideration whether all celluloid articles of personal wear and such others as might give rise to fires ought not to be compelled to have the word "ignitible" conspicuously imprinted upon them.  5.  The suggestion to render celluloid incombustible by the addition of some chemical should be practicable it would be the best solution of the difficulty, and such addition ought to be made compulsory by legislative enactment".

The experiments of Ogston and Japp did not constitute the first systematic investigation into Celluloid’s flammability, but their findings confirmed the conclusions which had already been reached.  Ogston’s work came to the attention of Lord Saltoun, a relative of whom had suffered an accident with burning celluloid.  Saltoun raised the matter in the House of Lords, quoting extensively from Alexander Ogston’s paper, but while the Government acknowledged that there was an issue with celluloid catching fire unexpectedly and it was aware of a number of accidents due to this material, it did not propose to take action to limit or ban its use.  At least Alexander Ogston’s initiative had helped to bring the problem into the open and to warn the public of the possible consequences of bringing celluloid too close to a source of heat.

 

The Royal Commission on Physical Training in Scottish Schools

In 1902 a Royal Commission was established to enquire into the condition of physical education in state-aided Scottish schools and other educational establishments and provisions.  The terms of reference made clear that the concern of the Commission was the welfare of the pupil and not the interests of the state, though the terms ended by specifying that by furthering the interests of the pupil there would be a contribution “towards sources of national strength”.  There had been an alarming finding during the Second Boer War that more than 50% of working-class recruits were unfit to serve. The Earl of Mansfield, a retired army officer and friend of King Edward VII was the Commission’s chairman.  Alexander Ogston was appointed to serve on the body, the only member with medical training, in March 1902.  The Aberdeen Journal, while welcoming the appointment of Ogston, decried the omission of Lieutenant-Colonel George Cruden of the 1^st Volunteer Brigade, Gordon Highlanders and a prominent Aberdeen advocate, “who has done more than any other man in Scotland to promote physical training” and was an expert in the field, a qualification lacking in all the appointed Commission members.  Cruden was the founder of the private Aberdeen Physical Training College, which trained many schoolteachers, and he was also lecturer on physical training in the University of Aberdeen.  The Aberdeen Journal had a case, but Alexander Ogston, as was typical of the man, played a full part in the investigation, in spite of his initial personal deficiencies.

The Commission worked intensively, interviewing many witnesses, including Lieutenant-Colonel Cruden, and making numerous site visits.  It produced its report in 1903 which reflected the diversity of views expressed by the Commission members.  Perhaps the only subject on which they all agreed was that the level of physical fitness in Scottish schools was poor and should be improved.  But how to achieve that end?  Some members thought that physical education should be compulsory, others not, most favoured sport and physical fitness exercises over military drill, though several were concerned that the army found many young recruits lacked in physical strength and coordination.  Team sports, such as football, were favoured over activities like golf and shooting.  There was general concern that poor physical condition was also associated with deprivation, poor nutrition and poor general health.  The Commission also asserted that physical fitness went hand in hand with training of the mind.

Inevitably, Alexander Ogston formed his own opinions on the issues surrounding physical fitness in young people and he laid these out clearly in an address he gave in January 1904, under the auspices of the Aberdeen Branch of the Association of Secondary Teachers in Scotland.  There was a large and diverse audience to hear Alexander Ogston’s talk, to which he gave the title “Medicine and Education”.  He first praised the inspired leadership of the Scottish Education Department, whom, he said, had been responsible for revolutionising the philosophical approach to teaching, from cramming machine to the promotion of mental training.  “…the teacher’s duty was to develop each child to the extent of its mental capacity, and to strive to make each learner into a useful citizen of the world rather than a storehouse of facts …”.

The Royal Commission on Physical Training in Schools in Scotland was concerned that there was a number of factors which tended to prevent some pupils reaching their full potential.  One trend which raised some alarm was the deterioration in the physical condition of Scottish youth, “since mental culture was incompatible with an unsound body”.  Latent ill-health and malnutrition approaching semi-starvation” were found in the poorer classes, especially in the larger towns.  Home environment was another factor of concern, where intemperance, unhealthy occupations, poor housing and inadequate clothing were often encountered.  “Under these circumstances I ventured to suggest to the Commissioners that a health census of the children of Scotland should be taken, to such an extent as to furnish them with a basis, however limited, of incontrovertible facts …”.  Here was Ogston the scientific surgeon, pursuing the same approach with physical education.  The Treasury had agreed to fund a limited study and Professor Matthew Hay, with Dr Leslie Mackenzie, had been responsible for the data collection.  Assuming that the data were typical of all schools, an estimate could be made of the total numbers of school children suffering from ill-health in Scotland.  The numbers were alarming.  Unrecognised cases of disease present in Edinburgh and Aberdeen schools respectively were - phthisis (tuberculosis) 700, 458; unrecognised heart disease 1,300, 250; diseases of the throat 15,000, 7,500; ear disease 12,000, 2,250.  These cases were all in need of medical attention.  There was an urgent need for the medical examination of children in school “supplemented at intervals by a renewed inspection into their fitness for study and exercise”

Alex Ogston then entered on another issue of concern to him.  “What amount of study is each child by itself, and children as a whole, capable of undergoing with benefit to its mind and without damage to its health”?  He felt that at present some individuals and some classes were subject to “over-pressure”.  He thought that regular medical examination of school children would detect “over-pressure” through its effect on their health.

Professor Ogston then spent some time dealing with a topic that clearly caused him great concern and which he termed “sugar gluttony”.  It is recorded elsewhere in this account of Ogston’s life, that he allowed his own children to have sweets, but only occasionally and under his control, so it would seem unfair to accuse him of hypocrisy.  What Ogston was concerned about was the unlimited consumption of sugar.  Ogston claimed that sugar consumption was harmful but only had personal experience to guide him.  He recognised that not everyone would concur with his opinion.  “But I have had many years of medical experience among children who, though not actually delicate, are not of the strongest constitution, children requiring care to rear them into healthy men and women; and, although I may possibly not find many who share my conclusions, I am persuaded that to such children the present-day gluttony of sugar is a real and spreading evil.  It may constantly be observed that a free indulgence in the mastication of sweet stuff is immediately followed by toothache, due to the production of a ring of disease round the necks of healthy teeth, which are corroded as if by an acid, and the habit leads to the aggravation of existing caries of the teeth as well”.  He likened this craving for sugar to known addictions, such as to alcohol.  “There are some children in whom the tendency to sugar gluttony has become so strong that their infatuation for it resembles the craving of the drunkard for his dram”.

The Aberdeen Journal also made a brief, but sadly, opaque reference to a philosophical part of Alex Ogston’s presentation.  “After dealing with the evolutional aspect of the subject, and whether or not it was wise to contravene one of Nature’s great laws, the survival of the fittest, the professor gave his views as to what a health census should be”.  The concept of the survival of the fittest was derived from the work of Charles Darwin, who published the Origin of Species in 1859, and was part of the process by which species evolve and eventually become different species.  However, between 1859 and 1900, there was no widespread understanding of the mechanism by which characteristics are passed between generations and, in that interval, it was thought that characteristics acquired during the life of an individual could be inherited.  That situation changed in 1889 when the German Biologist August Weisman disproved the notion.  The work of Gregor Mendel on the true nature of inheritance was rediscovered in 1900.  So, while Alex Ogston would have had a knowledge of the survival of the fittest, did he also know in January 1904 about the true basis of inheritance?  Probably “yes”, since Ogston was well informed.  It is likely that Alex Ogston discussed the worry that some people had that the breeding of physically and mentally deficient individuals was contributing to the decline of human populations.  The deterioration of the physical condition of Scottish youth that Ogston described was due to poor environmental conditions and not therefore inherited.  What a pity that the Aberdeen Journal did not publish Professor Ogston’s opinion!

The final part of Alexander Ogston’s presentation dealt with his views on the best system of physical training for school children.  He was not in favour of army-style drill exercises given by army instructors to school children and especially not to girls.  An alternative was the so-called Swedish system, which used no apparatus and employed callisthenics (rhythmic exercises to increase strength, fitness and flexibility).  His own daughter, Flora, had been trained in the Swedish system at Chelsea College, so he would have had a close familiarity with the concept.  While admitting the medical value of this system, he was concerned about the routine repetition of the same exercises day after day.  He felt that exercise for school children should have a recreative aspect and should include physical games.  Alexander Ogston’s final words were a quotation from the Bible.  “Health and strength is above all gold, and a whole body above infinite treasures” (Ecclesiasticus 30: 15-16).  He received an enthusiastic round of applause.

The lecture was followed by a wide-ranging discussion during which Alexander Ogston decried the abandonment of traditional foods in favour of modern alternatives which required less preparation.  “… people nowadays take tinned salmon or meat, pastry, and what required no cooking, instead of the wholesome porridge and broth, which formerly was the practice”.  The meeting closed with Mr Boyd, HM Chief Inspector of Schools moving a vote of thanks to the speaker couched in “highly complimentary terms”.

A year later, Alexander Ogston was involved, with other prominent people, including Sir Henry Craik, in establishing the National League for Physical Education and improvement.  He joined the Executive Council of this new body dedicated to improving the physical education of school children.  Without ever intending to be, Alex Ogston had become recognised as expert in the field.

 

William Clark Souter

Souter was born at Craigie near Perth in 1880, the son of a commercial traveller.  He attended Aberdeen University and graduated MB ChB in 1903 and MD in 1906.  He was one of the most meritorious students of his year and on Alexander Ogston’s recommendation he was appointed as surgeon on the converted Dundee whaler, Terra Nova, soon after his graduation.  The Antarctic explorer, Robert Falcon Scott, had set out for Antarctica in the ship Discovery in 1901 with the aim of reaching the South Pole.  Ernest Shackleton was a member of that expedition.  Scot was not successful in reaching the Pole but established a new record for the furthest point south.  The Discovery was subsequently trapped in the ice in McMurdo Sound and the British Government sent the Terra Nova south to relieve Scott’s expedition.  It was 1904 before the Terra Nova returned to Britain.  In December 1904, Dr WC Souter gave a lecture, with limelight projections of his own photographs, entitled, “Aberdeen to the Antarctic and back” in the YMCA Hall, Aberdeen.  Tickets were 1/6 each and the proceeds were donated to charitable objects in the city.  Souter wanted a well-known Aberdonian to preside at his lecture and approached his old professor.  “Well Sowter you know how much I abhor publicity but nevertheless, for your sake, I’ll do it”.  Alex Ogston disliked such public occasions but as a favour to of one of his most outstanding students, he was prepared to overcome his reservations.  William Souter subsequently established a reputation as an outstanding ophthalmic surgeon.

 

Alexander Ogston’s work as a medical referee

The Workman’s Compensation Act of 1906 introduced a right for working people to be compensated if an injury was received at work, in addition to any benefit under the common law due to the negligence of his or her employer.  However, proving such a position often required an input from a medical expert who could assess the validity of competing claims of a medical nature.  Sir Alexander Ogston was employed as a medical referee under this Act in Aberdeen the year after the Act’s appearance on the statute books.  He continued to serve this role until 1921, when he had reached the age of 75, though he was unable to act in periods when he was absent from the North-East during WW1.  A typical case where his knowledge was essential occurred in 1916 when Alexander Colin Wallace, a seaman, was injured while his ship was unloading, and his injuries kept him off work for seven months.  However, on his return he soon had to give up work and died about 12 months after the accident.  The cause of death was carcinoma of the stomach.  At the compensation hearing, doctors representing both sides in the case argued over the significance of the accident, one party claiming it either caused or accelerated the cancer, while the other asserted that it was irrelevant.  Sir Alexander Ogston was the medical assessor and gave his opinion that there was no evidence that trauma caused cancer.  The Sheriff found that the accident was not relevant.

 

The Messina Earthquake and the Ogston family

Messina was, and is, a port on the north-east coast of Sicily, separated from the toe of Italy by a narrow straight about three miles wide.  Italy is prone to earthquakes because the Eurasian and African tectonic plates abut each other under the country.  Serious earthquakes are frequent and, at 5.20am while it was still pitch black, on 28 December 1908, a ’quake of magnitude 7.1 on the moment magnitude scale, centred on the narrow straight off Messina, struck with devastating force, also producing a tidal wave.  Messina was particularly badly affected.  About 90% of the city’s buildings were either destroyed or damaged beyond repair and it is estimated that 75,000 people in the city and its suburbs lost their lives.  At that time, Alexander Ogston’s son, Alfred James Ogston was the British Vice-Consul in Medina, a role which was orientated towards the promotion of trade.

Messina after the 1908 earthquake.

Alfred Ogston was born in 1878, the oldest child of Alexander Ogston’s second marriage.  As an adult he struggled for a while to find his direction in life, first working in a commercial office in Liverpool, then trying, but failing, to gain entry to the Diplomatic Service.  Finally, he was accepted into the Consular Service and, in 1905, was appointed to Galatz, a town on the river Danube in Romania, about 80 miles from the river’s entry to the Black Sea.  In 1907 Alfred received a new posting, to Messina on the island of Sicily.  Alfred Ogston had married Ethel Ditchfield, a girl he met while working in Liverpool.  The couple was married in late December 1905 in Birkenhead and one child, a daughter, was born in 1907.  At the time of Alfred’s marriage to Ethel, the relationship between Alfred and his father became very strained.  The reason for this froideur is unclear but may have been connected to Alfred’s choice of bride.  Henry Hargrave Cowan, nephew of Alexander Ogston via his sister, Jane, later wrote about this family tension.  “Ethel (Alfred Ogston’s wife) was not invited to 252 (Union Street) and her first acquaintance with Aberdeen was made via mother’s (Jane, Alexander Ogston’s sister) house at 41 College Bounds (Old Aberdeen)”. … “Mother and I went through to the wedding at Birkenhead on 28 December 1905.  I don’t remember seeing Uncle Alick there, but I believe he was, though he did not stay at our hotel in Liverpool but went straight north immediately afterwards”.

In the Messina earthquake, the American Consul and his wife were killed, as were the French Consul and his family, though his spouse survived.  Ethel Ogston, the wife of Alfred Ogston, the British Vice-Consul, died immediately in the falling debris, though Alfred and daughter Ethel junior, 20 months, survived.  While outwardly the British Consulate looked relatively unscathed, inside the floors had collapsed.  British and Russian warships in the vicinity of Messina landed bluejackets to help with the rescue effort.  The first clear news of the fate of the Ogstons came in a brief account which appeared in the Aberdeen Journal on 31 December, reporting that Mr Ogston and his daughter had escaped to Palermo but that his wife was missing, presumed dead.  The same day, Alexander Ogston received a telegram from the Foreign Office.  “Consul Palermo reports Ogston family arrived on steamship Ebro.  Regret to say Ogston wounded and wife dead – Foreign Office.  Alex Ogston immediately made plans to travel to Sicily with his daughter, Mrs Flora Carter, but the railway south from Aberdeen was blocked by a snowstorm, which left him, frustrated, on the platform.  He eventually got away by train to London and was reported to have reached Palermo on 5 January 1909.  

Several accounts appeared in the newspapers concerning the fate of the Ogston family in the days immediately following the earthquake, but all appear to have been a mixture of half-truths and rumour.  The accurate sequence of events was revealed by Alfred Ogston and his father, when they were interviewed by an Aberdeen Journal reporter about 9 February 1909.

 “In the first place, the report that I, with Mrs Ogston and my daughter, on escaping from the falling house in which we lived, ran to the central square of the city, and thereafter, with some 50 others, made a bolt for the open country, and that I and four others only reached it, all the others having been killed by falling buildings on the way, was absolute nonsense, as my house was more than half an hour’s walk from the central square, and some two and a half hour’s walk, through narrow streets, from open country.  To run such a distance through streets littered with debris was impossible.  As a matter of fact, after being awakened by the first shock, only some 10 to 15 seconds elapsed before the walls and the heavy flat roof of the house came down about our ears.  I caught up my little girl, but I had not got the length of the bedroom door when the collapse came.  The falling masonry killed my wife before she was able to get out of bed.  I was on my way to the door with the child in my arms when I was knocked down and buried under the remains of the walls.  It was this time about five o’clock in the morning, and pitch dark.  I discovered I had been protected from falling beams and masonry by having been thrown under a strong table which was placed against one of the walls.  As the walls fell inwards from the top, and the base resisted the shock, the table acted as a kind of avalanche shed, throwing off the large masses that came down.  After a time, I began to feel about cautiously, and discovered a small hole about two feet in diameter in the debris.  Through this hole I managed to force my way.  I was now in the ruins of the house, 80 feet above the street.  In the inky darkness I could see nothing except a lantern or two away down in the street.  I saw that I could not get help, and there were still shocks, and as I was afraid of the rest of the wall giving way, I went back through the hole to the space under the table and the debris where I had left the little one.  The next thing that I remember is that it was daylight, about two hours later.  I again got out at the hole, taking the little girl with me.  I found that the three front rooms, of which our bedroom was one, had been made into one large room by the collapse of the partition and the outer walls.  I walked across the debris, and from a balcony I looked down, and saw one of my friends – Mr Sarauw – the proprietor of the house.  I called to ask him if he could get help.  Up to this time I was in my sleeping dress but looking about I found some of my clothes in a cupboard in one of the walls.  I was soon dressed in trousers, waistcoat, jacket and boots, and thus attired I waited for help.  I was ultimately rescued by an officer and a soldier, who put a ladder across the court from a window in the corridor outside the house opposite one of my windows.  It would have been a simple matter for me to cross the ladder alone, but I had the little girl with me, and I had to devise a safe means of escape for her.  We got a kind of tin bath that had been used for holding plants, and into this I put the little one.  I crossed the ladder having previously pushed the child over, and both got safely to the other side.  By this time, it was about nine o’clock, four hours after the disaster.  We went downstairs being helped over the masonry by the officer and the soldier, and a Mr Thomas, an Englishman with whom I had a slight acquaintance, and who had kindly seen if he could help us in any way.  On reaching the central court of the house I sat and rested a while.  What with the shock, the blow I had received on the head, and one thing or another, I was in a very dazed and stupefied condition and could not entertain more than one idea at a time.  Gradually returning to the fuller possession of my faculties, it eventually dawned upon me that the best thing I could do was to go down to one of the British merchant ships which I knew were in the harbour.  Assisted by a friend, Mr Herbert Oates, and Mr Sarauw who carried the little one, I went down to the steamer Ebro, belonging to Thomas Wilson and Sons, Hull.  The captain took me on board and showed me and the child every possible kindness.  I could not exaggerate the amount of kindness shown us by the captain and other officers and the steward on board that ship.  Of his own accord, the captain of the Ebro sent a squad of men to try and find the body of my wife.  These men ran a great risk as they had to climb up a height of 80 feet with earthquake shocks going on all the time.  I was too dazed and stupid to think of asking them to do such a thing.  These men did find the body of a woman, but they did not let me see it until we got to Palermo, and it then turned out to be the body of the German lady who helped my wife with the child and in the household.  About three hours before we arrived at Palermo my right foot which I thought had been merely slightly bruised began to give me terrible pain.  Mr Churchill, MVO, the Consul at Palermo and his wife came down to the ship and did everything they could for me.  They took the little one and kept it for many days.  After I had been a few hours in hospital they sent an English doctor – Dr Parlato Hopkins who took me to his house, and I lived with him under his care for nearly a week, until my father and sister, who had travelled with all speed from Aberdeen, joined me”.

At this point, Alfred Ogston’s father took up the narrative to the Aberdeen Journal reporter.

“On arriving at Palermo, I found that my son’s injured foot had mortified, that the tendons and muscles were destroyed, and that blood poisoning had set in but that the poisoning had been already limited by the skill of Dr Parlato Hopkins.  The little girl was thin and frightened, but practically uninjured save for a scratch or two.  I thought I could safely leave them and proceeded to Messina to make an effort to get Mrs Ogston’s body and bury it.  I got to Messina on Monday 6^th January, by the first train which had run into it since the destruction of the city by the earthquake, and found that without assistance it would be impossible to do anything.  There was an English man-of-war in the harbour, but I went out to the Scorpion in the Straights and found Commander-Lieutenant Logan more than kind, and he promised to go over to the British Admiral at Reggio to get a squad of British sailors to help me in the search for the body.  However, at that time, just as I had written a letter to the Admiral, the British Attaché at Rome – Colonel Radcliffe – came on board.  The Foreign Office, I may say, had been exceedingly good in providing me with very pressing letters of recommendation, especially to Mr Churchill at Palermo, the Consul for Sicily.  Had it not been for those recommendations nothing could have been done, because Messina was under military law.  Only soldiers were allowed to interfere with the ruins, and they would have been very unreliable for the work I had on hand.  Colonel Radcliffe said he would arrange next day to let me have the assistance of a company of Italian Engineers, and he interviewed General Mazza, who was in command at Messina, with that end in view.  They made an attempt to get up through the interior of the ruins, and declared it impossible, and went away.  I then went back to the Scorpion, and on my way, I heard that there was a telescopic fire escape in the city, if it had not been destroyed by the earthquake.  On board the Scorpion I saw Colonel Radcliffe, who undertook to get ladders and get up to the top of the house somehow next day.  There were no ladders next morning, but Mr Sarauw had seen the fire escape and he gave a letter, stating that he knew of its existence intact.  The Greek Consul Mr Trombetta espied this fire escape, and we went and located it and then proceeded to General Mazza who gave us an order to commandeer the ladder and the men accompanying it, wherever we found it.  Armed with the order we went into the town, found the ladder and got it brought to my son’s house.  There were four firemen from Palermo in charge of the ladder under a non-commissioned officer Grimaldi.  They placed the ladder against the house, drew it out and found that it was short.  They went away saying they would return with another ladder to add to the top of the fire escape, but it was again too short.  Fortunately, Mr Trombetta who gave himself a great deal of trouble to help us found Ignazio Caramanna, the commander of the Palermo Fire Brigade, a very quiet, resolute man who came along and went up into the house taking two firemen with him.  In a short time, Signor Caramanna had contrived to establish communication with the part of the house where the body was supposed to lie.  He and his firemen began to clear away huge masses of masonry – masses a yard square heavier than any man could lift – and beams, throwing them out at the window.  They soon cleared out the room where Mrs Ogston was killed but the body was not there.  My son had given me the notion that the body might have been carried by the weight of the falling roof into the floor below.  They went down and at last they found the body there.  Mrs Ogston had been crushed by the falling masonry and death must have been instantaneous.  We identified her by her size, the colour of her hair, etc and the rings and the locket that she wore.  The firemen brought the body down then General Mazza sent a beechwood ornamented coffin and it was arranged that the burial should take place next day”.

Alexander Ogston then gave an account of the funeral and its aftermath.  Flora Carter, Alex Ogston’s daughter stayed behind in Palermo on the day of the funeral to look after the baby, while her father joined the proceedings in Messina.

“I was anxious that the remains should be taken to Palermo and interred there but it was represented to me that owing to the regulations this could not be done.  As the only English clergyman at Messina had been killed along with his family, Colonel Radcliffe offered to read the English burial service which kind offer I accepted.  We went along to the English cemetery and found that it had been swept by the tidal wave which followed the earthquake, all the monuments save the flat ones having been tumbled over and the stones carried long distances while the retaining walls had been partly thrown down.  The funeral took pace the next day.  Mrs Ogston was buried from the house where she had been killed and was carried along the street where a large crowd had collected.  The people respectfully uncovered their heads as the coffin was carried past, just as the people in Aberdeen do when a funeral is passing.  At the wharf at the harbour there was a steam launch and a boat manned by sailors from the American battleship Connecticut.  All the vessels in the harbour including the warships and torpedo boats had their flags at half-mast the whole day and the Duke of Genoa came down to the wharf and stood with his head bowed until the coffin was put on board the boat.  We crossed the harbour to the point of land on which the English cemetery is.  There, a few friends, some of the officers and sailors, and Colonel Radcliffe followed the remains to the grave where the colonel read the full burial service.  Mrs Heynes wife of an English merchant in Messina, the only lady who had remained in the ruined city, and Mr Trombetta threw flowers into the grave and towards evening Mrs Ogston was laid to rest”.

Alfred Ogston and his baby daughter remained for some time at 252 Union Street and during this time, he obtained permission to raise a memorial plaque to his deceased wife in the Drum aisle at St Nicholas church, just as had been done to commemorate his half-brother and his grandfather, both Francis.  It was about a year later that Alfred was able to resume his career in the Consular Service, when he was appointed Vice-Consul at Spezzia, a major port in Northern Italy.  His mother had been involved in looking after the baby girl and in 1909 she advertised for a “thoroughly experienced nurse 35 – 45 to take sole charge of child 2 ½ years one accustomed to good families preferred willing to go to Italy now”.  A similar advertisement appeared in 1911.   Eventually Alfred moved to the British Consulate in Washington, DC, before being appointed Consul in Portland, Oregon.  He remarried and had a new family of three.  Alfred Ogston died at Portland in 1920.  Alexander Ogston had taken a photograph of the grave of Alfred’s wife.  Later, the body was exhumed and reburied in Logie churchyard, Dinnet.  The aftershocks had moved the position of the grave by several feet.

This whole episode in the history of the Ogston family demonstrated, if further proof were needed, the remarkable qualities that Alexander Ogston possessed.  He had an unwavering belief that, whatever the crisis and whatever the remoteness of the event, he could do something to help.  Alexander was resourceful and determined, always convinced that, whatever the obstacle, it could be overcome by intelligence, diplomacy and persistence.  At the time of the Messina earthquake, Alex Ogston had reached the age of 64!  But was Alexander also motivated, on this occasion, by the apparent disharmony that had existed between the famous surgeon, his son Alfred and spouse Ethel?  Did Alexander feel, in some way, that he owed it to the couple to do all in his power to atone for the unhappy period that had existed in this family relationship?

 

Alexander Ogston resigns from the Regius Chair of Surgery at Aberdeen University                       

At the start of the university session in October 1908, Professor Ogston intimated to his surgery class that he intended to resign from his chair at the end of the current session.  It is interesting that he should have decided to pass this news to his students before informing the University Court, confirming the important role that students had played in his career.  In formally communicating his decision to the Court, he gave as his reason that it would be in the interests of the institution that the Department of Surgery should now be in the hands of a younger man.  At the point of his retiral, Alexander Ogston was in his 65^th year.  The Aberdeen Journal, noting the impending departure of the famous Aberdonian, wrote, “Professor Ogston—the intimation of whose intention to retire will be received with surprise and general regret—is one of the most successful operative surgeons and brilliant theoretical exponents of medical science adorning a professorial chair”.

Professor Matthew Hay, who had succeeded Francis Ogston, the father of AO, in the Chair of Forensic Medicine, presided at the Court meeting which sanctioned Alexander Ogston’s retirement.  Hay paid his departing colleague a high compliment.  “I presume that this letter from Professor Ogston sent to the Court expresses an unalterable decision to retire at the close of this academic year from the Chair of Surgery and that we can but accept his resignation, and communicate the fact to the Secretary for Scotland, in whom is vested the patronage of the Chair.  Professor Ogston in his letter modestly speaks of the need for his giving way to a younger man.  But I think I may say on behalf of the whole University that, had Professor Ogston chosen to continue for a few years longer in the Chair which he has greatly adorned, there would not have been the slightest suggestion from anyone that the teaching of surgery in this University would perceptibly have lost in the vigour and brilliance which have characterised it during Professor Ogston’s tenure of office.  We cannot, however, complain about his retirement.  He has given of his best during 27 years of the prime of his life, and is entitled, both under our regulations and in virtue of his strenuous and eminent service, to claim release from University duty.  We are glad to think that, differing from his distinguished colleague in the Medical Faculty whose resignation we were also called upon to accept during the past twelve months, Professor Ogston’s retirement is not shadowed by illness, and that we may hope long to retain his name as emeritus professor of the University, and that his great surgical skill is still to be at the service of the community.  I am sure that colleagues in the Medical Faculty will generously allow that by the death of Professor Hamilton and the resignation of Professor Ogston, the Faculty has lost, perhaps, its two most widely-known members.  Like Professor Hamilton, Professor Ogston is a man of the first rank as a teacher and enjoys a cosmopolitan reputation as a surgeon and scientific worker.  By common consent, he is regarded as one of the two or three great Scottish surgeons of his time.  Indeed, it would be difficult – apart from Lord Lister, who has some right to be considered as a Scottish surgeon - to name any other Scottish surgeon of the past 30 years who has done more for the advancement of surgery by scientific research.  It adds to the pride with which we regard Professor Ogston that he was educated in this University.  So long as the University can produce such men, and retain their services as opportunity offers, its right to a high place in the academies of the world cannot be challenged.  I would beg to move that we enter in our minutes an expression of our appreciation of the value of the eminent services which Professor Ogston has rendered to the University as a teacher and investigator of the highest order, and of our regret at his retirement”.  Matthew Hay was loudly applauded for this encomium.

 

Professor Matthew Hay.

While it was highly desirable that the occupant of the Regius Chair of Surgery should also be a senior surgeon at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, it was not inevitable that such a happy outcome could be achieved, since Alexander Ogston had resigned his hospital surgeoncy a decade earlier and all the senior surgical posts there were already occupied.  That problem would be overcome if a senior surgeon from ARI were to be appointed as the next Regius Professor of Surgery, but the Secretary of State for Scotland initially indicated his opposition to making a local selection.  However, wise counsel prevailed and Dr John Marnoch, already a member of staff at ARI, was appointed as the new and fully worthy Regius Professor.  At the start of his inaugural lecture in October 1909, John Marnoch paid a fulsome tribute to his predecessor, including the following.  “Educated in the old school of surgery at a time when the hospital wards teemed with erysipelas, tetanus and septicaemia, Dr Ogston saw what the great discovery of Lister meant to suffering humanity, and his early adoption and development of the antiseptic treatment of wounds has led to his name being handed down as one of the leaders of what could be described only as a surgical revolution.  But he was not content with the development of Lister’s methods.  His own researches into the cause of acute suppuration resulted in his discovery of the staphylococcus pyrogenes aureus, a discovery which had brought an enduring fame, not only to himself, but also to the university with which he had so long been connected.  Without such work, what they saw in the operating theatre would not be possible. … To enumerate all the operations that he introduced or specify those he himself devised would take too long.  Suffice to say this work extended over the whole field of surgery and was attended by the most brilliant results”.

Sir John Marnoch.

When the news of Alexander Ogston’s impending retiral from the University had sunk in, it was generally realised that the occasion needed to be marked in an appropriate way.  Dr Mackenzie Booth acted as secretary to an informal group which decided that a portrait should be commissioned from a prominent artist.  A circular was quickly organised with the names of 48 subscribers who had immediately come forward to offer donations.  The final tally of donors was a remarkable 450.  However, curiously and perhaps possessively, the group took a decision only to accept donations from members of the medical profession, wherever located, even though Alex Ogston’s achievements extended beyond the boundaries of medicine.  The chosen form of the memorial was to be a portrait of the great man, and the choice of artist was bold but also informed.

George Fiddes Watt had been born in Aberdeen in 1873, the son of a carpenter working in the shipbuilding industry.  At the age of 14, George Watt was apprenticed to Messrs Avery, engravers, Aberdeen, where his artistic skills were quickly recognised and he began to study art in the evenings at the local college, Gray’s School of Art.  In 1894 he moved to Edinburgh where he studied life drawing at the Royal Scottish Academy and then took a studio in the city.  Although he painted both landscapes and portraits, it was the latter genre for which he became recognised and in 1910 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy before moving to a studio in London, where he gained a string of commissions for the portraits of prominent figures, including lawyers, such as Lord Haldane and politicians, such as Herbert Asquith. 

George Fiddes Watt.

It was about the time of Watt’s rise to prominence in Edinburgh that the decision was taken to engage the services of this emerging Aberdonian portraitist to paint a likeness of Professor Ogston.  Initially, the plan was to create a main portrait for presentation to the University and a copy for the Ogston family.  However, Fiddes Watt chose to produce two portraits with different compositions and different settings, though each was noted as being a “realistic impression” and “strikingly characteristic” of the retiring professor.  In one, “Mr Ogston appears in the uniform of a member of the late King Edward’s household, as Surgeon-in-Ordinary, with his half-dozen medals and decorations, and wearing his scarlet robe as a medical doctor”.  The contrasting picture portrays the Professor “in frock coat, in characteristic pose as he was familiarly known to his students when lecturing, and with the kindly expression which was so familiar to them when he was explaining some difficult surgical problem or case”.  The Ogston family was given first choice between the two works and chose the colourful, uniformed variant. 

It took about a year for the two pictures to be completed and be ready for presentation in the Picture Gallery at Marischal College in mid-October 1910.  Both portraits were on display, one at either end of the gallery, mounted on easels.  Matthew Hay presided at the ceremony, substituting for the absent Principal, though the actual presentation was performed by Dr Robert Farquharson, the laird of Finzean, MP for the constituency of West Aberdeenshire, and an old friend of Alexander Ogston.  It fell to Professor Hay to pay further homage to this giant of the surgical profession.  In addition to his surgical advances, his services near and on the battlefield, his bacteriological research and his inspiring teaching, Matthew Hay chose to mention two other matters for which he was not usually remembered.  “Although the extent of his professional work prevented him in the later years of his professoriate from devoting much time to the administrative work of the University, he took in the earlier years an active and most helpful part.  It is fitting that, met as we are amid surroundings that remind us of our great extension scheme, we should recall the fact that the initial step in that scheme was taken by Professor Ogston.  In 1884, two years after his admission to the Senatus, he moved in that body, which then had charge of the buildings and finances of the University, that an extension of the buildings should be undertaken.  His motion was agreed to, and a committee was appointed with Professor Ogston as convener.  With his usual energy and thoroughness, he at once began to prepare a scheme.  He retired from the convenorship after a time in order to give his services in the Sudan War but before he retired, he submitted plans of a scheme which, in its main features, did not differ much from the scheme that was eventually carried out”.  Matthew Hay also alluded to Alexander Ogston’s membership of the Royal Commission on Physical Training.  “I had occasion to know the great value of his services on that Commission, which did so much to initiate one of the most important advances in public health.  I refer to the movement which has culminated in the medical inspection of schools, and the recognition by the State of its responsibility for the physical well-being of the school child as well as for its mental training”.

Retirement portrait of Sir Alexander Ogston.

 

Retirement portrait of Sir Alexander Ogston.

Alexander Ogston then replied to the collective outflowing of warmth and respect which had characterised this special event marking the formal severance of his connection with the institution which had from the beginning been a central part of his life.  His speech was long and had obviously required a good deal of prior thought.  Its content was typical of Ogston’s literary output, knowledgeable, witty, literate, philosophical, self-deprecating, self-critical, honest and containing only the merest hint of past events which had been personally wounding.  Some quotations will illustrate these attributes. 

“I feel that you have put upon me a difficult task.  On such an occasion I suppose it is absolutely indispensable that one should speak a little of one’s self, and that is by no means an easy thing to do”.

“The thought of coming to attend this presentation today has been weighing very heavily upon me. … For the last two nights I have dreamt of this moment.  On one of these I found myself addressing you with the eloquence of Demosthenes, but when I woke, I perceived that my words were Alice’s recitation in “Wonderland” – somehow or other they didn’t seem to fit properly”.

“To-day, of course, in my career marks a halting place.  I feel that I was younger and have become older.  I can see two distinct images before me in my mind.  One of them is the picture drawn so kindly and fleetingly by the three friends who have spoken to you – that of the men who have been happy enough to do some work in the world and to have it known and to have it appreciated, and if that were all it would be very satisfactory.  But there is another image which one cannot but see, and it is painfully before me.  I look back from the platform of the present moment to a poor individual struggling against his difficulties, such as you yourselves know exist in your own lives, to do what was right and what was fitting, and to better himself and those about him, and lamentably failing every now and then, making failures which he would do a great deal to be able to recall, and doing things he would do a great deal now to have undone.  And that is the true image I think that I must take of myself.  Of course, I have been fortunate enough to be diligent.  I think that is the only claim I can have, and diligence is the one consoling point that I can look back upon in my career.  For the rest there are, believe me, very many, many regrets that more and better was not done”.

“I have never sought for honours.  My hands are clean in that respect.  Whatever honours I have had have been absolutely unsought for.  I have really felt that, after all, they were not worth very much”.

“I must say I feel anything but great in my own estimation, although I shall have a place among all those portraits of men who are famous in history, famous in science, in literature, and divinity, men whose names you read of in the history of the world.  That you should have placed me there is like placing me among the immortals.  You give me a position in the Pantheon of our University which, however little I may deserve it, I most deeply appreciate”. (Anyone who has stood in the Mitchell Hall, with its pictorial display of past academic titans, will appreciate the emotions expressed that day by Alexander Ogston).

“I was not born in Professor Japp’s (Professor of Chemistry at the time) laboratory, but I was born in the house which stood where Professor Japp’s laboratory now stands”.

“A curious thing strikes me to mention in connection with some of the best of my work.  Curiously enough, it was very badly received.  What I thought were the best bits of my work were very coldly received, criticised most severely, and I was made to feel very humble indeed when they had been subject to the fire of my colleagues’ criticism.  And the same was true of Britain and the medical press, so I was constrained to go abroad with them.  I went to Germany, and those things were received there in a totally different way”.  (This was a reference to his work on the micrococcal cause of suppuration and the withering criticism he received from other senior surgeons and from Ernest Hart, the editor of the BMJ).

“I am a great reader of Shakespeare, and I have noticed how when he attempts to depict gratitude, he is evidently acutely sensitive to the imperfections of our language in uttering the word.  If such a master of the language feels so, I need offer no apology for saying that, in regard to you, my sole expression is limited to the word “thanks””.

“When I step downstairs this afternoon, I feel that my University career is ended.  The brief years have flown away, and I walk the path I shall tread no more.  Still, I do not think that there is any reason to lament for that.  If one has behind one a life in which every effort has been good, although the result has not been equal to one’s wishes, one may meet anything that comes with a smiling face and a brave heart.  And that I shall do very much strengthened by your kindness today”.

Although the donations towards the cost of commissioning Fiddes Watt had been limited to the medical profession, sufficient funds had been realised to allow the artist to complete two separate and distinct portraits.  Even then, some monies remained unspent, and they were used to finance an Ogston Prize in Surgery.  Initially, the nature of the prize was a gift of surgical instruments made to the first prize man in the senior section of the surgery class.  That prize no longer exists, but there is an Ogston Surgical Society, which aims to promote surgery as a career to medical students and junior doctors and provides a reminder of one of the greatest surgical sons of the Aberdeen University Medical School.

 

Alexander Ogston and the status of women

Between 1844, when Alexander Ogston was born and 1929 when he departed this life, there was a great change in the status of women in Great Britain in many aspects of life.  Some changes had differential impacts depending on the social origins of women.  The adaptation of the two sexes to different biological roles is obvious. Men in general have greater strength, running and lifting ability, and stamina.  Women have bodily adaptations for child-bearing and child-caring, so it should not be surprising to find in early Victorian times that the woman’s place was often centred on keeping the home and looking after the children, while men were typically to be found doing heavy manual labour in the fields and factories.  For upper class women, their principal function was similarly home-centred, but acting through the agency of the servants under their control.  However, change came progressively during Victorian times, both in terms of job variety and opportunity for women, and in their legal rights.

Activism for women’s rights in law, politics, employment and education made its appearance from the 1850s.  Women could control their own property from the 1870s, divorce became a civil and not a church matter from 1873, rights to the custody of children improved.  Female employment opportunities in certain jobs blossomed, for example for teachers, nurses and librarians. Universities started to open their doors to women, even if they were not initially allowed to graduate.  From 1892, the Scottish Universities started to admit women as matriculated students.  But some professions remained resolutely shut to women, for example, medicine and the church.

In 1903 the Women’s Social and Political Union was established by Emmeline Pankhurst to campaign for voting rights for women on the same basis as men.  The first stage in achieving this aim came in 1918 when women over the age of 30 were given the right to vote, followed by identical voting rights to men in 1928.  It is interesting to follow the evolving attitudes of Alexander Ogston to the roles and rights of women, against the background of both national and local events.  After all, Alex Ogston had two sisters, two wives, and five daughters who survived to adult life, and he was a senior member of the ultra-conservative medical profession.

What clues are there to Alexander Ogston’s attitudes towards women?  He certainly had a chivalrous approach to the fair sex.  An early indication of this view of ladies came in 1864 when he was a student, aged 20, in Germany.  He took a strong dislike towards some of the population of Germany, which was a nation of “boors and bullies”, where “…men had an unpleasantly superior attitude towards women”.  In 1884, there was a meeting of the White Cross Movement in Aberdeen.  This Christian organisation had been established the previous year to promote “social purity” (no pre- or extra-marital sex).  Male recruits had to pledge to show a “chivalrous respect for womanhood” and to uphold the following principles.  “1.  To treat all women with respect and endeavour to protect them from wrong and degradation.  2.  To endeavour to put down all indecent language and coarse jests.  3.  To maintain the law of purity as equally binding upon men and women.  4.  To endeavour to spread these principles among my companions and to try and help my younger brothers.  5.  To use every possible means to fulfil the command, “Keep Thyself Pure””.  Alexander Ogston was present at this recruiting meeting, which was restricted to male attendance, and he must actually have joined the movement, as he became a member of its newly-formed General Council.

But Alex Ogston certainly did not believe in equality, or equality of opportunity, between the sexes, possibly because, biologically, he felt that the two sexes had different capabilities.  The earliest evidence of this belief perhaps came in 1877 when, aged 33, and a new member of the Senatus Academicus at Aberdeen University, he, along with the principal, declined to support a motion to petition Parliament to remove any impediment to the admission of women to Scotch universities, resulting in the motion being lost.  But, to his credit, he consistently maintained that women were superior to men in some respects, especially in the practice of nursing.  As early as 1885, when he was 41, he visited a war hospital for the first time, when he was in Cairo and later remarked as follows.  “I felt, though at the time it eluded me, that there was something defective, and I presently realised that this was the want of trained women nurses which left the splendid hospital a little short of perfection”.  Even when serving during the Second Boer War, Ogston found that some army medical service officers still harboured a traditional hostility to the employment of female nurses in field conditions.  In the appalling conditions at Modder River, Alexander Ogston had his own beliefs about female nurses amply confirmed.  “Three nursing sisters were now attending the sick, one of whom, Sister G, had given up a nursing home of her own in order to give her skill to the army.  It was doubtless owing to these women that the fever hospitals were now cleaner, and bright with pictures and bits of colour, charts were being more satisfactorily taken, and things generally done better …”.  Alexander Ogston’s experiences in Italy during WW1 amply confirmed his positive views of women.  “The women officials, sisters and nurses (of the Red Cross) were a well-trained, well-educated, well-behaved body, nearly all of whom were ladies of station and culture, whose conduct entitled one to be proud of them and the nation to which they belonged”, though did he also harbour a hint of snobbery?

Alex Ogston also seemed to entertain doubts about the ability of women to cope with stressful situations.  In 1888, when speaking at the Aberdeen Ambulance Association annual meeting about a first aid course for women to equip them to deal with domestic accidents, he said - “There was a great deal to be done in that way for as they as medical men knew, when an accident occurred very frequently, instead of keeping their heads, they (women) lost them”.

With regard to the conservatism of his own profession, the best evidence of Alex Ogston opposing women, whom he accepted made excellent nurses, becoming doctors came in 1895 when his wife, Isabella was recruited to present the medals and certificates to a first aid class exclusively for ladies.  The course extended to 13 lectures and had been taught by Dr John Scott Riddell.  It was attended by over 200 ladies and after the presentations Alex Ogston answered on behalf of his wife (why could she not have spoken for herself?) after she had been accorded a formal vote of thanks.  His words were only half spoken in jest.  “Professor Ogston acknowledged the compliment paid to his wife and added that the work which had been concluded that evening was one that belonged to women.  Expressions could scarcely be found that would be too exaggerated in approval of ladies studying such subjects as had been taught by Dr Riddell.  The utility they would find in their lives from the knowledge they had acquired would, he was sure, be great and valuable to them.  He thought however that it would be very undesirable that ladies should go beyond this.  Some of them would like to see a lady operating upon, or amputating, or otherwise mutilating a man - (laughter) – but to see her taking care of a poor individual who had survived the attacks of his own sex was a most beautiful thing.  (Applause).  If the ladies would confine themselves to operating upon the hearts of the gentlemen, they might be sure they would find no rivals and would have the approval of all.  (Laughter and applause)”. (Author’s emphasis).  It was not just women whom Ogston thought should not become doctors.  He had dissuaded his own son, Walter from following his father’s choice of profession, describing it as “the most trying in the professional world”.  Walter’s comments were relevant.  “He had had to work tremendously hard to secure his own success and he knew what it had cost him in terms of denial of private pleasures and also in stress and strain on his powers”, yet Alexander could also say, at a different time, “A good life that of a surgeon”.  Perhaps Alexander Ogston thought women were not sufficiently robust to tackle the exigencies of a medical career, but that he, in particular, and some other men, were?

There is also evidence that Alexander Ogston changed his view of women over time.  His daughter Constance (1884 – 1971 of whom more later), writing in “Alexander Ogston KCVO”, gave a good account of this evolution.  “In his younger days, he did not understand women at all, and in this respect, time worked great changes in him.  His daughters were very close to his heart, though he was devoted to all his children, and as they grew up, he gradually came to realise – though not until after some warfare (author’s emphasis) – that women had a point of view of their own, often quite different from his, but not necessarily mistaken because of that”.  “He learned to understand that no man can shape the life of a woman on the lines he thinks best, and that her intelligence demands independence of thought and action”.  Alex Ogston’s son, Walter, said of his attitude to women, “He was a firm believer in women having their share in public life, and he was a supporter of women’s franchise”, but that view seems to relate to Alexander Ogston’s views after the tussles with his politically- and socially-active daughters, Helen and Constance!  Helen hinted at her father’s acceptance of her activism since he “… always understood that it was my “David’s pebbles being thrown at the Goliath of social injustice”.

It is both interesting and informative to examine the jobs undertaken by Alexander Ogston’s wives and female children.  Alexander’s first wife, Mary Jane died at the tragically early age of 25, having born four children during their short marriage.  She is only known to have had one extra-domestic interest, membership of the Aberdeen Choral Union, which is unremarkable, given her home responsibilities.  The second Mrs Alexander Ogston, although she bore more children (8), lived long enough to devote some of her time to interests outside the home.  However, being the wife of a senior member of the medical profession, these diversions were all voluntary and charitable and involved mostly children and the sick.  Clearly, her husband found such activities to be compatible with her status in Aberdeen society.  In 1893, a branch of the Sunbeam Mission, which cared for poor and invalid children, opened a branch in Aberdeen.  “Mrs Ogston, 252 Union Street” became one of its local secretaries.  She was also involved in fundraising for a ward for incurable children at the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital in 1896 and the following year.  Isabella Ogston even had the courage to propose an initiative and to communicate it to the public via the correspondence column of the Aberdeen Journal.  She was, from time to time also found supervising stalls at charitable bazaars but her charitable activities were cut short by poor health and she died in 1913 at the relatively early age of 66.

Three of Alexander Ogston’s daughters were endowed with high intelligence and steely determination to follow their own stars, in a way reminiscent of their father. They would not be fobbed off simply with good works to keep them amused.

Flora Mactavish Ogston (1872 – 1929) was an independent spirit who early developed an interest in physical education and between 1901 (when she was 29) and 1903 studied at the Chelsea College of Physical Education.  However, before her departure for Chelsea College she did not seem to have any significant occupation other than attending society weddings.  Shortly after Flora’s diversion into sport and gymnastics, her father was appointed to the Royal Commission on Physical Training in Scotland. 

Andrew Carnegie had been born in Dunfermline, Fife in 1835 and emigrated to the United States with his parents at the age of 12.  He became extremely wealthy through his involvement in the American steel industry and, from about 1900, embarked upon a major programme of philanthropy, though he had previously, in 1877, gifted a swimming bath to the town of his birth.  In 1900, Carnegie provided further monies to build a new swimming bath, with a gymnasium attached.  The Carnegie Dunfermline Trust was established in 1903 to bring “sweetness and light” into the lives of the people of his hometown.  In 1904, Flora Ogston was appointed to a position with the new Trust in Dunfermline, providing gymnastic instruction to females in the Carnegie Gymnastic Club.  Her job title was Chief Lady Gymnastic Instructor (Schools) and her salary was £150 per annum.

Andrew Carnegie.

In 1903, the report of the Royal Commission on Physical Training in Scotland was published and was well-received.  One outcome was a proposal, with the support of the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust, to establish The Carnegie Dunfermline College of Hygiene and Physical Training.  Its objective was initially to train women as teachers of Physical Education for Dunfermline, but later that remit extended to the whole of Scotland.  Flora Ogston was appointed the first principal of the college at a salary of £225, later raised to £300.  The College was officially opened at the beginning of October 1905 by the Marquis of Linlithgow.  Alexander Ogston was one of the attendees at the ceremony, along with his daughter, Flora.  She was “tall, good-looking, dignified and with great charm”.  She “inspired respect” and her authority was “tempered with the gift of calm persuasion”.  Miss Ogston’s reign at Dunfermline College only lasted for a year, after which she left to marry London-based architect, George Carter.  Sadly, this union was doomed to be short, as George developed tuberculosis and died in November 1907.  There were no children of the marriage.

After her husband’s death, Flora Carter returned to London, where she took on a variety of jobs, perhaps the most important of which was to work for Mrs Beatrice Webb, wife of Sidney Webb, whom she assisted in the compilation of Mrs Webb’s minority report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and the Relief of Distress, which sat from 1905 to 1909.  This minority report was notable for its popularity because of its proposals for the creation of a welfare state.  Flora’s association with the Webbs, prominent Fabians (a left-wing policy research organisation), suggests that she had herself espoused left wing politics by this time.  Mrs Carter is also known to have fulfilled other roles, though the precise timing of them has not been uncovered.  She was a temporary inspector in physical training under the English Board of Education, Manager of the Seven Dials (a village in Camden) group of schools in London, and Secretary of the Children's Care Committee in Tower Street School, London.  In this last-mentioned post, she superintended both children who had applied for school feeding and those recommended by the school doctors for medical treatment and had also assisted scholars who were leaving school to find suitable employment.

Mrs Beatrice Webb.

Following the Messina earthquake of December 1908, in which the wife of her half-brother, Alfred, was killed in a collapsing building, Flora travelled to Sicily with her father in his noble attempt to bring his injured son and granddaughter home and to effect the recovery of daughter-in-law Ethel’s body.  While her father laboured in Messina, Flora remained in Palermo to look after baby Ethel Esme Ogston.  On her return to Britain, Flora resumed her work as secretary to Beatrice Webb, which continued until about July 1913.

Flora Carter’s stepmother, Isabella Mary Matthews, died in February 1913, after some years of poor health, leaving her widower, Alexander, alone in 252 Union Street, except for the servants.  Flora then moved permanently to Aberdeen to act as her father’s companion and, latterly, carer until his death in 1929, an arrangement which he found congenial.  But such a bright and active lady could not continue with this limited caring role being her only occupation in life.  In March 1914, she found a new and intellectually engaging objective when she was persuaded to stand for election to the Aberdeen School Board, a position for which she was eminently qualified, though it appears that not all the existing members of the Board were entirely comfortable with what they probably saw as an interloper.  And a woman to boot.  Flora had some very influential nominees and it seemed a near-certainty that she would succeed in her objective.  It was later demonstrated that she had the highest election expenditure of any candidate, so she must have been determined to be successful.  However, an unfounded statement was soon being circulated in Aberdeen, claiming that she was a cat’s paw for a group hostile to certain members of the then present Board.  Flora found this tactic shocking and decided she could not continue with her campaign in the circumstances.  She then withdrew her candidacy.

The start of WW1 at the end of July 1914 intervened to give a new direction to Flora’s life.  When her father agreed to serve in the Southall Military Hospital during the winter of 1914 – 1915, she travelled south with him.  Subsequently, he agreed to serve at the British Belgrade Military Hospital in Serbia and again Flora decided to accompany her prominent parent.  They left Britain at the start of April 1915 and while Alexander Ogston reached Belgrade, his daughter got no further than Salonika in Greece, where she became seriously ill with abdominal pains.  Her father judged the situation to be so serious that he decided to evacuate Flora back to Britain.  In June of the same year, after her recovery, she returned to Serbia with her father in the capacity of a probationer nurse.  They both returned to Britain at the end of July 1915.

Back in Aberdeen, Flora Carter threw herself into voluntary war work and proved to be an excellent administrator for various organisations, such as the Aberdeen War Work Association and the Aberdeen University Working Party.  Alexander Ogston, after a period of enforced inactivity, was asked to serve near the front line once more, this time in Italy.  He departed in August 1916, but Flora remained in Aberdeen and, in spite of intermittent ill-health continued her voluntary work with courage and determination.  Flora Carter was awarded the Order of the British Empire for her war work in 1918.

For both father and daughter, the 1920s consisted essentially of a progressive withdrawal from public life, until Alexander died at 252 Union Street on 1 February 1929.  Flora departed this life in the same house 13 days later.  She had certainly proved to her father that she, a woman, was capable of holding down important jobs and of serving with grit and application.  He must have been proud of her achievements, while not necessarily agreeing with her political views.     

 

Helen Charlotte Elizabeth Douglas Ogston (1883 – 1973) was another daughter of Alexander Ogston with an independent streak and a fierce passion to pursue her own goals.  The experiences of receiving her secondary education in London, followed by attending Aberdeen University were probably central to the determination of her path in life.

The fight for women to have the right to attend university in Scotland was long and fraught.  Remarkably, the first matriculated female students in Scotland attended Edinburgh University in 1869, intent on obtaining a qualification in, of all subjects, medicine.  They had to endure deep hostility from many male members of staff and from male medical students.  Sadly, for the “Edinburgh Seven”, their university refused to allow them to graduate, and the Court of Session not only confirmed the University’s authority to take this course of action but also judged that the women should not have been allowed to matriculate in the first place.

The Universities (Scotland) Act of 1889 first allowed women to be admitted to Scottish universities (of which there were four at the time, Glasgow, St Andrews, Aberdeen and Edinburgh).  However, it was 1892 before the first female students gained entry.  The pioneer female graduates emerged from Edinburgh in 1893, because they had taken some courses prior to 1892 which were judged to qualify towards their degrees.  Aberdeen University was rather behind this trend, the first four female MA graduates being produced in 1898, with the first ordinary degree students appearing a year later.  Alexander Ogston was present at the capping ceremony in 1899 when the first honorary degree awarded to a woman, an honorary LLD, was bestowed on Miss Anna Swanwick on 7 April 1899, though in absentia, due to the recipient’s ill health.  She was famous for her translations of Schiller and Goether and had long been a proponent of higher education for women.  The university only just managed to confer the degree in time as Miss Swanwick was 85 at the time and died later the same year.  Still, better late than never.

Miss Anna Swanwick.

Helen Ogston probably became a matriculated student in 1903 and the following year passed the 1^st BSc examinations in Zoology and Botany.  She graduated in 1906 with a BSc degree in Geology.  As part of her degree, she had studied the geological features produced by the last ice age on upper-Deeside, presumably using her father’s house at Glendavan as a base for her field work.  It was an outstanding study and led to the publication of a pamphlet in 1907 by the Aberdeen University Press under the title, "On the vestiges of the Ice Age in the Neighbourhood of Cambus O’May, Aberdeenshire”.  This area sports some magnificent glacial features, the most famous of which is the Burn O’Vat gorge, only two miles from Glendavan, which was forged by a melt-water channel flowing under a glacier.

Helen Ogston.

However, Helen’s experiences in London and at her local university had not just awakened her intellectual curiosity in the science of geology, it had also radicalised her social outlook and pointed her in a different direction from that produced by the influences of home.  In 1906, both Helen and her sister Constance, who was almost a year and a half younger, became members of the Women’s Social and Political Union.  This organisation had been formed in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst and her two daughters and campaigned for women’s suffrage.  Its members demonstrated against any political party or politician who did not support its aims.  They became notorious for their acts of civil disobedience and other forms of direct action.  This affiliation to the WSPU must have led to some heated exchanges between father and daughters at 252 Union Street. 

The earliest movement seeking the vote for women, detected during the present study in Aberdeen and its environs, occurred in 1871, when a public meeting was called chaired by the Lord Provost and with the Aberdeen Ladies’ Committee present, though it is presently unclear if this meeting led to any continuing activity.  In 1885, a “largely attended drawing room meeting” was held in the residence of a Mrs Duthie in Albyn Place to discuss the extension of the franchise to women ratepayers.  A resolution to that effect was passed and a committee formed to ensure that the candidates at the forthcoming general election were questioned on the issue.  In the late 19^th century, local aristocrat, Ishbel Hamilton-Gordon, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair, was very active in promoting the interests of women, both locally and nationally.  She was the first leader of the Women’s Liberal Federation (the Gordons were Liberals), which campaigned for votes for women and was very persistent and influential.  By 1896, there was also a socialism-supporting Aberdeen Women’s Social League in existence which promoted the interests of working women and also an Aberdeen branch of the Women’s Liberal Association, both of which supported the extension of the franchise to females.  The Aberdeen Women’s Suffrage Association was in existence by 1901, by which time it was holding monthly meetings.  Its immediate aims were the extension of the franchise to qualifying women on the same basis as applied to men and the election of women to public boards of all kinds.  One of its campaigns was to get a woman elected to the Aberdeen Schools Board.  (Flora, the half-sister of Helen and Constance Ogston, almost achieved that aim in 1914).  At least by 1908 there existed an Aberdeen branch of the WSPU and by the following year an Aberdeen University Women’s Suffrage Society, though the dates of formation of these two latter organisations have not yet been uncovered.

After her graduation, Helen Ogston abandoned geology and moved to London, initially to train as a sanitary inspector.  The “Votes for Women” newspaper said of her in June 1908, “She hopes to devote herself to Sociological work”.  Helen became very active in the WSPU and was a prominent and frequent attendee and speaker at debates, rallies and meetings, and an active participant in provocative political demonstrations.  The earliest public appearance by Helen Ogston reported in the press was at the Chelsea Palace music hall in June 1908 when, as part of a presentation of the women’s suffrage case, she made one of the daily speeches on the aims of the movement.  The Morning Post reported on Helen Ogston’s appearance.  “Miss Ogston spoke very briefly to a crowd of people who up to the time of her appearance had been regaled by an ordinary music hall entertainment. … The audience treated Miss Ogston with the same courtesy as they showed to every other lady who appeared on the stage for their benefit, the only distinction being that her turn interested them more than the others”.  Another newspaper, “The Stage” was more qualified.  “Miss Helen Ogston was the “lecturer” on Monday night.  Her somewhat lengthy oration being listened to with tolerable patience, considering the lateness of the hour”.

Abuse of, and violence towards, the demonstrating women was ever in the offing.  At the end of October 1908, Sydney Buxton MP addressed his constituents at Poplar Town Hall when a group of the unemployed caused a disturbance that developed into a free fight, which was broken up by the police.  The meeting afforded free entry to men but required women to obtain a ticket.  This was a means to preventing members of the WSPU interrupting the speaker inside the hall.  Helen Ogston, leading the deputation from the WSPU was forced to address an impromptu gathering outside the venue.  The crowd was rather hostile, but Helen pressed on with her speech anyway.  As Buxton was rushed away from the meeting, Helen Ogston tried to question him about votes for women but was kept back by the police.  She seems then to have been given a roving brief by the movement and spent some time in Manchester helping local organisers.  For three years from October 1908 until the end of 1911, Helen Ogston appeared at many events supporting the women’s suffrage movement across the length and breadth of the country.  Manchester, Holloway Gaol (where Mrs Pankhurst had been imprisoned and was being force-fed), Chelmsford, Maidenhead (where many live rats were released among the audience by a rat-catcher to disrupt the proceedings, and a prominent local tradesman dressed up as a women to lead the protests), Hammersmith, Brighton, Edinburgh, Bristol, Battersea, Burgess Hill, Henley, Portslade, Nottingham, Thanet, Barnstaple, Ilfracombe, Bournemouth, Belfast, Lewisham, Norwich, Bexhill, Marlow and Winchelsea were some of the towns and cities to experience her oratory.  Periodically, when she was at home in Aberdeen, she spoke at events there and in the surrounding district.  She received some compliments in the press, such as being described as a “strikingly handsome lady” and “one of the WSPU’s strongest speakers, especially in debate”.  Mrs Pankhurst, rather snobbishly, described her as “a woman of a good family”.  In 1910, Helen became the paid organiser for the New Constitutional Society for Women’s Suffrage.

The incident for which she will always be remembered occurred on 5 November 1908 at a meeting in the Royal Albert Hall, London, which was being addressed by David Lloyd George, then Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Liberal Government of Herbert Asquith.  The meeting had been organised by the Women’s Liberal Federation which supported women’s suffrage.  However, it was feared that Lloyd George would avoid dealing with the issue of votes for women in his address.  Helen Ogston attended the meeting intent on holding Lloyd George to account and she provided the first interruption that Lloyd George suffered that afternoon when she called out “What we want is deeds, not words”.  Helen had taken a dog-whip with her, which she had concealed in her dress, and when the stewards descended on the box she was occupying, intent on ejecting her from the venue, she laid into them with her whip.  Initially she was restrained by being chained to her seat before being ejected.  Many in the audience reacted angrily to her intrusion with “a storm of hisses”, though one man, Henry Nevinson, a suffragist, objected to the way female protesters were being treated.  He too was silenced by the stewards.  Of course, there was no one present to photograph the famous scene, so the “Sphere” made up for that omission by commissioning a drawing of the occasion, which it published.  She thus became known as “the lady with the dog-whip”. 

"The lady with the dog whip".

Helen felt that the newspapers had misrepresented her motives in taking a dog-whip into the Lloyd George meeting.  She explained her reasoning in the following letter to the editor of the Aberdeen Journal.  “Sir, It has been stated freely in the press that I used a dog-whip on Saturday last to prevent my eviction from Mr Lloyd-George’s meeting.  This statement is entirely incorrect.  I used a dog-whip not to prevent eviction but as a protest against violent assault.  On one or two previous occasions when I have been sent to heckle Cabinet Ministers, both I and other women have been disgracefully mauled by the stewards.  I determined accordingly on Saturday to take steps to prevent a recurrence of such treatment and to make a protest against it.  I therefore took a dog-whip with me.  When I made my interruption, I was at once set upon by the stewards and knocked backwards by a man sitting in the next box.  I informed them that I was prepared to leave the building, but I refused to submit to their handling.  This statement was absolutely disregarded, and I was dealt with with great violence.  In the course of the melee, I struck with my whip at one of the men who was behaving brutally.  In common with other members of the Women’s Social and Political Union, I have the strongest repugnance to violence, but I felt it my duty in this instance to make a protest against the sort of treatment to which no woman ought to submit.  I am etc, Helen Ogston”.

Mrs Pankhurst later offered further justification for Helen Ogston using the dog-whip.  On several occasions “excessive violence” had been used against protesters and in some cases it had been “of a particularly objectionable kind”, ie, it was sexual in nature.  Further, on the night in question a man in the adjacent box had burned her arm, probably with a cigar, as soon as she started speaking, and another man had hit her in the chest so violently that she was thrown to the ground.  When the stewards broke down the door of the box, some thought she was dead.  Helen said that the first person she struck with the whip was not a steward but the assailant who burned her arm, which had left a wound two inches long and an inch broad.  When she had recovered from being felled, she also struck the man who had punched her, with her whip.

Soon after the dog-whip incident Helen travelled back to Aberdeen and while there she fulfilled a number of engagements, most of which were free of the hooliganism that she had grown used to in the south.  But one address, in Aberdeen Music Hall on 17 December 1908, under the auspices of the Aberdeen branch of the WSPU, was notable for disruption caused by local male students.  Entry was by ticket and the local police were effective in preventing access by the rowdy element, though someone managed to spread hydrogen sulphide in the hall, which has the objectionable smell of rotten eggs.  Helen Ogston, perhaps with the help of her father, had managed to assemble a strong supporting cast of Aberdeen worthies to accompany her on the Music Hall stage, giving tacit approval to her opinions and actions.  James Murray, MP, presided and the platform party included Edith Morrison (president of the Aberdeen University Women’s Suffrage Association, Miss Murray, Glenburnie Park, Professor Ogston, Baillies Wilkie and Hutcheon, Councillors Kendall, Burnett and Young, Rev Alexander Webster and Mrs Webster, George Duncan, advocate, Mr WG Jamieson and Parish Councillor Milne.  The excluded students then resumed their protest outside the hall and then continued along Union Street to number 252, the home of Professor Ogston, though whether they were protesting against him, or his feisty daughter, was unclear.  Alexander Ogston’s presence indicates that he had at least come to accept that Helen had a right to proclaim her own point of view and possibly he had also come to support women’s suffrage.

Who could doubt that Helen Ogston shared many of the characteristics of her famous parent?  She was fearless in the face of violence, determined to maintain and publicise her point of view, oblivious to the opinions of others who might not share her beliefs and indifferent to the risk of injury.  And she had won the argument with her traditional father that women have a right to have opinions and to proselytise the unconverted.  

After this relatively brief period under regular abuse, the threat of violence and intense scrutiny by the press, like a mayfly, Helen suddenly disappeared from the public scene.  At the 1911 Census she was living with another unmarried female of similar age, one Olive Mary Lett, a teacher of Swedish Gymnastics, at 70 Albany Mansions, SW.  A year later she married 35-year-old widower Dr Eugene Townroe, a South African doctor who had served with distinction in the Second Boer War, in a grand ceremony in Kings College Chapel, Aberdeen University and thereafter Helen seemed to have no public involvement with women’s rights or any other issue.  By 1918, a partial victory for women’s voting rights had been won and in 1929 they at last gained equality with men.  Eugene and Helen produced two daughters, but the marriage ended in divorce sometime between 1926 and 1929, after which Helen remarried to Granville Havelock Bullimore, an accountant and the managing director of Currys, then radio and cycle manufacturers and retailers.  Helen died in 1973 at Malvern, Worcestershire, aged 90. 

Constance Amelia Irene Ogston (1884 – 1971), like her older sister Helen, was a bright spark who equally needed to discover her own destiny, free from the restraining opinions of her father.  In 1901, Constance and her younger sister, Rosa, were both prize-winners in the Aberdeen University Local Examinations, though no evidence has been uncovered indicating that she ever attended that institution or any other Higher Education establishment.  However, she probably came under the influence of her older sister, Helen because in 1906, aged 22, she moved to London with her and became active in the campaign for women’s rights, joining the Women’s Social and Political Union.

In December 1908, by which date Constance seemed to have moved back to Aberdeen, she attended a populous meeting of the Aberdeen branch of the Independent Labour Party (the Marxist ILP had been formed by Keir Hardy in 1893).  However, the speaker, Mr WK Chalmers, was late in arriving.  In his place, Constance Ogston was asked to speak until Chalmers made an appearance.  Her topic was “How the women’s vote will affect the working classes”.  The Aberdeen Journal applauded this impromptu effort.  “Miss Ogston was accorded a very hearty reception, and in the course of her address she referred to the progress the women’s suffrage movement had made within recent years.  She explained the objects of the Women’s Social and Political Union, and pointed out how imperative it was for women who paid taxes to be allowed to vote.  She submitted numerous arguments in favour of the women receiving votes, and concluded by appealing for a big audience to turn out at the suffragist demonstration to be held in the Music Hall on Thursday, at which her sister, Miss Helen D Ogston, was to be the principal speaker.  Miss Ogston was warmly thanked for her address”.

Between January and May 1909, Miss Adela Pankhurst appeared repeatedly at public meetings in Aberdeen and its surrounding district and even further north in Inverness and its environs, often in the company of Constance Ogston.  Meetings have been uncovered which were held in Forfar, Stonehaven, Inverurie, Banchory, “Inverness and above” and multiple meetings in Aberdeen itself. No evidence has been uncovered of Miss Pankhurst’s accommodation arrangements at this time, but it is to be wondered if she was boarded at 252 Union Street.  After this flurry of activity, Constance Ogston, like her sister, seemed to retire from the public scene.  Between 1909 and the start of WW1, the local newspapers only reported on one occasion when Constance Ogstan was involved in public work and that was in 1910 when she helped with fund-raising activities for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.  She also lectured in Aberdeen on “The Women of India” in September 1919.  No report has been found of the content of her lecture, which would have been fascinating to read.

During WW1, Constance involved herself in voluntary work in support of the war effort, especially with the War Dressings Depot, though she is known to have left Aberdeen at some time during the war.  At the war’s end, Constance was 34 and unmarried but at some time during the conflict, or in its immediate aftermath, she met her future husband, Herbert Guy ffiske.  Their engagement was announced in February1920 and they married in a low-key ceremony in the village of Logie Coldstone, near to the Glendavan estate in September of the same year, quite a contrast to the showy nuptials of her sister Helen.

Herbert Guy ffiske, who was born in 1888, hailed from a prominent family of engineers and manufacturers in Norfolk, many of whom were employed by the company of Boulton & Paul Ltd.  They manufactured many things, including sectional buildings, wire mesh and, later, aircraft.  Guy’s father, Henry ffiske, was at one time the manager of Boulton & Paul Ltd.  Guy joined the 1^st East Anglian Brigade, 2^nd Norfolk battery of the Royal Field Artillery as a volunteer and was promoted to 1^st Lieutenant in 1910.  He served in France from 1915, being promoted to Captain the same year.  In 1916, Guy transferred to the Royal Flying Corps initially as an observer/air gunner and the following year he gained his Royal Aircraft Club Aviator’s certificate.  On the formation of the Royal Air Force on 1 April 1916, Guy ffiske joined the new military service.  By this time, Boulton & Paul was a major manufacturer of aircraft used by the RAF. 

Guy, who had trained as an engineer, left the military with the rank of Major and became an employee of Boulton & Paul Ltd.  The Daily Mail put up a prize of £10,000 for the first flight across the Atlantic and this stirred much interest in aviation circles, almost 20 companies and organisations proposing to attempt the crossing.  One of these entrants was Boulton & Paul Ltd with a twin-engined bomber that the firm had developed during the war.  Guy ffiske was put in charge of the project.  Meteorological considerations dictated that the attempt would be made by all competitors in a west-to-east direction.  Boulton & Paul planned to send two aircraft and a team of engineers and pilots to Newfoundland in June 1919.  Their aircraft had a range of 3,850 miles travelling at 116mph.  Unfortunately for Guy ffiske and his employer, they were beaten to the prize by pilots Alcock and Brown flying a Vickers Vimy bomber.  The intrepid pair left on 14 June from Newfoundland, crash-landing in an Irish bog the following day, to claim the prize.

In 1923, Guy ffiske had obtained planning permission for a new house adjacent to Denham Golf Club, which acquired the name “Davan Hollow, no doubt recalling happy days at Alexander Ogston’s Aberdeenshire estate.  It had the appearance of a retirement home, though Guy was only 35 in that year.  He certainly played golf at the Denham club. Guy died early in 1930, though Constance survived until 1971.  The marriage produced no children.

 

The careers of Alexander Ogston’s other children

The two wives of Alexander Ogston produced 12 children in total, four in his first marriage (1867 – 1873) to Mary Jane Hargraves and eight from the second with Isabella Margaret Matthews (1877 – 1913).  Several of these offspring pursued interesting careers, making their marks on the world in their own diverse ways, but none did so as a member of the medical profession.  Their father obviously contributed much to the development of his children, both genetically and through the home environment that he and his wives created, aided by comfortable economic circumstances.  Mostly, it was his sons who achieved prominence and his daughters gained social status by making good marriages.  But some of the girls, as has been shown, forged their own distinct paths in the world and, in doing so, exercised a modifying influence on their father’s beliefs and behaviours.

Mary Letitia Ogston (1868 – 1937) married Herbert John Clifford Grierson, a Shetlander who was educated at the University of Aberdeen and then at Christ Church, University of Oxford.  He was appointed Professor of English Literature at the University of Aberdeen in 1894 and was subsequently, in 1929, made Knight Professor of English Literature at the University of Edinburgh.  Herbert Grierson was a prominent literary scholar, editor and critic.

Francis Hargrave Ogston (1869 – 1901) was Alexander Ogston’s eldest son.  He was educated at Robert Gordon’s College and at  Clifton College, Bristol, from which he was expelled for theft.  From there he took employment with Messrs George Thomson & Co, shipowners, Aberdeen and in 1891 he passed his second mate’s examination.  Subsequently he worked as a seaman in India before travelling to Rhodesia and at the start of the second Boer War he volunteered for service in South Africa with the Imperial Light Horse.  He died on active service in April 1901.

Walter Henry Ogston (1873 – 1957).  Walter Ogston first attended boarding school at Beford in England but returned to a school in Aberdeen in order to prepare for entry to Aberdeen University.  He sat the University of Aberdeen Arts Bursary Competition in 1889 and was placed about half way down the order of merit.  Walter entered the university the same year but appears not to have shone academically.  In the 1890 Junior Greek class he was placed 38= out of 39, i.e. bottom.  While still at school he had asked his father’s advice on what career he should follow and parental guidance on his choice of employment was sought again about 1890, perhaps during or after his first university year.  Alexander Ogston discouraged his eldest son from following a medical career which he described as “the most trying in the professional world”.  AO suggested three alternatives, becoming a lawyer and going into an office in Aberdeen, going into the paper mill of his father’s friend Mr Tait at Inverurie, or into some business in one of the large commercial cities.    Walter chose the third alternative and spent most of his working life in commerce, first in Liverpool, starting in 1891.  Walter came of age in 1894 and his father organised a celebratory dinner party at 252 Union Street for family and friends.  It has not been discovered for which firm he worked in the great port of Liverpool.  However, it seems likely that the trading connections of the city then led Walter to move to India and employment with Killick, Nixon & Co., a major firm agents managing various commercial enterprises on behalf of their owners. The firm had been established in 1857 in Bombay.  Killick & Nixon still exists today and still operates in Mumbai, the modern name for Bombay.  In 1914, Killick, Nixon and Company’s partners were listed as Lowther Robert Windham Frorest, Sir Henry Edward Eddleston Procter, Thomas William Berkett, Walter Henry Ogston and Harold Percival Hebblethwaite.  Walter returned permanently to the UK in 1915.  During WW1 he worked as a railway transport officer on Liverpool Docks, for which he was awarded the OBE in 1920.  In 1921, Walter became the tenant of the farm of Bellastraid on his father’s Glendavan estate and lived the life of a farmer, even winning prizes at the annual Logie Coldstone agricultural show.  Walter Henry Ogston wrote the Introduction to “Alexander Ogston KCVO”, the collection of biographical articles about Alexander Ogston’s life, which was published after his death.  Walter also carried out an extensive correspondence, the so-called “India Letters”, with his future wife, Josephine Elizabeth Carter before their marriage on 16 December 1909 in London.  An account of this correspondence is given separately.

Killick Nixon & Co.

Alfred James Ogston (1878 – 1920).  This first child and first son of Alexander Ogston’s second marriage initially tried a career in commerce, then attempted to enter the Diplomatic Service, but failed and finally gained entrance to the Consular Service, where he experienced the horrors of the Messina earthquake in 1908.  That story is recounted fully elsewhere in this portrayal of Sir Alexander Ogston’s life.  At the time of his death, Alfred Ogston was serving as HM’s Consul in Portland, Oregon.

(Female) Ogston (1879 – 1879).  Isabella Margaret, Alexander Ogston’s second spouse had a female child on 19 August 1879.  Tragically, the baby died the following day.

Douglas John Ogston (1881 – 1882).  He too died within his first year, though not before he had been baptised.

Rosa Fleming Ogston (1886 – 1940) married Aberdeen stockbroker, William Webster. 

Alexander (“Axel”) Lockhart Ogston (1887 – 1919) served in the Royal Marines Artillery during WW1.  He also designed and supervised the building of the Red Cross hospital where his father, Alexander Ogston served during 1914.  Alexander Lockhart Ogston died of pneumonia in 1919.

Rannald Frederick Logie Ogston (1889 – 1957) was a member of Messrs Morrison, Ogston and Co, stockbrokers, London.

 

The India Letters

During the period of Walter Henry Ogston’s employment with Messrs Killick, Nixon and Company between 1896 and 1915, that firm’s business was much concerned with managing the construction of narrow gauge railways around Bombay, for example, to enable the transport of cotton to that city for export, via Liverpool, to the Lancashire cotton industry.  The company was also involved with the mining of manganese, the manufacture of cement and the management of a thermal power station.  Periodically, Walter Ogston was granted extended leave to visit his family in the UK.  He is known to have returned to British shores in 1900, 1904 and 1908, i.e. every four years.  During his 1904 sojourn, while staying with his parents in Aberdeen, he was introduced to his second cousin, Josephine Elizabeth Carter, the family relationship being on his late mother’s side.  Josephine, generally known as “Jo”, was born in 1886 at Barnes, Middlesex.  Her father, William, hailed from County Wicklow.  Jo Carter was visiting her uncle, James Cadenhead, an artist, and his wife Wilhelmina in Aberdeen when she was introduced to Walter Ogston.  Although there was some attraction between the two, there was not at that stage a romantic relationship.  At the time, Jo was 18 and Walter was thirteen years older than his future spouse.  Walter returned to his employment in India and did not depart on leave for a further four years. 

It was during this pause in the nascent relationship between Walter and Jo that a new link was created between their respective families.  Jo’s elder brother, George Christopher Carter, who was seven years Jo’s senior, married Flora Ogston, Alexander Ogston’s daughter, in 1906, at 252 Union Street, Aberdeen.  The marriage was brought to a tragic, early end when George died a little over a year later of tuberculosis.  Meanwhile, Jo Carter undertook teacher training at the Froebel Institute, which had been founded in 1892 in Grove House, Roehampton, before entering University College, part of London University, in 1906, principally to study zoology, with physiology and geology.

In 1908, Walter Ogston again sailed for Britain on leave from Killick and Nixon in Bombay.  While traversing the Mediterranean, Walter called at Messina in Sicilly to visit his brother Alfred, the British Vice-Consul in that city, who had previously had a difficult relationship with his father, due to his choice of wife.  At the time of Walter’s visit, there had been recent earth tremors which affected Messina, several buildings having sustained some structural damage.  Tragically, Alfred claimed that his residence was earthquake-proof.  It soon transpired that that was not so when a major earthquake hit Messina on 28 December 1908.  Alfred’s wife, Ethel, was killed and her husband was seriously injured when their home partially collapse.  That story has been recounted elsewhere in this biography.

The fateful re-acquaintance of Jo Carter and Walter Ogston occurred when Jo’s mother invited Flora and Walter Ogston to stay with the Carter family on Anglesey in late September 1908.  Walter immediately fell for Jo and soon declared his love for her, asking his second cousin to marry him.  She eventually agreed but in doing so committed herself to a year’s wait for Walter’s return on his next leave of absence.  These were the circumstances which generated the need for an extensive correspondence between the two in order to sustain the relationship.  The surviving items from this correspondence are to be found in the archive of Ogston documents at Aberdeen University.  From the point of view of this biography of Alexander Ogston, the India letters are very useful in divining relationships within the wider Ogston family and, especially, the political views and activities of Sir Alexander’s children and their relationships with their father.  The Ogston family members who were within easy reach of each other in London in 1908 -1909, in addition to Jo Carter, were Flora, Helen, Axel and Rosa, though occasionally, other Ogston relatives fleetingly passed through her life.  For example in May 1909, Aunty Katie, the wife of Sir Alexander’s brother Frank, with her daughter Coreen, called to take tea with Jo Carter, while on a visit to Europe from New Zealand.  A few days later the New Zealanders made a second visit to Jo Carter’s home, along with Axel.  Jo’s comment on Coreen, then aged 18, was that she was “evidently enjoying life” and that she “chatters a lot”.  Coreen was an indulged only child.  Most of the surviving India Letters are from Jo to Walter and contain accounts of many events that she attended, mostly in and around London, presented in a chatty but informative style.  A signicant quantity of factual material relates to Jo’s education. 

In 1908, Flora, then a widow after the early death of her husband George Carter was living in London and doing a variety of jobs but in particular she worked for the prominent socialist, Beatrice Webb, and was deeply committed to a left wing political outlook.  She met frequently with Jo Carter, who greatly enjoyed her company and the stimulating conversations that inevitably accompanied such meetings.  In the first of Jo’s letters to Walter in Late October 1908, she alluded to the tenor of their meetings.  “This afternoon we are going down to tea with Flora and to the city temple afterwards.  It is awfully nice going to lunch with Flora but we get into deep discussions and time passes so quickly …”.  There was another, more down to earth reason that Jo enjoyed visiting Flora.  Flora was a smoker and introduced Jo Carter to the habit, which she clearly enjoyed.  For both of them this rebellion against social norms for ladies must have been a liberating experience.  In early December Jo again saw Flora and once more indulged in two modern, but not particularly lady-like, habits.  “It was good to get a glimpse of her and taste her excellent coffee and cigarettes again”.

Jo Carter’s attendance at University College to study, principally zoology, introduced her to the most controversial topics in biological science of that era.  This was illustrated by a listing of the books she had acquired relating to her subject, which included Charles Darwin’s books “The Origin of Species” and “The Voyage of the Beagle”, and nine volumes of Thomas Henry Huxley’s Essays.  The clash between Darwinian and biblical views on evolution was a frequent topic of debate in political religious and academic circles.  T.H. Huxley acquired the sobriquet “Darwin’s bulldog” for his eloquent defence of Darwin’s fundamental thesis.  Another, then current biological theory was that due to August Weissman accounting for the evolution of residual organs.  Jo discussed this issue with Walter in a further letter.  “It stands to reason that if you check the action of natural selection as we are doing you ought to take some steps to check the deterioration that is bound to follow.  Weissman attributes the degeneration of the eyes of creatures living in the dark not so much to lack of exercise of those organs than to the easing of the action of natural selection upon them and the consequent degeneration.  This statement by Jo Carter is telling because it hints that she had also been exposed to the thinking of the eugenicists.  The term “eugenics” literally “good breeding” had been invented by Sir Francis Galton, a late Victorian polymath.  There was a frequently-held view amonst some academics and members of the upper classes that the population of Britain was degenerating and that action might need to be taken to improve the situation by encouraging selective breeding for desirable characteristics.  To further investigations into eugenics, Francis Galton established the Eugenics Record Office in 1904 and directed it until 1907.  It was then transformed into the Galton Eugenics Laboratory, based at University College, London and was directed by Karl Pearson, Professor of Applied Mathematics.  This was exactly the time that Jo Carter was a UCL undergraduate studying zoology.  Another indication of the high level academic and medical contacts that Jo Carter had gained from her entry into the family of Alexander Ogston came in a letter she sent to Walter in January 1909.  She referred to Walter having suffered from malaria and his referral to Dr Patrick Manson.  “One time you were home and he helped you to get rid of the devil of malaria.  It’s a queer sort of disease altogether”.  Manson is often referred to as the Father of Tropical Medicine.  He was born in Aberdeenshire and was a friend and contemporary of Alexander Ogston at the Aberdeen Medical School, and that may well have been the route by which Walter’s referral was made.

Sir Patrick Manson.

In December 1908, Jo Carter took the decision to give up her academic studies at University College.  “One of them (an academic member of staff) said he was very sorry as she could have done very well”.  The reason for Jo Carter abandoning her degree was not revealed but was probably due to her decision to get married, which event would take place one year hence.  She must have discussed her decision with Sir Alexander whose wholly predictable advice appeared to have been that she should study nursing and domestic economy.  She accepted the view on nursing but did not think that she needed any training in being a good housewife.  What particularly thrilled Jo Carter about the letter she had received from “the Dad” about career options was that it was charming and that she was already being treated as one of the family.  Perhaps she was aware that her future father-in-law had not approved the choice of life partner by his son Alfred.  His wife, Ethel, was not a welcome visitor at 252 Union Street for a long time after the marriage.  Jo Carter went to see the matron at the Evelina Children’s Hospital in Lambeth concerning nurse training.  This hospital had been established by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild in 1869, after his wife Evelina had died in premature labour.  In those days, nursing was not a graduate profession but the hospital agreed to take Jo as a special probationer for three months, April to June1909, preceded by her attendance at lectures on nursing between January and March.  Jo recounted, “I shall have to wear a uniform and behave exactly like an ordinary probationer”.  By early March 1909, Jo had begun her nurse training and in late March she was allowed to observe a small operation.  However, her heart did not seem to be committed to a future in this profession and by the end of April she had “chucked up the hospital in the meantime”, though she did not state any strong reason for doing so.  Perhaps she was regretting leaving the intellectual ferment of University College?

The other daughter of Sir Alexander who was present in London at that time was Helen.  Although, like Jo Carter, she had studied zoology and geology at Aberdeen University, after graduating B Sc in 1906 in the latter subject, by 1908 she had moved to London and was working as a sanitary inspector.  But, like her sister Flora, she was also deeply involved in the political issues of the day, particularly the movement to gain equal voting rights for women.  In this activity she was a prominent speaker and advocate of direct action.  Jo Carter appeared to be in awe of Helen for her determination to pursue this aim and her activities were often reported to Walter in her letters to him.  On 5 November 1908, Helen Ogston achieved lasting notoriety by heckling Lloyd George at a public meeting. She was then manhandled by the stewards and employed a dog whip to defend herself.  In a letter to Walter two days after the incident, Jo Carter said the following.  “Helen seems to have created a great sensation there with her dog whip.  I should like to have seen what happened myself, for one can never trust newspaper reports.  This morning her photo with her whip is in all the papers – horrid bad photo too.  I own to feeling a little annoyed and have to remind myself that I should never have had the courage to do what she has done.  I should think the Dad will be rather upset by the way the papers talk of the tall Amazon-like woman laying about her with the whip is rather horrid”.  Jo saw Flora who seemed to bear the nick-name “Flobes” before her letter was posted and added “It was interesting to hear Helen’s account of the Albert Hall doings – I have been subjected to much criticism of her actions and having only heard one side of the case could not defend her very well.  I was glad to hear that she had justification, in part at least, for use of the whip”.  Jo Carter seems not to have been a robust polemicist like Flora or Helen.

Women’s suffrage was a major topic of debate in the early years of the 20^th Century and was characterized by both extreme views and extreme actions on each side of the argument, both for and against equal rights for adult females.  Jo Carter, perhaps influenced by Walter’s strong-minded sisters, found herself having to defend the position of the voting rights reformers in argument.  In a letter to Walter in January 1909, she recounted one such dispute to Walter.

“I have just had a most fearful argument on women’s suffrage with Mr Blake (identity not discovered) – he is fearfully down right and expresses himself rather strongly almost violently.  It is a topic which, knowing his opinions, I would not willingly have entered on.  I can’t quite remember how we did begin now, but I think I was forced along the path.  The discussion lasted full half an hour and began distinctly in an exciting manner by Mr Blake in a playful way he has, threw an orange at my head, because I did not see a joke at the expense of the Suffrage that his son Willie had made on some occasion.  He took my breath away somewhat, but I got the best of it by remaining quite unruffled.  It was only by eating almonds and raisins hard and keeping my eyes on the plate that I could keep quite cool.  We argued it on the broad principles as much as possible.  Mr Blake holds that because men do all the hard work of the world, they should rule the women who do not do any work better than a man could do it.  He owns that a woman’s point of view is totally different to a man’s.  And I got him to own that it was not necessarily on a lower level to the man’s.  Then I tried to make my point that since a man cannot wholly enter into a woman’s view  and a woman into a man’s and both have to be governed, therefore both should help to govern, just as much in colonial and foreign policies as in home affairs – we are all equally concerned.  My concern for instance In Indian affairs ought to be as much as yours now.  A woman’s concern in the way a navy ought to be most likely.  They are merely there for sake of defending the home.  If one could find a community of men devoid of women they would not indulge in an expensive organised navy and army would they?  Mr Blake seems to think that women work because they like it and want a gayer time.  I guess he wants to do a little slumming in the “potteries” or some part like that to have his eyes opened.  I was very and particularly pleased with myself because I did not have the last word.  We met on the stairs after lunch and this was Mr. B’s parting shot.  “I hope you’ve got a strong man who can put things better than I can and will drive all these silly notions out of your head”.  Dear man you are welcome to try – I think I am quite open to conversion, if the arguments are sufficiently convincing.  Perhaps it would be as well now, if you told me where my concerns were to end – what spheres there are into which I must not enter.  I think however I know your views on that subject already …”.

This exchange gives a good insight into Jo Carter’s personality.  Highly intelligent, feminine, able to control her emotions and to pursue a rational argument, but perhaps lacking a debating “edge”, as demonstrated when she was opposed by a rather emotional, aggressive and bigoted man.  Jo also related a more amusing and less serious aspect to the suffrage movement.  “On Friday afternoon mother had a meeting of our local Suffragists to discuss a point of business.  There are some 60 – 70 members I believe.  Twenty-two were present.  They did more eating of cakes than discussing I think”.     

Jo Carter only occasionally saw Alexander (Axel) Ogston junior, for example on 13 December 1908, when Jo “went to Flobes’ to tea and then to Campbell’s and back to supper.  Axel made a couple of very short appearances.  He had been calling on Mrs McKenzie Davidson who had been high in Helen’s praise for the dog whip incident”.  Mrs McKenzie Davidson appears to have been the wife of Dr James McKenzie Davidson who, assisted by Alec Ogston, had introduded X-radiography to Aberdeen and who later moved to London, becoming a famous radiologist.

It was on 28 December 1908 that a major earthquake hit Messina in Sicilly and the news was quickly transmitted to the UK.  Ethel, the wife of Alec Ogston’s son, Alfred was crushed to death in their partially collapsed home and Alfred himself seriously injured.  Jo Carter heard the depressing news the following day and expressed her condolences in a letter to her future husband.  “I hardly knew Ethel but what I have seen of her and what I have heard, and her letter to me had made me very fond of her in anticipation.  I was looking forward to knowing her better next summer.  She seems to have been a most excellent wife.  Poor Alfred will be so absolutely lost without her”.  Jo had had a letter from “the Dad” (Alec Ogston) “saying that our engagement had made him so happy – made them all so happy … I want to write to the Dad and Flora in case I don’t see them tomorrow (Wednesday 30) on their way through London”.  Alec Ogston, accompanied by his daughter Flora, was making an instant, dramatic rescue mission from Aberdeen to Sicily with the intention of recovering Ethel’s body and bringing his injured son home.  In a further letter to Walter, Jo gave an accounf of the send-off that Sir Alexander and Flora received when passing through London.  “Mother and I went to see Dad and Flora off”.  “Dad was most awfully sweet – he pulled my arm through his and we walked up and down the platform for some time – he really seemed to care for my sympathy.  He made me feel quite as if I was one of his own children – I do feel absolutely one of you. … it’s grand to be able to go and help as Flora and the Dad are doing.  His services will be invaluable”.This episode illustrated well the warm family atmosphere which enveloped the wider Ogston family, and incomers by marriage, but that was only after its dominant patriarch had pronounced individuals to be acceptable.  Indeed, Jo Carter, was clearly one of his favourites but was admonished and called a “wretch” for failing to head the pages of her letters with her home address. That seems rather strong language for a minor cultural indiscretion.  In late January 1909, Flora Carter had returned to London after her emergency journey to Messina and Jo Carter went to have lunch with “Flobes”.  She reported the event to Walter.  “They must have had a terrible time in Messina.  You are great people all of you – the way the Dad, Alfred and Flobes have come through this time of trial and suffering is wonderful.  Poor Alfred is not through it yet by any means – I suppose now that the physical pain is less insistant he will, by slow degrees, be realising his terrible loss.  It is good to have Flobes back in town.  It is like being nearer to you being with her”.  Jo had clearly been impressed by the warm togetherness and mutual support that the family she was joining showed and she readily reciprocated those feelings.  But there may still have been tensions lurking subliminally which had been engendered by Alexander Ogston’s opposition to his son Alfred’s choice of life partner.  Walter referred to this situation in a letter to Jo.  ““I loved Ethel as if she was my own sister.  In the early days of their engagement they received no encouragement and when for years she was never asked to Aberdeen I never heard a word of reproach from her.  When father and Alfred were at enmity with each other, Ethel’s influence was always used to bring about reconciliation between them”.  It is undeniable that Alexander Ogston could assume an extreme position on an issue and would then be very difficult to shift to more reasonable ground.  Jo chanced to meet Alfred Ogston in mid-April and his visage shocked her.  “I only had a word with Alfred and a hand shake.  His face haunted one – his face was so white, almost luminous”.

Jo’s future spouse, Walter Ogston, apparently did not support the public actions of his prominent sisters.  In a letter sent to Jo in late January 1909, he admitted to being “a bit embarrassed” by the antics of Helen.  He also seemed to have rather traditional views on the role of women and the unsuitability of a scientific education for women as a preparation for family life.  Jo countered his views in her usual diplomatic fashion.  “I give you full permission to spread Huxley’s essays on the floor and dance on them if I do fail you in that respect (cooking).  You will have every right to vent your feelings on scientific education”.  Jo’s brother Stanley may also have had traditional views on the role of women.  Jo reported to Walter, “Stanley came home last night to dinner – much to our horror as there is a large placard of a Suffrage meeting stuck on our fence outside, and of course he saw it, in spite of the dense fog and was most indignant”.  The following Sunday, 31 January, “Flobes came to lunch and we all went to the Parish Hall to hear Miss Abadam (Alice Abadam had Welsh parentage but was born in London.  She was prominent in the votes for women movement.) speak on “Suffrage as a Moral Movement”.  Stanley did not go.  The address was very good she dealt with the economic position of women and how the starvation wages they received and the insecurity of the labour market for them drove them to dishonest ways of earning a livelihood and to grave social evils.  Of course the question that people ask is will the getting of the vote enable women to claim higher wages and more consideration from their employers”?

Throughout the spring of 1909 there was a series of family occasions when Flora and Jo were able to discuss philosophical matters over cigarettes and, sometimes, chocolate peppermints too.  Jo told Flora about her own religious evolution.  Her brother Len had been an atheist for a time and her brother George was an agnostic.  It appeared that these discussions with the free-thinking Flora and Jo’s own exposure to science at UCL had made her doubt her own beliefs.  She became a believer but church attendance did not mean much to her.  Sir Alexander Ogston went through similar stages of doubt.  Though he remained a fairly regular church attender he was antagonized by the Reverend James Mitford Mitchell’s (Queen Victoria’s Chaplain in Scotland and minister of the West Kirk of St Nicholas, Aberdeen) strictures on Darwin’s ideas on evolution.

Another occurrence which illustrated the influence of her brief time at UCL upon her thinking occurred in June 1909 when she attended a lecture by Annie Besant in the company of her mother and Flora.  Miss Besant was a prominent social and political campaigner of the day, who was a proponent of home rule for both India and Ireland, a socialist by political persuasion, a campaigner for womens’ rights and sho was convicted for publishing a book on birth control.  Her lecture topic was “The Evolution of Man” but in her talk Annie Besant also advocated against the eating of meat and the consumption of alcohol.  Jo found her science unsound, her geology and physiology being about 50 years out of date.  In the same letter to Walter, Jo went on to justify the study of zoology.  “We zoologists are no longer deserving of scorn in that we do nothing for humanity by our science”,  Her support for this contention related to the control of malaria and yellow fever, both propagated by insect vectors, in the building of the Panama Canal.  This was Jo’s retaliation against Walter’s more traditional views on education and the role of women.  Not unexpectedly, Flora too did not go along with some of Walter’s notions concerning women.  She told Jo that she objected to Walter speaking of her as his “young woman”, because she held the phrase to be “vulgar”.

Annie Besant.

In early July 1909, Jo Carter briefly revealed that she was going to spend the night “with two Malthuists”, without giving their identities. This short statement indicated that she had also, perhaps through her university work, come into contact with the writings of the Reverand Thomas Malthus in the fields of political economy and demography.  His near-apocalyptic vision of the future of mankind was that social improvements would not be maintained because increased food production would lead to population growth which, in turn, would use up the resources available to improve the lot of the average human being and commit the poorer classed to an impoverished existence. 

Jo also joined a Suffrage procession held at Victoria, where over 1,000 women were due to take part.  At that rally she met Dr Mary Gordon, an early female medical graduate, campaigner for women’s rights and the first woman to be appointed as an inspector of prisons.  About the same time, Jo Carter got caught up in the debate between the Suffragists and the Suffragettes, both being in favout of votes for women but divided by the means of achieving that end, the former being dedicated to non-violent means but the latter believing in direct action and the employment of methods such as causing damage to public property.  In early May 1900, Jo Carter attended a debate at Chiswick Town Hall between leading lights from the two antagonistic branches of the votes for women movement, Mrs Rackham and Mrs Somervel.  The “Socials and Politicals” were there in force and “made a lot of interruptions”.  Although they were for Suffrage, Jo described them as “idiots” for their conduct.  Jo “went for” one interrupting woman and told her to be quiet as she was damaging the chances of a motion in favour of Suffrage being passed.  Jo thought the Socials and Politicals lacked judgement and it was interesting that at this meeting Jo Carter had managed to find her public voice.

Dr Mary Gordon.

In addition to her support for the women’s suffrage movement, it appeared that Jo Carter was also becoming interested in left wing politics.  In late April 1909 she told Walter she wanted to hear a speech due to be given by Helen Ogston and that “On Friday there is a Fabian meeting in the Chiswick town hall” which it is presumed she also wanted to attend.  The Fabian Society was founded in 1884 and its aim was, and is, to establish a democratic socialist state in Great Britain.  Jo Carter also referred to Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George’s 1909 budget and one proposal in particular relating to income tax and family size.  “I like the idea of graduating the income tax for incomes under £500 according to the number of children under 16 – so recognizing a man’s service to the state in bringing up children for it”.

In May 1909, Jo Carter was in correspondence with “the Dad” concerning the date of her proposed wedding to Walter and received a “charming reply” suggesting a date for the event in early December.  Sir Alexander clearly approved of Jo Carter as a marriage partner for Walter.  Jo planned to visit Gledavan about the second week in August, during Sir Alexander’s annual sojourn on his Deeside estate.  In fact it was about the third week in August when she arrived.  In anticipation of having to participate in vigorous outdoor activities, she mused to Walter, “I can manage 20 miles under favourable conditions in Scotland”.   When Jo arrived on Deeside, she found Aunt Kate and Coreen there.  Flora Carter, too, was heading for Aberdeenshire that summer.  Also, she was planning to spend Christmas in La Spezzia with her brother Alfred, who was British Consul in that major Italian port.  Jo Carter speculated to Walter that they might, too, join Alfred for Christmas. 

In a letter from mid-June 1909 from Jo Carter to Walter Ogston, she referred to an incident which had occurred between her and Sir Alexander.  When it had occurred is unclear but it was still preying on Jo’s mind.  Her rather cryptic description of the event was as follows. “I am not fully convinced, even now, that when the Dad shut me up in the train he did it out of consideration for my throat entirely – I considered at the time if he was tired of my silly chattering.  I was rather in a talkative mood on the return journey.  However, I give him the benefit of the doubt”.  Perhaps this incident occurred on the train from Ballater to Aberdeen on the family’s return from a holiday at Glendavan?  It would have been consistent with Sir Alexander being deep in thought as he cast off his holiday persona and uncovered the work mantle lying underneath.  He clearly wanted Jo to be quiet and was perhaps trying to protect her sensitivities by claiming that he was safeguarding her voice?

Living in London not only allowed Jo Carter to become involved in the social and political movements of the day but also to attend major concerts.  In mid-June 1909, she “attended to a concert at the Bechstein Hall and Sir Hubert Parry was sitting directly in front of us and Herschel was also there”.  Parry was a leading composer of the day, who had been very influential in the revival of English music and who is best remembered for his composition “Jerusalem”, the anthem of the Womens’ Institute.  Which member of the high-achieving Herchel family was in the audience is unclear.

Sir Hubert Parry.

Flora’s husband, George Carter had died in 1907 and in early July 1909 it appeared from one of Jo Carter’s letters to Walter Ogston that a male, identified only by his initials, “DC”, had been deliberately introduced to Flora, perhaps with the intention of engendering a romantic relationship.  After the meeting, Jo wrote “DC is certainly most enthusiastic about Flora – and, if Flora has not yet told you, I know she liked him very much too”.  Walter had drilled DC on how to behave.  “He handed cigs around and did not once mention Women’s Suffrage, until it was absolutely forced on him”.

In a letter dated 14 July 1909, Jo Carter revealed to Walter that she had attended a conference at Manchester College.  This institution had relocated to Oxford in 1893 but was not, at that time, a constituent college of the university.  It was founded as a college for Unitarian students, the Unitarian Church being a Christian denomination which asserted that there is a single God, rather than a trinity, who created the universe.  Jo did not say under whose auspices the conference was being held but she may well have been attracted to this branch of the Christian faith.  However, the conference had several papers on what would now be called the welfare state and other topics incuded housing, nationalisation of land and afforestation, as well as a section on “Socialism and Sane Individualism” so, the sponsor might well have been one of the political organizations to which Jo was affiliated.  Her attendance seemed to confirm her adherence to a socialist political philosophy.    

       

The example of Rachel Frances Lumsden (1835 – 1908)

Apart from the achievements of his own daughters, the work of a woman that Alexander Ogston came to admire greatly, and which was probably very influential in changing his opinion of women’s capabilities was that of Rachel Lumsden.  She was the daughter of Clements Lumsden, WS, a prominent Aberdeen advocate.  In 1869 she began training as a nurse at Great Ormond Street hospital in London and later was employed at King’s College Hospital, becoming knowledgeable in hospital administration.  She advised on the construction of the new Aberdeen Children’s hospital which was completed in 1877. Rachel Lumsden was then recruited as the hospital’s superintendent, which position she insisted on filling on a non-remunerated basis.  She was so competent in this role that in 1885 she moved over to a similar appointment at the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary which, at the time, was in need of strong administrative direction.  Alexander Ogston had been in post as Senior Surgeon since 1880 and would have witnessed the improvements wrought by Miss Lumsden at first hand.  Directing ARI was not the limit of Rachel Lumsden’s ambition.  In 1891, she introduced a three-year training course for nurses and her reputation spread beyond Aberdeen, even to the notice of the monarch.  The same year, Queen Victoria appointed her to membership of the council of the Scottish Board of the Queen Victoria Jubilee Institute of Nursing. 

Rachel Frances Lumsden.

Rachel Lumsden retired in 1897 and in February 1898, she was given an enthusiastic send-off by her colleagues at ARI, at a reception in the Grand Hotel.  This included the presentation of “a splendid testimonial, signed by 63 members of the medical profession, the first signature being that of Sir James Reid, in recognition of her humane and philanthropic labours on behalf of the sick and suffering in Aberdeen”.  All the senior doctors were present, including Alexander Ogston.  The nursing sisters at ARI were also well represented.  Dr Mackenzie Davidson, the famous radiologist, telegraphed his apologies from his new place of work in London.  “Please express my sincere regret that pressing engagements here prevent me being present this afternoon, but, although absent, unite heartily with you in doing honour to one who has done such splendid and noble work”.  Professor Finlay who presided, commented upon the uniqueness of the occasion.  “– where so many members of the medical profession had been found ready to join in hearty appreciation of a woman’s work in the department of hospital management and all that that involved”.

Alexander Ogston, who had initiated the movement to celebrate Miss Lumsden’s achievements, then delivered a fulsome, but he insisted, not an exaggerated, encomium.  Sections of his speech are reproduced here.  “Miss Lumsden had devoted 20 years of her life to doing good to humanity and to her fellow citizens.  (Applause).  Eight of those years were spent at the Sick Children’s Hospital and 12 of them at the Royal Infirmary.  It required no great effort of memory for many of them to recall days when the nursing of the sick, with which Miss Lumsden’s name was so intimately connected, was in a most lamentable form … .  It was felt there was room for great improvement, and it fell upon Miss Lumsden to take up the work at that point and to change the whole aspect of the nursing in our public charities first, and eventually, through that example, in the community.  How great the change was most of them knew.  (Applause).  They had now the best women from the best classes devoting the best years of their lives to nursing. … The infirmary required alteration and enlargement, and that fell to be carried out at the time she was engaged improving the nursing in it.  The structural alterations were a great impediment. … Nevertheless, they were overcome by Miss Lumsden as were many minor difficulties when occasion required.  An instance of the difficulties was the absence of anything like a casualty department, and altogether it was marvellous that Miss Lumsden succeeded in organising the nursing staff as she did.  (Applause). … Besides all that Miss Lumsden took in hand the Convalescent Hospital which was in a most chaotic state at the time, and reorganised it till it was as perfect in all its departments as the Infirmary itself.  (Applause).  But her labours were more than physical.  It was no easy thing for a lady to step into the midst of a number of gentlemen connected with the infirmary who owed their position to force of character, who desired to have everything conducted in their own way, and whose interests were apparently very often divergent, but into the midst of these she went, and although it would be anything but a truthful compliment  to say that she was perfect, yet with most admirable tact and unselfishness, she grasped the difficulties of the situation, and dealt with them in a way that few could have done.  Miss Lumsden was unwearied in work; she never had enough of work; nor was it well enough done in her eyes and daily they beheld her in connection with the staff, with the patients, with the patients’ friends and with every detail devoted her life to the infirmary always unwearied always clear headed, always unselfish helping everything that deserved to be helped and repressing everything that was undesirable.  (Applause). … Such work as that was not easily paralleled.  There were few instances one would think where anything such had been done, and it might fairly be compared with Miss Florence Nightingale’s organisation of the nursing of the sick and wounded in the terrible Crimean war. … Never before had the medical profession proposed such recognition … “.

In 1897, at the time of Rachel Lumsden’s retiral, Alexander Ogston’s daughters Helen and Constance were 14 and 13 respectively and entering a period where they and their parents would have been actively considering the possibility of undertaking Higher Education and beyond that, a career.  Did the reminder of Rachel Lumsden’s significant achievements, brought to Alexander Ogston’s attention when composing his farewell paean to the prominent nurse/administrator, weigh on his mind when his daughters started to express opinions of their own concerning their futures?

 

Alexander Ogston declines to stand for Parliament

English universities had their own MPs and constituted Parliamentary constituencies from as early as 1603.  In the 1850s the arrangement was extended to London University, which got one MP, in England and to the Scottish universities, which got two MPs.  The new Scottish seats were shared, one between Aberdeen and Glasgow universities and the other between Edinburgh and St Andrews.  The whole concept of university representation in Parliament was finally extinguished in 1950. 

Political allegiance does not seem to have been a matter of great moment to Alexander Ogston, though he appeared to have been a supporter of the Conservative Party, as was his father.  In November 1885, Mr JA Campbell of Stracathro, the MP for the constituency of Aberdeen and Glasgow universities, addressed a meeting of electors in the Aberdeen YMCA.  Both Professor Alexander Ogston and his father attended that meeting.  Campbell held the seat until 1906.  For the 1906 General Election, the Conservatives adopted Sir Henry Craik as their candidate and Alex Ogston described this selection as “One of the happiest that could have been made”.  Henry Craik had been Secretary of the Scottish Education Department between 1885 and 1904.  He was successful in his bid to become an MP and represented Aberdeen and Glasgow universities until 1918.  At the General Election held in 1910, the Liberal Party supporters in the two universities were casting around for a suitable candidate to oppose the sitting MP and the Glasgow University Liberal Association lighted upon Sir Alexander Ogston as a potential candidate, perhaps unaware of Ogston’s previous approval of Sir Henry.  “Dr Ogston was asked to state his views regarding certain political and academic subjects, and did so, but apparently his views were not sufficiently advanced for members of the Glasgow Association, the result being that the association has not proceeded further in the matter”.  Professor J Arthur Thomson, of the Chair of Natural History at Aberdeen then approached Alexander Ogston to stand for the Liberals.  Alex Ogston declined the invitation in a most gracious letter, which is reproduced below.

Sir Henry Craik.

“Dear Professor Thomson, I have most anxiously considered what was stated at the interview I yesterday had with you, as well as what is due to you and other friends who have moved in this matter, and I have, with great reluctance, but finally, decided that I cannot at this time offer myself as a candidate for the representation, in Parliament, of the Universities of Glasgow and Aberdeen.  No more honourable position can I imagine than to represent these educated constituencies in the House of Commons, and no words of mine could adequately express the pride I should have had in doing so, had the electors willed to entrust that duty to me.  The reasons which have weighed most with me in resolving at present to abstain from seeking such a distinction are, briefly, the following.  Throughout the country the present political crisis is arousing an unusual strength of partisanship, which will compel most voters to select that candidate who will most determinedly resist the side which that voter opposes, and candidates like myself, in favour of moderate measures, will have far less prospect of favourable consideration than has been the case in any general election within my memory.  Had time sufficed for representing to the constituencies the advantages that moderation offers in solving the crucial problems before the country, and especially of explaining the increasing importance to our Universities of having the interests of science, education, letters, and research regarded as the main object of their chosen member’s activities, there might have been a prospect of success for one holding such views.  But energy and work can not possibly accomplish this, to even a moderate degree, in the available time, and the defeat of the candidate I should have striven to be, would be a foregone conclusion.  The effort would be wasted, and what is more momentous, the defeat would tell, in any future contest, for any candidate holding like views.  I feel assured that consideration will give to these reasons a cogency they may not, at first sight, seem to possess, and that it is in the real interest of the Universities that I should not stand as an independent candidate at present.  There are, in addition, domestic issues (probably the poor health of his second wife) that I need not detail which have much weighed with me in forming my resolution.  I can only say that I feel gratitude beyond my power to put into words that I should have been thought by you and others who love our Universities in connection with their membership.  I am, dear Professor Thomson, Very faithfully yours, Alex Ogston.  26^th November, 1910, 252 Union Street, Aberdeen”.

What conclusions can be reached from Alexander Ogston’s brush with representative politics?  It appears that, although Ogston had supported the Conservative candidate in the past and had at least a personal regard for Sir Henry Craik, then the MP representing Glasgow and Aberdeen universities, Alex Ogston may not have felt that he was personally fully aligned with then current Conservative policies.  He also must have felt some sympathy for Liberal policies, otherwise why agree to be interviewed by the Glasgow University Liberals?  But it can also be reasonably concluded that the Liberals’ policies too did not mesh fully with his own views, which were “not sufficiently advanced”.  Not a man to compromise on his convictions, Alex Ogston found himself floating somewhere in the middle between the views of the two main parties.  The approach from the Aberdeen University Liberals, in the form of Professor Thomson, after the discussion with his Glasgow compatriots had been inconclusive suggests that Thomson may have wanted to support Ogston for his personal views and qualities, in spite of the retired surgeon not embracing everything for which the Liberals stood.  Ogston’s letter to Thomson suggests that he (Ogston) perhaps considered, and then rejected, becoming an independent candidate, with no party affiliation.  So, what policies did Ogston embrace?  Put simply, it appears he wanted to promote the educational role of the Universities and particularly the importance of research, perhaps not a surprising position, given the significance that his own bacteriological investigations had played in stimulating advances in surgery and other disciplines.

 

Alexander Ogston and King George V  

King Edward VII died on 6 May 1910, aged 69, after suffering several heart attacks.  His eldest son, then aged 45, ascended to the throne as George V.  Alexander Ogston’s surgical role with the royal family was maintained when, one month later, he was gazetted an Honorary Surgeon in Scotland to the new monarch.  George V and his queen, Mary, visited Balmoral for the first time since his accession in August 1910.  As usual, Alexander Ogston was a member of the welcoming party of VIPs assembled at Ferryhill Junction.  The coronation of the new king took place in June 1911 and Alexander Ogston was an attendee.  Appendicitis made an unwelcome reappearance in royal life in 1914 when George V’s second son, Prince Albert (later King George VI) developed abdominal pains while serving as a midshipman on HMS Collingwood, a St Vincent class battleship, in the North Sea.  He was evacuated to Wick and there he was met by Sir James Reid who accompanied him by sea to Aberdeen, where he landed on 29 August 1914.  Alexander Ogston had retired from the Regius Chair of Surgery at Aberdeen University in 1909 and been replaced by another outstanding Aberdeen-trained surgeon, John Marnoch.  Marnoch was chosen by Sir James Reid to perform the appendectomy on Prince Albert, though out of courtesy, Alexander Ogston was asked to be present at the operation.  Reid had been concerned that Ogston might be put out by this preference for his replacement, but he wrote to Sir James to assure him that this was not the case.  “My dear Reid, It is very good of you to have written to me. I assure you I quite understand, and moreover approved. I am quite on the shelf now, and it is best so. Marnoch is the younger and better man, and the one who ought to attend the Prince. My kind friend, don't give a thought more to the matter: and I am sure Marnoch knows that he need not. If you and he would like me to be present, out of courtesy, I shall be pleased to be an onlooker at the operation. Best and warmest regards and thanks.  Alex Ogston”.

After his service in WW1, Alexander Ogston gradually withdrew from public life.  In 1922, Queen Mary visited Aberdeen, including a call at the university.  Sir Alexander Ogston was one of the party which greeted the monarch’s spouse.  In July 1923 Sir Alexander was a guest at Their Majesties’ reception held at Holyrood House in Edinburgh and this may have been his last official royal duty.

 

Alexander Ogston’s activities during WW1

Southall Military Hospital

On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz-Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo by a Bosnian Serb, and Austria-Hungary immediately declared war on Serbia.  That domino falling set off a chain reaction which brought most European countries into conflict with each other.  Germany invaded Belgium on 4 August and Britain then declared war on Germany.  In 1914, Alexander Ogston was aged 70 and in retirement but felt it his duty to do what he could in the national cause.  He immediately offered himself to the Army Medical Department, stating that he was prepared to serve anywhere in any capacity.  All he got was a courteous reply and no offer of a posting.  He assumed that his age was the barrier to his acceptance.  His former student, James Davidson, then president of the BMA was working in Ealing, West London as an assistant commandant at the Southall Military Hospital which was managed by the Voluntary Aid Detachment and Ogston complained to him, “Jeems the greatest war in history has broken out and I am too old to take a proper share in it”.  Alex Ogston, desperate to play a useful role then offered to serve in any capacity in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. 

However, by early November 1914, Alex Ogston received an invitation to take the role of Operating Surgeon in the Southall Military Hospital.  His response was immediate, sending a telegram “Coming next train”.  The building in which the hospital was located had previously been employed as a recreation facility for the workers of the Danish company, Messrs Otto Monsted & Co and Alex Ogston’s son Axel, who was serving in the Royal Marines, had been involved in the conversion of this building for medical use.  AO served there during the winter of 1914 – 1915, when his enthusiasm and ability had an immediate impact on the other staff.  The hospital was subsequently permitted to receive seriously wounded soldiers directly from France and Flanders.

 

An aborted assignment in Serbia

On 12 March 1915, while at Southall, Alex Ogston was offered the opportunity to serve in the British Belgrade Auxiliary Hospital, Serbia.  The UK was an ally of Serbia in WW1.  According to James Davidson, when the offer was made, Ogston responded “Give me a night to think it over” and the following morning, “Yes Jeems we’ll go”.  Davidson then warned him of the dangers involved in this assignment which he dismissed with, “I’d rather die on service than at home in bed”.  Later, his son-in-law Herbert Grierson, reported that he had declared in conversation when asked if he were ever afraid, “No, I do not think I ever was definitely afraid”.  Alex Ogston, together with James Davidson, Fiona Carter, his widowed daughter, travelling as a probationer-nurse, and his hospital group of 18 left Southall on 18 March and travelled to the Mersey.

On 19 March 1915, Ogston received a letter from Clive Wigram, Assistant Private Secretary and Equerry to the King.  “Sir James Reid has told me that you and your daughter are going to Belgrade to a Hospital fror British Seamen and Soldiers which information I have communicated to the King.  His Majesty hopes that you will have a good voyage and that you will find lots to do when you get there.  He offers through Ad. Troubridge to be of what service he can if he be let know”.  Two days later a second letter arrived, this time from the monarch.  “Wish you and Mrs Carter a safe journey & successful mission, and a speedy return”.  Ogston was to take charge of a section of the British Eastern  Auxiliary Hospital on the Danube in Belgrade.  The head of the British Naval Mission in Serbia was Admiral Troubridge, who had been mentioned in Wigram’s letter sent to AO on the King’s behalf.  He had asked for a hospital to serve his men but it had been refused.  However, Lady Troubridge, his second wife and a celebrated sculptor, had raised private funds to finance such a facility.

The Southall party embarked on the 3,300 ton steamer ss Saideih of the Khedivial Postal Service on 1 April for a direct, two week journey to Salonika in Greece. This day coincided with Flora’s birthday.  Also on the Saideih were another 50 personnel travelling to provide medical help to the Serbian allies.  Their departure was accompanied by much anxiety because of the activities of a German U-boat, U28, in the English Channel.  On the following morning they found they had not yet left the Mersey and were anchored off New Brighton surrounded by many other vessels.  At first they thought that all these ships were sheltering from anticipated U-boat attack but later found that the reason was mundane.  The flotilla was waiting for the right tidal state.  This delay was used to put the ship’s lifebelts in order and to train the passengers in their use.  The master of the Saideih’s orders were to sneak out when it suited them after nightfall as they were to be unconvoyed.  On that first night at sea they were ordered to keep their clothes on and not to close the cabin doors, in case an explosion jammed them shut.  They ended up sailing through the area when U28 was supposed to be lying without incident.  Their route then took them across the Bay of Biscay, heading for Cape Finisterre.  For the first three days Ogston and Flora suffered from sea sickness.   The journey was deficient in a number of ways.  “… our food, though good of its kind, ran woefully short, while as stewards we only had a few capable hands and a parcel of negroes”.

Alec Ogston sketched landmarks that they passed including Cape Finisterre and Gibraltar.  The voyage from Gibraltar to Greece was through mixed weather.  The vessel was achieving only 200 – 250 miles per day to save coals.  They observed the coasts of Algeria, Tunis and Sicily and endured a “longish wet time at the Adriatic mouth”.  Then their passage took them amongst the Greek islands, past Mount Pelion, Assa and Olympus and landed at Salonika on 15 April 1915.  The risk from U-boats proved to be real.  On her return journey to Britain from Alexandria, with a cargo of cottonseed and onions, the Saideih was sunk by a submarine in the English Channel off Margate, with the loss of eight lives.In Salonika, Ogston’s party set up base in the Olympos hotel to await orders, which arrived in due course.  Alexander Ogston was instructed to proceed to Belgrade where a building, the Third Belgrade Gymnasium, had been obtained in which he was to establish a hospital.  It had previously been used by the retreating Austrians as a barracks.  Along with Dr Davidson, Alex Ogston travelled by train to the Serbian capital, with most of their party, including Flora Carter, remaining in Greece.  The building which had been assigned to them for use as a hospital was in a fair condition.  A naval surgeon, Dr Merewether, had had it partly cleaned and fitted up with electric light and hot water supplied to the baths.  They set to work cleaning and fitting out the hospital whose architecture Ogston found to be splendid.  He met Admiral Troubridge, “a jolly old lion-like man, pleasant and friendly”.

Vice-Admiral Sir Ernest Troubridge.

 

The illness of Florence Ogston and the return from Salonika to the UK

Soon after his arrival in Belgrade, on the evening of Sunday 25^th, AO was awakened by a telephone call from the Bishop in Salonika informing him that Flora had been ill for 2 days with abdominal pains.  Hospitalisation was advised but an operation was not needed at that stage. The following day Ogston received a telegram repeating the information that Fiona Carter had become dangerously ill with abdominal pains back in Salonika.  He left immediately for the Greek second city, arriving on the 30^th.  He found Flora was being well cared for by Dr Bishop.  Several other doctors had seen her and the ladies in the hospital were being very supportive of his daughter.  Ogston did not reveal in his book of war reminiscences what was ailing Flora but it appeared to be appendicitis.  He immediately sent a letter to his daughter Constance telling her of Flora’s incapacitation.  AO decided to wait in Salonika and see how Flora’s condition developed, but found the burden of parental responsibility almost unbearable, though he read a lot for distraction.  His soundness of judgement and steadiness of nerves might well be needed in the next few days and there was no one in Salonika who could advise him.  He wrote, “At my age my judgement might not be what it was or what it ought to be, that there are possibilities of peril to be faced”.  He knew that Flora’s life might depend on the decision he was likely to have to make within a short time.  “Tomorrow will settle it, and when the chart has been marked out, it will only remain to follow it with the utmost prudence and consideration”.

Alec Ogston then rehearsed the risks of his various potential courses of action.  Salonika stank of sewage, unlike Belgrade or Nisch (temporary capital of Serbia).  Therefore it would be risky to perform an operation in Salonika.  But there would be some risk in taking Flora up to Belgrade or Nisch.  An operation might be required at short notice and it would fall to himself to carry it out.  He worried that his operative skills might have diminished.  Further, the real problem with Belgrade and Nisch would be that of convalescence with hostilities being conducted nearby.  Flora might have to be sent down country and shipped off to England to recover.  But travel to England where there were better facilities for diagnosis and post operative care would also be hazardous from the state of the sea and the danger of submarine attack.  And what if it became clear that an operation was required during the voyage?  Another set of problems might arise if Flora were to be taken by stages overland to England, though more appropriate help would be more likely to be found with an overland journey.  Each option had its own set of risks and problems.  Ogston finally came to the conclusion that a journey by sea back to England, or at least to Marseilles, was the best choice, if a good cabin in a big ship could be secured.  In the meantime he thought he could treat the inflammation and its consequences and that it might subside.

To return to Britain from Salonika, it appeared that Alex Ogston’s best option would be to travel to Malta and secure a passage on a passing liner, for example from the P&O Line.  It was very hot in Salonika, so he secured a better room for Flora as high in the hotel as possible and arranged for a mosquito net to be placed over her bed.  Ogston was gratified to find that his daughter’s temperature had returned to normal values and Flora, with her father, remained in the hotel for a few days while she regained her strength.  He was able to secure a passage to Malta with Fiona on the 7,000-ton ss Mossoul, which went to Malta with stops at Dedeagutch and Piraeus.   But before the pair could leave, AO ran into another problem: he was running out of cash.  He tried to secure money from his bank by but had no reply after six days.  He then thought of borrowing from the Salonika Jews but they had no spare money.  The English Consul-General in Salonika provided his salvation by introducing him to an English businessman who procured £100 for Ogston from his own bank.  The money was entirely in gold coins of various currencies because Greek paper had no value outside of the country.  But that brought another problem: it was illegal to export gold from Greece.  Alex Ogston’s answer?   “… so I shall have to enlarge my waist measurement considerably when we go away, so as to carry it safely over the frontiers”.

Ogston inspected the ship, which he found to be “very clean and sweet”, before deciding to board with Flora whose condition had improved.  He then managed to bypass the formalities of the Custom House and take Flora directly to the boat from the quay outside the hotel.  Just before leaving he was able to contact the Cook’s agent in Athens and through him telegraphed to Cook in Malta to secure berths in a home-going liner and to arrange for Flora’s transfer directly from ship to ship due to her condition, because she needed to avoid climbing stairs.  The Mossoul arrived in Valetta harbour early on 15 May 1915.  Her crew had proved to be very courteous and Ogston pronounced the vessel “a brilliant success”.   In Malta, Alexander Ogston visited Government House, wrote his name in his visitors’ book and met Lord Methuen, the governor, whom he knew from the Second Boer War.  The Ogstons, through the Cook agent, obtained a berth on the ss Novara of the British India Line back to Great Britain.  By this time, AO’s anxieties about his daughter had subsided somewhat and his ever-curious self re-surfaced.  He visited Hagiar Kim, a pre-Phoenician temple in an excellent state of preservation which, with Callanish, he considered to be “probably the most interesting spot in the world”. 

AO found the Novara under Captain Hetherington to be “very clean and tidy”.  The vessel left Malta on 18 May.  She had unloaded a heavy cargo of shells in Malta but still carried a substantial amount of manganese.  In consequence her master slowed the ship’s speed but was apprehensive about the run up the Channel, due to the risk of U-boat attack.  Although the vessel was equipped with a Marconi radio, its use was forbidden, so the captain could not radio ahead concerning his sick, but high-status, passenger.  Apart from transient abdominal pain, Flora stood the passage well.  The Novara reached Tilbury docks on 27 May 1915 and Flora was transferred ashore by tender.

The two travelers had an hour’s ride by train to St Pancras and then on to the Hospital Français. They could not take Flora in, so AO placed Flora with Sister Stokes, who had accompanied them all the way from Salonika, in the Langham Hotel and went to his club.  From there he called his friend Sir James Reid, who put him in touch with Sir Alfred Pearce Gould, a distinguished surgeon who, at the time, was a Lieutenant–Colonel in the Territorial Force.  He came to see Flora the same evening, arranged a nursing home for her and Sister Stokes. His opinion was that Flora’s “trouble” had increased since her departure from Greece, so he arranged to operate on Saturday 29^th in the Duchess Nursing Home, Beaumont Street.  Alec Ogston’s journal entry concerning the operation illustrates how critical Flora’s condition had become.  “It was a bad one, difficult and prolonged by complications.  In Macedonia it would have killed her. Here she has at least a good chance of recovery.  At 2 she was in great pain and distress.  My sitting with her and arranging her position soothed her”.  When he left at 3pm she was quiet and the agonies had subsided.  “I am an old man and the last month of anxiety has turned my moustache grey but I ought to be thankful, and I am, that even at the end of a long life, when it seemed as if all my useful days were over, I have been able to be of such real use to dear Flora and have been in a position to do so much for her.  She knows it and shows her love in a thousand little ways. … But it is sad, sad.  She may never, probably ever, will, but the future for her is gloomy.  And for me, when Flora’s immediate fate is decided, and even if she recovers, she cannot possibly go back to Servia.  So, I must go out there alone, with as little delay as possible, and I care not a great deal if it be ordained that I have my thread of life cut off there.  Poor Flora!”  But this black mood of AO’s did not last long.  On 3 June he wrote, “Wonderful alleviation of the gloom since I last wrote here.  Flora has made a marvellous recovery”.  Ogston immediately prepared to return to Serbia with Sister Stokes.  He did not say what arrangements were made to return Flora to Aberdeen, though “Mrs Shepherd came south to see us”.  During WW1, Flora Carter was the honorary secretary of the Aberdeen City Association of Volunray Workers and, in 1918, she was awarded the OBE for her war work.

Sir Alfred Pearce Gould.

 

Back, briefly, to Serbia - a difficult journey

On 5 June 1915, Alexander Ogston, accompanied by Sister Stokes left London by train with the intention or returning to Serbia by rail to Brindisi, then by steamer to Salonika and finally by train to their destination.  The advice recommending this route, which would allegedly be faster, came from Thomas Cook.  It soon proved to have been poor advice.  The pair crossed from Folkeston to Boulogne on the Invicta.  As a precaution against submarine attack, ten lifeboats were swung out ready should an evacuation prove necessary.  From the Gare de Lyon in Paris they planned to travel to Italy via the Mount Cenis tunnel but were told that to travel to Brindisi they needed tickets to Milan.  They were shocked to find that the new tickets cost an additional £300!  Alec Ogston was travelling in uniform, probably thinking that this would ease his passage across national boundaries but that proved not to be the case at the border of neutral Switzerland where he was arrested, but then released on higher authority.  However, he had to travel concealed in the guard’s van and to make his appearance as civilian as possible.  Eventually Ogston and his companion reached Bari on the Adriatic coast of Italy where it bcame known that AO was an “English” officer and some people insisted on kissing his hand.  Italy had joined the war on the allied side against Germany and Austria-Hungary.  However, this courtesy did not extend to the chief of police in Brindisi who kept them waiting for a long time and then accused them of being German or Austrian spies!  This town was in the grip of the war and ferry services were suspended. 

They heard a rumour that they could catch a boat at Gallipoli, further south along the coast from Brindisi and that a train would be leaving at 4.00am from Brindisi.  They could not wait to be “out of Italy and its maddening follies and spy-mania, for good and all”.  Rather than miss this chance to escape, AO sat up all night killing mosquitos, counting the minutes and reading Shakespeare.  When they reached Gallipoli the travellers discovered that the Epiros was due to arrive about 10.00am that morning.  However, the steamer did not arrive that day and they had to secure overnight accommodation in rooms provided by the brother-in-law of a boatman by the name of Salvadore Cavallere, “a rough unshaven specimen”.  Contrary to their fears, they were provided with two clean bedrooms with clean linen, plenty of towels and plenty of cold water.  They expected to walk on to the steamer in the morning, but the steamer still had not arrived, which caused AO to exclaim in exasperation, “When were we to get out of this horrible country”.  Then they got the message that the Epiros was not coming to Gallipoli but to Crotona, instead.   Alex Ogston managed to keep his composure though several issues were starting to bear down upon him.  He was running out of money and down to his last French Louis d’ors, he did not want to go back to “horrible” Brindisi and he was concerned for the health of his companion, Sister Stokes.  She was getting knocked up by the perpetual travelling, want of sleep, bad food and mosquitos.  He worried she might fall sick.  She had no money and AO could not leave enough to take her either home or on to Serbia.  He decided to press on to Crotone.

They finally arrived at Crotone station late on Friday 11 June 1915 but found that the Epiros had arrived there at noon and left again at 4.00pm.  The travellers had to bear the blow in silence.  Their luggage was taken down to the town, with them walking behind in starlight to the Hotel Pitagora (Pythagoras is said to have lived in Crotone).  The waiter told them that the Epiros was still in the bay, so they rose early and hurried down to the harbour for 7.30am.  Their informant had been wrong: the vessel had really left.  They were stranded for the third time and would have had to wait until Saturday 6 August for this vessel’s next call.  If Brindisi had been bad, Cotrone was even worse, being a malarious, unhealthy place.  Both Ogston and Stokes were now out of sorts due to the long journeys, bad nights and indifferent food, so he advised Stokes to remain quietly indoors during the day and he rested too and took a few drops of Chlorodyne.  Further, the attention of the people was so unpleasant that it was disagreeable to go out of doors and even the hotel police agents pestered the pair for passports, so that they found the place anything but pleasant.

The steamer Mikali, belonging to the Hellenic Steam Ship Company, was due to call at Crotone early the next day, 12 June 1915 and the Aberdeen surgeon and his nursing companion decided to take the vessel.  They went down to the harbor in Crotone early but no steamer had arrived.  It was their fourth major set-back.  Hours dragged on, making AO almost sick with disgust and disappointment.  He endeavoured to pass the time by walking the town in the company of the hotelier but spymania was everywhere and exceedingly unpleasant.  Ogston resolved not to go out anymore.  There was no sign of the steamer in the afternoon either and he started thinking about getting away, in reality escaping, via either Messina in Sicily or by Naples.  A return to France was also possible but would be a last resort.  There was the hope of another Greek ship on the 14^th.  Ogston did not know where she might be going but did not care and would do anything to get out of Italy.

The next day, Sunday 13 June, the Mikali finally arrived.  She was making passage from Crotone to Piraeus, the port serving Athens, via Corfu, Patras and the Corinth Canal.  Ogston wrote of his relief and joy.  “My brain is not yet clear enough to do justice to the change from yesterday to today.  I don’t think the mental balance will be restored for several days”.  At the time, he thought that his misery might end in “an apoplexy or a mental  derangement”.  He admitted that Sister Stokes “almost drove me crazy with her silly ways and silly empty remarks (I hope I didn’t show it) … I lit my pipe and took up my Shakespeare.  Today, (we are) lying in the roads of Corfu under an awning on the upper deck.  Ten minutes sufficed for packing in Crotone.  In other ten minutes the bill was paid, the baggage in a cart and we in an omnibus and we set off for the harbour, expecting to be disappointed again.  The Mykali flying the Greek flag appeared distant on the water.  We piled our baggage by the water’s edge.  Piled into a boat and in 5 minutes were free of Italy on sound Greek planks. … Italy!  Hateful land!  Never again”.  They each took a cabin, had three cups of good tea, sat on deckchairs and enjoyed a dainty dinner on deck under the awning. 

But AO did return to Italy, spent more than a year of his life there, developed more favourable impressions of the northern Italians and had some remarkable experiences in the country.

The ship’s first port of call was Santi Quaranta (now Sarande) in southern Albania and then onwards on an indirect route, by various Greek islands, due both to the trading activities of the ship and the intervention of naval patrol vessels, finally reaching Patras early on 17 June.  The route then took them through the Corinth Canal and they reached Piraeus in the late afternoon the same day.  Ogston and Sister Stokes then had to take a further steamer, the Daphne, to reach Salonika before taking the train to Belgrade, where they arrived early on 21 June.        

At that point in his book “Reminiscences of three campaigns” Ogston becomes coy about what he found on his return to the hospital in Belgrade, except to say that it was so much not to his liking that he immediately decided to make his exit.  “I left the hospital in Belgrade in July, as I was out of sympathy with the manner in which some matters concerning it were conducted.  I did so with the less regret that there seemed to be no prospect of its fulfilling the functions for which it had been created.  Its purpose had been to treat the patients belonging to the British forces in Serbia, but though it had prescribed for about seven hundred Serbian outpatients, all of them only slightly ailing, it had no British occupying its wards”.  Though Ogston found that many other hospitals in Serbia were performing well, in some “There were many shocking scandals, such as cannot be written down, and the officials of some were of a kind that ought never to have been sent out by any British Society”.   “The scandals were in some instances bringing the name of Britain into disrepute”.

Ogston’s war journals are more forthcoming.  When he had first arrived at the British Eastern Auxiliary Hospital, Belgrade at the end of April 1915, the hospital was being managed by a civilian administrator, Mr Marcoe.  However, on Ogston’s return on 21 June that year, he found that “the committee” had recalled Marcoe from his administratorship, leaving no one in charge of the hospital’s managerial functions.  “The committee” was not identified by Ogston but is presumed to have been the Wounded Allies Relief Committee, which had originally been established at the start of WW1 to aid wounded Belgian soldiers.  Later its activities were extended to other allies, including Serbia.  AO was not happy with Marcoe’s removal.  He considered him to be as good a man as they were likely to get.  Unsurprisingly, Marcoe intended to leave immediately “and then there will be no head”.  Further, nobody seemed to have been paid their salaries.  Ogston asked plaintively “Who is to take on the role of functionary and settle the hospital’s debts?”  Admiral Troubridge had a potential solution.  He suggested that Alex Ogston take on the role, but he considered Troubridge’s proposal to be entirely inappropriate.  Apparently, the suggestion had originated with “the committee”.  Ogston rejected the offer.  He felt that Marcoe had been unfairly treated in being recalled without a reason being given and a replacement for Marcoe might end up being treated the same way.  It should be recalled that the intended purpose of the British Eastern Auxiliary Hospital was to support the British Naval Mission in Belgrade but never meaningfully did so.  There was much confusion amongst the staff, so Alex Ogston convened a meeting of all staff, except Marcoe, to explain the situation to them.  The present medical officer (not identified) wished to admit Serbian civilians to the hospital, but Dr Bishop declined to do so as the Serbian government had refused to let Serbian civilians be treated in such a hospital except on condition that the hospital paid all costs.

After Ogston had declined to act as hospital manager, the post was offered to Dr Bishop.  He was only prepred to take on the role if a committee of the staff acted as administrators, but that condition seemed to be unacceptable to “the committee”.  Ogston came to the conclusion that he was not prepared to serve in these chaotic circumstances in a hospital which was not fulfilling its stated objectives.  He wrote, “I have had warnings that my strength is not to be certainly depended upon; and on this and other accounts it is my conviction that my place is no longer here. The financial side of the hospital is not conducted on business lines.  Few if any have received payments which they were promised.  I and many others have received nothing and there is no indication of the promised remuneration being forthcoming. I shall have to pay my own expenses home”.

In the company of James Davidson, Mr Markoe, the recalled hospital administrator and Miss MacLaren, Alex Ogston departed Belgrade for Salonika on 28 June 1915.  From that Greek city they boarded the Massagieres Maritimes steamer “Sydney” on 2 July, bound for Marseilles and from there back to Britain by train and Channel ferry.  In his war journal for 2 July 1915, AO expanded on his previous assertion that scurrilous activities had taken place at various hospitals in Serbia.  “There are shocking scandals in connection with the Red Cross, especially of late.  Some of them cannot be written down.  But the Wounded Allies Relief Committee is sending out unsuitable people.  In one hospital unit the male doctor in charge was a drunkard and took morphia and when the committee was informed by telegram of this they ordered him home and transferred the command of (?) to another male doctor who was almost as bad, got drunk and (?) in delirium tremens. The first man refused to give up and he is on his way to (?) in command.  The consul general here refused to have anything to do with either party.  Again one doctor of a London Hospital contracted an illegal marriage with one of the females of another unit and the scandal was as notorious as to have appeared in the local papers.  I cut out the extract from the “Opinion” of the 30^th June and understand the facts are as stated there.  These scandals were bringing the British Red Cross and Britons into disrepute and I wrote to Sir Samuel Reid (did AO intend to say “Sir James Reid” who, though retired, was still consulted by the King?) about them, hoping he may bring them under the notice of the King.  It is time some steps were taken to control the Red Cross activities in Serbia and Montenegro”.  He went on, “Dr Romesson, British subject … has been serving in Serbia as Medical Officer for 8 months and he describes the morals of the hospitals there and the volunteer women who serve in them as “shameful”.  He called them “bordellos”.  Some of the women who cease to serve in them openly averred that they volunteered for the service with the object of enjoying themselves and doing no work.  I am more than very well pleased that I am leaving Serbia”.

The voyage from Salonika to Marseilles was uneventful and the weather “perfect”.  Unfortunately, the “Sydney” was crowded and its cabins were in a verminous condition, with food supplies scanty and the waiters discourteous.  AO observed some bad behaviour by passengers, some being women, many English, returning from the hospital units.  His observations shocked Alex Ogston and he repeated his previous conclusion that some of these people were not fit to go out and serve in Serbia.  As ever, Alex Ogston managed to employ every spare minute for some useful purpose.  During a short stop in Malta he managed a run ashore to get a dolphin brass door knocker, an artifact peculiar to Valetta, as a present for Sir James Reid.  “And now we are getting ready to go ashore at Marseilles and get as quickly over to England as we can manage”.  Ogston was back in Aberdeen by September 1915 and became actively involved in war work there.

 

War work in Aberdeen

Once home in the North-East of Scotland, Alexander Ogston picked up the threads of his life from the summer of 1914.  He was a member of the War Emergency Committee which was tasked with identifying 2500 volunteer doctors for service in the army and navy by mid-January 1916, he resumed his place on the executive committee of the Aberdeen branch of the Scottish Red Cross Society, where he received a hearty welcome, and he was active in fund-raising for the war effort, himself donating £1 to the Aberdeen War Dressings depot. In February 1916, Alex Ogston wrote to the President of the BMA from 252 Union Street concerning retired medical men and military service.  Some such retirees had contacted him in frustration at the barriers which were placed in the way of them giving service, due to an arbitrary age limit imposed by the Army Medical Department.  Ogston wrote, “It is a matter of national importance that those medical men who are over the age limit of the Army Medical Department should at once combine to offer their services to the nation provided that their health and circumstances warrant their doing so.  It seems certain that the supply from civilian sources of medical officers for the army is nearly exhausted and if not at present inadequate will shortly be so. …”.  Not all doctors agreed with Alex Ogston’s drive to recruit doctors to military service.  One countered his case quantitatively.  “What are the facts?  There are in existence about 30,000 practising members of the profession of whom no less than 10,000 are already under military orders.  The actual number expected and demanded by the authorities is 15,000.  Thus 4,000,000 soldiers get half the available doctors while 40 million civilians get the other half”.  However, this counter-argument did not deal with the ratio of sick people, especially those needing complex surgery to the total population.  Alex Ogston was basing his case on his own experience, which told him there would be a shortage of surgeons.

In early October 1915, Alexander Ogston was invited to address a meeting of the County of Aberdeen branch of the British Red Cross Society in the Coffee House, Inverurie.  He gave a well-received, motivational talk, designed to make people feel good about their voluntary role and contribution to the war effort, and to spur them on to even greater labours to help those impacted by the war.  The presentation also gave some instructive insights into Sir Alexander’s own thoughts on the behaviour of nations and especially their attitudes towards the Red Cross and the Geneva Convention.  Its text has survived, and its content is summarised here.

The present “strife and storm” had overturned many of the aspirations that they had, in recent years, come to enjoy.  That belief that the world was becoming a better place and that individuals and nations could work together to the benefit of common humanity was being questioned.  No event had given greater hope for the future than the “beautiful” Geneva Convention, which espoused the precious idea that wounded combatants and those attending them could be removed from conflict, treated as neutrals and allowed to pass without hindrance.  The idea had been accepted by all the major nations of Europe and some outside.  But in contrast to this altruistic philosophy, he also detected a promotion of selfishness, especially by some newspapers, as a hindrance to the advance of good in the world.  The war had profoundly disrupted the hopes of civilised people for the future and the blame was placed squarely upon “two of the leading nations of Europe” (Germany and Austria/Hungary, presumably).  They had “rent the Geneva Convention into fragments”.  “They no longer regarded neutral men as neutral, they were prisoners, cruelties could be exercised upon them and that with zest”.  The representatives of the Red Cross might also lose their protected status.  The Geneva Convention was not the only code which had been broken.  That also applied to the Ten Commandments.  “To speak of anything else such as the general standard of truth and honour as existing among these two nations after what we knew would be quite a superfluity”.  But Ogston did not exempt the allied nations from criticism where individuals were motivated by greed and gaining advantage.  He also saw reason for hope in the eradication of pettiness between neighbours and the generosity of the wealthy towards those in difficult circumstances.  He detected a “general elevation” in the country.  He also saw the common soldier becoming more civilised from the rough brute of a few years ago. (This generalisation miffed an “Old Soldier” who protested indignantly in the columns of the Aberdeen Journal).  In closing, Alex Ogston praised the good work of the Red Cross and its volunteers.  “…they could by doing small things do great things”.  The Hon. Mrs Leith-Hay, who chaired the meeting, was sure Sir Alexander had enthused them to redouble their efforts and “do what they possibly could to help in this terrible time they were passing through”.  Sir Alexander had been received with warm applause throughout his presentation.

Alexander Ogston continued with his war work through the remainder of 1915 and on to August 1916, principally involving the voluntary organisations with which he was associated, the local branch of the British Red Cross Society, the Aberdeen branch of the St Andrew’s Ambulance Association and the City of Aberdeen War Work Association, to whom he made two separate donations of £10, and the University Volunteer Bearers.  A variety of hospitals dedicated to the care of the war wounded was set up in Aberdeen and its environs and by 1916 there was a regular flow of wounded servicemen arriving at the Aberdeen Joint Station.  Within Aberdeen most of the wounded were forwarded to the Oldmill Hospital (now Woodend General Hospital) and the Central Higher Grade School Hospital on the corner of Belmont Street/Schoolhill.  A Volunteer Stretcher Bearer Corps was established, using volunteer men who were over age to serve in the fighting forces, to help with the transport of the wounded on arrival in Aberdeen.  Their training took place at the Joint Station on three separate Sunday sessions in June 1916, with further sessions taking place in a hall in Correction Wynd, all under the auspices of the Red Cross and some of the sessions were delivered by Sir Alexander Ogston himself.  On 12 June an ambulance train arrived carrying wounded colonials, mostly Canadians but with some Australians and New Zealanders.  Alexander Ogston was one of the platform party receiving the servicemen.  There had been a training session for between 150 and 200 men at the station the same day, when the volunteers were addressed by Sir Alexander.  The Aberdeen Journal covered his speech.  “It was something to be proud of that all were working together so heartily and unselfishly to aid the country.  The highest authorities were looking forward to very critical occurrences.  Carefully prepared statistics showed that 30 millions of men were face-to-face in the present tremendous crisis.  It was necessary to be ready to deal with 470,000 wounded and sick, at the lowest computation, on the side of the Allies within the next 12 months. … He wished them all success”.  Many more ambulance trains arrived over the coming days and weeks and Sir Alexander was often present to take charge of the bearer parties.

 

A call to serve in Italy 

During his period of (for Ogston) relative idleness in Aberdeen, AO had made repeated attempts to obtain a posting with the British Army Medical Service but was turned away each time.  However, in August 1916, he received a request from the Red Cross to go to Italy to fill the position of surgeon at the first British Ambulance Unit based at the Villa Trento hospital, situated between Udine and Gorizia in North-east Italy, and supporting the Second Italian Army.  He immediately accepted, “thankful to know that I was not to sink into comparative uselessness at such a time”.  Perhaps his last act in Scotland before his departure was to make yet another donation of cash, £2 to the Aberdeen University Work Party.

Villa Trento Hospital.

Although at the start of the war, Italy was formally on the side of Austria/Hungary and Germany, it declared itself neutral.  Both sides tried to win the Italians over and on 23 May 1915, they jumped into the Allied camp and declared war on Austria/Hungary due to assurances over gaining territory along the north-east Adriatic coast, including the recovery of Trieste, with its largely Italian population.  As a result of the new state of war, a 400-mile front was created along the mountainous border between Austria/Hungary and Italy.  The Austria/Hungary army soon pushed forward into Italian territory but then, in November 1916, the Italians mounted a successful counter-offensive, taking the city of Gorizia just over the border.  They were hoping to push on and take Trieste.  It was this war zone where Alexander Ogston was being sent to serve.  He stayed for a total of 15 months and, as will be discovered, had some bleak experiences as weaponry had become even more destructive since his last service in South Africa.  Also, this theatre of war, much of it wet with green mountains, markedly contrasting with the arid plains of the southern end of Africa.  Ogston later commented, “It was very different from my former experiences.  It was a war of desperadoes”.

Alex Ogston left Aberdeen on 2 September 1916 to travel south, arriving at Euston the following morning and went to his club.  He was 72 years old at the time.  The same morning he went to Mr Guest’s Hospital for Convalescent Officers in Park Terrace where his old friend General Charles Armstrong of the Canadian Engineers was being treated for injuries received in a train crash near Le Havre.  Ogston had met Armstrong during the Second Boer War.  He was lucky to be alive.  Most of the nine men in his compartment were killed and he had been thrown out a distance of 40 ft.  He broke a leg and had his upper jaw torn away.  His facial injury had been restored with a dental plate and attention then turned to his broken leg.  But his knee and ankle joints were very stiff and it was plain to AO that he would not be able to walk usefully for years, if ever.  Ogston described him as “brave, courageous and cheerful”.  Before leaving London AO had to visit the Italian Embassy accompanied by a Red Cross representative to check that his voluminous papers were in order.  He was even given a disk bearing his name and number – 10268 – to be worn around his neck suspended on a red cord.  It did not seem to occur to Ogston that he was being issued with an identification tag in case he was blown to bits while at the front.

The next stage of Ogston’s journey was to take a ferry across the Channel.  He travelled down to Southampton by train, wearing his army medical uniform, about 6 September 1916 but found considerable disorganisation at the port.  The steamer to Le Havre was delayed and its likely time of arrival unknown, so he took refuge in the “imposing” South Western Hotel.  There were no bedrooms available but he managed to secure one of 20 shakedowns which had been cobbled together by the hotel staff.  Little did he know on arrival that this would be his home for almost a week.  The disruption of ferry sailings was due to concerns about submarines lurking in the Channel.  Each day AO expected Red Cross nursing staff for the Villa Trento to join him for the Channel crossing but by the time they sailed on the evening of 10 September only two nurses had turned up.  The crossing was quiet and they arrived at Le Havre the following morning.  From that port the Red Cross party took a train to Paris arriving at the Gare du Nord.  Ogston stayed at the Hotel de Jena and the next morning, 12 September, the medical travellers continued their journey south through the Fréjus Rail Tunnel, emerging in Italy in the direction of Milan and then travelling on to Udine, which they reached on the 13^th. 

South Western Hotel, Southampton.

The senior Red Cross official at Villa Trento was to be George Macaulay Trevelyan, an academic historian who had made his name with a trilogy on the Italian patriot, Garibaldi.  Trevelyan was a former fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge and, after WW1, served as Regius Professor of History there.  The head of the ambulance service at Gorizia would be Geoffrey Winthrop Young, a prominent English mountaineer and a close friend of Trevelyan from their Cambridge days.  The third significant official, the senior medical officer at Villa Trento, would be Dr George Sandison Brock, formerly Physician to the British Embassy in Rome.  He had written to AO before his departure expressing the hope that he would not change his mind about travelling to Italy.

George Macaulay Trevelyan.

Geoffrey Winthrop Young.

Dr George Sandison Brock.

Ogston’s party met up with some members of the hospital at Udine station.   Dr Brock came up and they found AO’s two nurses who had descended from the other end of the train.  They waited for the next train from Rome, by which Trevelyan was expected.  He proved to be nervous and possessed of a “hatchet face”.  AO also encountered Colonel Radcliffe, the British Attaché in Rome, on the platform and reminded him of his goodness when they had previously met at Messina following the 1908 earthquake.  Radcliffe had secured ladders at that time so that the building, where daughter-in-law Ethel’s body was trapped, could be searched.  Ogston then motored with Brock and Trevelyan on the one hour journey to the Villa Trento hospital.

The Villa Trento, located mid-way between Udine and Goritzia was the country seat of the Count of Truile.  Gorizia was very close to the border with what is now Slovenia but during WW1 was part of the Austrian Empire.  The villa was a huge, rambling building with many annexes and outbuildings and was mostly being used for living accommodation and administration, the wards being located in outbuildings.  There was also a garage for some “16 or 20 ambulances and motors”.  The hospital proved to be quite well equipped with a pharmacy and an X-ray facility.  Most of the volunteers were young, educated Britons, including plenty of Scots, serving with the Red Cross due to either medical issues, being adherents of the Quaker religion, or professing conscientious objection, and a few were over fighting age.  There were also some well-trained female nurses.  Adjacent to the villa were very fine wooded fields and gardens where the patients could get fresh air and some of the nurses were accomodated in tents.  Dr Brock had established good washing and disinfecting facilities in some sheds, where the servants were locals.  There was also an Italian priest, usually styled “Reverendo”, present and he was the first person to greet AO at the villa.  The water supply to the site came down from the hills by an aquaduct, baths and closets had been fitted up and destruction for refuse and dressings also arranged.  Illumination throughout the site was by electric light.  Ogston went over the hospital’s drug holdings with the apothecary in charge.  Relations with Italian Army personnel were cordial and several members of the Italian Royal Family had visited the hospital.  Altogether, it constituted a well-provided hospital which was very different from some of the Serbian units of which Ogston had recent knowledge.  Alex Ogston immediately settled into this new working environment and on the day of his arrival asked for x-rays to be taken of some of the surgical cases.  In addition, there were a few cases of enteric infections but no serious outbreaks of disease as there had been in South Africa.

District around Udine.

Alex Ogston’s description of his colleagues was full of praise.  “They are a picked set of active, fearless, clean-minded bright fellows whom it is a pleasure even to pass by chance.  The women, officials, sisters and nurses are, as I may already have said, a well-selected, well-behaved set of young women whose conduct makes one proud of them and of our nation.  Many are Voluntary Aid Establishment nurses and in the hospital everyone is busy and goes about his, or her, work making duty the sole object.  Otherwise there are incompatibilities among them but these are well and firmly handled by Dr Brock and Mr Trevelyan. ... In Dr Thompson’s absence Dr Brock takes charge of the medical while I have the surgical cases.  There are many bad cases, no recent ones, however, and such as my long expeience fits me well in dealing with.  On the second day after my arrival I was able to save an arm (I hope) from amputation by resecting the elbow joint shattered by a bad gunshot wound”.  Dr Thompson had not yet arrived at Villa Trento, having been granted a two week extension to his leave for his honeymoon, but would later figure frequently, and generally unfavourably, in Ogston’s observations on the functioning of the hospital.  Two volumes of Ogston’s case-books from the period between 13 September and 16 November 1916 have survived and are in the care of the Wellcome Library, London.   

Soon after the arrival of the British party, Trevelyan gave a talk on Garibaldi, his specialist topic, including Balkan and Hungarian politics, which Ogston found fascinating.  However, Trevelyan soon had to depart for London to try to secure some new motor ambulances, as the ones they already had were almost worn out by excessive use.  The work of the villa’s estate went on in spite of the war.  “Under the house are 35 great wine tubs filled with grapes.  The workmen tread the fruit with their feet to release the juice, which is then released with a spigot below.  They use a heavy wine press on a screw thread.  The remaining solid material is used as a manure”.  

The inquisitive Ogston was soon busy making contacts with other organisations.  “I gradually made the acquaintance of the leading medical and other Italian officers and found them mostly friendly; they provided me with a pass enabling me to go everywhere within the zone of war, a privilege I availed myself of to the utmost possible extent, so as to familiarise myself with everything concerning the medical arrangements, and incidentally with much else that was of interest”.  By climbing a hill behind the Villa Trento, it was possible to see the battlefield about 10 miles away around Goritzia.  Much of the front that the Italians were defending ran through the mountains and travel to the front was very difficult, though that did not deter Alex Ogston.  “The men who manned the batteries and trenches on the crest of the ridge lived among the cliffs and precipices, some in burrows hollowed out like sand-martin’s nests in the soft rock, and some in wooden structures resembling bird cages affixed to the rocks high up towards the sky, and these shelters were reached by means of steep winding wooden ladders or stairs.  Peeping over the edge of the ridge here towards Austria, we saw lying below us on the river the little town of Tolmino which was still held by the Austrians”.  As in South Africa, Ogston was acting as a student of war as well as an operative surgeon.

By 21 September, only eight days after Ogston’s arrival he wrote, “Plenty of cases now coming in including a captain who had been injured the previous night.  He had seven wounds from a shell but none was very serious”.  That case interrupted his lunch and his afternoon tea was interrupted by a soldier with a wounded artery in his wrist.  Ogston was kept very busy practising his surgical skills to the benefit of his patients.  However, his colleagues were somewhat anxious about his ability to sustain the load, perhaps mindful of his age.  His colleague, Dr Brock wrote to his wife in London, “Sir Alexander is what you would call an old dear, everyone adores him”. One night AO was reading in bed when a knock came.  “Avanti”, he said, using his rapidly improving Italian.  A nurse had been sent by Miss Edwards, one of the superintendants, with a cup of hot Allenbury’s food and sweet biscuits, as they thought AO was eating too little.  “I took it after remonstrating and on the premise not to do it again”.  It turned out that he was suffering from a disturbance of his alimentary system and, as he had done in South Africa, he was dosing himself with chlorodyne to control the symptoms.  There were many visitors to the hospital, causing Ogston some resentment as they interrupted his work.  In spite of dosing himself with chlorodyne, his bowel symptoms continued for the next 10 days.  However, on the 4^th October, after a ward round, he had a violent attack of dysenteric diarrhoea and intense pain almost to fainting. He was fortunate to meet Dr Brock who came back to his colleague’s room.  Ogston was immediately sent to bed, put on milk alone and given castor oil, followed by busmuth and laudanum.  He soon felt better but spent 2 days in bed.   

One day towards the end of September 1916, Brock and Ogston went by motor to observe the forward positions of the Italian Army near Gorizia and made a stop at a hidden battery at the foot of the Polgora Ridge, where they lit their cigars and put on their cloaks before driving away.  Later Geoffrey Young came up from Gorizia to the hospital and told the adventurous pair that a few minutes after they had driven off from the hidden battery a shell from a big gun had landed on the wall at the point where the doctors had been standing.  Young had not seen their departure and was concerned that they had been caught by the explosion and blown to pieces.  They, however, had been completely unaware that the shell had hit their former location.  It was an example of the kind of risk that the medical non-comabatants ran every day.

Although the Villa Trento hospital was reasonably well equipped, the means of ambulance for the injured troops from the front line to medical help in the rear was inadequate.  Ogston wrote to William Smith, the Aberdeen lawyer, who was a staunch supporter of the Red Cross, asking if local help could be secured in obtaining an appropriately equipped ambulance for the rough conditions the volunteers were facing north of Villa Trento.  Smith arranged for the letter to be published in the Aberdeen Journal, with an addendum from himself which reminded Aberdonians of the service that Alexander Ogston had given when he was in the city and appealing for donations to be sent to himself at 201 Union Street.  By the time of the next meeting of the Aberdeen Branch of the British Red Cross Society, which just happened to be the AGM, which was held on 6 October 1916, much progress had been made in satisfying Sir Alexander’s appeal.  Donations in cash already amounted to £74, Mrs Davidson of York House, Cullen had promised £500 for either a Fiat ambulance to be bought in Italy or alternatively three Ford cars, and Lady Sempill, who had been very active in fund-raising for the war effort, had ordered an ambulance for the Russian front but now intended to divert it to Sir Alexander’s needs.  The appeal had caught the public imagination and a series of updated donation lists appeared in the local press.  Flora, Alexander Ogston’s daughter, told him that she would forego the purchase of a new winter cloak in order to be able to make a donation to the ambulance appeal.  Later there were cash donations of £10 each from William Smith and his wife and £5 each from Flora and Walter.  The generous response from the North-East made AO feel great pride.  The Glasgow Executive Committee agreed to grant funds, even though there was friction between the Red Cross organisations in the two cities.  It was soon possible to authorise the necessary expenditure.  The decision was then taken to have the conversion work done in Britain and the completed ambulance shipped to Italy.  In mid-October, Mr Trevelyan returned from London with good news on the new ambulances and in late November, Alex Ogston wrote to William Smith in Aberdeen to thank him for the generous and speedy response from the North-East and tried to give him some idea of the terrain with which they had to contend.  “If I could take you for a drive in it along some of the break-neck mountain roads it would try your nerves, but it would give you an idea of the great work you have done for us and for our wounded”.  Alex Ogston visited several Italian hospitals and pronounced the Italian field surgeons to be “very good and caring” and the standard of nursing care as “very beautiful”.  “In a very short time they are all asleep with their names, qualities, injuries, conditions noted in the Hospital Registers”.

The second half of October 1916 was marked by several VIP visitors coming to the Villa Trento.  One was Mr Baumont who seemed to be in charge of the British Red cross in Italy and who was acting as their chief in the absence of Lord Monson in England.  Ogston also had a visit from an American, Dr Beebe, who said he was a bacteriologist but did not seem to know who he was talking to.  AO was not impressed by him.  Mrs Waterman, the Times correspondent, also came through and AO thought her a nice person.  Queen Elena visited in the morning of 11 October.  She saw everything and spoke to everyone except for a patient who was asleep in Garibaldi Ward.  She seemed to be an expert on radiology, so AO showed her his captain with 9 fragments and Mirandolo with his hundreds of fragments of shell in his leg.  The conversation was carried on in French as Ogston judged his Italian not to be good enough for this purpose.

 

Curious to see the field dressing stations near the front, on 13 October AO cleared out as many of his patients as he could so that he was free to travel with Mr Trevelyan to Gorizia that evening.  The sun had set before they left the Villa Trento hospital but they managed to find their way even though lights were not permitted on vehicles.  Flashes from cannon lit up the hills like lightning and star shell bursts hung in the sky.  The turmoil was immense but they reached the first ambulance station in time for dinner.  There they met George Barber who was going out to the front in his ambulance that night.  He agreed that Ogston could go with him.  Their journey was accompanied by continuous noise from artillery and cannon.  The Savonga Dressing Station was in a small group of houses and the surgeon welcomed AO and showed him the arrangements.  They had a good operating and dressing table and an abundant supply of tetanus serum, indeed, all medical stores seemed plentiful.  Ogston was offered a steel helmet for the journey but declined it, though almost everyone else wore one.  His reason for declining this head protection was because he did not want to show any nervousness.  The ambulance went a bit further forward and experienced shells sailing past, guns cracking and flashing, and there was the whistle of an occasional bullet.  Ogston’s party was only 200 metres from the Austrian positions.  They reached the next dressing station, which was in a farm house, safely though the action was intense.  The officers there could not speak French so AO had to get along in Italian.  There were no patients in the dressing station, which was more primitive than the previous one, though there was no want of necessities.  AO gave the officer a cigar, which pleased him.  Later, Ogston had supper with Geoffrey Young the head of the ambulance station.  He had been a war correspondent in France but then joined the Quaker Ambulance, though not a Quaker himself.  They followed supper with a game of Auction Bridge which resulted in AO winning 7d.  He slept in the bedroom of the house’s chatelaine who had left her clothes and other feminine accoutrements in place.  Shells flew over the house all night but did not wake him, though the building shook with every explosion.  Ogston started back to Villa Trento after breakfast, where he found all his patients doing well.  Later in the month, Ogston made another tour of the Italian lines along the Isonzo River, even penetrating into country, formerly part of Austria, which had been captured by the Italians in their push towards Trieste.  On 28 October, in the company of Dr Brock, Alex Ogston managed to visit the final part of the front which had so far evaded his presence.  There they visited two hospitals in one of which he observed some “splendid surgery”, the work of Prof Bastianellis.

About 18 October 1916, Trevelyan received a letter from London, probably based on a recommendation contained in a memorandum, written by Lord Monson, Red Cross Commandant for Italy.  It insisted that all men of fighting age working as volunteers at the Villa Trento would have to return to London to serve in the military.  Trevelyan was deeply upset by this order because he felt it would mean the end of his unit.  He considered resigning in protest and travelled to Rome to meet with the ambassador who backed Trevelyan and sent a strong representation to London opposing the call-up.  When the emotional Trevelyan returned to the Villa Trento he actually announced his resignation, witnessed by Alex Ogston, at a meeting.  Ogston and Brock, the two senior doctors, calmed their boss down and persuaded him to retreat to a position of only threatening resignation.  They then drew up a memorandum for the ambassador in Rome to escalate to London, possibly even as high as the King.  However, Beaumont, Lord Manson’s deputy in Rome wrote a letter of support for Manson’s position, which Alex Ogston described as “foolish”.  Trevelyan himself left immediately for the British capital.  Brock, too, was unhappy with Monson’s high-handed action and he also indicated that he would not continue if he had to answer to Lord Monson.  Trevelyan cabled that he had been successful in his mission to London, the War Office agreeing to spare his men.  Alex Ogston admitted that there was bad blood between Monson and Beaumont in Rome, on the one hand and Trevelyan and Brock on the other, though he was not neutral, believing that the Villa Trento pair were in the right.  Interestingly, he likened Lord Monson’s behaviour in the English Red Cross (“seeks to dominate every activity”) to that of Sir George Beatson in the equivalent Scottish body.  Beatson was a prominent Scottish surgeon who made significant advances in cancer treatment but who also established and led the Scoittish Red Cross.  When Trevelyan returned from London (see below) he brought Miss Swift, the new Head Matron, with him.  She confided to Ogston that Sir George Beatson could be disagreeable to all the Red Cross people in London, quarreled with everyone and refused to let the VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nurses in Scotland be used.  AO told her of his experiences (though he gave no details) with him in Aberdeen and Scotland.  Presumably those interactions were also objectionable.

One medical infection which did raise its head amongst the wounded Italian soldiers was an occasional case of lockjaw, or tetanus.  This infection is caused by a common soil bacterium, Clostridium tetani getting into a wound.  However, it can take weeks, or even months, for the infection to announce its presence, with a high risk of a fatal outcome.  To overcome this problem, the Italian Army issued an instruction that all wounded soldiers were to receive the anti-tetanus inoculation.  The increasing prevalence of this condition later caused AO to advise Dr Brock to have every member of the unit immunised.  Another, perhaps unexpected hazard in north-east Italy, in winter, with which the hospital staff had to contend, was the risk of a venomous invertebrate bite or sting.  Tarantulas had been killed in bedrooms and scorpions dispatched in the wards, even in the patients’ beds.  Scorpions would hide behind the boards carrying the temperature charts hanging on the walls, so that the staff had to be careful reaching them down. 

 

One of the Villa Trento’s volunteers was Dr Ashby, the Director of the British School of Archaeology in Rome.  Alexander Ogston described him in mixed terms.  “Ashby is a queer fellow, he is a short, rather ill-made man with a red beard now turning grey.  In Rome he gets referred to as “Barbarossa”.  (He) has a loud, strident voice, talks very loud, fluent in Italian and English.  Has reputation of being able to swear in Italian harder than any other man.  Horribly untidy in his dress and once went out with AO to call at the Abbazia in loose green boots in which he waddled about like a salmon fisher at his boat and nets.  When he is present it is hard for anyone to speak as he breaks into the conversation slays the (others) down in his masterful way, drowning any other voice.  He is the least punctual of men and cannot be depended upon to return in the hour he fixes, which for me, today, would be most undesirable.  Ashby possesses a motorcar of his own which has been given him, I think, by Monson, – but he is only yet dreaming to drive and it breaks down and gets damaged continually.  Yet with it all, Ashby is a fine fellow and very clever man.  If only he would speak less, dominate less, dress, shave and be tidy and not bolt his meals as if he were coaling a steamer he would be an agreeable comrade.  As it is those who don’t know his good qualities fight shy of him”.  Ashby was clearly an example, one of many, of an intellectually outstanding individual, but one in which some other aspects of his personality were also distant from the average, and not in a desirable direction.  Ashby’s job was to drive Red Cross stores to the various hospitals in the area but he did not like travelling alone and would seek travelling companions amongst the doctors.  He gave up asking AO to accompany him, as the Scot always refused to leave his work.  Some of the other doctors did not show such dedication and Ogsron ended up complaining about Ashby taking other doctors with him.   

The November Italian offensive was witnessed by Alex Ogston.  It had been obvious for some time that an action was being planned from the the numbers of men and volumes of equipment being moved in the direction of Gorizia.  This was followed by heavy bombardment of the Austrian positions.  AO counted rounds going off at the rate of 4320 per hour.  Many of the pieces were heavy artillery.  He used light reflecting off a tumbler of water to detect accurately the number of explosions.  So moving was the scene that it triggered a further burst of dramatic description from the literate professor  “On the night of 5^th of November this engagement was at its height, and to behold it was a thing to be remembered; after dark it seemed as if many moons were rising over the Carso, so numerous and strong were the glares of the searchlights; the noise of the cannon was beyond anything that had gone before, and the flashes lit up the sky for many degrees above the horizon; the aeroplanes were at work, and the white lightning sparks of the shells fired at them glittered like fiery bees high up in the air, while the soaring and wriggling parachute star shells seemed like living creatures swarming in the air below.  It resembled magnificent fireworks among the rolling of giant drums”.  The Italians captured 8,000 Austrian prisoners but lost two brigades, about 6,000 men, themselves.

 

On 3 November, Alex Ogston recorded that the Italians had made significant gains after two simultaneous advances.  They resulted in an immediate influx of wounded men to the Villa Trento hospital and, in consequence, Brock and Ogston were kept busy dealing mostly with shell and grenade wounds.  There was a constant demand placed on the radiographer’s services, since most wounded men needed to be X-rayed.  Ogston described the findings.  “All sorts of unsuspected fragments are discovered and the bone injuries revealed, so that the treatment is so much more precise”.  For the safety of the wounded and the ambulance personnel, the work of the ambulances had to be conducted at night, in dense mist, or after the waxing moon had set.  AO suggested taking away the windshields of the wagons and driving with goggles instead to make the most of the light.  For a time he judged ambulance work to be more important than radiography and so was prepared to give up his radiographer for a while to help with the recovery of the wounded.  The X-ray department was very cramped and in need of more spacious accommodation and would lead to plans being laid for a new radiography building.

 

When Trevelian returned to the Villa Trento sometime in November, it turned out that the deal he had secured was a compromise on Lord Monson’s position, though a reasonable one.  Basically three men were to be exempt from being returned and the others would only be sent back if Trevelyan found they could be replaced.  The letter from Ogston and Brock, which Trevelyan had take to London had been delivered to Mr Walter Fry (status not known but possibly an official in the War Office) who had declined to pass it on to Sir James Reid and through him to Lord Stamfordham, George V’s private secretary, which annoyed Ogston.  Miss Swift, who came out with Trevelyan, was described by Ogston as “a little old lady” and “...quite a nice and clever lady but with no overwhelming abilities; still she has good sense and is quite sympathetic in her nature”.  She had been tasked with examining and reporting on the condition of the unit.

Queen Elena, the wife of King Victor Emanuel III of Italy, had visited the Villa Trento and called the hospital “messy”.  She also criticised the hospital’s cleaniness and the provision of food, which she said was not what it ought to be.  She was apparently well qualified for the investigative role, having worked as a nurse and become Inspector of the Voluntary Nurses for the Italian Red Cross   Ogston and his colleagues thought her views were without foundation but clearly, given her status, they had to be investigated.  It did not take long after this incident for Lord Monson to visit the Villa Trento and on 9 November 1916 he arrived at the hospital accompanied by Mr Beaumont, Red Cross sub-Commissioner for Italy.  But perhaps also, Monson, after Trevelyan had successfully negotiated the watering down of the commissioner’s proposal for reorganisation of the hospital, was also intent on exerting his authority over the place in some other direction.

King Victor Emanuel III and Queen Elena.

The culmination of the visit was a tense meeting, held in Alec Ogston’s room, involving the two senior Red Cross representatives and the other senior staff at Villa Trento, Trevelyan, Brock and Ogston, together withy Miss Swift.  It was not a comfortable exchange of views.  Ogston reported that “Monson and Trevelyan wrangled for an hour”.  Monson now wanted the ambulance section to be detached from the hospital, which Trevelyan opposed.  The exchange was close to deadlock when Trevelyan turned to Ogston and asked for his view.  Perhaps because of his status as a senior surgeon with a long medical history behind him and the respect that compelled from others, Ogston was able to steer the meeting towards a conclusion.  He said that whether they were separately managed or not, they would have to work together and that the English (i.e. English-speaking) ambulance section must have English medical staff with it.  Further, Brock threatened to resign if this split were to be implemented.  The meeting broke up without reaching a formal conclusion but Ogston’s intervention had changed the debate and weakened Lord Monson’s position.   Trevelyan, an emotional man, remained behind for several hours in AO’s room airing his views.  The following morning, Miss Swift met with AO and asserted that his idea must be the one which was adopted.  In consequence, he drew up a resolution which was modified several times before being signed by everyone, including Trevelyan, and the document was then presented to Lord Monson with an acknowledgement that Ogston had initiated it.  Faced with this unified opposition to his proposal, Lord Monson backed down.  Ogston had played a crucial role in resolving the dispute.  He summed up his view on the episode with, “So ended the first chapter of a nasty job”.  Monson had been thwarted and the Commissioner, with Miss Swift, subsequently recommended that the two parts of the hospital should not be divided.  Alec Ogston had been able to play the role of elder statesman in this tense dispute which could have led to the abandonment of the Villa Trento hospital and the dispersion of its staff. 

Ogston also told Miss Swift that Queen Elena’s criticisms were “ridiculous” and unless Lord Monson vindicated the staff against them with the Red Cross and our Italian Ambulance Committee “there may be resignations and public exposure”.  He expected vindication from Lord Monson “as an act of justice”.  AO told Trevelyan that he though that Brock might be the one to go but that he (AO) would remain until Trevelyan told him to go.  He would not leave the hospital as he was not capable of it.  Ogston described Trevalyan as a “worrier” but that he was fundamentally “a nice man” and noted that usually he would take advice from the Aberdonian.  Three days after the start of the visit, with Lord Monson, Beaumont and Miss Swift, by then departed, Ogston could write, “We are a quite happy family party once more”.  However, that did not stem a steady flow of visitors coming to see what was wrong with the Villa Trento hospital.  Colonel Santucci was one of them and he found everything in order and he declared the kitchen to be “un miracolo”.  Other visitors were also well satisfied. 

On 26 November, Lord Monson again showed up at the Villa Trento, this time in the company of a Mr Fraser, a man of letters whom he had imported to write about the Red Cross in Italy.  Another high ranking Italian visited to inspect the place on the same day and described AO’s work as “Perfetto, un modella”.  No doubt to Alec Ogston’s personal satisfaction, Monson overheard these remarks.   It remained unclear why Queen Elena had been so critical of the Villa Trento hospital in the first place, when evidence of carelessness or incompetence seemed to be completely lacking.  At the very end of November 1916, Ogston wrote in his journal, “Annoyance caused by Queen Elena’s visit is subsiding but not quite ended”.  Lt. Francis Rodd, son of  Sir Rennell Rodd, gave Dr Laws to understand that his father, the Ambassador in Rome, would be visiting “to set things right”.  After the visit, Sir Rennell intimated that all misunderstandings were now removed.  Trevelyan, Brock and Ogston were relieved that this diplomatic incident had apparently been put to bed, but that proved to be a premature conclusion.  On 5 December 1916, Trevelyan and Brock came to Ogston’s room with a “cold-blooded” letter from Sir Arthur Stanley, MP, Chairman of the British Red Cross in London, saying that there was something (but he did not say what) in Queen Elena’s criticisms.  Trevelyan, who was at his wits’ end, said he was too sick of the whole thing to do any more fighting against these unspecified and, he believed, unfounded accusations.

Sir Rennell Rodd.

November 1916 brought some good news to those labouring so diligently at the Villa Trento hospital.  The first new ambulance was on its way, a package of goods had been received from the Aberdeen War Dressings Depot and plans for a new suite of X-ray rooms were advancing.  However, for Alec Ogston, though he seemed to be unconcerned about his own welfare, anxieties periodically arose concerning his own family.  On 23 November he received a letter from home informing him that Constance’s health had broken down again, due to the pressure of her work.  She was in charge of the War Dressings Department in Aberdeen.  AO was also anxious about Flora, who had earlier in the war had a brush with death.  He was moved to write in his journal, “I am very proud of these two daughters”.  He was also apprehensive about son Rannald who had been leading charges from the trenches in recent attacks somewhere on the Western Front.  More good news reached the Villa Trento in December 1916.  The Aberdeen ambulances funded by Lady Sempill (see “The bizarre life of Sir Ewan Forbes (1912 – 1991).  What was his biological sex and did he deceive the Court of Session?” on this blogsite) were on their way to Italy, the hospital had also just received a donation of £400 from the Canadian Red Cross, and the passport difficulties recently experienced by personnel travelling out to Italy from the UK seemed to have been overcome.  The new accommodation for the X-ray facility was coming along nicely and the building was near to fruition, due mainly to constant pushing by AO.  William Wright was supervising construction with men employed at the Villa Trento.  Just before Christmas 1916, Trevelyan, Brock and Ogston visited Colonel Pastore of the Italian Engineers’ Corps concerning some materials needed to complete the X-ray facility.  Pastore regretted that he could not spare the engineers at present, but Brock explained that if they gave us the materials the Red Cross staff could provide the labour.  Brock won him over and a promiss of materials was made.  Ogston concluded, “Brock is born for diplomacy.  Trevelyan has as much idea of it as a lark has of operatic music”.  Bill Wright completed roofing the new facility in early January 2017. 

However, Alex Ogston had hit an impasse with his plan to provide a staff member to operate the service.  He wanted to deploy Dr Lewis to act as as physician, analyst, bacteriologist and radiographer but, on this occasion, Trevelyan opposed his request, though Dr Brock stood by him.  Trevelyan thought that if Lewis were to be retained he would have too many doctors and insufficient work for them.  He also had doubts about Dr Lewis and Dr Thompson being compatible, as he had heard some stories about Lewis, but did not elaborate on them. Dr Thompson had previously worked at the Villa Trento and would soon be returning.  In marked contrast to Trevelyan, AO found Lewis to be “a courteous, accomplished gentleman and we all have our faults”.   As will be discovered below, Trevelyan was probably right to suspect that Lewis and Thompson might not work well together, but that proved to be due to a deficiency in Thompson’s character, not vice versa.  In resignation, Ogston concluded, “I can do no more as yet”. 

At that time it was three months since Ogston had arrived in Italy, “and they have been useful months indeed”.  AO had ceased to regret that the War Office at home had declined to let him serve the cause in any capacity, having found a useful role through his own contacts and initiative.  In the period just before Christmas, Ogston was cheered to receive letters and gifts from home in anticipation of the coming religious festival.  But, “Less pleasing was the duty of sending cheques home to the Collector of Taxes for Income and other taxation”!

The Canadian, Dr Thompson, AO’s predecessor, and now future colleague, arrived in late December and Ogston took some time assessing him, as the two of them would be thrown together.  Thompson had a soft voice, a soft smile and there seemed to be no reason why they should not get along well, but Alex Ogston was harbouring nacent doubts about their mutual compatibility.  He took Thompson round the cases on 20 December and on the previous day, he had discussed the division of work between them. Ogston concluded, “On the whole I think I shall go my own way without too much intimacy with him”.  AO had heard reports that “his head swells readily and that he is inconsiderate of the feelings of others and a man difficult to deal with. I don’t think he is quite a gentleman as Lewis is”.  The senior doctors, Brock, Thompson and AO held a conference and decided that they would have separate surgical wards.  A third ward would be mixed medical and surgical and would be common to both AO and Thompson.  Between them they divided the present surgical cases in the wards.  It was also agreed that Thompson would preside over the radiography service.

On 21 December 1916, Alec Ogston, a devoted aficionado of the Bard, included a quotation from Shakespear’s play, Henry VIII, in his journal.  “Love thyself last, cherish those hearts that hate thee; Corruption wins not more than honesty.  Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, To silence envious tongues; be just and fear not.  Let all the ends thou aimest at be thy country’s, Thy God’s and truth’s”.  What was the purpose of quoting this famous extract?  Was he warning himself not to jump to conclusions about the motives and behaviour of his new colleague and was he cautioning himself to behave honourably?  It seems likely that this was so but, as will be discovered, Ogston’s first impressions were not wildly misplaced.The Italians taking Gorizia by 17 August 1916 did not immediately lead to the desired push towards their major goal of Trieste and the winter months of 1916 – 1917 on the front were spent with occasional massive bombardments followed by limited advances and consolidation of small gains.  There were sometimes many casualties in the hospital but at other times only a few.  Ogston had some observations on the behaviour, while under hospital care, of the typical Italian soldier.  Malingering was not common amongst the Italian soldiers but “they do, poor fellows, make a deal out of little pains and discomforts when in hospital. ... They are more childish than our own men”.  He contrasted Italian behaviour with stoical, British conduct.  Alex Ogston visited several of the ordinary base hospitals serving the front.  In mid-November 1916, he heard that some good surgical work was being carried out at an Italian hospital at Scodovacca and decided he should go to see it.  It was in the charge of Major Calio Noto and Surgeon Captian Ettore Geggio.  As well as the sugery, AO was very impressed by the nursing, one of the prominent people being a grand daughter of Garibaldi.  On 24^th of the same month, AO accompanied by Sister Power travelled to see No 4 Italian Hospital in Mangano.  The pair then went on to the Ospedale Marco Volpe in Udine where they found good dental work being performed.  Patients from one hospital, No. 106, who passed through Villa Trento, particularly caught Ogston’s notice because of the type of treatment soldiers with serious wounds had received.  They had been treated with “much skill and hardihood”, so early in 1917 he decided to pay a visit.  The surgeon was Captain Gino Baggio an assistant professor from Rome and Ogston called to see him on 27 February.  Baggio’s technique, called “debridement”, was to open wounds, clear them out of all foreign materials and bone fragments and to pare back all damaged and infected tissues before wiping out the wound with eusol, stuffing the cavity with eusol-soaked gauze, but otherwise leaving the wound open.  (Eusol was an early antiseptic developed during WW1 and consisting of a solution of chlorinated lime and boric acid).  The process of cleaning was repeated after three days all processes being conducted without anaesthesia.  Alex Ogston found Baggio’s methods rather extreme and felt he personally obtained results which were as good, or better than, Baggio’s with a more conservative approach.  However, he accepted that the Italian’s surgery was brilliant.

Both the hospital and the ambulance staff, as well as local civilians, daily ran the gauntlet of bullets, shells and bombs, most of which were not specifically targeting the victims and, additionally, war-related traffic accidents.  Alex Ogston had much contact with the victims of such incidents.  In late November, one of the ambulance drivers, Mr Fell, had the misfortune to knock down an old man, Tronchetti, in Udine.  Fell immediately brought the casualty to the Villa Trento hospital, where he was seen by AO who found he had a number of injuries and illnesses.  Sadly, Tronchetti died the next morning.  He had been a sick old man with a diseased heart, arteries and kidneys.  Shortly after this tragic incident, Ogston was woken in the middle of the night to be told that the house in Gorizia where some of the ambulance staff lived had been hit by an Austrian shell.  One man, Roland Smith was killed.  He was buried the same day in a coffin marked by Alec Ogston for furure identification, as he had done with daughter-in law, Ethel’s coffin in Messina.  Hamish Allen had been wounded and was discovered by Geoffrey Young who initially thought he was dead.  In the dark the rescuers had to twist him out of his bed, the lower half of which was broken down by fragments of masonry thrown over from the wall above his head when the shell exploded.  AO saw him at 2.30am and found that he had a compound comminuted fracture of the left thigh.  Ogston enlarged the wound, cleaned it out and disinfected the injured parts, but found no fragments of shell.  Three days later, Ogston could write that Allen had “done unexpectedly well”.  Interestingly, and perhaps spurred on by the injury to Allen, Mr Morgan and Alec Ogston worked on making a telephone probe for finding metallic foreign bodies in wounds.  There was no immediate indication that they had succeeded in their innovative endeavours.  However, seven months later, the device had been completed by getting a gold probe and gold terminals attached to it which were made in Udine.   Another of the Red Cross contingent was injured on 21 December, but it proved to be only a slight shell wound in the left thigh.

Although Christmas 1916 at the Villa Trento would see no let up in the ambulance and medical work that needed to be done, the Red Cross staff still managed to organise a traditional series of events to cheer up the patients and to divert their colleagues from thoughts about the activities and gatherings that they would be missing at home.  They prepared a Christmas tree which was placed in the hospital and which was decorated with chains of tissues and artificial flowers, and the patients and their friends gathered around it. The Italian soldiers prepared a display of the “Manger in Bethlehem”.   Alex Ogston had received letters from his family, presents from his staff and the ambulance cars had arrived from Aberdeen.  These things made up to some extent for the sadness he felt at this Christmas.  The staff were pleased with the ambulance cars and there were still two more to come from Mrs Shaw of Banff.  The doctors held a conference beside Allen’s bed, but as the they were considering how to continue treatment of Allen’s fractured thigh, Sister Power came bustling in and said that a stretcher case was about to arrive, but it was a subterfuge.  In came men carrying a stretcher which they placed by Allen’s bed and uncovered its contents, not a patient as expected, but a large stuffed Christmas stocking containing many presents for the unfortunate Allen.  This presentation had been organised by his colleagues and must have delighted the injured ambulanceman.  Christmas dinner was “rather wonderful” with 80 persons present, including many big wigs, such as Colonel Alexander from Udine.  The tables were lighted by many small red candles and there were chocolates and dates, table cloths, freesias and red and white carnations in bowls, blazing Christmas pudding, red and white wine and Asti Spumante.  The only toast was proposed by Trevelyan, “The King of England and the King of Italy”, without an accompanying speech, which surely would have been welcome and an opportunity for the top administrator to thank his staff for their efforts under trying conditions.  Then the party trooped up to the lounge for the performance of a play, with music.  It was based upon the activities of the Red Cross in London and in Italy.  At 11.30 they went down to the dining room again for a light supper of cakes and wine.  At the end AO had a cold bath, a pipe and “tumbled in”.  He was not very appreciative of the play and thought the only things which were true to Christmas were an evening service and a communion service at 7.00 am the following morning, for which they were raised with by a cup of tea at 6.30am.  Later, in mid-February, a “magnificent box of provisions”, sent by Constance in November, finally arrived.  It had not been opened or pilfered and everything was in good order except the Christmas puddings, which were mouldy.  In spite of their condition, someone managed to eat them.

The termination of 1916 marked almost four months since Alec Ogston’s arrival in north-east Italy and, while he had been fearful that some of the personalities thrown together by fate would not find it easy to cooperate, he admitted, with both relief and pleasure, that there had not been a single case of friction amongst the men.  “Thompson and I get on quite amicably together.  He is not the courteous gentleman Lewis is but is essentially a straight man”.  Ogston had assisted Dr Thompson at one of his operations, which pleased the Aberdonian.    On 28 December, Trevelyan reverted to his academic comfort zone by giving a lecture in Udine on “Garibaldi and his qualities as a strategist”.  AO could not attend but his friend Brock was present and professed himself to be “highly pleased”.  Later, Trevelyan repeated his presentation in Venice, Treviso and Milan, from which he returned triumphant, his lecture having had a good reception.

The intense work under dangerous conditions at the Villa Trento required all staff to take periodic holidays, if the effort were to be sustained over many months. Brock went for a month’s holiday on the 29^th December.  “I’ll miss Brock greatly”, Ogston confessed to his journal, “Trevelyan and I never have been, and are never likely to be, intimate.  He is such a moaning minnie and the others, with the exception of Geoffrey Young in Goritzia, are so much younger than I that great intimacy is improbable”  Ogston himself was due to take a holiday in the spring but he feared that there would be insufficient time to return to Scotland.  However, a colleague, Dr Travis, who was a wealthy man, made AO a kind offer which he accepted.  Travis’ mother owned a house in Cannes and he offered AO the use of part of that dwelling.  His sister and brother-in-law also owned an island off the coast of Cannes, where there was excellent sea fishing.  Although the nightspots of that French Riviera town were unikely to be attractive to Ogston, the piscatorial activities certainly would have been.

The arrival of Hogmanay, the last day of the old year, extending to the turn of the new and the celebrations surrounding that event are special to Scots and particularly when they are far from home, engendering feelings of nostalgia and patriotism.  So it was with Alexander Ogston at the Villa Trento as the end of 1916 approached.  He reflected in his journal (actually on 30 December, not a day later) that the “usual Hogmanay party will probably be going on tonight at Ardoe”.  He wrote to his cousin wishing him all the best for the success of the occasion.  Although a midnight service was held at Villa Trento on 31 December, Ogston did not attend, being fast asleep.  On the evening of 2 January 1917, a fancy dress ball was arranged, to be held in the new reaping shed and a few people dared to urge this rather serious Scot to wear his kilt, but he remained deaf to their pleas and justified his inaction in his journal with a quotation from the novel “Count Bunker” by J Storer Clouston “Being too old and grave for such a piece of folly”.  The ball began at 8.30 and AO “sauntered across the moonlit road at 9.15 to put in an appearance”.  He was detained for a while by the beauty of the night sky.  The baracca (hut or shack) was full of “capital costumes” and he marvelled at how they could all have been made up.  “So disguised were my friends that I had difficulty recognising some of them.  Mephistopheles was there, of course, a very merry Mephistopheles, grinning from ear-hole to ear-hole”.  Also in attendance were red indians, cowboys, chinamen with pigtails, oblique eyes and horned spectacles, a sheikh and a digger in a red shirt.  Dr Ashby and Dr Lewis wore Roman togas, Dick Young had donned his kilt “which showed off his dancing to perfection”.  The most striking lady was “Mrs Bosanquet in a plain lady’s dress, looking like the lady in the Mask of Comas”. (“Comus” is an allegorical poem by John Milton in which Comus (the offspring of Bacchus, the God of Wine) and Circe (a sorceress), who has an affinity for debauchery, seeks to subvert The Lady into joining his revelling followers.  Did Alex Ogston find Mrs Bosanquet’s appearance somewhat attractive and reached into his mental compendium of literary allusions to express his naughty thoughts in a subtle way?

Ogston, vouched to his journal that “New Year seems to cheer everyone up”.   Now acting as head of the medical service in the absence of the vacationing Dr Brock, he took his additional responsibilities seriously.  AO was now the first into the dining room for breakfast and had usually finished his meal before more than two others had appeared.  He also “hatched a plot” to persuade Trevelyan to allow his lecture on Garibaldi to be printed for private circulation.  However, he did not think he was the right person to broach the subject with the quirky Trevelyan, so he sent an emissary, Mrs McGaw the housekeeper, to perform the delicate task and the hospital’s commandant agreed to the proposal.  By early February 1917, Ogston had received a list of 84 subscrptions for a printed version of Trevelyan’s findings on the Italian patriot.  AO arranged for these booklets to be printed, together with 20 extra copies for distribution by Trevelyan himself.  The cost was 62 lire and 40 centesimi.  Ogston sent copies to four of his family members, Flora, Alfred, Cowan and Grierson.

The experience of being in charge made Ogston fully aware of the weight of responsibility which had lain on Dr Brock’s shoulders.  But he also came to recognise how well Brock was qualified for the role.  “Not only does he know the Italian origins so well, and the ways of Italy, but he has also the wonderful patience and tact in deling with everything and everyone”.  What was noteworthy was that Ogston was fulfilling the role of direttore of the hospital competently, while carrying the same patient caseload, long after formal retirement and at the age of almost 73.  He remarked that he was happy with the performance of all the medical staff under his management.

Although Trevelyan and Ogston possessed rather different personalities, the former often opened discussions with the latter, perhaps because both had an intellectual bent and Trevelyan felt that he could discuss issues with the Scottish surgeon on an equal footing. Such an incident was recorded by Ogston on 2 January 1917.  “This afternoon a wonder happened.  Trevelyan came to my room after lunch and stayed talking until tea-time.  I suspect he had felt solitary in the absence of Dr Brock.  Talked over many topics including pre-history and the arrival of the Celts in Western Europe and possibly other races later on”.  They also discussed the present war and Trevelyan suggested that it might lead to men shunning war while AO held that men, and even women, were by nature warriors and that fighting would never be eradicated from humanity.  “We ended with a discussion on Socialism and English Education in Public Schools and then went to tea.  It was pretty one-sided because Trevelyan talks well and then thinks better while the very converse is the case with me, so that my part was throwing in suggestions, remarks and somewhat guiding the drift of the conversation.  While speaking with him I have always the sensation as if I were handling a loaded, cocked revolver.  But he is one uncommon man and most interesting.  Flora or Herbert would enjoy him”.  In his journal entry for 9 January 1917, Alec Ogston commented extensively on Trevelyan’s personality, appearance and relationship with the surgeon.  “He gives me always the impression, with his long skull, of being a type of the dolichocephalatous man (literally “long-headed”) of the Rudestone (Paleolithic) Age.  His extraordinarily savage appearance, manner and voice are conjoined with our artistic and sensitive temperament.  Though he is a lovable man in many respects there is one immense and acid difference, amounting almost to antipathy at times, between him and me and I think we both are conscious of it.  Mutual trust may exist – I think it does, but mutual hearty liking is absent”.  More views followed a day later.  “Why do I always go back to write about Trevelyan than (of) any other member of the unit?  Doed the man fascinate me with his alternate fits of moody savageness and his ghastly attempts at hilarity?  Probably, I think, because neither phase represents the real man underneath of which as yet I have hardly got a glimpse.  Dr Brock and Mrs McGaw, who both know him well, assure me that at the bottom he is a most just, even kindly, man.  It may be so but he has taken an unshakable dislike to Dr Lewis on account of some stories some scandalmonger repeated about him.  Lewis may be just like other folks, doubtless he is no angel, yet he is a courteous well conducted gentleman.  Still because he likes a cup of tea with the nurses and VGDs and may possibly have flirted with Miss Dalton (Poor girl! She is pretty seriously ill just now) he does not hesitate to show his dislike of him, or his opinion that he and Dr Thompson would never get on together (of which I can see no signs) and confesses he would gladly get both (Dalton and Lewis) out of the unit”.  Trevelyan came to see AO to tell him about his talks and reception in “Venica” (should be “Venezia”) and Treviso.  He was very pleased, met some prominent people including an old Garibaldina (female supporter, or soldier, of Garibaldi) who had fought for him in 1859.  He also paraded his prognostications about the future of the war and was now less confident of his previous idea that Italy would not put up with the war for more than the present year.

Dr Lewis announced in the middle of January 1917 that he was leaving Villa Trento to work for Lord Monson in Udine, though it was unclear if Trevelyan’s negative views of him were influential in his decision to leave.  Whatever the cause, it had a dramatic impact on the workload of the remaining medical men, Ogston, Thompson and an Italian, de Lisi.  But then matters worsened dramatically when de Lisi was ordered to move permanently to Treviso.  That left Thompson and Ogston to deal with 100 inpatients and about 60 outpatients a day, plus all the casual cases that always turned up.  Thompson spoke no Italian and Ogston struggled with the “queer” dialects spoken by some of the patients.  It seemed very unlikely that they would get another capable Italian which left the alternative of shutting up half of one ward, or stopping outpatients, unless Brock was summoned back from his holiday.  All this happened on a day when Trevelyan was absent, “flying about” was Ogston’s description.  “He will get a shock when he returns”, was AO’s comment in his journal.  Alec Ogston was opposed to recalling Brock, whom he felt deserved his holiday.

Trevelyan returned and discovered the crisis that had developed in his absence.  His reaction was bizarre.  He went to AO’s room, sat down and brooded for 15 minutes without saying anything.  AO had been mulling over what could be done to try and help Trevelyan but was unsure if he would be receptive to external advice at that moment, so said nothing, until Ashby dashed in, at which Trevelyan bolted without saying a word.  “A most queer chief is Trevelyan” was Ogston’s later journal entry on the incident.  Dinner immediately followed and AO was horrified to hear Trevelyan loudly declaiming that Dr Brock was to be recalled immediately.  In Alec Ogston’s view, the driver table was no place to argue about such matters so, “I sat still and said nothing again and presently he proposed a conference in my room”.   Ogston, de Lisi, Thompson and Trevelyan met and AO spoke first to prevent Trevelyan reaching any hasty conclusion.  “I said I had been weighing the matter and considered it needless and impolite to interrupt Brock’s holiday when we could quite well manage without him, by stopping the outpatient department which could be undertaken by some of the local Italian hospitals, sending out as many patients as could be done and shutting half the wards, say those in the Granary, Garibaldi and Costa, dividing the medical cases of de Lisi between Thompson and myself, or some plan of that kind”.  De Lisi and Thompson agreed with AO, so the danger of upsetting Brock was avoided.  Alex Ogston had travelled to Italy principally to work as a surgeon dealing with war wounds but found himself, compelled by circumstances, having to act as manager and diplomat to steer a senior colleague through a difficult situation with which he was struggling to cope.  Ogston’s proposal was adopted.  His final comment on the incident in his journal was, “Dear Dr Brock ought to bless one”, but he did not know, or care, if Trevelyan appreciated what he had achieved, “so long as I can help him in difficulties”.

But the odd-ball Trevelyan’s unpredictable behaviour concerning this episode was not over.  Ogston had previously paraded his own contrasting, positive and negative, views of the hospital chief’s capabilities and the pattern persisted at the farewell dinner attended by Dr de Lisi, the departing Italian, at which his health was drunk in champagne.  At the end of the meal, Trevelyan gave a speech “such as I had not believed him capable of, such well conceived and appropriate sentiments, so sincere and true, without the faintest exaggeration, so complete, so beautifully worded and both eloquent and in the most perfect taste, as to voice, manner and emphasis.  I was charmed”.  On the negative side, Ogston thought that Trevelyan lacked political judgement.  He had given the view openly several times, which Ogston thought was injudiciously, that the Italians would not consent to fight for more than the present year.  However, AO had not heard a single Italian speak that way, nor had he seen an Italian newspaper which supported that view.  

Ogton had previously voiced an idea that the hospital based in the Villa Trento would be of more use in the war situation in which they found themselves if it were to be reduced in size, turned into a tented field hospital and moved nearer to the action, wherever that was taking place.  Trevelyan’s initial response was cool.  However, on the same evening as de Lisi’s farewell meal, Trevelyan went to AO’s room and engaged in a long discussion which the Scottish surgeon found illuminating.  Trevelyan had come round to the idea of the hospital being reduced in size and of moving forward to be a field hospital under canvas, otherwise all its advantages would be lost.  It would be entirely independent with the means to move about itself, self contained and not tied to buildings.  Also, they would need to be ready to press their needs on the Italians when the time came.  Trevelyan agreed the plan would be discussed when Brock and Donald Gray returned from leave.  He also felt that Lord Monson would not be likely to oppose the idea.  However, during this discussion on the future plan for the hospital it became clear to Ogston that it was Trevelyan who did not want to stay in this hospital beyond the end of the year and that he could have had a personal motivation for supporting AO’s radical plan.  This would have been in marked contrast with Ogston’s rationale which was centred on achieving the greatest possible benefit for the men injured in the conflict.  His journal entry for that day summed up Ogston’s views.  “Queer soul is Trevelyan!  Very!”  Generally within the hospital, AO’s ideas on the proposed transformation to a field hospital were gaining more traction and he was asked to develop and expand his ideas and agreed to do so, in consultation with Sister Power.  But he also insited that Dr Brock, whom he held in high regard, had to be fully engaged.  Ogston’s strong view was that they were not doing much good where they were but might do more good if they were elsewhere.

Suddenly, there seemed to be great enthusiasm for Alec Ogston’s reformation plan.  On the evening of Sunday 14 January 1917 a long conference was held involving Ogston, Trevelyan and Geoffrey Young, who was going home the following day.  Ogston’s idea had been accepted and with a degree of enthusiasm, and Young was delegated to enquire about tents and other materials.  AO was given the task of writing a summary of the idea, which he agreed to do and to deliver it to Young.  Sister Power helped AO with factual material on number of female nurses needed and suitable beds in their possession.  Alex Ogston also contacted Dr Brock by letter to let him know what was in the wind.  He agreed to keep the matter quiet, though AO warned him that it was likely to leak out.  Dyne told Ogston that 80% of the staff would agree to undertake any kind of work they were asked to perform, so there did not seem to be a problem looming with lower-level staff compliance.  AO’s working model was to have “5 women (3 tents), 4 officers (4 tents), 60 men (10 tents), 50 patients (15 tents), 1 QMR office – pharmacy (3 tents), isolation (1 tent).  Total 37 tents.  3 marquees for operations stores and messing.  If marquees were used for patients 10 more could be accommodated on stretchers in each or 8 if in beds”.  The hospital already possessed 20 Italian iron folding beds and 10 folding wooden ones.  Ogston also suggested acquiring a water testing box from Burroughs Welcome costing £5, probably stimulated by his experience of water-born disease close to the front in South Africa.  About this time Alexander Ogston had an even more radical suggestion for the hospital, and that was to move it to Albania.  The idea was not taken any further by him.

Ogston continued, from time to time, to relate examples of Trevelyan’s peculiar behaviour and opinions.  Before he left the Villa Trento for his vacation, Brock had warned Ogston to be wary of Trevelyan favouring the ambulance service over the hospital.  In mid-January 1917, Ogston wrote, “Trevelyan is at his game of begging everthing for his ambulance department...” .  In response, AO gave Trevelyan a warning “in distinct words” not to weaken his hospital by poaching staff.  Brock was not due back from his holiday in Rome until 28 January, an event that Ogston was anticipating with pleasure, as it would relieve him of the responsibilities of managing the hospital.  In the meantime the two had been in correspondence.  Brock alerted Ogston to rumours circulating in Rome concerning behaviour at the Villa Trento. Apparently, the friendly relations which existed between the British colleagues of both sexes had led to scurrilous rumours from the “sexual” and “unchaste” Italians that such friendships must indicate that there was widespread philandering going on.  This supposition angered Alex Ogston because he was sure it was without foundation.  He was also upset with Lord and Lady Monson, whom he accused of “behaving like fools” for believing this Italian-inspired rumour and for thinking the answer to the perceived problem was to separate the hospital staff from the men of the ambulance unit, to which Ogston reacted as follows.  “The men of the latter are a very grand set.  I would trust my own daughter unmatrimised among them”.  Trevelyan, when he heard the story, over-reacted as usual.  “So Trevelyan is in great ire and vows he will disband the whole unit after the April offensive is over.  He is a little alarming and soon heated.  And it is high time that Brock was back, for he only can manage the savage, though be it well understood.  But Lord!  These men of genius!  Heaven send me other good plain common-sense people to deal with, whose heads are too solidly glued on to be easily shaken and who have no nerves”.  Lord Monson soon came up from Rome to inspect the two units, causing Ogston to fear the worst but his anxieties were misplaced, as Trevelyan told him on Monson’s departure that he had been friendly and well disposed towards the Villa Trento.  Trevelyan also discovered that the original claim that the Villa Trento hospital was being badly run had originated with Sir Charles Delmé-Radcliffe who was military attaché to Rome and a personal friend of King Emanuele III, the husband of Queen Elena, and that after her inspection tour, the Queen had been surprised to find this hospital so good, after the rumours which preceded her visit.  On 31 January, Ogston made an ironic comment on Lord Monson, though it is unclear if this was the same or an additional visit.  “Lord Monson the plausible is here, which sets us all on edge.  So that altogether January is going out in what are not the choicest of days.  I feel we are about the climax of our bad times”.  Ogston was clearly stressed from the demands of shouldering two senior positions simultaneously.  Matters became more stressful before relief was at hand.  In early February, Trevelyan departed for Rome and would possibly bring back Brock with him.  In his absence, Ogston was left fulfilling three senior roles, officer commanding, director of the hospital and operative surgeon.

On 27 January, there had been a fire during the night at the Villa Trento.  AO had donned his cloak over his pyjamas and gone to take command of the main building, but the fire in Garibaldi Ward was soon extinguished and everyone returned to bed.  Much to Ogston’s disappointment, Dr Brock did not show up at the Villa Trento on 28 January.  No letter from Brock had hinted that he would not come back and AO was desperate for his return to share responsibilities and the acting director harboured anxieties that he would never resume his previous position.  Ogston had been remaining in the hospital to take charge should some unexpected crisis arise and this unrelenting effort was taking its toll.  He described his position as “an imprisonment and a strain”.  Jock Young had driven AO and Trevelyan to meet Brock on his arrival at the station.  There they found that the Rome train was 1 ½ hours late which they attributed to the bitter winter weather.  On returning to the Villa Trento they discovered that Brock had sent a telegram saying that he had influenza, which must have been a partial relief to Ogston despite the week’s extension to his period of responsibility.  Brock finally returned to the Villa Trento on 7 February.  After the return of Brock to assume the role of director of the hospital a new managerial initiative was put in place.  It was decided by the senior managers that each officer, by rotation, would take on the role of Officer of the Day.  The others tried to exempt AO from this duty, but he declined since he had come out to take his share of duties whatever they were.  Ogston’s concept of responsibility for, and dedication to, his role shone through his every action.  Also, with Brock back to take control of the hospital, Trevelyan and Brock offered Ogston the chance to take a month’s holiday, but after considering the matter, AO declined as he could not leave the hospital without a second surgeon.  “Well that I did so as cases are hourly coming flooding in today (11 February) and we are at our wits’ end to find beds for them”.  In mid-February Ogston contracted influenza but did not reduce his efforts and the illness “did not lose him a single hour of work”, another demonstration, if such were needed, of his dedication to his role.  A further holiday offer, a short break in Rome, was proffered later in February and, again, declined by Ogston.  Alex Ogston also worried about his daughter Flora who had been invalided home and who was heavily involved there in war work, despite the uncertain state of her health.  “And poor Flora fighting bravely away all through it practically alone and doing everything for everybody.  She is a great creature and I would right gladly for her sake return and support her but as yet it cannot be”.

Trevelyan’s attire and behaviour on the journey to the station in Udine in anticipation of Brock’s return brought forth another tirade from Ogston in his journal.  Trevelyan was “like an antactic traveller in a huge fur cloak and a woollen helmet which he changed for his military cap as we entered the town.  As usual he fell asleep in the car so that out of the bundle of kharkee woollens there peeped out only a long, nodding, parrot-like beak and a pair of spectacles”.  There was also further comment on Trevelyan’s demeanour.  “... that icicle of a man, Trevelyan.  He is an icicle: clear, straight and clean, but so cold.  An icicle one cannot but respect, without the feeling amounting to liking.  Well! Well! It just has to be”.  By the end of March 1917, good news on the conduct of the war on other fronts began to lift the spirits of the denizens of the Villa Trento “making everyone, even the gloomy Trevalyan, gay.  It is odd to see him gay”.     

In the recent past Alec Ogston had posted mixed views on his medical colleague, Dr Thompson, but soon the negative views were in the ascendancy.  Sister Power gave AO statistics on numbers of cases taken by him and by Thompson.  Thompson had 33 and Ogston 37.  Also, Ogston’s cases were “more laborious and important” and this was due to Thompson being out of the way when he was needed, “a thing I had also noticed”.  On the last day of January 1917, Ogston’s views of Thompson became more trenchant.  “Thompson not happy because he has knocked out one of his false teeth and yesterday was growling some rubbish of the needlessness of the new x-ray room, not a hopeful sign of him working that department well.  He is not a great worker as he is constantly away.  The casualties are not looked after well and I have constant calls to see them which should be his work.  Does not offer to attend the sick members of the unit and I have to volunteer my services to them, otherwise they would not be looked after”.  Ogston’s criticism continued in February.  “Thompson is a queer slightly peevish man though quite straight.  I suspect he is really not very well and strong, possibly a bit dyspeptic.  If this is so it will explain him completely.  We have never any friction I just let him “peeve””.  With an increasing influx of wounded soldiers in mid-February, Ogston again proffered negative comments on the behaviour of his surgical colleage, Dr Thompson.  “Thompson takes things easy.  He was absent during a big rush on the 11^th and it all fell on me.  He went out driving and his car was upset so that he and Seabrooke had narrow escapes of being crushed under it when it overturned.  The rush he missed was from the fight at Santa Caterina a mountain here”.  Comments on and criticisms of Thompson were becoming more frequent. On 19 February, he wrote, “Thompson in a queer mood today”.  AO thinks he is not well and has advised him to take a few days rest.  The Canadian surgeon complained to Alex Ogston that Matron has been interfering with Sister Breck, his ward sister, but Brock explained to him that the Matron was only doing her duty.  Thompson brought one of his cases to AO, a compound fracture of the thigh and injury to the rectum and admitted he could not manage it.  He wanted it sent away if possible to some specialist Italian hospital but the implication of Ogston’s remarks was surely that he would have coped with the case.  The first week of March 1917 brought more mixed observations on Thompson from his fellow resident surgeon.  “Thompson takes no interest in the new X-ray buildings, because they were not his idea.  They have still not been completed and Thompson also does not concern himself with the base’s stereoradiometer.  “He is a queer peevish fellow, but I like him”.  But a few days later, Ogston included a cryptic statement in his journal which was surely directed at Thompson and his strange behaviour.  “All good men make efforts not to be snappish”.

But it was becoming clearer by the day that Ogston’s accommodation of Thompson’s behaviour was emboldening him to exhibit yet more irritating quirks.  AO, as usual, poured out his frustrations in his journal.  “It may be the result of him not being well but Dr Thompson has queer pettish humours which require patience on my part.  If anything new is proposed he listens and holds himself aloof but after it is done finds faults and does not scruple to say how much better he could have done it.  Dr Brock tells me this has been his way.  When I came here and had to show the place to visitors the x-ray rooms were so bad especially the developing room that I was ashamed to let them be seen.  I therefore proposed that an entirely new building being constructed and this has been arranged for when Thompson comes out in the end of December.  It of course went on – might have been ready a month ago but Thompson influenced  - I hope I am not unjust to him – both Donald Gray and others so that the matter was delayed in endless little ways and as he had offered to take charge of the whole department I could say nothing.  But as time went on the needless delay became so insufferable that I consulted Dr Brock and he spoke to Trevelyan on the subject so that now there is prospect of the work being gone on with.  This will be facilitated by Thompson’s absence at Caporetto.  To which he has gone back to for a second spell of holiday.  Nothing is right which Thompson has not initiated.  I showed Thompson when he was here the very ingenious Baese’s Radio stereometer but he did not seem pleased with it, though its ingenuity and advantages are plain to anyone.  If we can only get the electricity led out to the new X-ray building we will have it in operation and then everyone is likely to see its superiority and when we have got so far it will be easier to get the developing room in it completed”.  No doubt Trevelyan, Brock and Ogston were aware of the need for caution since it would be very difficult to find another surgeon if Thompson were to be pushed out of the Villa Trento Hospital.  Once “that silly childish fellow” Thompson had returned from his holiday in Caporetto his irritating behaviour started up again.  Ogston’s Christian response was “I am resolved to have no quarrel with him, though he seems almost to wish for one”.  His way of dealing with Thompson seemed to be bearing fruit as he wrote on 3 April, “Thompson has been quarrelling with everyone, I hear but he has ceased sulking with me.  We get on quietly together”.  But Thompson was stuck in his ways, probably his disagreeable nature was immutable.  In mid-April Ogston yet again felt the need to comment on his surgical colleague.  “Dr Thompson seems in perpetual sulks”.  However, AO retained his patient attitude and Thompson continued to consult him on difficult cases. 

With Brock’s return to the Villa Trento, Ogston’s proposals to transform the base hospital at Villa Trento into a mobile field hospital were revived.  He noted that enthusiasm for the concept was growing “and soon will become irresistible”.  He was also pleased to find that Brock was coming round to accepting the idea.  Trevelyan had enquired about the availability of suitable beds for such a hospital and received a letter from Sir Edward Ward, a military man who had enjoyed a long career in military supply before becoming a senior civil servant in the War Office in 1914 and Director General of Voluntary Organisations in 1915, asking how many beds he needed to make the move.  AO urged Trevelyan and Brock to put a section under canvass as soon as it was warm enough, “so that we could learn about our deficiencies operating in this mode”.  In another supportive move, Trevelyan had written to London requesting additional funds to run the unit, which Ogston thought was an appropriate action “if he words it as he ought to”.  AO clearly doubted Trevelyan’s tact and persuasive abilities.  There was a pressing need for these preparations in Ogston’s mind, because the armies were waking up with spring in the offing after a subdued winter and, in particular, the Italians were keen to press on and increase the gains they had made against the Austrians.  Another preparation that was made in advance of the anticipated offensive by the allies was the disposal of chronic frostbite patients to destinations elsewhere in Italy to free up capacity for an expected influx of new cases.  By the end of February they were down to only 20 patients.

Sir Edward Ward.

Throughout his time in Italy, Alex Ogston received communications from his family, both in Scotland and from locations elsewhere, fairly frequently.  On 17 February, he received a telegram from his son, Alfred, in Galveston, Texas, bearing the good news that he had remarried on 14 February “the best girl in America”.  After the tragedy of the death of his first wife, Ethel, this news must have brought both joy and relief to Alex Ogston.  “Dear Alfred! I hope it will bring them both great happiness”, was his apposite journal entry.  The new wife proved to be Lucy Virginia Russell, daughter of Charles W Russell the minister from the United States to Persia.    He also heard from son Rannald, fighting on the Western Front, that he was acting as staff officer (temporary) for his general to whom he acts as ADC.  He had a good room and was happy with his position, though nervous.  Later, Flora wrote to tell AO that Rannald had been home on a short leave.  Herbert Grierson mentioned in a letter that he was thinking of sending his 19-year-old daughter out to Italy to work as a nurse, but AO considered this “most imprudent for a rather delicate girl”.

The quiet period, which had been created at the Villa Trento Hospital by the discharge of patients in preparation for new cases in the anticipated spring offensive, was utlilised to carry out spring cleaning on the wards and to allow staff to take holidays.  Both Matron and Sister Power left for a 10-day holiday in Rome and Trevelyan offered both Thompson and Ogston a 10-day break each.  Thompson accepted immediately and left for a break in Caporetto on 28 February, with Ogston scheduled to follow on Thompson’s return.  However, Ogston had other thoughts.  “But I am not inclined to leave at so important a juncture”.  He would, if possible avoid leaving and meanwhile he assumed Thompson’s case load.  Although they were daily expecting a major action to start, there was little bombardment occurring.  However, it was obvious that materials and troops were being moved forward and this process accelerated thoughout March 1917.

Alex Ogston generally had a good opinion of Italians and Italian officers and soldiers but in March 1917 he detected the simulation of illness as a tactic for avoiding service in the trenches.  During the previous winter he had seen several outbreaks of mysterious illnesses in the medical wards when he was in charge in Dr Brock’s absence.  The symptoms included generalised and localised inflammation.  But then he started observing similar symptoms in surgical patients where he was confident that there was nothing known in surgical science which could account for this phenomenon, and he then suspected that malingering was behind the new “illness”.  He had previously wondered if swinging the lead was a possible explanation from “the unwonted patience with which they submitted, without a murmur, to strong and unpleasant treatment”.  Ogston then extracted a confession from one, or more, patients and the technique being employed emerged into the open.  They possessed knowledge of various local plants, especially the spurges (Euphorbiaceae), the milky sap of which is toxic and can be applied, or injected, to cause inflammations and diseases.  Euphorbia spp sap is now well known to contain polycyclic diterpene esters, which produce extreme irritation of the skin and eyes, due to a photochemical reaction after topical application.  Later, in mid-April 1917, Dr Brock gave evidence in a case of self-mutilation by an Italian soldier.

By April 1917, there had been a major problem brewing for about six months in the Villa Trento Hospital and its genesis lay in the hospital’s origins.  Although receiving funds from the British Red Cross it had a measure of independence and a need to raise money for its ongoing operations, and it was struggling financially.  Ogston wrote on 3 April, “We have been passing through what might be called a crisis.  From early in my connection with this unit I have thought that Trevelyan, with his extraordinarily sensitive organisation, was a man ill-fitted to stand the strain of all the anxieties falling on its administration and I have said repeatedly to Dr Brock that it would be no matter of surprise were he to become insane.  Well, things are not quite so bad as that but I feel apprehensions that he is in a neurasthenic condition which may soon end in a complete nervous breakdown”.  (“Neurasthenia” is no longer, in 2026, a diagnosable condition but at the time Ogston used the term it was typically characterised by increased fatigue after mental exertion, a reduction in cognitive function and some, including Ogston, thought it a precursor to mental breakdown.)  Trevelyan, although a very bright, intellectual man, was not up to this rather basic challenge of fund-raising in addition to all his other responsibilities.  The unit had sufficient money to last until October or November 1917 but Trevelyan’s behaviour showed that he was becoming disengaged by his job, because he was feeling overwhelmed by the challenges he faced.  He could not contemplate another winter in that location and especially if they had to succumb to financial reality and become wholly funded by the British Red Cross and thus subject to the control of the disliked, even despised, Lord Monson.  The Head of the British Red Cross in Italy had previously made known his wish to break up the unit and separate the ambulance from the hospital function. 

AO was also exercised by the possibility of fighting being remote from the hospital so that, if they stayed in their present location, they would remain inactive and unable to help.  It was admitted by both Trevelyan and Brock that lack of activity on the wards was having a disquieting effect on the hospital staff.  Also some of the the ambulance staff were threatening to go home so as to serve the country better.  The hospital housed very few patients at that time, due to the lull in fighting over winter and the deliberate emptying of the wards in anticipation of a new influx of injured soldiers, once a spring offensive got underway.  Ogston had for some nonths appreciated the problems they faced and that was the main reason for his proposal to down-size the hospital, turn it into a field hospital and move to where it was most needed, ie close to any active front line. 

Another problematic issue concerned Sister Power.  Gilpin and Harris came to Brock and AO and said they were doubtful that Sister Power should be retained.  AO explained to them that though she had personal peculiarities, her ward work was excellent.  The quirks were almost entirely due to her zeal and thoroughness.  AO said he considered her almost indispensable and the complainants then backed off.  Ogston also advised them not to allow any more staff be taken on who were under the authority of the British Red Cross.  Instead, he suggested they use the Committee of the Italian Ambulance.  AO also told them that Trevelyan knew nothing of the hospital part owing to his predominating interest in the ambulance part, but was but a good adviser concerning the latter.

Dr John Gilpin, 1917.

Commissioner Trevelyan, the top official, called a meeting of his senior staff in early April 1917 to discuss the bleak financial situation.  He laid out the problems they faced and then allowed his colleagues to express their views.  The others, except Dr Brock, agreed with Trevelyan that their only two realistic options were the break up of the Villa Trento unit, or to fall under full British Red Cross control.  Ogston declined to speak.  It was decided that Gilpin should see Stanley, the Head of the British Red Cross in Rome, and let him know the possibility of the units being broken up, so that staff might leave if he would not grant financial help, or otherwise take action.  Gilpin, Harris, Trevelyan and Geoffrey Young were delegated to go to Rome to see the Ambassador and let him know the state of affairs.  Ogston had not indicated detachment from the problems by his silence.  He was actually working out where a solution might lie.

AO’s conclusions were that what was wanted was the displacement of Trevelyan and his replacement by an energetic man, with the ability to devise a proper method of informing the subscribing public about the unit and thus attracting the necessary funds.  While he thought a substitute for Trevelyan might save the situation, he also recognised that no one with those attributes was in sight.  “Another Lloyd George would certainly prevent the collapse of the unit, or its being continued in a mutilated state under the British Red Cross.  I think also the present state of discouragement might have been prevented by more energy and a better adaptation to the prospect of lively events by such means as I have before times mentioned”.  The problem with Ogston’s proposals for the way forward was that although he was in an unstable mental state, Trevelyan was still in post and AO was concerned that he would attempt to weaken Ogston’s plan for their base hospital to become a field hospital.  According to Ogston’s journal, the actions of the then present leadership were causing the members to think that the best outcome would be for the unit to collapse in the following autumn.  Ogston regretted this defeatism.  “Such a pity with so splendid a set of people and doing such a great work appreciated by Italy as an international asset, the hospital is invaluable, but Trevelyan does not understand this or indeed anything about the hospital part, though it is really the heart of the unit and is so recognised and valued in Italy”.  On 4 April, Sister Power returned from visiting hospitals in Rome and Naples and told Ogston that “the Italians were full of appreciation of our hospital but said little about our ambulance department”.  Although everyone was affected by the uncertain future of the unit, other events started to lighten the gloomy mood.  The X-ray suite was now complete and working, the weather was getting warmer, the war was progressing satisfactorily for the Allies in other theatres and a large consignment of hospital dressings had just been received from the War Dressings Department, run by Ogston’s daughter, Constance, in Aberdeen.  Her father remarked that the Aberdeen dressings were superior to those emanating from Cathcart, Edinburgh, which were “like footballs”, whereas the Aberdeen dressings were flat.  One bale had arrived by an unusual route.  It had been on board a vessel which had been torpedoed and subsequently washed up on Crete from where it had been forwarded to the Villa Trento.  New patients were also arriving at the hospital, though mostly medical cases.

Ogton was thinking about how Trevelyan might be painlessly displaced and discussed his ideas with Brock.  Could Trevelyan be induced to go back to London, leaving Rupert Thompson, one of the senior ambulance people to act as his lieutenant here, and work for the unit from the British capitol?  “He entered into the idea but, as usual on thinking it over, he found difficulties especially as Trevelyan would not consent to do so.  Brock is apt to lose impetus after making a start.  Perhaps I am too much the other way”.  Brock also disagreed with AO on the identity of the most suitable deputy for Trevelyan.  His candidate was Dyne, but Ogston differed.  The two senior doctors did manage to agree on one initiative and that was for AO to write a letter to Gilpin in London (“Gilpin” is thought to have been Dr John Gilpin, Commandant of a military hospital run by the Red Cross at Bourne, Lincolnshire).  Once the letter had been drafted, Brock showed it to Trevelyan before it was posted to London.  This missive came as a complete shock to Trevelyan because he had not appreciated the high status of the hospital under his formal command.  According to Ogston it “…really became the Swan of his unit” and that in the future any judgement of his role would be based on the achievements of the hospital and not the performance of the ambulance unit.  Ogston’s pithy remark in his journal summed up the letter’s impact.  “It is a rude awakening for him”.  Trevelyan’s response was somewhat defensive.  Although he did not deny any claim in AO’s letter he felt the ambulance unit was being relatively belittled.  Clearly pleased with the impact his letter had had, AO wrote in his journal as follows.  “But the enlightenment is a wholesome thing for Trevelyan.  He has been educated in that respect and is taking it well as a fair-minded man should.  I don’t expect he will be very cordial with me for a while”.  AO was not concerned if Trevelyan should become huffy.  “I go my own way”.  In fact Trevelyan’s reaction was the opposite of what Ogston feared, as he became “uncommonly nice”.   Ogston also showed the letter to Dyne in the Ambulance section, so that he might be aware of what was going on.  Sister Power had brought back from her holiday a photograph of Michael Angelo’s fresco of the “Last Judgement” painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, which depicts the final and eternal judgement of all mankind by Christ.  The saved are ascending in the lower left part and the damned are shown descending on the lower right.  Ogston’s judgement of Trevelyan was that he was placed amongst the “sheep” to the right of Christ on the throne, ie those who should have acted but did not.  Would he have been sent to Hell?  Ogston does not give a view.

“The Last Judgement” Michaelangelo.

Five thousand British troops were due to be sent to the Italian North-East in mid-April to bolster their capabilities.  Ogston urged Trevelyan to make contact with them so that their commanders should know about his hospital and its capabilities, “but he fluffed it as usual”. The hospital also received a visit from the Red Cross Commissioner for the Mediterranean, Sir Courtauld Thompson, who had arrived from Egypt.  He was a man AO liked, in contrast with the “soapy” Lord Monson.  Ogston then took the initiative in contacting the arriving British forces.  He waited for Dr Brock to go on leave to Rome and did not ask Trevelyan’s permission before taking Dr Thompson down to call on them.  He received a warm reception from General Hamilton, who was billeted in a fine villa in the middle of Gradiza.  The DMO was Major Elliott and he had been allocated Villa Friefeld for his hospital, though at that time they had nothing but beds and mattresses.  His ten medical officers had not yet arrived.  AO and Thompson told him of their well equipped hospital and offered to place its resources at his disposal until his own was complete.  He was pleased with the offer but not yet sure of his junior medical officers. Elliott asked if they would consult in his hospital if required.  Ogston confirmed that they would and offered to take in any of Elliott’s soldiers until he was in a position to treat them.  At that time he had only one case, of pneumonia.  Elliott and General Hamilton intended to visit the Red Cross hospital and to invite Ogston and his colleagues to their mess.  Trevelyan was pleased when he heard what Ogston and Thompson had done but the initiative that Alex Ogston had taken should have been down to Trevelyan.  

It became progressively more noticeable with time from Ogston’s journal compilations at the Villa Trento that he was occasionally repeating himself, telling the same story, but in different words, a few days apart, apparently unaware of his previous contribution.  Perhaps this was a matter of age, maybe in combination with work stress?  But perhaps what was truly remarkable was that Ogston was still able to achieve so much at his age.  He reached 73 years on 19 April 1917.  On his 73^rd birthday he did not appear to have celebrated the event in any special way.  Two significant comments for that day in his journal, which sum up his selflessness were, firstly, that he was thankful to be well enough to be of service to his country in WW1 and, secondly, that he took Sister Emily Power with him on a hospital visit and gave her 50 lire to spend on small treats for her soldier patients.

On 24 April 1917, Ogston wrote, “The Italians are awaking from their long lethargy at last and we have received intimation that they intend that great events shall speedily take place, the beginning of May being named as the time.  All night long heavy cars laden with ammunition are heading for the ftont.  Trevelyan flying about like a flash of lightening.  Trevelyan now wants urgently to make plans and to get Brock back from holiday in Naples”.  AO joined in the planning but Trevelyan’s planning activity was not sustained.  AO remarked that he was unable to settle down to planning anything.  The pending military activity did kindle one small fire in Trevelyan’s head.  He remembered Ogstons hospital reform plan.  “Old Trevelyan is waking up to other things than his motor ambulances and at least sees that the advice I long ago pressed on him to mobilise for a possible advance of the hospital has to be taken.  So at his request I lugged out my old plans of mobilisation.  Drew up yesterday a full set of practicable proposals and submitted them last night to a meeting at which besides him and myself Dr Thompson, Dyne, Phil Baker, Donald Gray and Braithwaite were present.  They seemed to be in favour and it was remitted to me Thompson and Baker to work them out in detail against Dr Brock’s return on the 29th.  I went over them this afternoon with Baker who has had experience of such things in France.  He liked them and found little new to suggest for their perfectioning.  Thompson couldn’t come having to go to Udine to see about a motor and dynamo for the radiographic outfit ...”.  (Philip John Baker, later after marriage to Irene Noel, a field hospital nurse, known by the surname Noel-Baker was a consciencious objector during WW1 and was appointed as adjutant to the ambulance unit at Villa Trento.  After the war he became a successful Olympic athlete, academic, politician, peace campaigner and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1959).

Philip Noel-Baker.

However, the new hospital plan was not to create a field hospital but the institution of a new stationary hospital in Goriza, much nearer to the active front and therefore more suitable for dealing with the casualties of the fighting..  The Villa Trento staff were allocated a building in Goriza which was now much safer from shelling due to the capture of the heights overlooking the town by the Italian Army.  There was considerable enthusiasm for the new hospital and Ogston had the demanding task of incorporating all reasonable ideas and proposals, from both hospital and ambulance staff, into his draft plan.  Dr Brock, who had been away from the Villa Trento on holiday returned on 28 April.  His main contribution was to insist that the number of beds in the new unit should not be reduced below 100.  The same day, Ogston, Trevelyan, Brock and Geoffrey Young drove out to consult with Colonel Santicci and then went on to visit the British gunners’ new hospital.  They had ten doctors but little in the way of hospital equipment and supplies.  The Red Cross had to step in to help, including ambulances, two coming from each of the 1^st (Villa Trento) and 3^rd Red Cross Ambulance Units.  An excellent relationship had been established with the British contingent and their commender, General Hamilton and other military ofiicers came to visit the facilities of the Villa Trento unit.  Alex Ogston remarked, quite acidly, that Dr Thompson was now becoming quite proud to show important visitors around the new X-ray facility. 

Starting about 3 May, Alec Ogston began to suffer from his old bugbear, dysentery, requiring him to medicate himself frequently with chlorodyne or opium in order to avoid having to step back from his duties, which he was very keen to avoid, when his hospital mobilisation plans might become a hostage to fortune.  Ogston’s scheme was debated at length on Thursday evening, 3 May, with Trevelyan in the chair.  But Ogston was very unhappy with his performance.  “Trevelyan behaved like a fool.  He had no notion of how to chair a meeting and it practically fell to me to regulate the discussion and even to insist on such notes as had been taken, meagre and foolish as they were, being read out ere we broke up.  I had to show a little temper too, protesting strongly and angrily against the assumption that Dr Thompson would have the monopoly of the anaesthetics and the x-rays.  Nobody backed me and Thompson did not play a magnanimous part; but I owned all my points just by determination”.  Perhaps not surprisingly, Trevelyan spoke to Ogston the morning after this meeting and asked him if he was dissatisfied with anything.  In truth the Aberdeen surgeon could hardly have been anything but unhappy and he metaphorically discharged two barrels at his interlocutor.  “I replied “yes, I was”.  That I should ever have been placed in the position of having to protest against one surgeon monopolising what was the common property of all.  I also told him I thought his meeting was a muddle, leaving no proper provision for the unexpected and mentioned some other minor points”.  Ogston’s dissatisfaction with Trevelyan’s managerial deficiencies had almost reached the point of showing open disrespect to the unit’s commissioner.  However, on 5 May, after further modifications to the plan by Ogston, Trevelyan signed off the final draft.  Alexander Ogston’s last statement on the process of agreeing the plan was a perfect illustration of democracy’s deficiencies in the face of bright, diversely opinionated participants.  “Brought to completion and adoption in the face of some opposition and a great deal of foolish procrastination and to have done it with the unanimous consent of all.  In so democratic a body as this unit, it is no small achievement”.  On 9 May, Trevelyan was due to motor to Caporeto and offered to take Ogston with him, “but I got out of it.  I could not well stand a whole day with Trevelyan.  We are better apart”.  Ogston’s plan for mobilisation received wide circulation from 13 May since it could act as a model for other locations.     

Up to 12 May 1917, the staff of the unit were on tenterhooks, anticipating that the military action would start any day but then waking to find that it was still the lull before the storm.  Ogston wote, “Here we are all in the jumps waiting day by day for the Italians to do something.  They have had the whole winter to purpose and half the spring.  They have been running up guns ammunition and men until the country is just swarming like a beehive”.  This was a kind of phoney war but at least the time was used productively for what they anticipated was just over the horizon.  The first aim was to clear out all patients from the wards in anticipation of a flood of demand.  By 10 May only one of AO’s patients remained and would soon be gone.  The sheds which might be needed to accommodate the wounded were cleaned and the barracca where the Italian soldiers slept had been emptied of them for the same purpose.  If necessary, the hospital could accommodate double the normal quota of patients sleeping on mattresses placed on the ground.  At this time there was a curious disagreement between Ogston and Dr Thompson, almost involving a role reversal.  Dr Thompson expressed a willingness to take in a large number of wounded, 200 at least, while Ogston was much more conservative and inclined to offer only 120 beds, since the larger the number, the less it becomes possible to give the sick and wounded the best treatment.  He was anxious to give the Italians no room for criticism of the hospital’s work.  The delay by the Italians in starting a new thrust against the Austrian lines caused Ogston to doubt the capabilities of Luigi Cadorna, their Commander in Chief of the Royal Italian Army.  “So many times one has heard from other fronts that there is little trust to be placed in Italy’s help; hitherto I have always repelled such suggestions but now I begin to wonder if these opinions were correct and mine were wrong.  It is puzzling and it aggravates”.

Luigi Cadorna.

Arthur Stanley, the Chairman of the British Red Cross Society was an important visitor to the Villa Trento on 11 May 1917.  He arrived accompanied by a bevvy of other VIPs, his secretary, Lord Monson, two Italian officers, Sir Courtold Thompson and Trevelyan.  Ogston was offered the opportunity to have a private interview with Stanley and he assented.  Stanley mentioned the friction which had characterised the relationship between Lord Monson and the Villa Trento senior officers and said he hoped to see it dissipated.  In response, Ogston, who was clearly in no mood to pull his punches, responded that Monson lacked tact and had been disloyal to the unit concerning Queen Elena’s visit.  Next, Stanley informed the Aberdeen surgeon that this visit should help to run the unit on better lines but he hoped the unit would in future fall in with the Red Cross.  This posed a dilemma for Ogston, since he did not want the chairman’s desired outcome.  “What could I say to that” was the start of his terse journal entry.  “I told what I had seen and had first warned.  The Italian surgeons, ... the effect on patients as well, the total result on Italy and Anglophilia and he would be sorry if suggestions for discontinuance of this unit were to take effect”.  Stanley then reassured him that the unit would be sustained.and that it was the best British agency in Italy.  Stanley asked if AO would go down to Brindisi to establish a hospital there for British soldiers going and coming from Salonika, as Sir Alfred Keogh, Director General of Army Medical Services, had been planning.  Ogston responded that he and the others here would consider any such proposal on the grounds of what duty to England and to others dictated.  Stanley admitted that he could not get medical officers to serve there and it is doubtful if Ogston would willingly go to that Italian town bearing in mind his personal experiences of the place.  The drift of Stanley’s questioning then turned to the rumours about personal standards which had been circulating in Rome.  What was the characted of the women serving in this unit?  Ogston assured him that they were of a “high character”.  And the men?  AO replied that they were “strong men and minds” but that they lived together in harmony and that they ran an efficient hospital.  Stanley’s final reassurance to Ogston was that he would give the unit anything it requested.  He wanted it to succeed in its independent cause.  After the departure of Stanley’s party for Udine, Ogston relayed the gist of his conversation to Trevelyan and Brock.      

The day after Stanley’s visit there was a heavy bombardment by the Allies’ artillery of the Austrian positions and soon there was an influx of injured men from the fighting on Monte Santo, almost all suffering from shell and bullet wounds.  Ogston unfortunately developed “a touch of lumbago” but, in typical Ogston style, he worked through his discomfort and gave his full attention to the 23 newly arrived patients under his care, “though it tired me somewhat”.  Other heights overlooking Gorize, including San Gabriela, San Daniela and Monte Kuk were also under attack.  Although, overall, the casualties were fewer than had been anticipated, recovering them from the battlefield was particularly difficult in these engagements because of precipitous ground and bush-tangled slopes, sometimes made more problematical by the extractions having to take place at night.  The Villa Trento ambulancemen, under the command of Trevelyan, played a leading role in these evacuations.

The hospital soon became a hive of activity.  From being empty it filled up in a couple of days with between 200 and 300 patients and sheds and outside shelters sometimes only with mattresses filled with straw or tables on tressles under the trees had to be used as emergency accommodation.  The officers’ ward, Margherita, was soon full and the next best fitted out wards, Elena and Vittoria, were also used to house officers, in addition to private soldiers.  Ogston had a better opinion of the officers than of the privates. The commissioned ranks behaved like the “fine set of fellows they are”, neither complaining nor whining but suffering silently.  This was in marked contrast to the privates.  Periodically an ambulance would draw up, its arrival announced by three whistles, and surgeons, bearers and nurses would immediately attend to the new arrivals.  First, they were transported to suitable wards, put to bed, undressed, washed, fed, and comforted and only then were their field dressings removed, examination made of their injuries and decisions taken on how their wounds should be treated.  The radiographer Mr Garon was kept hard at work and was deserving of great credit for his efforts.  Thompson, for some unexplained reason, declined to treat any of the officers who, as a result, were all allotted to AO.  This was enervating work, but Ogston would occasionally have an opportunity to take a walk outside at night to observe the spectacle of the bombardment and to breath fresh, cool air.  Another valuble relaxation was reading letters from “my poor bairns.  I am longing to see them all.  Lucy writes me her first letter, a lovely one”.  As soon as the wounded could safely be moved they were sent back to Udine, or further south into Italy, if they were likely to need prolonged treatment or rest.  Trainloads were despatched daily and new arrivals quickly occupied the vacated places.  AO often rose early, so that he would have time to think of what was best for his cases and he was often at work for seven or eight hours a day.

The British artillery detachment at Gradisca had established its own hospital but it had been shelled, requiring the removal of its patients to hospital 60.06 (or 06.60), located near Gradisca.  This was a hospital which had been established by Lord Monson as a showpiece establishment for the Italians and it had money lavished upon it in an attempt, one suspects, to bolster his personal image.  This was in marked contrast to his attitude towards the Villa Trento hospital.  But Alex Ogston was deeply sceptical of the value of the resulting set-up.  “The magnificent-looking hospital gives no good results in the way of comfort.  There are many irksome (Italian) restrictions such as smoking, the nursing by men is rough and ready and discontent is rife among the British patients there.  We are all much concerned about this, which shows that the money spent in trying to make show plans of the Italian Hospital would, save for Monson jealousy of us, have been better bestowed in supplying this hospital unit, whose nursing staff makes it inevitably a real credit to England while Monson’s 60.06 hospital is all show”.  Both Brock and Ogston had great expectations for their new site at Goriza, hoping to turn it into a first class hospital.  With this aim in mind, Ogston advised Brock to have a lift fitted for the patients.  Although he had spoken about sparing no expense, this idea seemed to stagger him.  By 26 May 1917, the new hospital buildings were complete but not occupied.  Ogston picked up more rumour concerning Lord Monson from a meeting with Dr Hapson and Donald Gray on 16 May There had been a letter published in The Times by Lord Weardale.  He was notably both an opponent of war and of women’s suffrage.  His letter had asserted that the Villa Trento hospital was independent of the Red Cross.  Dr Brock was a friend of the popular writer and poet, Rudyard Kipling and had invited the author to visit the Villa Trento but he did not come, Brock suspected because he had been dissuaded by Lord Monson. Further scuttlebutt had come fromTrevelyan who said he had had a satisfactory talk with Stanley.  His advice was that Monson had no call to interfere with Red Cross units, his position being only concerned with questions of policy.  Stanley said he would give Trevelyan any funds he needed for the hospital from the Red Cross Commissioner and Trevelyan thought division of reporting would work.  Stanley also said that he thought very highly of our hospital.  Monson was evidently intensively disliked and had not been a success in his role of British Red Cross Commissioner for Italy.

Alexander Ogston’s descriptive powers also emerged from hibernation with the passing of winter, and he later described the environment, which he recorded in his diary for May 1917.  “It was hardly possible to sleep at nights for the passage of troops in the dark, the rattling and whistling of despatch riders on their motor bicycles, the flapping of the caterpillar cars, the grinding of armoured turrets and gun carriages, the hooting and shrilling of lorries carrying the heavy artillery shells, the sirens of the automobiles, the whistling of the railway trains, and the tread of the mule convoys, carts and the feet of the soldiers, while their raucous voices were mixed all night long with the whirring of the aeroplanes and the explosions of the bombs they were dropping.  The army was awakening from its lethargy …”.  However, the Italian advance, while very successful did not lead to the capture of Trieste, which did not fall until November of 1918. 

 

It was Alec Ogston’s opinion that the Italian Army had performed well in its spring 1917 offensive in the North-East of the country.  “Admiration for the Italians increases the more one gets to know them”.  The offensive produced an intense period of activity at the Villa Trento hospital and for its septuagenarian surgeon.  But Ogston was also full of praise for Trevelyan and his leadership of the ambulance section at this time.  One of their ambulance cars had been destroyed by a shell but Trevelyan had been out and about at the front directing his resources.  He too was being exhausted by the demands made on him.  “Trevelyan came in today like a ghost, voiceless from laryngitis”.  The Aberdeen surgeon was also glad to note that Trevelyan had taken to wearing a steel helmet on these sorties.  Ogston too was heavily occupied and had “many anxious cases and many operations which need a good deal of planning and devising.  I fear at last that I am going to have a death among my operations which have up to now been a series of unbroken successes”.  In fact his patient who was causing concern did expire a few days later on 26 May.  “My 60th operation and first death from shell wound of the hip joint, with progressive, secondary haemorrhaging, necessitating disarticulation of the hip joint, took place yesterday.  Dr Thompson helped at the operation”.  Ogston also referred to the demands of such complex operations.  “The operations take it out of me but not much more than when I was in my prime, which is a marvel.  I am so thankful that I can still do good work and I can feel that the patients and the nurses are aware that my work is rather high-class”.  This was an almost unique occasion when Ogston came close to boasting of his operative prowess.  Interestingly, Ogston was also full of praise for Dr Thompson for his “devoted help”.  At least at this time there seemed to exist a real feeling of togetherness and team work as the two surgeons tackled the tasks at hand.  The injuries they encountered were most often from shell splinters.  Care was in hand within a very few hours of injuries being inflicted and treatment immediately put in train.  Wounds were dressed one, two or three times a day and sponged daily.  This was “a great contrast to Italian hospitals”. Ogston’s assessment of the hospital’s performance?  “It is splendid”.   

As the activity from the Italian spring offensive died down in early June, so too did the flow of injured soldiers into the Villa Trento hospital.  The growing reputation of Villa Trento was leading to more injured Italian officers being sent there for treatment.  But what was becoming clear was that the high standing of the hospital for both surgical skill and nursing care was resulting in a stream of visitors, which was not welcomed by Ogston.  The Duchess of Aosta, a Bourbon, who was very tall, slender and graceful, and spoke perfect English, visited the hospital on the 28^th May.  AO was the only officer present and so required to receive her.  She proved to be delightful with both the patients and the nursing staff, and showed interest in the new radiographic rooms.  AO soon gained the impression that he was being kept at the hospital as a sort of showman to entertain and engage with visitors.  His view was that Thompson was no good in such a reception and conduction role because his Italian was poor.  Also, AO had the rank of a Territorial Colonel which assured VIPs that they were being taken seriously.  Ogston felt that he was being useful in his way, in addition to his surgical skills.  Mrs Brock was unhappy and AO likened her to his sister, Jane.  “She speaks her mind freely in an uncompromising and familiar way”.  She came to AO’s room to complain about Sir Charles Delmé-Radcliffe’s (military attaché to Rome) attitude to the unit.  She said he seems to hate it, speaks badly of it and deters anyone from coming.  He appeared to have dissuaded the Prince of Wales, Rudyard Kippling and other prominent people from visiting the hospital, which was the only British hospital in Italy.  Apparently this performance was repeated last week with the Duke of Connaught.  Mrs Brock also gave AO her mind about Dr Thompson.  She admitted his abilities as a surgeon but disliked his manners and, according to Ogston, “has grounds for both these opinions”. 

The lull in fighting and the concomitant decline in new patients did not last for long.  By 10 June, the flow of the newly injured was again picking up.  AO was fortunate with the cases allotted to him but Thompson had a good many deaths amongst the patients for whom he was responsible.  Most of the ambulance cars had been struck by projectiles at some stage in the recent action but, so far, none of the ambulance staff had been injured.  However, that good fortune changed about 10 June when a new Red Cross ambulance driver, Mr Davis, was hit in the head by a shell fragment and killed.  Also, the leader of the unit, Trevelyan, seemed to have dropped from sight, though he apparently told Ogston that “he would like a death amongst the mountains”.   “A good fellow but a strange man” was Ogston’s reaction.  Trevelyan and Brock yet again offered Ogston the opportunity to take a holiday, probably concerned at the unrelenting effort he brought to his role, but the surgeon again declined as he felt he had too much work going on to permit his absence.  Another personnel problem, which had previously raised its head was the behaviour of Sister Power who had been promoted to Matron.  Ogston, who had previously defended her vigilance in the role of ward sister, was not consulted on this latest upward move.  Her problem in this more senior role was summarised by AO.  “As a ward sister she was unsurpassable but as Matron under the Red Cross was too much for her.  She has been bossing everyone and everything”.  In modern parlance she would have been branded as a micromanager.  Another personnel change in mid-June 1917 was the arrival of Dr Brock’s wife to take on the role of housekeeper.  “Mrs Brock is not strong but she has an indomitable spirit”, was AO’s summary of her personality.  In these sometimes tense circumstances, AO decided simply to get on quietly and do his own work conscienciously and unobtrusively, and not to go beyond his remit unless asked to do so, though, almost inevitably, his views were soon sought on a solution to the matron problem.

Perhaps inevitably, the personnel problems did not resolve themselves and continued to nag at Ogston.  He reprised his perception of the issues in his Journal on 28 June 1917.  “I don’t quite like the condition that this unit is getting into.  It looks more and more as if little would destroy it altogether.  The best men are many of them gone.  More are going and it is difficult to find substitutes for them of proper quality”.  Ogston again suspected that Trevelyan wanted away and may have been hoping for a collapse of the whole organisation before the autumn was over.  Although Dr Brock was doing his best, the hospital section was not in an entirely satisfactory state. Ogston’s colleague, Dr Thompson, was not robust and if he and Thompson were to leave, it would be impossible to replace them, and the hospital section would then collapse.  But the most pressing personnel problem soon reasserted itself because, in Ogston’s words, “Matron Sister Power and Mrs Edwards are at daggers drawn”.  Trevelyan and Ogston exchanged views on the matron problem when the former went to Ogston’s room and asked for his opinion.  AO said he thought Sister Power had overestimated her importance and tried to “boss” people, though he had resisted her hectoring.  He felt she could not be dismissed because of her rank but, he suggested, her voluntary withdrawal might be a possible solution.  But he was firm in his conviction that she should go and he thought that it would not be difficult to obtain a replacement of better social position and equally qualified.  Ogston again appeared to have possessed snobbish tendencies!  Trevelyan asked AO to discuss the matter with Brock.  They agreed to leave the situation for a few weeks to a time when they might be in England and could see what staff might be available as a replacement.  At least by 1 July, Trevelyan and Stanley had reconciled with the British Red Cross.  It had been agreed that Monson was not to interfere with the Villa Trento’s independence.          

After the design, construction and commissioning of the new X-tay facility, the next improvement in hospital facilities that Ogston sought was a new and larger operating theatre.  Sometime previously a new instrument, a Wheatstone stereoscope had been ordered and arrived about 24 June.  This machine provided a stereoscopic view of an injury from a pair of x-ray plates taken at different angles. It was a rough forerunner of a modern CT scan.  AO remarked that he found it very useful, particularly in one complicated case.  The unit had also started using injections of bismuth to increade the contrast in radiographs.  Another improvement in the hospital’s facilities was Brock’s project for building a new reception house which at that time was reaching fruition. At least in the ambulance section the Aberdeen cars, that had been presented to them, had done well.  They had been funded by Mrs Davidson, Mr William Smith, Lady Sempill, and two from the Scottish Red Cross.  In July, the opportunity arose for the unit to acquire a “type writing machine”, a “Corona” from Taylor & Co. 

The sophisticated and intellectual Trevelyan had been entertaining his colleagues, many of whom also had literary interests, with readings from the works of Shakespeare and the likes.  AO attended one such event for the first time on 1 July 1917.  It was Henry IV part ii.  AO asked Trevelyan to read “Genevive” to them one night but he decline because he disliked Tennyson’s poetry. 

Meanwhile the hot weather in the summer of 1917 and the continuing military activity brough further problems for Alex Ogston and his co-workers in the hospital.  “… we, stripped to shirt and trousers, continued our work among the wounded, soothing the shell-shattered forms, arranging ease to the broken limbs, and anxiously watching the joints which had been perforated by rifle bullets or fragments of shell for evil symptoms to arise.  It was warm and anxious work in the middle and end of that month, but a joy to be able to do so great things for those whom the war had mutilated and lacerated”. 

 

Captain Braithwaite of the Royal Army Medical Corps wrote about his experiences serving on the north-east front in Italy.  He was full of praise for the work of the British Red Cross there and was for a time a patient in “the Italian hospital near Udine” (presumably the Villa Trento establishment), “… it was the most efficient hospital I have ever been in, and the kindness showered on one, by doctors and nurses, was extraordinary.  Colonel Sir Alexander Ogston, the commanding officer, was first and foremost in this matter, and I owe him a debt of gratitude that it will be very difficult to repay”.  Even at the age of 73, Alexander Ogston’s powers of leadership were undimmed.

 

Alex Ogston developed a great admiration for the Italians as fighters and also as decent human beings.  “Few troops in the world could have done what Italy was doing – they were doing the impossible.  They were gaining a name equal to any before won, and their valour was matched by their chivalrous kindness to the captured and wounded of the enemy.  They were once more proving to the world that they are a great and brave people, whom one cannot too highly admire.  Above all we admired the modesty of the Italians.  In the midst of their great achievements, I did not hear a boast, nor a word of self-appreciation or self-laudation.  Neither officer nor private showed a trace of swagger, though they knew that the rest of the world was looking on and admiring”.  AO’s opinion of the Italians was clearly very high.

By mid-July, case numbers were reducing but, because drivers were leaving the ambulance unit, there was a shortage of drivers and, for a while, Dr Thompson acted as a driver.  One of their own invalids, Miss Dalton, who had been ill for a substantial time following a bout of paratyphoid, was now doing well and Allen’s thigh bone had been radiographed again using bismuth injections.  The reduction of activity at the hospital allowed staff to take holidays again.  Mrs Brock and about half a dozen of their nurses went on holiday to Venice.  They asked AO to accompany them but he declined, though Matron Sister Power went with them.  Although he did not go to Venice, Alex Ogston did plan to return to Scotland for a holiday, leaving in mid-September 1917.  It was later agreed with Trevelyan and Brock that he would leave on the 17^th of the month and be away for six clear weeks from the date he reached London.  He then planned to leave London on 2 October to return to Italy.  On the way back to the UK he proposed to see some of the tourist sites in those locations where he called without disrupting his travel plans.  Dr Thompson had no qualms about taking yet another holiday and he left for a three-day break in Milan on 22 July, leaving no one to provide an X–ray service in his absence.  Apparently he expected AO to manage without radiographs for that period, but AO refused, though it was not made clear how the deficiency was rectified, though it may have been Dr Brock who manned the equipment, which was needed as two urgent cases came in, one a fracture in the wards, the other sent from an Italian hospital to be “X-rayed”!  Ogston was also unhappy about attitudes in the Ambulance section.  “One has to be firm with the Ambulance Section.  They do not consider the hospital section much”.  Alex Ogston had also recently been quiet in voicing his opinions of Dr Thompson but, at this time, he repeated his mixed feelings about his fellow surgeon, describing him as “a fair man but far from being a first class man”.  Before the end of July, his criticisms had become more trenchant.  “Dr Thompson is looking unwell and is always somewhat grumpy in his manners, though not to me.  He does little work and goes about much with the drivers in their journeys.  He is losing interest in the unit”.

 

At the end of July 1917, Alexander Ogston had reason to complain about the behaviour of the local Italian population.  “The peasantry around this area reap a rich harvest from this unit by their dishonesty.  They steal washing, pilfer stores of coffee and food and get various sorts of utensils.  They are aided by Italian workmen employed by the hospital”.  But petty theft by the natives soon became one of the least of the issues facing him.  The locally-based English artillerymen were suffering a steadily increasing incidence of sickness.  The ill English soldiers could not all be accommodated in the Artillery hospital and AO was asked to take some in at the Villa Trento.  It was also becoming clear that more military action was in the offing as great quantities of equipment such as trench mortars and aerial torpedoes were being transported up the mountains.  The Italian drivers were being overworked and tended to fall asleep, especially at night, with the consequence of running off the road.  AO also was unwell and often felt faint on his rounds.  By 31 July, many artillerymen were ill, mainly with dysentery and gastro-intestinal diseases.  Their commanding officer, Colonel Elliott broke down and was brought to the Villa Trento on a stretcher, though his medical problems proved to be more serious.  He had pneumonia, some diabetes and atheromatous arteries.  “His chances of survival do not look good”, was Ogston’s prognosis, though it proved to be excessively gloomy as Elliott recovered in a few days but then had to leave for home.   The conditions reminded AO of his own experience at Bloemfontein 16 years previously.  To cap it all, Dr Thompson had also collapsed with a high temperature, though he too soon recovered and was back on duty by 5 August.

The time for Ogston’s departure for Scotland was approaching and Trevelyan was starting to worry that he might not return.  On 4 August he spoke to AO and told him he appreciated the honour Ogston had done to the unit by residing in it and asked AO to return after his leave.  AO assured him that that was his intention.  Three of the ambulance staff had received Italian medals “for valour”, Geoffrey Young silver and Metcalf and Sessions bronze.  The matron problem had not been tackled and, inevitably it raised its head again.  Sister Sutcliffe had become mutinous and was querulous at some of Sister Power’s ways.  She refused to go on night duty on 7 August and was removed from her posting and sent away two days later.  Although Ogston concluded that “She is not of the right sort”, it seems possible that the hospital management had brought the situation on itself by not tackling its root cause.  Another personnel issue arose when Countess Gleichen and Mrs Hollings announced their wish to leave. They alleged that their hands were suffering from the X-rays but Ogston suspected, perhaps unfairly, that this was an excuse and that, in truth, they were rather tired of their work.  The damaging effects of ionizing radiation, leading especially to the amputation of fingers, hands and even whole arms, was known by 1917 but the medical use of X-rays was not accompanied by any protective measures until the 1940s.  That was not the end of nursing dissent.  On 22 August, Another sister, Miss Maskell refused to work.  AO did not say if a dispute with Matron Sister Power was involved but he expressed the hope that Brock, Trevelyan and Monson would deal firmly with her.  However, according to Ogston, “Miss Maskell’s meeting has ignominiously collapsed”.

Ogston’s exhaustion was becoming obvious and was made worse by yet more high level delegations visiting the hospital.  On 11 August, Lord Monson, Sir Courtauld Thompson and Colonel Lamb arrived on an inspection visit at Trevelyan’s request and a further visit by Queen Elena was in the offing, which required either Ogston or Brock to be present at the hospital at all times.  During their visit, Lord Monson and Sir Courtauld took lunch at the hospital and “were most agreeable”.  They conceded that Trevelyan would continue to act independently and so peace reigned once more.  Another significant factor contributing to the Aberdeen surgeon’s fatigue was the frequent absence of the other Villa Trento surgeon, Dr Thompson.  On 15 August Ogston noted that Thompson had been away in Milan for a week, again, and AO will be glad for his return because, in his absence he is carrying Thompson’s patient load.  “No one knows why he remains there”, was Ogston’s journal entry, surely freighted with a load of suspicion that the reason was not legitimate.  AO admitted he would have to ask for a break but felt he would be shirking work with everyone else depending on him at that time.  Despite his tiredness, Ogston derived great satisfaction from doing such useful work.  He also hinted at his surprise that he was still capable of such effort.  “This war and at the age of 73 too!”  He was sustained by frequent letters from home, especially daughter Flora.  “She is one of the best”.

Another serious issue then arose, not ftom the internal working of the Villa Trento hospital or the overbearing attitudes of officials in Rome but from Colonel Angelantonio of the Italian Army.  He decreed, in arbitrary, military fashion, that in future all specialist injury cases, auch as cranial, thoracic and abdominal injuries, were to be sent exclusively to specialist hospitals.  Fractures, too, were all to be sent to specialist fracture hospitals.  If implemented this directive would have left the Villa Trento unit with only medical cases and slight flesh wounds to handle.  There would no longer be a role for surgeons with the advanced skill set that AO and Dr Thompson possessed and the Villa Trento hospital would wither away.  So Trevalyan, Brock and AO set off to talk to Colonel Santucci, with whom they enjoyed a cordial relationship, on the subject.  He agreed that the arrangement would likely prove to be unworkable.  He felt they should also take their case to d’Angelantonio and that meeting took place on 13 August.  His ruling would not only have affected Ogston, Thompson and their experienced nurses, but also many able Italian surgeons too.  They would all have been reduced to the status of mere observers of wounds.  At the meeting, Trevelyan, to Ogston’s delight, was very firm with d’Angelantonio, pointing out that their hospital was well equipped with medicines, kit and personnel, both medical and nursing and was located on international ground.   They would probably have to leave if d’Angelantonio went ahead with his plan.  The Italian then backed off from his arbitrary instruction and it was agreed that decisions on destinations of wounded soldiers would rest with the medical officers of the respective corps.  The Villa Trento trio then told Santucci of this concession by d’Angelantonio and he was delighted. 

Extensive military preparations were taking place in mid-August 1917 and this inevitably led to speculation about where and when the anticipated advance would happen.  Trevelyan speculated that the action would start in September and asked Ogston if he would postpone his leave if that happened, to which request AO agreed.  In his journal, Ogston recorded that there was “An anthill of military activity”.  He further noted that war correspondents had started appearing, which was another sign that military action was imminent. On the 17^th of the month they received a specific message saying that action was about to kick off that night and AO judged that every patient in his care was, indeed, fit to move.  One such wounded soldier had received three pieces of shrapnel in the region of his heart.  AO did a complicated operation to remove them, including inserting his hand into the lung cavity, “otherwise he would have been lost”.  After this heroic act, Alex Ogston added the following philosophical entry to his journal.  “And I too am grateful that in my old age I shall have been permitted to do so much good work in this – the greatest war the world will even witness.  It will be a happy thing to look back upon when my time comes”.

On 17 August 1917, Thompson returned to the Villa Trento from his latest sojourn in Milan but, almost incredibly, he returned to Italy’s second city in just two days’ time.  “I go quietly on and show no sign”.  Ogston thinks that Trevelyan, and even Thompson, are starting to feel shame at this state of affairs but, if so, Trevelyan did not exercise any managerial authority to hold Thompson in check and the surgeon certainly did not show any self-restraint.  Every day seemed to bring military action on this front closer and Ogston anticipated having to sustain a month of hard work before he left for his longed-for furlough.  Also on this day, Alex Ogston passed an important milestone in his Italian odyssey: he performed his 90^th operation, a difficult one locating and uniting the divided musculo-spiral nerve at the bend of the elbow.

Serious action had not started locally by 19 August as judged by the lack of new patients, though they were anticipating an infantry attack that night.  Ogston only had care of two surgical cases though the hospital was housing 70 English artillery men with medical conditions.  The new operating theatre was ready, though it still awaited some fittings from Milan.  The battle was now raging all along the Italian front from the Adriatic to Tolmino and along the Isonzo River.  The first of the wounded arrived at the hospital about dinner time on the 21^st and it must have annoyed, but not surprised Ogston to discover that Thompson was not present and, further, that no one knew of his whereabouts.  “Very Queer!!” was his brief journal entry.  Thompson finally turned up later that day. 

There was a staff death on 19 August.  Meredith, one of the drivers, who had been suffering from dysentery, died.  He was buried on 21^st August.  It was a formal ceremony and one of their (Ambulance unit’s?) caminos was drawn up, together with a squad of Italian soldiers.  His comrades carried the coffin and the Italians presented arms.  There were two wreaths, one from the Italian soldiers and one from the sisters and nurses at Villa Trento.  Trevelyan, Brock and AO accompanied the coffin, along with some nurses and sisters, to Gradisca where there was a small graveyard with an English corner.  (At this point, Alec Ogston appeared to become confused with his use of Italian words.  “Camino” is Italian for a fireplace.  He used “van” in the next sentence but the Italian for van is “furgone”.  Was he getting confused with the French word for lorry, “camion”?)  It was unfortunate that the date of Merdith’s burial fell within a period of intense fighting, which required many of the drivers to be away near the front, both night and day.  At least the Italians were making significant advances with substantial numbers of Austrian troops being taken captive, which AO observed filing past their gates.  Trevelyan was again busy in the field with the ambulances and, as he passed through several ambulance stations, he picked up news of the battle which he then passed on to his colleagues at the Villa Trento.  Because he remained reserved and bereft of emotion, in the face of good news, Ogston took a dig at Trevelyan’s countenance in his war journal. “He tells them in a gloomy fashion, as if he feared that he was, what we Scots call, “tempting providence” and inviting a reversal by doing so.  But he fails entirely to conceal that he is now at last hopeful”.  At the end of August the ambulance unit suffered another, even greater, tragedy when one of their drivers drove his vehicle, which was carrying several cases of sitting wounded, through the parapet of a bridge and into the stream below, killing him and four of his passengers.

During this rush of activity, the hospital received yet another VIP visit, this time from two Italian big cheeses, General Benomo and Professor Burei.  But Thompson again managed to absent himself from reception duties.  Ogston’s frustration with his colleague was recorded.  “I don’t understand Thompson.  His heart is not really in his work and he will never make a name though he possesses the brains”.  AO does not know if this is due to his health or to him being very religious.  “He has peevish faulty ways that spoil him.  He is at present grumbling that so many British artillery men are here, filling up the wards, yet he has one ward of 16 beds standing empty”.  AO offered any arrangement that would please Thompson but he then went off at AO’s attitude and departed to discuss the matter with Dr Brock.  At least the Italian visitors were impressed by what they saw and Burei hailed AO as “one of his masters in surgery”.

The same day, 25 August, that he recorded his latest negative views on Thompson, Ogston also composed a diatribe on Lord Monson’s vanity.  “Lord Monson seems to have a weakness for putting himself into uniform.  When first I saw him he wore the Red Cross uniform with thick stripes of black and white braid on his sleeves.  Next he blossomed into four stripes.  Three major, four colonel.  Later five stripes.  This morning he turned out as a Lieutenant Colonel of the British Army.  With cross belts, 3 or 4 stripes of the Army braid and the crown and single star on his cuffs”.

The Italian successes inevitably brought more casualties and more work for the ever-willing Ogston.  However, the external noise of tramping troops and overflying aircraft made it impossible for him to use a stethoscope in chest examinations.  Also, he could not hear the sounds of the telephone probe when searching for bullets.  “So much depends upon the early management of the injuries in the early stages in which we receive them”.  It is interesting that Ogston’s co-invention was proving its utility.   

At this time, the end of August 1917, the staff of the hospital were working under conditions of extreme pressure, with the building “crammed with wounded”, which probably exacerbated the inter-personal tensions simmering below a surface of forced politeness.  But then the bounds of emotional constraint parted and warfare appeared to break out inside “their little hospital”.  Thompson fell out with Dr Brock, not an easy achievement, about treating medical cases, some of which may have been suffering from dystentery, in the same ward as the surgical cases.  “He (Thompson) is a difficult, obstinate man”, wrote Ogston, who had hitherto “avoided joining him in the matter”.  Sister Carr was also “in near mutiny” but AO managed to calm her down.  Ogston regretted these “petty strifes” erupting when everyone should have been unselfishly and self-sacrificingly cooperating “in the great work we have in hand here”.  But these recurrent disputes would not go away, mainly due to the behaviour of Thompson, and Ogston speculated that his difficulties in obtaining a position for his wife, whom he married about a year previously, may have been significant.  “For some time, perhaps a couple of months I have come to notice that he is always away from his work and is getting more remiss in his attendances.  Today, for example, he cannot be found and that some cases cannot consequently be cleared out.  I don’t know what he does or whither he goes, nor does anyone seem to be better informed.  He expected his wife to come out to serve in the soldiers’ canteen but the difficulty has arisen that this is not pure Red Cross work and she cannot come as a member of the Red Cross.  It may be that this is upsetting him”.  A few days later, Thompson’s wife arrived unexpectedly to do work in the soldiers’ canteen.

On 31 August, Geoffrey Young, the head of the ambulance station, had the bizarre experience of taking the surrender of an Austrian officer and walking him back from the mountain of St Gabriele.  The captive confimed that the effectiveness of the British gunners had convinced the Austrians that they could not hold out on the mountain.  Only two days later, Geoffrey Young was again in the news.  He, in the company of Trevelyan, Metcalf and Sessions, were travelling in an ambulance on a mountain track on San Gabriele which was crowded with mules and men.  At one point, Geoffrey Young went forward to clear some mules from the track and it was then that he was struck by an exploding shell, being wounded in the left thigh and right loin.  He was evacuated and radiographed in a dressing station but no lodged fragments of the shell case were found.   Thompson must have examined Geoffrey Young later, because he gave the opinion that the wounds were superficial and should heal in about a week.  Ogston, too, must have seen the injured driver because he reported that, “Geoffrey Young is restless, fevered and in pain”.  AO was anxious and hoped there was nothing more serious than that which Thompson had reported.  Dr Brock asked that AO allow Young to be under the care of Thompson, lest it should prevent Ogston getting away.  AO agreed to this request.  It was subsequently reported that Geoffrey Young had a “fair night” on 2/3 September and that his temperature was no longer high.  At that juncture, Young’s prognosis looked at least fair.  However, on 4 September just as Ogston was preparing for bed, Thompson went to his room to tell him that Geoffrey Young’s wound was pulsating.  AO immediately went with Thompson to examine his colleague.  Several X-ray pictures had already been taken of Young’s leg but no foreign body had been observed in the thigh, yet there was a clearly marked traumatic aneurism and no pulse in the arties at the ankle.  Ogston later wrote in his journal, “I gave my voice for early operation.  It is a sad happening and will be a severe blow to Trevalyan when he hears about it”.  At the time, Trevelyan was driving an ambulance in Goriza in substitution for his head of the ambulance station.  On 4 September, Ogton reported that Geoffrey Young is a shade better and the operation on his artery was deferred.  

By 4 Sepember 1917, the Italians had over-run much of St Gabriele, resulting in the capture of 550 soldiers, 49 officers and a substantial number of large artillery pieces.  But the action led to futher casualties among the ambulance unit staff.  Victor Sylvester, later publicly known as the leader of a successful dance band but, at that time, a 17-year-old volunteer in the ambulance section at Villa Trento, was shot through the leg by a bullet while acting as a stretcher-bearer.  He refused medical treatment until the other injured men had been treated and was later awarded a bronze medal by the Italians.  Another of the ambulance men, Sessions, was injured in the leg by shrapnel.  Ogston recorded the following sentence in his journal, “Sylvester’s wound is not alarming but at present they do not know how Sessions’ wound will turn out”.  This statement suggests that he had not examined Sessions and may not have examined Sylvester either.  Thompson reported that Sessions had had his thigh amputated in an Italian hospital in Goritzia.  Chloroform may not have been used but the operation appeared to have been skilfully performed.  Trevelyan, Brock and Thompson wanted to get their colleague back under their care and agreed to visit Sessions and to try to negotiate his transfer to their hospital.  If Brock’s tact did not succeed, the help of Colonel Santucci might need to be invoked.  An alternative strategy, which was also considered, was to send one of their own nurses to attend Sessions.

Victor Sylvester in 1959.

Early September 1917 brought two significant anniversaries for the Villa Trento hospital and ambulance unit.  On the 3^rd of the month it was precisely two years since the operation had been established and in that time, its ambulances had carried the remarkable number of 110,000 patients.  Two days later, 5^th September, was the first anniversary of Alex Ogston’s arrival at the villa.  The day was a Sunday and Brock and Ogston visited Geoffrey Young, and found him to be “fairly well”, though he had “been sleep-walking during the night for the first time in his life”.   One doubts that this could have been literally true.  Perhaps Ogston meant that he had dreamed that he had been up and about?  They then moved on to Victor Sylvester, who was “well”, before leaving for Goritza to see Sessions.  The Italians agreed that he could be moved to the Villa Trento in two days’ time.  Sessions had been in pain during the previous night but at least his bed was clean and free from vermin.  The crash of guns and the moaning of a neighboring patient, who had also lost a leg, made sleep difficult.  His compatriot, Dyne, was sitting with Sessions when the two senior doctors arrived and they learned that his other colleagues were also taking turns to provide company.  Ogston assessed his condition, with a double-negative, as “not unfavourable”.  However, the nursing care was limited.  Although the Italian lady looking after Sessions spoke some English, she was responsible for 80 patients in total.  After these visits, Ogston wrote to the mothers of both Sylvester and Sessions.

The Italian advance brought a stream of wounded soldiers down from the heights and the Red Cross ambulances were kept busy, as was Ogston.  He had to conduct so many operations that his ward work took second place to dealing with surgical emergencies.  On 7 September he managed to see all severely injured patients but could not fit in 12 or 15 less badly injured, even though he worked from 7.30 am to 6.00 pm.  The same pattern followed on the following day but he coped.  “I am in one of my strong and vigorous times at present” was the apposite entry in his journal.  There were also many visitors, which Ogston found to be disruptive of his duties.  He shook hands and excused himself as soon as possible on these occasions, leaving Dr Brock and his wife to carry out the reception duties.  In the aftermath of the USA entering WW1 on ths side of the Allies on 6 April 1917, Amercan visitors proffering help were an increasing feature of the Villa Trento scene.  Ogston had some acid comments for these transatlantic visitors.  “There is a possible risk of our ambulance department being flooded by this cloud-burst of Americans, bursting to throw their gold about.  We shall see.  I am still a shade sceptical about the USA and its doings in this war.  It would be more use if they could do some fighting”.

Of the current batch of wounded patients amongst their own staff, only Geoffrey Young was causing concern.  Although Thompson had initially reported that his wound was not serious and had not asked Ogston for a second opinion, an aneurism (severe localised swelling of an artery) had developed in the thigh threatening the survival of the limb below that level.  When Ogston finally saw the aneurism he gave an opinion that an immediate operation was advisable and warned that the outcome could be serious, ie amputation was a possibility.  Thompson agreed with Ogston’s opinion and then asked his fellow surgeon to carry out the procedure.  Ogston refused to take on Thompson’s patient.  It is difficult to understand Ogston’s motivation in taking this course of action.  Was it because of the medical formalities of the situation, ie, it was not his patient?  Was it because Ogston was piqued by Thompson’s shirking, causing him repeated extra work?  Was it because his boss, Trevelyan, wanted to avoid any delay in his departure for Scotland, having worked continuously for more than a year, without a proper break?  At this distance in time, we can only speculate, but it would have been out of character for Ogston to have taken a decision which was not in the best interests of the patient.  It soon became clear that both the femoral artery and the femoral vein had been so damaged that amputation at the thigh was almost inevitable.  Trevelyan was upset at this news and asked the two doctors to save the leg, if possible, as the loss of a leg would shatter his friend, Geoffrey Young’s, life.  Although Ogston did not say so specifically, it is presumed that Thompson was in charge at the amputation operation, though Ogston might have been present.  What Ogston did record was that he feared that the outcome might be worse than simple amputation.  Post-war photographs of Geoffrey Young mountaineering appear to show a prosthetic leg attached just below the knee, but that begs the question as to why more of the leg could not have been saved.  The operation on Young was effective and on 10 September 1917 Ogston could report that Geoffrey Young was “rather better”.

Between 5 and 10 September, Ogston performed “15 longish operations, an average of 3/day.  It would not be too bad a load, except for the ward work and the report writing”.  But just as he added the terminal stop to the last-quoted sentence in his journal, he was summoned to do his 5th operation of the day, a case of a smashed elbow.  Then, on completion of that operation, he found a delegation of “8 or 10 Americans taking tea on the lawn with high ranking Italian officers”.  AO found them to be pleasant but he could remember very few of their names, though they appeared to have heard of him.  Another visitor in the afternoon was Lord Derby who was visiting the Italian front. Derby is best remembered for his recruiting scheme instituted at the start of the war.  At the time of his visit to the Villa Trento, he was Secretary of State for War.  Although these visitors disrupted his days, AO accepted that they were necessary.  At Trevelyan’s request AO “explained the workings and organisation of the unit and found Lord Derby to be intelligent and attentive”.  During his conversation with Lord Derby, he made sure to complement the work of the women nurses.

Just a week before the date of his departure for Scotland, Ogston summarised his view of the war.  “Surely this is the world’s greatest battle”? The Italian assault on the Austrian lines in the mountains was by 11^th September in the 24^th day of the contest.  AO had tried to estimate the extent of the conflict.  On the Carso (a limestone plateau between Italy and what is now Slovenia) the heavy guns had been firing on average 43 times/minute, ie 61,920/day or, during the 24 days, 1, 485,680.  He also thought that his estimate was on the low side “as the smaller stuff cannot be counted”.  Further, his estimate did not include the battle around Goritzia, or in the Middle Isonzo.  AO thought that one side or the other must surely become exhausted.  Hand to hand combat seemed to be mostly by grenades, rather than by bayonets, or swords.  With the Villa Trento’s skilled and almost indefatigable surgeon about to depart for six weeks, the implications of his absence started to weigh heavily on Trevelyan, who was still faced with a daily influx of new patients.  He visited AO’s room to discuss if he could be spared to go on leave, but  AO told him that he badly needed a rest and also that he had some business matters which required him to go home for a while.  Ogston gave the opinion that he though that Thompson could manage on his own, though what he was probably implying was that if he had been placed in Thompson’s position, he would have coped.  Trevelyan had spoken to Thompson about taking on an Italian surgical colleague but the head of the unit doubted that they could cooperate without friction and AO agreed.  After dinner on 11 September, a conference was held involving Trevelyan, Brock and Thompson.  Thompson, no dount anxious about having to cope with all the surgical cases at the Villa Trento, was doubtful that he could manage all the work in AO’s absence.  AO then offered to give up his holiday, but his colleagues protested against this and it was agreed that they would approach Santucci and explain the need for AO to go home for a few weeks, though he could be summoned by telegram in 6 days.  It was now truly dawning on the senior staff at the Villa Trento just how important a figure Alex Ogston had been over the past year.

Three days before the departure of Ogston for the UK, Colonel Santucci called to say “goodbye”.  He was also very appreciative of the work that AO had accomplished at Villa Trento.  “He has been a good friend”, was Ogston’s summary of the Italian soldier’s behaviour.  Trevelyan made two requests of Alex Ogston on his journey north through London. He was asked to call on Sir George Young, a British Government administrator and the father of amputee Geoffrey, and also to visit Sir Arthur Stanley to ensure that artificial limbs were despatched to the Villa Trento.  As expected, Alex Ogston ensured that his patients were, as far as he could ensure, in good order before he handed them over to the care of Thompson.  “Dr Thompson will only have to take an occasional look at some half dozen of them.”  Ogston completed his necessary packing on 16 September, his last full day of residence at the Villa Trento and also put his travel documents in order.  Many of his friends called in to see him and brought packages for transport back to the UK.  However, it was against regulations to take letters out in this way because they were subject to censorship.  But Ogston, employing the principle that regulations are for the guidance of wise men, pretended to himself that they were all harmless packages.  To aid his passage through officialdom at national borders, he also employed his well-used tactic of wearing his uniform, with medals and badges, to get himself through unsearched.  On the afternoon of 16 September he conducted his ward round for what would prove to be the last time at Villa Trento, or in a war zone anywhere.

Sir Arthur Stanley.

 

Alexander Ogston’s return to Aberdeen on leave

The following morning, Monday 17 September, was a time for personal goodbyes to and from the many friends he had accumulated in more than a year of service at the Villa Trento but it was probably at this time in this location that he received a telegram from daughter, Flora, informing him that his younger brother, Frank, had died suddenly in New Zealand, where he had played a prominent role in developing the public health services of that country.  (See “The Remarkable Ogstons of Aberdeen.  Frank Ogston (1846 – 1917) Public Health Pioneer in New Zealand” on this blog site).  Frank Ogston had been suffering from asthma attacks and also some unspecified heart problem.  He had hoped to return to Scotland for his retirement but that was not to be.  This family news came at a difficult moment for Alex Ogston and he decided not to visit his grief on his friends at the Villa Trento.

Alex Ogston was due to catch the morning train from Udine to Venice but, before his departure, he isited Geoffrey Young to shake his hand and wish him well.  Geoffrey asked him to deliver a personal letter to his family.  After a hasty breakfast, AO left the Villa Trento along with Brock and Trevelyan who travelled with AO to Udine station, where other colleagues had gathered to see him depart.  With some pride, he wrote in his journal that he “did not leave a single unfriendly person in the whole unit”.  At the station, Trevelyan made an “inappropriate speech on AO leaving as he often did in such circumstances”.  In Venice, which had been a major centre of trade and finance for centuries, he managed to walk around the main island for a few hours, taking in the sights, before catching the evening express from Udine to Milan.  On this second leg of his journey across Italy his companion in the carriage was a young lieutenant who had had an arm wounded.  In Milan Ogston managed to visit the cathedral before spending the night at the St James Hotel.  AO finally reached Paris at 9.00 am on 19 September, where he and his numerous items of luggage were met by the Red Cross Transport Officer, Colonel Needham.  Ever the tourist, he took a long walk in the City of Light and, as a result, blistered his feet.  From Paris he travelled, via Rouen, to Le Havre by train.  There he ran out of French currency and had to change one of his two remaiming British gold sovereigns, for which he obtained £26.  From this port he sailed on the Normaurica, crossing to Southampton overnight.  French customs asked if he was carrying any letters to which he replied “only official ones and was allowed through, unsearched. 

He was met by a Red Cross officer in Southampton on 23 September and in London he attended a meeting with Bevan Baker an employee of the British Committee in Aid of the Italian Wounded, First British Ambulance Unit for Italy, “and arranged finances with him”.  He also, handed over official letters and parcels.  Ogston had many errands to perform on behalf of colleagues left behind in Italy.  He deposited Geoffrey Young’s diary to be handed over to his father, Sir George Young and at least one letter for Sir George and Mrs Sessions.  Some of the letters he was carrying had been posted from Southampton.  The Youngs wanted him to go to their home at Cookham for a weekend but he declined, not having appropriate clothing.  Ogston was also invited to lunch with Bevan Baker but declined that invitation too, because of “difficulties of travel”.  AO felt he could not spare time from his holiday when he had so much to attend to in Aberdeen.  When Mrs Sessions found that AO could not visit her at Quedgeley Court, near Gloucester, she wrote addressing him with her questions.  AO remarked “sensible woman”.  Alex Ogston also visited the Honourable Arthur Stanley, President of the British Red Cross.  Perhaps AO had not anticipated how many people would want to meet him on his return.  He “knocked off a lot of work”, saw his sister in law at Blackheath, Helen Townroe at Kensington, fulfilled an old promise to travel to “my old hospital at Southall”, where he met Dr Davidson, the Registrar and the Matron, “all old friends”.  The King and Queen, had visited the hospital “as I had requested through Sir James Reid”.  Sir Arthur Stanley agreed to give Geoffrey Young and Sessions attendance in London and artificial legs and Ogston passed on this welcome news to Mrs Sessions.  He also did hid cousin Charlie Ogston a favour by sending him a supply of tobacco.  Although he had not been able to travel to Cookham, AO lunched on 23 September at the Piccadilly Hotel with Sir George and Lady Young, when he told them all he could about their son, Geoffrey.

What was supposed to be a holiday, free from stress, for rest and recuperation was turning into something other than that idealised intention.  But Ogston was still making entries in his war journal, so his thoughts, feelings and actions in this period were not lost to posterity.  “It has to be confessed that the ten days of continuous travelling, voyaging to Britain, seeing all the children in different parts of England and Scotland and then through to Aberdeen was not so well endured as it would have been many years ago and when I reached home on the 27th September I felt so “played out” that for a week, to lie at quiet rest, was the ruling impulse.  Even the temptation of a weekend at Glendavan with Flora, Rannald and a gun could not tempt me, and they went alone”.  He must have been utterly exhausted to have declined a stay at his country estate, where he had derived so much pleasure in the past.  However, Ogston started to recover after a week’s rest, but he declared that never again would he endure 13 months’ work without a break, “with so many years on my shoulders”.

Alec Ogston was now able to catch up with his responsibilities to his family, his business contacts and to various voluntary organisations in the Granite City.  His daughter, Constance, was leaving to take up a new job in the National Service Ministry “after a glorious career as the presiding spirit of the Aberdeen War Dressings Depot”.  Daughter Flora provided him with almost endless company and “in a thousand daily ways gave me a magnificent holiday”.  Flora had made a substantial impression on Aberdeen society through her voluntary activities and AO recorded this matter in his journal.  “I found all Aberdeen glowing with appreciation of her war work in many ways, but chiefly as being the brain and hands of the City War Work Association, and many a walk and bicycle ride which we had together helped to restore the “aged P” (“aged Professor”?) to renewed vitality”.  AO’s son, Walter managed to come north for a few days and they enjoyed a “memorable weekend” at Glendavan.  Alex Ogston visited all, or nearly all, of the war agencies in Aberdeen.  The Executive Committee of the County of Aberdeen War Work Committee met on 5 October and AO turned up at that meeting.  He received a warm welcome and was asked to give an account of his experiences in Italy, which he did, though his remarks were, sadly, not reported by the press.  On the commercial front, the directors of the Northern Bank asked him to remain as Chairman at the annual shareholders’ meeting on 2 November.  This meeting caused a day’s delay in starting his journey back to Italy.  In spite of his almost constant activity in Aberdeen he felt reinvigorated and was keen to go back to Italy.  Bank employees to the number of 344 had left their employment to serve with the armed forces and of that number, 32 had so far been killed. 

 

Alexander Ogston’s return to Italy in November 1917    

While he was away from Italy, the Austrians, with substantial German support, had mounted a counter-offensive, crossed the Isonzo River and driven the Italian army back, recapturing Goritzia on 27 October in the process.  The Villa Trento, too, was in Austrian hands and Goritzia had been abandoned.  Some information on the Austrian advance had reached Alex Ogston in Aberdeen.  “My leave had almost expired when I heard that the Austrians had made their sudden victorious sweep through Friuli, recapturing Goritzia, driving the Italian armies before them, pushing forward through Udine, and were still advancing westwards in the direction of Venetia”.  The Red Cross people had all safely fallen back and the Italians will probably try to hold the line at their fortifications along the Tagliamento River.  “Business (ie, the bank AGM) prevented my immediate return to Italy”.  He started his journey back to his hospital assignment immediately after the bank’s AGM closed, intending to resume work, though prthaps not at Villa Trento, and to continue there until the end of the war.  He heard from BB Baker that their unit had fallen back to Mantua.  “This is terribly far back in a place where the ambulance unit will be of little use”, was Ogston’s reaction to this news.   

Alex Ogston travelled down to London overnight by sleeper car in early November 1917, dropped his luggage at his club and went to see Baker at the office in Pall Mall.  There he met Geoffrey Allen who had come home to have an operation on his diseased femur in Glasgow.  Alex Ogston also met by Mrs Helen Young and discussed with her the most appropriate artificial leg for Geoffrey.  Mrs Trevelyan also turned up and asked him to deliver a letter to her husband.  AO was also asked to tell Trevelyan that there were funds available for his needs and that he should send as much information as possible, in order for the Red Cross to frame a new appeal.  Alex Ogston also heard that one group of staff from the unit was on its way home and was to be met by Baker at Southampton.  It now dawned on Ogston that a complete disaster had overtaken the unit and that all its baggage and stores had been abandoned in the hasty retreat.

There were also more family duties to perform before he could depart from the British capital.  He visited daughter Constance in the National Service office located at the Windsor Hotel in Victoria Street, London, where she was enjoying her new job.  AO just had enough time to visit daughter Helen in her nursing home before his departure, driving there with Constance.  They found that Helen was almost completely recovered from her appendicitis operation and due to go home on 5^th November. 

Alex Ogston then took a train from Waterloo to Southampton and on overnight by steamer from Southampton to Le Havre.  He had an enforced day in Le Havre, which he found uninspiring, though he met a number of acquaintances, which emphasises for the reader just how wide and numerous were Ogston’s personal connections.  At dinner on the train to Paris, “a fat lady squeezed past AO and swept off half his eye glasses on her collar as she swept by and walked off with them hanging to her dress.  It was hopeless to reclaim the one eye she had escamoted”.  (Yes, such an English word exists!  It means “to conjure away” or “to snatch”.  Entirely appropriate for the circumstances, Professor Ogston!)   Arriving in the French capitol about midnight, he was met by a Red Cross representative and taken to that lair of Red Cross personnel, the St James Hotel. 

The following day, Monday 5th November, AO went to smoke his cigar in the hotel lounge when a crowd of refugees from the Italian Red Cross poured in, all of them from Ogston’s old unit and led by Mr “D”, an Irishman, and one of the Red Cross drivers in the Goritzia detachment.  Sessions was amongst them, walking with the aid of crutches.  He had been awarded two “For Valour” medals and had put them in his luggage for safekeeping, but the baggage had been lost.  Geoffrey Young had also recived medals, which had been retained in a pocket and were thus secured.  Ogston then learned the full story of the retreat from the villa, with both its comic and tragic elements.  When the staff had been ordered to leave Villa Trento they killed and ate all the chickens, but could not catch the peacock or the duck!  Their stores had all been packed and stored in the corridor, awaiting transport.  All the patients had been sent away to Udine or further afield, when the order came to admit new wounded soldiers.  They were accommodated, attended to and despatched the next day, since none was very severely injured.  However, when the retreat happened there was chaos on the roads which were jammed with people and vehicles of all kinds, not just civilians but soldiers too.  Dickinson ordered some soldiers off his car and found a major amongst them, fleeing with his men.  The major asked how Dickinson dared to order a major off the car and Dickinson retorted that he was a colonel and outranked him!  In the rush to escape the advancing enemy, cars often ended up in the roadside ditches and any luggage in such cars was lost.  Further, the contents of overturned vehicles were looted and some cars stolen.  It was not the Italians’ finest day.  However, among the cars which survived were those donated by Lady Semple, Mrs Davidson of Banff and one of the Aberdeenshire vehicles which had been financed by the Red Cross in Glasgow.  The Villa Trento, Ogston’s home and place of work for more than a year, had been destroyed 

AO considered abandoning his portmanteau and travelling on to Italy with his hand luggage only, perhaps believing that there would be an urgent surgical role for him to fulfill there.  The news of Dr Brock was that he had suddenly quit the unit and gone to Rome to work in a convalescent home for soldiers.  The circumstances of his departure would be learned later by Ogston.  Geoffrey Young had travelled through to Mantua after being very ill and all the ladies in every part of the unit had been evacuated safely.  Ammunition stores in Udine were destroyed to keep them out of the hands of the advancing enemy, which caused panic in the town as people thought the Austrians had entered the city.  Dr Thompson had evacuated his wife in a side car from the canteen.  Allegedly, Sir Charles Delmé-Radcliffe, the military attaché to Rome had done nothing to help anyone, but Lord Monson had done well.  All records and equipment that AO had left behind at the hospital had been lost, except those that Ogston had himself preserved and taken back to the UK.  Perhaps the case books today residing with the Wellcome Library in London were derived from this source?  Also, some 20 beds were got away.  It was heartening for Ogston to learn that all the nurses he met in Paris were keen to return to Italy and to serve in a reconstituted hospital.

Due to the chaos caused by the Italian retreat and the dearth of reliable information about northern Italy, especially concerning the location and status of his colleagues, Alex Ogston then took a series of journeys criss-crossing the country in search of both information and a role for himself to perform.  On 5 November 1917 he left Paris on a train bound for Modena, calling first in Milan, where he hoped to gather fresh information to illuminate his onward journey, though that included travelling to Mantua, perhaps hoping to see Geoffrey Young there.  For an unexplained reason he then took a train from Modena to Turin, quite by chance in the company of a Major Hailey who gave his views on the Italian collapse.  He had a low opinion of the Italian soldiering and expressed the view that if 200,000 British troops had been sent to the Carso, they would have cleared it out and gone on to capture Trieste.  In support of his opinion he remarked that not a single British gun belonging to the British artillerymen in that theatre was lost during the withdrawal.  Bailey also told Ogston that the Italian surgeons in Udine did not remain with their patients but fled in the face of the advancing Austrians.  One hundred thousand Italian soldiers had abandoned their weapons and surrendered.  Ogston later heard that some Italian Generals had been shot for treason.

From Turin, Ogston travelled to Milan, hoping to find Trevelyan.  During his journey he fell over in the dark and broke his fingernails.  Alex Ogston learned that Sister Power was looking after Geoffrey Young, but he did not say from where he obtained this information.  Also, he discovered that Dr Thompson was planning to rejoin his former colleagues and would be accompanied by his wife.  On his journey to Milan, Ogston fell into conversation with General Phillips, who had recently been to Belgrade and who had held command in Southern Albania.  He was now in charge of British lines of communication in Italy and was travelling on to Pavia south of Milan.  At Italy’s second city, Ogston found Garon, the X-ray technician, waiting for them.  He had fortunately secured all his negatives.  AO was told that Trevelyan was at Castel Belfonte where the Red Cross unit was being reconstituted.  However, he also learned that Trevelyan was discontinuing the hospital and retaining only Sister Power to look after Geoffrey Young, and Miss Kemball to act as housekeeper.  Other news that Ogston gleaned was that Dr Thompson had recued his “Corona” typewriter but had lost his case books and that Dr Brock had lost all his registers and papers and everything else. 

 

Life at Castele Belforte, Mantua, November 1917

Trevelyan must have been aware that Alex Ogston had reached Milan because he sent him a telegram confirming that the hospital would not be reopening, that he would be glad to see him but would understand if he decided to return to the UK from Milan.  This was a shock to Ogston but he decided to continue his journey to Castelbelforte, still hoping that he might change Trevelyan’s mind .  He wrote a postcard to Flora and then caught a train at 1.00pm for Mantua, which turned out to be a long, slow journey.  He was met at the station by his old friend, the ambulance driver, Jock Young.  Jock’s car had been saved in the evacuation of Villa Trento and was being repaired.  In the meantime he was driving Dr Brock around.  Castelbelforte lay about five miles north east of Mantua and on arrival Ogston found that his portmanteau and box of books had not turned up.  The 40 members of the unit were at dinner including many new faces, including some Canadians.  But there were also old familiars, such as Trevelyan.  After supper AO went to see Geoffrey Young and delivered the letter from his parents.  Trevelyan told him it had almost been decided to discontinue this hospital but to continue the ambulance service with two cars under the direction of the Italian Army. 

Castelbelforte proved to be a dispersed village in boggy country, infested with mosquitos which carried malaria.   AO was given a room in Signor Pellegrini’s, the estate owner’s, house.  With regard to the state of health of the volunteers, Ogston discovered that everyone had a cold and all received prophylaxis of 10g quinine per day to counter malaria.  AO had not yet given up on the idea of a new hospital being reconstituted and proposed the idea of having a small hospital at Castelbelforte to cater for sick and wounded staff but relialised that it would be unfair to burden Trevelyan with another new proposal when he had so many issues to resolve.   The Italian 2nd Army, to which they belonged, had performed so badly that they had been sent back.  Its medical chief was Morreno, known to Ogston as a good friend from his previous Italian sojourn.  However, all were now under the supervision of the 3rd Army of which another friend, Santucci, was the chief medical officer.  Bonomo was the Principal Medical Officer for all the Italian armies.  The British Headquarters had been relocated to Mantua and the Prince of Wales, Prince Edward, later Edward VIII, was currently visiting there.  Shortly after his arrival at Castelbelforte, Alex Ogston’s luggage, including the box of books intended for the entertainment of the volunteer staff, arrived.  The men were delighted and the box of books was quickly emptied,  AO only being able to save one book for Geoffrey Young, Boldrewood’s “Miners’ Rights”, a novel set in the Australian goldfields but admired for its accurate portrayal of the conditions there. 

Alex Ogston thought that Trevelyan had shown himself “in a good light, these trying times bringing out the best in his character”.   He was showing “much consideration for others” and AO was touched by his behaviour.  “He did not show us his bedroom but I expect it was the poorest in the whole place”.  His judgement on the former head of the Villa Trento had not always been so generous.   AO had a private talk with Trevelyan about recommendations they might make for honours to be bestowed on some of the Italians.  Trevelyan had already made representations to Stanley concerning both Santucci and Moreno but he was happy that Ogston should also make representations on their behalf though his own substantial contacts.  Alex Ogston told Trevelyan that it was inevitable that he would have to leave his unit, Thompson being younger and stronger than him, but before returning to the UK he would first ask Lord Monson if his services could be of value elsewhere in Italy.  Ogston also told the unit head that, if he could not be useful in Italy, would Trevelyan agree to him being employed in Scotland, for example in procuring ambulance cars.  Trevelyan was agreeable to that idea.  Talking about Dr Brock, the two men concurred that some honour should go to him for his work with the unit.  However, Sir Charles Delmé Radcliffe had always intrigued against such recognition.  The precise date of these discussions was unclear but may have been on 9 November 1917, or shortly before that date.

In spite of being ill on 10 November, suffering from a cold and dysentery, which rendered him “almost comatose” for a while, and which he dosed with his standby, chlorodyne, Alex Ogston was well enough to write to Lord Monson in Rome, offering his services.  Although his stay at Castelbelforte was brief, Ogston complained that the quality of the food was rather poor and in particular that there was “no porridge”!  At least at breakfast on 11 November they were able to enjoy a treat, a tin of marmalade from Dr Brock.

In spite of Ogston’s calmer mien and more relaxed frame of mind following his furlough in Scotland, it did not take long for the company of Trevelyan to cause anxieties to resurface and to be expressed in his journal.  “More than ever I am troubled by Trevelyan’s attitude towards Geoffrey Young”.  AO thinks that, inwardly, Trevelyan is blaming himself for Young’s mutilation.  Perhaps more seriously, conversations with old familiars at Castelbelforte resulted in other, more disturbing, stories coming to Ogston’s attention and one concerned the sudden and hitherto unexplained exit of Dr Brock from the Villa Trento.  Apparently Thompson went behind Brock’s back and persuaded Trevelyan to close down the hospital.  Trevelyan did not discuss this with Brock but simply announced it at a staff meeting when Brock was present.  Apparently Brock then immediately resigned in disgust.  Ogston thought this decision was a mistake by Trevelyan and that, should many of the staff fall ill at the same time, it would be impossible to give them adequate medical care.  AO made this point to Trevelyan but could not deduce from his reaction whether he had taken note of the Aberdeen surgeon’s advice.  Actually at that time five stff members were concurrently ill and Dr Thompson, true to form had been absent for three out of four days.  The only other source of in-house medical help was the Italian, Varaldi but “he was only an oculist”.  Dr Brock had sound judgement, was able to think strataegically and was a man who enjoyed Alex Ogston’s confidence.  With him now departed, Ogston was anxious to leave himself. 

By 13 November 1917, Alec Ogston had been ill with dysentery for four days and had decided to dose himself with bismuth and opium.  AO needed to keep going because Thompson had been absent since 7 November and he was handling the latter’s cases, which were all medical.  Captain Varaldi was dealing with some of the patients but he spoke no English and the sick preferred to consult Ogston.  There was a nearby hospital in Treviso but the conditions there, given in Ogston’s account, were truly horrific, though it is unclear if his views were based on personal experience.   Allegedly, patients were never washed, many had bedsores, medical men lounged about smoking and doing nothing for the patients.  It was claimed that four patients had gone insane from neglect.  In these circumstances AO could not understand Trevelyan’s actions. “Yet there are 10 days in which Trevelyan is sending home all these precious British nurses and breaking up his own hospital. ...Of course he does not know anything about these matters, he is hopeless in questions of disease and surgical conditions”.  Ogston had informed him of the message he bore from London concerning the availability of funds for future hospital plans.  AO also could not understand why Trevelyan had not sought his advice.  The cynical distant observer might suggest it was because he had already made up his mind on the issue and did not want to hear a contrary view from a man of Alex Ogston’s status.  Ogston, being aware of his lack of any official status at Castelbelforte, noted the dilemma in his journal.  “I cannot see that I have any right to volunteer my advice to him.  But it is hard to avoid speaking plain things”.  At this point, Alex Ogston wondered if he could enlighten people in the ouside world to the bad decisions being taken at Castelbelforte.  He wondered if Lord Monson had been briefed.  Perhaps Ogston was also thinking of visiting Monson in Rome to see if he had a medical task for him to perform?  Another route to informing the outside world that he used was to write to his daughter, Flora, hinting at the state of the hospitals and also his own rather precarious health.  However, he needed to smuggle this missive past the Italian censors and did this via Miss Bartholemew, one of the nurses being returned to the UK.

It was becoming difficult for Ogston to avoid the conclusion that his presence was no longer being welcomed at Castelbelforte but the reason for this change of behaviour cannot have been due to his skills deteriorating, or his capacity for hard work declining.  Is it possible that his enquiring mind, his moral rectitude and his willingness to make his views known were becoming a source of discomfort for Trevelyan?  Such thoughts did appear to pass through Ogston’s mind, as he recorded in his journal.  “Except by Dyne and his ladies, I am allowed to feel that I am not wanted.  Yet I have been doing the work of Dr Thompson, attending to the invalid members of our own and other units, while he has been in Milan, or I supect, having good times somewhere with his wife, any statements of what really occurred at the breakup of the hospital part is kept quiet and as I do not choose to pry, it is only by small things that are let drop that the truth about the occurrences is beginning to be unfolded to me”.  At this point, for the only time, Ogston suggested that the reason for Thompson’s constant absences was his desire to absent himself so that he could have sex with his wife of less than one year.  But Ogston’s doubts about Thompson’s moral standing went much further that him possibly putting carnal pleasure ahead of his responsibilities to his patients, as he had frequently recorded during his period in Italy and his misgivings were bolstered by the account he was able to put together about the evacuation from the Villa Trento.  The source of his information appears to have been a letter sent by Dr Brock to Sister Powell, which she showed to Ogston, and possibly a conversation with Sister Powell herself.  Ogston’s journal entry is given in full.

“It seems that Dr Thompson has played a large part and if what I gather is correct, a discreditable one in the shaping of recent events.  From a letter of Dr Brock to Sister Power I have learned that during the retreat from Villa Trento much of the private baggage of the members which would probably have been retrieved later was abandoned in the cars where it had been placed by those who had been instructed to walk on in order to escape from the supposed but not really existing vicinity of the pursuing Austrian forces.  A certain member of the Unit – wrote Dr Brock – whose identity can readily be guessed broke open this baggage and distributed its contents among the fugitives who were escaping thinking – added Dr Brock – that in doing so he was doing a very fine thing.  It seems almost unthinkable that this can have been done, yet Sister Power seemed not to doubt that it had occurred and that J Thompson was the person who did it”.

It appeared from Dr Brock’s letter that Thompson thought that he was behaving in an acceptable way in the circumstances.  But clearly Alex Ogston thought that Thompson’s behaviour was beyond the pale, otherwise he would have maintained his usual discretion and not named the perpetrator.

Suddenly, on 15 November, one of the Red Cross staff members, Kennedy, became seriously ill.  It was suspected that he was suffering from appendicitis with adhestions.  Alex Ogston was alarmed by the circumstances in which he found himself because he quickly concluded that the patient might need an abdominal operation, yet the Castelbelforte site was utterly devoid of the necessary medical supplies.  Ogston sounded the alarm in his journal.  “Here we have not even a scalpel or artery forceps and almost anything would have been better than to let him die without a chance, if he were to show no improvement soon”.  Trevelyan and Ogston travelled into Mantua to make enquiries as to where Kennedy might be referred.  There were no British hospitals in the area and Captain Dunstan, the Red Cross representative advised that the best prospect would be to send their patient to Cremona, a road journey of about 60 miles, where there was an Italian military hospital.  In light of his experience of other such establishments, Ogston was not comfortable with this option.

While Alex Ogston was in Captain Dunstan’s office in Mantua, he bumped into both Sir Courtould Thompson and Lord Monson.  Monson had received AO’s letter asking if he had a job for him but Monson explained it would be “many weeks” before the Red Cross would be in a position to answer his query and he currently had no suitable task for Ogston.  One of his problems was that he did not know if the Italian Army would hold their positions or if a further retreat might be necessary.  The army which had been sent to Mantua to be reorganised was in “complete disarray”.   At that point it must have been clear to Ogston that he would have to return home and that, in all likelihood, his war was over, though Lord Monson did agree that if he needed AO’s assistance, he would send for him.  Alex Ogston returned to Castelbelforte  to get his papers in order and agreed with Trevelyan that he would depart two days hence, on Saturday 17 November 1917, the day the elusive Thompson was due to return.  Alex Ogston reported in his journal that, had he remained, he would have sought to establish a small mobile medical or nursing facility with capable nurses and independent transport to supply the medical needs of sick Britons.  He persisted in his view that Trevelyan would soon find that such a facility was vital for his operations in Italy.

Feeling frustrated and angry that his voice was being heard but not listened to, Ogston returned to make a second, unrestrained entry in his journal for 15 November.  It is given in full.

“Yesterday, as if it were a message from Providence to warn Trevelyan of the folly of leaving his 40 valuable English lives unprovided with medical attention and running after ambulances and ambulance work alone, came Kennedy’s illness.  Thompson went away a week ago, or more, without telling Trevelyan what he was going for, or getting any instructions from Trevelyan, as Trevelyan himself told me yesterday.  Venaldi has been sent off to Bologna and the only medical man is myself, though one virtually dismissed from the unit.  And here comes Kennedy with obstruction of the bowels and there is not a surgical necessity in the place.  No bedpan, no enema, no chloroform, no hypodermic syringe, not a single scalpel , not even a dressing and nobody knows anything about what hospitals are here in Mantua to which he could be sent if operation were required.  It is really too bad of both Trevelyan and Thompson and I can’t help feeling angry with both of them.  Fortunately, I am myself better and shall go into Mantua today to make some enquiries about hospitals there.  If we could get even a bedpan and some invalid food it would be something”.

After reading his war journal, one cannot but admire the utter dedication of Alex Ogston to the responsibility he felt for the welfare of the sick under his care.  Not for him the excuse of being tired, or needing a break, or being unwell.  The needs of the patient always came first.

 

The final journey home, November 1917

Dr Thompson returned to duty in time for Ogston to hand over the patients who had been under his care during his former colleague’s absence.  Fortunately, Kennedy was improving and out of danger.  Almost unbelievably, Thompson then went away again on 16 November to spend the night in Mantua.  “His interest in his work is not profound, any attraction draws him away and Trevelyan made a poor choice when he kept him instead of Brock”, was Alex Ogston’s judgement of the pair of senior officials at Castelbelforte.  The evening before his departure for home shores was a time of very mixed emotions for the Aberdeen surgeon.  He could not bring himself to dine with the staff as “... it would have been too trying to bid farewell there to the good fellows among whom I have lived so long and happily, though indeed there are not a great many officers left, but great has been the scattering and dismissals. ... So. I said goodbye to Signor Pellegrini, brought over my belongings to the room below the sick room, which was Geoffrey Young’s parlour and sort of common room for the officers, and arranged to take my dinner and spend the night there”.  A few old friends called in to share a few words of farewell, but, in truth, not many were still available to shake his hand and exchange pleasantries.  Trevelyan was one of his visitors.  He bade AO “... what for him was an extraordinarily cordial farewell, thanking me for all my work and cooperation, pressing me to visit him when I came to London and volunteering the remark that if he came to Aberdeen I would be the first person there he would go to see”.  But Trevelyan’s attempt to do the right thing in the circumstances only reminded Ogston of the profound emotional differences between them.  “My early impressions of him remain my latest.  I respect and admire him but nature has fixed between us a great and unbridgeable gulf”.    

Ogston’travel plan was to leave early, perhaps to avoid further interactions with the staff, in order to catch the midday mail train from Milan to Turin and Paris.  His intentions were almost wrecked by driver Jock Young, who had agreed to drive him to the station, but slept in and had to be woken by the departing surgeon.  In Milan, he found that his train to Turin had been cancelled, forcing him to take a room for the night at the Hotel du Nord.  He finally left Milan at 9.20am on 18 November 1917.  Twenty Four hours later he reached the French capitol.  A Red Cross car met him at the station and transported him to the St James Hotel.  Ogston reached Le Havre on the 20^th and Southampton, then London one day later, “where”, he confided to his journal, “unless my premonitions be wrong, my campaigns will have terminated, never to be resumed”.

In the British capitol he deposited his luggage at his club before visiting 123 Pall Mall and a meeting with Bevan Baker, at which he found that Trevelyan’s action in closing the hospital had not received universal approval.  After visiting the Red Cross offices he next turned to family duty and a call on his daughter Helen and her husband Tod Townroe.  He finally reached Aberdeen at 8.30 am on 22 November 1917.  Alexander Ogston’s overseas service was over, but his war work actually continued.

While Ogston was still away in Italy he had received a letter informing him that the “Under Secretary, Home Office, appoints Sir Alexander Ogston Head Referee to the Sheriffdom of Aberdeen until 31.12.1922”.  This appointment appears to have been in relation to the Workman’s Compensation Act of 1906 and his role as a medical referee.  At the end of the period of appointment he would be 78.  “What condition shall I be in at that date, I wonder”?

 

More war work - Aberdeen 1917 - 1919

One of the most significant local initiatives in the North-East of Scotland during the war had been the collection and preparation of Sphagnum moss for the manufacture of wound dressings.  Dry Sphagnum has a remarkable capacity to absorb water, be it in a moorland bog or on a suppurating wound.  This use of the moss in treating battle wounds had been known in Celtic communities for hundreds of years.  A Sphagnum Moss Committee of the Aberdeen War Work Association existed in Aberdeen to coordinate the collection and cleaning activities and after his return to Aberdeen in late 1917, Alexander Ogston, who was a member of the Executive Committee of the Association, played his part in promoting the production of Sphagnum dressings and their use in the hospitals treating the wounded.  Ogston attended a meeting of the Executive Committee on 7 December, where the first, sad duty of the members was to frame a minute of condolence to the wife of William Smith who had been so active on behalf of the Association during most of the war.  It was also reported that 219 sacks of moss had been cleaned in November and forwarded to the University War Dressings Work Party.  The next meeting of the Committee took place in January 1918, when it was reported that during the war, 138,912 articles (gloves, balaclava helmets, etc) had been sent by the Aberdeenshire Association, more than any other county association.  Moss collection and processing was still proceeding at pace and Alexander Ogston suggested that the Director General Voluntary Organisations should be asked to send out a circular to the various hospitals treating the wounded, asking them to make a more extensive trial of these dressings.  By April 1918, Ogston’s suggestion had been actioned and Sir Alex then did his own bit to promote the initiative by writing to the editor of the Aberdeen Evening Express.  Part of his letter is reproduced below.

“Sir, It has been intimated by the Office of the Director-General Voluntary Organisations, that the War Office has issued a circular to all our hospital units urging them, owing to the shortage of cotton wool and its necessary employment in the manufacture of explosives, to substitute as far as possible the use of sphagnum in place of cotton.  This has resulted in a large increase in the demand for moss dressings from the Aberdeen War Dressings and the Aberdeen University Working Party.  Owing to the great supply of moss dressings which it has been able to furnish, Aberdeen has been selected as one of the four centres in the kingdom for supplying this material, while others have been dispensed with.  The two Associations I have named have made themselves responsible for the supply of the dressings to all the mobile units of the Third Army, and supply in addition very large quantities to a great many hospital units on all the fronts, as well as to many other hospitals in this country.  Moss enters into these dressings in large proportions.  One of the Associations has since its initiation provided and sent out 1,531,074 in total, while the other has sent out 430,570.  These facts and figures indicate the importance of the work which Aberdeen is doing for our wounded.  At the present moment, more than ever, it must not be allowed to fail the nation”!  He went on to appeal for more volunteers to join the moss preparation work.

A lack of volunteers to carry out moss cleaning was holding up production of dressings, so some attention was given to replacing human labour with machines.  In June 1918, Sir Alex was sent to Beattock to see moss cleaning machines in use.  He found the machines to be “very efficient”, though it has not been discovered if such mechanical help was subsequently employed in Aberdeen. 

Possibly the last public service to the war effort paid by Sir Alexander before the signing of the Armistice on 11 November 1918, was to preside at the opening ceremony on the second day of the Aberdeen War Work Fair, held in the Music Hall in mid-October.  He spoke from the chair of his own war experiences, describing vividly the conditions in which men were fighting in the bleak conditions obtaining in the Italian Alps.  He illustrated the value of clothing items sent to the troops by relating how they would wrap a khaki muffler around the head before donning the steel helmet in which they were obliged to sleep.  He had personally treated wounded men in the ruins of a farmhouse using dressings manufactured in Aberdeen.  The sale of work from the fair realised £2,070.

The importance of the role played by Alexander Ogston in the Italian campaign is best illustrated by reference to the book “Scenes from the Italian War”, written by George Trevelyan, the senior Red Cross representative there.  “The hospital leant much on Scotland, for besides Dr Brock (another surgeon) we also had the honour to have with us Sir Alexander Ogston, whose fame and whose quiet, benevolent courtesy to all persons great and small added to the prestige and popularity of Villa Trento”. 

After the end of WW1, the British Government stood down the wartime voluntary associations which had performed so well.  Alex Ogston thought this was a serious mistake and said so at a meeting (the final meeting?) of the City of Aberdeen War Work Association in May 1919.  He pointed to the cost saving that the Government had made by delegating work to voluntary organisations and he called into question the apparent Government assumption that a future war was unlikely.  “Probably the Government had been moved by the hope that there would be no more war and that the League of Peace which was occupying their attention at present would suffice to prevent any future contests.  He was sorry to say that many years of studying human nature had led him to the conclusion that they had not seen the last war.  Human nature was made to fight and fight it would.  If they looked into all the things which were happening all around them, they would see more or less distinctly the writing on the wall which foretold the great difficulties they would meet with perhaps the failure of the League of Nations”.  Of course, the League of Nations did fail and Alex Ogston’s dismal view of the future, that war will always be with us, has been entirely vindicated.

 

Alexander Ogston and the situation of Poland and Silesia post-WW1

In 1921, Alexander Ogston was 77 years old, had retired from surgery after a demanding career in both war and peace, had retired from academic life, and retained enough mental and physical capacity to continue enjoying his beloved country estate of Glendavan.  It seemed that his involvement in intellectual matters was at an end but, apparently from nowhere, he re-entered the public arena with two substantial and closely argued articles, which appeared in the Aberdeen Journal, discussing the future of Poland and Silesia, both sandwiched between a victorious nation, the USSR, to the east and the vanquished nation, Germany, to the west in the centre of Continental Europe.

The fighting in WW1 ended on 11 November 1918 but it was not until 28 June 1919 that the Treaty of Versailles ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers, who had had differing national interests and requirements of Germany.  Many conditions were placed upon Germany, including the obligation to disarm, pay war reparations and recognise the independence of, and cede territory to, surrounding countries.  Poland and Czechoslovakia were to have their independence recognised.

Silesia, which lies along both banks of the Oder River, is a complex territory with a shifting past, geographically overlapping the modern states of Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic.  At the end of WW1, it was of major importance due to its possession of significant mineral resources and industrial areas.  Geographically, Silesia was divided into Upper Silesia in the east and Lower Silesia in the west.  Parts of Upper Silesia were to be ceded to Poland while the future of the rest of the territory was to be decided by plebiscite.  But Silesia was complex, not only in terms of its historically changing borders, but also its ethnicities, languages, social structure and industrial ownership which made organising a fair and meaningful plebiscite problematical.

Alexander Ogston had travelled to Germany frequently since he was an itinerant medical student in 1864.  He became familiar with the change in character of the German people during the latter decades of the 19^th century and the rise of the militant, aggressive, nationalistic Germany, which he both disliked and mistrusted.  His fears had been amply vindicated by the role of Germany in WW1.  Ogston, being also a student of the past, was familiar with the history of Central Europe and against this background, it is unsurprising that he should have strong views on the treatment of Germany in the aftermath of the Great War and would wish to place his concerns before the public.  Even today, retired university professors frequently spend their time writing articles and letters for publication in the papers!

Ogston feared that an embittered Germany would seek to regain and exert power against its neighbours and that an essential bulwark against a resurgent Germany was a strong, independent Poland which could act as a counterpoise, but in order to play such a role, Poland must be made as large and economically strong as possible and that was why the future alignment of Silesia was so important.  He discussed the history of this territory and expressed his concerns that Germany was being allowed to fix the coming plebiscite there to its own advantage, effectively to gain control of much of the area known as Silesia to the clear disadvantage of Poland and Polish people living and working there.  Ogston supported the point of view of the French, who were very fearful of a resurgent Germany, and blamed Britain and America for compromising with Germany.

Alexander Ogston’s second article concerned the role of the League of Nations in this imbroglio.  This was a high-minded concept for an inter-government organisation to take action to maintain peace, through collective security and disarmament.  It was seen by some as a progenitor of a world government and came into being in 1920.  The League proved to be a step too far and was largely ineffective.  Benito Mussolini, the Italian leader, dismissed it with the put-down.  “The League is very well when sparrows shout, but no good at all when eagles fall out”.

Britain and France had signed the Entente Cordiale agreements in 1904 to resolve their outstanding foreign policy disagreements and to end the traditional enmity which had existed intermittently between the two nations for centuries and Ogston saw the disagreement between the two over Silesia and Poland as threatening that state of affairs.  The agreement to hold a plebiscite in the disputed territory was the compromise between the disputing parties but its terms would, in effect result in a German takeover.

Ogston ended his second article as follows.  “France is the stabilising power in the world just now.  I state this advisedly.  Though she suffers from the devastations entailed by the war, and is in a difficult financial position, yet she possesses the first army in the world.  She is the only country where the proclamation of the right of nations to dispose of their own destiny has not provoked separatist movements, and where the sentiment of national unity has preserved its full force; she is the only land where the Bolshevist doctrines have hardly any influence; and it is her Generals who conducted the war to a victorious conclusion.  Britain, on the other hand, poisoned by the Irish question, hampered by the Egyptian question, as well as by the disturbances in Mesopotamia, Palestine, Persia, and India, and by an industrial and social agitation which subsides now and then only to reappear in more dangerous shapes.  And so on throughout the whole world almost.  Can we do without the cordial friendship of France?  It is much to be doubted.  So, I end as I began, asking: Will the Entente Cordiale be swept away by another year?  It is possible.  It is even not improbable”.

 

Alexander Ogston and charitable giving

Like his father Francis Ogston, Alexander Ogston was a generous contributor to charitable causes throughout his adult life, which he could afford to do.  Some of the beneficiaries were local, some national and occasionally, international.  The Ogstons, father and son, joined the Aberdeen Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor when it was formed in 1870, as a result of a meeting called by Aberdeen Lord Provost, Alexander Nicol.  Queen Victoria was a patron of the association.  Early initiatives included providing day-care facilities for working mothers, the creation of penny banks to encourage the poor to save, and a scheme to rehabilitate ex-prisoners.  It still flourishes as Voluntary Service Aberdeen.

Samuel Plimsoll was a social reformer who had a particular interest in the safety of seamen.  In 1873, Alex Ogston joined the local committee of the Plimsoll and Seamen’s Fund committee.  The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 killed 300 people and destroyed about three square miles of the city, leaving 100,000 residents homeless.  There was an international appeal for help and Alex Ogston MD contributed 1gn to the cause.  Occasionally, Alex Ogston supported appeals on behalf of individuals, or their dependants, such as the widow of Robert Miller who lost his life attempting to extinguish a fire at the West and East churches of St Nicholas, in 1874.  Alex Ogston gave 10/-.  On another occasion, in 1885, he wrote a letter to the Aberdeen Evening Express, appealing for financial support for David White and his family.  White had had both legs amputated in a railway accident in 1885, during the British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting which was held in Aberdeen.

One of the most significant local charities, which attracted Alex Ogston’s routine support, was the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.  He subscribed £5 per year and thus qualified to be chosen as a manager of the institution, the earliest such contribution to be detected was in 1886, when Alex Ogston was already the ARI’s Senior Surgeon.  This publicly-spirited doctor also made some unusual one-off donations to causes which had a particular appeal to his own interests.  In 1913, he subscribed 2gns for the restoration of the mausoleum of the Earls Marischal in Dunnottar churchyard, Stonehaven.  The 5th Earl Marischal was the founder and first chancellor of Marischal College.

During WW1, Alex Ogston was particularly sympathetic to charitable initiatives which aided the war effort.  These included the National Relief Fund, which supported the families of servicemen and those made unemployed by the Great War, Lord Saltoun’s fund to provide bagpipes to the three new regiments of the Gordon Highlanders, Lady Semphill’s motor ambulance fund, Aboyne Castle hospital, the Aberdeen Sphagnum Depot and the County of Aberdeen War Work Association.

 

Alexander Ogston and public appearances 

Although public appearances were anathema to Professor Ogston, he felt obliged to attend some events.  This was especially true of funerals of colleagues, particularly those for whom he held some admiration, such as Professor Dyce Davidson in 1886, Professor Samuel Traill in 1887, Professor Hamilton in 1909 and Sir Patrick Manson in 1922.  Other prominent figures who were seen off by Ogston included William Ferguson, Chairman of the Great North of Scotland Railway in 1904 and Mr FT Garden of C and PH Chalmers, the law firm that represented him, in 1918.  He could occasionally be persuaded to attend an important wedding, such as that of Sir James Reid to the Hon. Susan Baring in 1899.  Other public events which tempted him out of 252 Union Street included the complimentary dinner to Dr McKenzie Davidson by his colleagues in 1897 and a banquet held in 1905 in the Scottish capitol in celebration of the quatercentenary of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the annual Aberdeen University ball, though he was not a dancer.  In 1901, the millenary of King Alfred’s death, there was a great celebration held in Winchester and Aberdeen was invited to send a representative to the main celebration, the unveiling of a massive bronze statue of Alfred by Sir Hamo Thorneycroft.  Alexander Ogston, being now a nationally recognised figure, was delegated to fulfil this role as a representative of both the University and of Aberdeen Grammar School.

As Alexander Ogston’s public persona grew in the perception of Aberdonians, especially due to his role as senior surgeon at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and his appointment as Surgeon in Ordinary, first to Queen Victoria, and then to her son, King Edward VII, he inevitably got drawn into civic life, though such public appearances, pomp and ceremony were not attractive to him.  The granting of the Freedom of Aberdeen to Lord Rosebery in 1884 and to Lord Mount Stephen in 1901 were two such events that he attended.  Another public occasion when Ogston consented to be present was the unveiling of the William Wallace statue, by the Marquis of Lorne, at the north end of Union Terrace in 1888.  Alex Ogston was often accompanied by the second Mrs Ogston, who may well have found such occasions more congenial than her husband.  Alex Ogston’s links to, and support of, the royal family ensured that he consented to be involved in occasions and projects involving past and present monarchs and their close relatives.  A public meeting was held in 1910 with a view to raising a statue to the late departed King, Edward VII.  The project was enthusiastically endorsed, and Alex Ogston became a member of the committee charged with carrying through the project.  Similarly, in 1912, Queen Mary visited Aberdeen Children’s Hospital and a variety of managers and doctors was presented to Her Majesty, including Alexander Ogston, a hospital director at the time.  However, by 1923, when he had reached the age of 79, Alex Ogston was clearly sending apologies for absence to most invitations that he received to public events, as he completed his retiral from public life.

 

Alexander Ogston and the Church

The first reference that has been discovered linking Alexander Ogston to a church congregation dates from 1869.  At that time, he had recently been married to Mary Jane Hargrave, was living at 169 Union Street and was employed as the Ophthalmic Surgeon at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.  Also in that year, he was made an elder of the West Kirk of St Nicholas in central Aberdeen, bordering Union Street near his home.  The Mither Kirk of St Nicholas dates from 1151 and then housed two congregations, known as the East and West Kirks.  The West Kirk was built in the 1750s and contained the Drum Aisle, where the Irvines of Drum Castle were traditionally buried.  Alexander Ogston gained permission to raise a memorial plaque there to his late father and his son Francis, who had been killed in the Second Boer War.  The plaque was placed in Drum’s Aisle and reads as follows.  “To the memory of Francis Ogston, M.A., M.D., LL.D., Professor of Medical Jurisprudence and Medical Logic, University of Aberdeen. Bom 28th July. 1803. Died 25th September 1887. And of his grandson, Francis Hargrave Ogston, trooper in the Imperial Light Horse. Born 15th August,1869. Killed in action Riet Kiul, Klerksdorp, Transvaal, 17th April, 1901”.  In 1909 Alfred James Ogston, son of Sir Alexander and Lady Ogston, gained permission to place a further brass plaque in Drum’s Aisle, in memory of his wife, who was killed in the Messina earthquake in Sicily in 1908.

Dr James Mitford Mitchell was the high-profile minister of the West Kirk of St Nicholas between1878 and 1895. In 1888 he was appointed Chaplain-in-Ordinary in Scotland to Queen Victoria.  On his retiral from St Nicholas’ in 1895, a committee of 55 members of the congregation was established to choose a successor, convened by Dr Joseph Ogilvie.  Alexander Ogston was one of that substantial number and on the appointment of a successor to Mitford Mitchell, Alex Ogston proposed a vote of thanks to Ogilvie.  Ogston could also occasionally be found attending the churches of other denominations, such as the Free Church College in Aberdeen.  Alexander Ogston did not seem to play a significant role in the life of the St Nicholas Kirk and may have attended more as a social duty than for any other reason and in his later years he gave up going to church in Aberdeen, though he maintained the habit while he was resident at Glendavan.  While living on his country estate, he and his family would walk the three miles to church in the village of Logie Coldstone, where he liked the incumbent, Dr Davidson.  Alexander Ogston’s son, Walter, later reported that Alexander was unhappy with Dr Mitford Mitchell’s strictures against science.  It should be recalled that after 1859 and the publication of Darwin’s “Origin of Species”, there was a vigorous and continuing debate between the evolutionists and the supporters of the “Garden of Eden” story.  Walter Ogston sought the advice of his father on a career in the ministry about 1885 and his father’s reply may well have given a glimpse of his deepest feelings on religion.  “In these days my dear boy a clergyman must be either a fool or a hypocrite”.  Alex Ogston did not approve of the dire warnings, commonly displayed in Victorian times, of the fate awaiting sinners in the afterlife.  When he took charge of an operating theatre at Woolmanhill about 1880, he tore down a notice which read “Prepare to meet thy God”.  In spite of this apparent ambivalence towards religion, Alex Ogston had a voluminous knowledge of the scriptures.  Son Walter reported that “For many years Father used to read a portion of the Bible and some prayers after breakfast on Sunday mornings, often an obscure part of the book.  He also used to test out Uncle Henry (the Minister) by choosing obscure texts, but Henry was equal to this challenge”.  (The Reverend Henry Cowan was married to Alex Ogston’s sister, Jane.  Henry Cowan was one time minister of New Greyfriars church, Edinburgh and Professor of Divinity in the University of Aberdeen).

 

Honours and distinctions awarded to Alexander Ogston

Professor Ogston was ever modest, though sometimes excessively self-deprecating.  He never sought for honours, holding them to be ultimately worthless, though inevitably honours came his way, such were his achievements in science, medicine and public life.1872. Elected a Fellow of the Medical Society of London

1873.  Secretary of the Surgical Section of the BMA at its meeting in London.

1879.  Corresponding member of the Societe Royale des Sciences Medicales et Naturelle de Bruxelles.

1884.  Secretary of the International Medical Congress in Copenhagen.

1887.  Vice-President of the Surgical Section of the BMA at its meeting in Dublin.

1896.  Deputy Lieutenant for Aberdeenshire.

1899.  Appointed as a Justice of the Peace for Aberdeenshire.

1900.  President of the Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine branch of the BMA, and again from 1915 – 1919.

1901.  Honorary LL D at 450th anniversary celebrations of Glasgow University.

1902.  Member of the Royal Commission on Physical Training in Scottish Schools

1904.  Examinership in Surgery at the Royal Army Medical College (for four years).

1905.  President, Aberdeen Medico-Chirurgical Society,

1907.  Vice-President, National League for Physical Education and Improvement.

1908.  Vice-President of the Aberdeenshire Branch of the Red Cross Society.

1910.  Honorary LL D Aberdeen University.

1912.  Knight Commander of the Victorian Order (KCVO).  Alexander Ogston had on several previous occasions refused the offer of a knighthood, firstly in the reign of Queen Victoria, but apparently relented on this occasion, under the influence of his second wife, Isabella Matthews.  Apparently, she was rather attracted by the opportunity to be referred to as “Lady Ogston”.  The investiture took place at Buckingham Palace on 30 June 1912.  The Aberdeen Journal was apparently unaware of the true reason for this previous omission when it welcomed Alexander Ogston’s elevation – “His splendid surgical services to the nation in the Soudan and South African wars have gone too long unacknowledged”.

1914.  President of the BMA when its meeting was held at Aberdeen.

1920.  Order of the British Empire (OBE).

1920.  Cross of “Cavaliere dell’ Ordine della Corona d’Italia”.  (Knight of the Order of the Crown of Italy).  Received from Baron Sonnino on behalf of the King of Italy.

 

Publications by Alexander Ogston

Alexander Ogston’s published works were many.  They fell into three categories, biological and medical, factual but not biological/medical and fiction.  No attempt has been made to compile a comprehensive list of his works related to his profession, but 64 have been encountered during the course of this study.  They illustrate the wide range of his interests.  Surgery, of course, but also toxicology (“Carbolic acid poisoning”), physiology (“Function of semi-circular canals”), pathology (“On sudden death”), development (“The growth and maintenance of the articular end of adult bones”), nephrology (“The operation for stone”), bacteriology (Report upon micro-organisms in surgical diseases”), anaesthesia (“Drumine as a local anaesthetic”), public health (“Epidemic of typhoid fever”) and cancer (“Submaxillary cancer”).  His surgical interests focussed mostly on the skeleton (“Excision of the calcaneum”, “Extra-capsular fracture of femur”, “The operative treatment of genu valgum”, “Improved method of treating club foot”, surgical treatment of rickets”)  but he would apparently operate on any part of the body (“New operation for post-adhesion of iris”, “Suture of the ulnar nerve”, “Trephining frontal sinuses in catarrh”, “Formation of new socket for artificial eye”).  His professional publications also included a few really unusual topics (“On spontaneous combustion”, “Effects of lightning”).  Several of his publications were written in German and at least one in French. 

In addition to his medical/scientific publications, Alexander Ogston also authored “A genealogical history of the families of Ogston from their first appearance circa 1200” and “Supplement to the Genealogical History of the families of Ogston”.  “On the making of a Scottish Medical School” is a history of the Aberdeen University Medical School.  “Reminiscences of Three Campaigns”, aimed at producing a faithful record of his personal experiences as a surgeon in wartime in Sudan, South Africa, Serbia and Italy.  “The prehistoric antiquities of the Howe of Cromar” was written by Alexander Ogston long before his death in 1929 and then offered to the Spalding Club, an antiquarian text publishing society founded in Aberdeen, by his trustees.  Of the three parts, the club deemed only one suitable for publication and it appeared under the editorship of W Douglas Simpson, then Aberdeen University librarian.  Alexander Ogston’s only fictional work was “The Capture of Tosheen” set in Sudan.  No place of this name has been discovered in the area of the country in which the story is set, but “Tosheen” is an Arabic girl’s name meaning “prosperity”.  Ogston was studying Arabic at the time. 

 

The Death of Alexander Ogston 

Alexander Ogston, prominent member of a wealthy Aberdeen family, formerly Regius Professor of Surgery in the University of Aberdeen, formerly Senior Surgeon at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, died at his Aberdeen townhouse, 252 Union Street, at half-past midnight on 1 February 1929.  He had lived in that house since1871, and it was there that he had raised two families, where he had been consulted by his private patients and where he had conducted his far-sighted and far-reaching research into micrococcal suppuration.  His cause of death was certified as “congestion of lungs 10 days, chronic nephritis, chronic myocarditis”, by Dr William Souter, one of his former students, though he had also suffered a slight stroke.  Alex Ogston had been retired from public life for some years and had been in failing health for a while, partly due to an arthritic hip joint.  At the end he was bed-ridden but relatives remembered him still enjoying smoking a cigar.  Would he have had any notion that only 60 years later replacement of defective hip joints by prostheses would become routine work for orthopaedic surgeons?  The informant who registered his death was a daughter from his second marriage, Rosa, who was living with him at the time of his demise.

Alexander Ogston was buried privately at his own request.  Not for him the lying-in state within the bounds of Marischal College, the initial destination of the coffin on his father’s departure.  No grand cortege, no flowers, no report of the funeral in the local press.  He was buried, not in the churchyard of his place of worship, St Nicholas’, perhaps full by 1929, nor in the Allenvale Cemetery in the fashionable West End of the Granite City, where many of his contemporaries’ lairs are located, but in the churchyard of St Clement’s, Footdee, there to join a bevy of his nearest in a dedicated plot, originally acquired to receive his grandfather, also Alexander Ogston.  Alex Ogston’s companions in Fittie form a mix of both high and low.  Shipbuilders, shipmasters, seamen, fisherfolk and their families abound, but not members of the medical and legal professions or academics from the University.  It was his wish to be buried at St Clements in the same grave as his first wife, Mary Jane.  Perhaps she was the love of his life?

Sir Alexander Ogston's grave.

Shortly before his death, Alexander Ogston resigned his directorship of the North of Scotland Bank Ltd, a post he had held for over 38 years.  He was replaced by the eldest son of his cousin, Alexander Gordon Ogston of Ardoe.  Like all his immediate relatives, Alexander Ogston’s sharp mind could also be productively employed in commerce.

In early April 1929, there was a sale of Alexander Ogston’s household furniture and furnishings at 252 Union Street and a few days later the process was repeated at Glendavan House and at Langcroft, both Dinnet.  Separately from furniture and fittings, Alex Ogston’s books were sold in Aberdeen by John Milne, Auctioneers.  The eclectic mix of volumes offered for disposal included Yarrell's British Birds, Scott's Last Expedition, Bureau of American Ethnology, Hallam's History, Edgworth's Works, Nimmo's History of Stirlingshire, Cunningham's Songs of Scotland, Robbie's Aberdeen, The Book of Buchan and St John's Sport in Morayshire, also a large number of medical and surgical text-books.  Alexander Ogston clearly had a deep attachment to the study of history. 

The Glendavan estate was subsequently bought by Mr CM Barclay-Harvey, owner of the adjacent Dinnet estate and Glendavan continued in the same use as in Sir Alexander’s proprietorship.  The sale price was about £6,000, an initial upset of £6,800 failing to be realised.  Number 252 Union Street gained an altogether unexpected, even bizarre, new purpose.  The Aberdeen Midget Golf Company had recently opened an 18-hole outdoor course at Forbesfield, Aberdeen.  Midget golf courses seem to have been designed along similar lines to present day, crazy golf arenas, found in pleasure parks and at the seaside, using minimal space and with success depending more on luck than on skill with a golf club in negotiating unconventional hazards.  The company decided that it needed to open a new, indoor course, to allow afficionados (presumably there were some) to continue the pursuit of their new sport during the hours of darkness in the Aberdeen winter.  In September 1930, a new course was nearing completion within 252 Union Street, which had been empty for some time.  It was an 18-hole course, with the outward holes being located on the ground floor and the return nine on the second floor.  Perhaps the least expected aspect of this project was the identity of the designer, the architect, Tom Scott Sutherland.  He had been born in Torry, the son of a trawlerman, in 1899.  Early in life, he lost a leg but that did not hold back his ambition.  He trained in architecture and at the time of the midget golf venture he was a principal in a practice with William Taylor.  Sutherland proved to be a very successful businessman, although the Aberdeen Midget Golf Company does not appear to have been one of his major successes.  He bought the attractively located Garthdee House, which he eventually donated to the presently named Robert Gordon University and the site is now the home of both Gray’s School of Art and the School of Architecture, which bears Scott Sutherland’s name.  In 1939, Tom Scott Sutherland still appeared to own, or at least occupy, 252 Union Street.

Alexander Ogston’s personal estate was valued at £61,214 (worth about £2,715,000 in 2021 money).  The items in his inventory were very diverse from rents due on properties on the Glendavan estate, to a wide variety of stocks, shares and bonds.  His trust disposition and settlement (with codicils) identified his second wife, Isabella Margaret Matthews or Ogston, and his children, Flora McTavish Ogston, Walter Henry Ogston and Alfred James Ogston as trustees.  Codicils specified replacement trustees for those who had died since the document was written, Rannald Frederick Logie Ogston and Constance Amelia Irene Ogston joining their siblings charged with administering the estate.  Apart from a number of legacies to be paid to sons-in-law, the assets were to be distributed equally amongst Alexander Ogston’s surviving children, or their families, if they had predeceased the Ogston parent.  It was interesting that Alexander Ogston chose to treat his daughters and sons equally, both as trustees and as beneficiaries of his estate.

 

The personal characteristics of Alexander Ogston

Many commentators who had known Ogston, or who had observed his doings, later recorded his quirks, characteristics and habits, and the assembly of these diverse observations, mostly authored by his former students and by his children, allows an approach to a description of his complex personality.  Occasionally, Ogston himself permitted a glimpse into the recesses of his make-up. 

His daughter Constance made a fundamental point about his character and that was that he essentially led two separate lives one the personal life of home and family, shooting, fishing and exploring the countryside, and the other the professional life of science, clinical practice and deep intellectual interrogation of issues which captured his attention.  Also, he would transform from the chatty vacationer at Glendavan to the “grave and silent surgeon giving monosyllabic replies” almost instantly on returning to 252 Union Street.  He had a power of intense concentration and although he read much, he said little, being inclined to keep his thoughts to himself.  He had a wide circle of “friends kept at a distance” but few intimates.  He was never familiar with members of either sex.   Not many people knew him well enough to call him “Sandy”, though a few found the courage to do so after his demise, perhaps to hint at a closeness of friendship which may not, in reality, have existed.  Alexander Ogston’s younger children and their spouses referred to him affectionately as “the Dad”, but not to his face.  He eschewed small talk in social settings, generally being a good listener but not a good talker.  A rare exception to this generalisation was the evening he spent over dinner in the company of Lord Methuen and his senior officers at Boshof, South Africa, in May 1900, which Ogston thoroughly enjoyed, but perhaps that was because the company was highly knowledgeable and only discussed meaty topics.   Alex Ogston always declined invitations to dinner parties saying that such events shortened one’s life and he was ever aware of the brevity of the human span and the importance of not squandering time.  When at Glendavan he declined to mix with the “County set”.  But, in spite of this outward shell of self-sufficiency and even insularity, Alex Ogston had a counter-balancing dependency on the company of a wife and children in a calm and supportive home environment.

Alexander’s second wife, Isabella Margaret was not academically inclined and, though they were devoted to each other, they did not discuss intellectual matters.  What Isabella Margaret did excel at was household management, an important attribute in a large family with an overworked husband.  But her household skills did not extend to terminating the live turkey purchased for Christmas lunch in about 1912, the task instead being delegated to her husband.  Despite his knowledge of comparative anatomy, his surgical skills and his ability to dispatch a flying bird swiftly, he botched this execution in a spectacularly comical way.  Initially he tried, unsuccessfully, to wring the turkey’s neck.  The next attempt to extinguish its life was to choke this avian feast by placing its head on one side of the cellar door and its neck on the opposite side.  Thirdly, he resorted to his skills with the knife, by attempting to sever its throat, but finally he succeeded in his objective by decapitation.  The bird, then actuated only by signals from its intact spinal cord, scuttled around the cellar trailing its almost detached head behind it!

Son, Walter Henry Ogston, who was born in 1873, recorded his memories of home life with his father.  He remembered about 1877 wearing a tartan dress and being carried by his nurse.  In the evenings, his father would occupy the dining room alone until the children were admitted to his presence for 30 minutes, when he would interact and play with them, for example joining them in roasting chestnuts or going over their stamp collections.  He would also indulge in noisy activities such as carrying them around the room in a tablecloth and he would also sing to them, usually relaying nonsense rhymes.  Sometimes, they would be allowed sweeties from a special “Rock Box” kept in his study.  When the children took their leave of their father at the end of their allotted time there was a formal ceremony when they kissed his closed hand and said “goodnight”.  After nursery dinner on Sundays, the children would be allowed into the dining room where their father would teach them paraphrases and this educational thread ran through other aspects of his interactions with his children.  If he was asked a question, he would always try to answer it, provided that it was sensibly cast.  But Alexander was always reading something and often the children would have to endure his silence, even though they were in his presence. 

While Alexander Ogston was generous towards his children, he had a Spartan attitude to his own needs, living frugally, even parsimoniously, for example never using shaving soap, as opposed to the household variety, until he was 70.  He seemed not to notice if his suit was worn or his knees baggy, even during his first interview with Queen Victoria, when he realised, rather late, while conversing with her that he had a hole in the upper of one shoe.  His personal dress paid no heed to fashion, and he continued to wear a frock coat long after they ceased to be a la mode, though he abandoned this item when he retired from the Regius Chair of Surgery.  Instead, he then adopted grey tweeds.  Bizarrely, at home in the evenings he always wore red socks with a red cummerbund, and he had a few personal indulgences, such as using White Rose perfume.

Although Alex Ogston was a connoisseur of wines and kept some good vintages in the cellar at 252 Union Street, he generally drank in moderation and did not over-indulge in alcoholic beverages.  He claimed that, even as a student, he had never been drunk in his life.  Another personal characteristic, even obsession, was with accurately knowing the time.  About 1895, A&J Smith, Jewellers, Aberdeen, instituted a daily time signal from Greenwich.  Ogston then attended the shop almost daily to adjust his own watch’s accuracy to the second.  A further example of his quasi-obsessive behaviour concerned his enquiry in Davidson and Kay, the chemists, to be shown sponges.  He then spent a quarter of an hour testing the absorptive capacity of the samples in a bucket of water requested from Mr Kay.

Alexander Ogston was strikingly handsome, being tall with a characteristic moustache.  When, about 1911, Alex Ogston visited Leeds University (he was then 67), the staff, who knew of Ogston by reputation, could not believe that this fine specimen in front of them was THE Alexander Ogston, but must be his son, such was his youthful appearance.  William Souter, one of Ogston’s most outstanding students, gave an excellent description of Ogston’s appearance when lecturing.  “Outside the classroom we had seen the handsome, striking, frock-coated figure of Sandy Ogston, his topper at an angle – in later years at the “Beatty” tilt (Admiral Beatty wore his uniform hat at an angle, tilting down over his left eye) – and in the classroom we were fascinated by his personality.  The firm features the controlling presence the coloured polo or Shakespeare collar with the ring round the tie the dangling pince-nez moistened as they passed his lips the better to make them hold on his nose while he consulted the lecture book with all its strips of addenda, the sweeping of the moustache with the three lesser fingers of the right hand: the ensemble made an indelible impression on the minds of all of us”.  Alex Ogston also had an unusual mannerism in his speech, with a sing-song delivery and the dropping of the “g”s at the end of his words.

He was an afficionado of the country sports of shooting and fishing, but the quarry always had to have a chance of escape and he was opposed to slaughter for its own sake.  He would never shoot a sitting bird and an injured animal had to be despatched immediately.  He taught his children to follow a similar philosophy when they took up guns and fishing rods.  Alexander Ogston angled for trout in the Don at Bridge of Alford and on a beat at Inverurie belonging to his friend, Mr Tait, the owner of Inverurie Paper Mill, before he acquired Glendavan in 1888, when he could pursue pike and perch in the loch there.  The only ball game in which he participated was croquet, played enthusiastically at Glendavan, where his style of play was described as “deliberate and unperturbable”.  Lameness eventually forced him to give up his first sporting love, shooting, but he managed to continue with croquet.

Culturally, Alex Ogston enjoyed Gilbert and Sullivan operas, though he was tone deaf.  He did not approve of people pursuing an interest in amateur music-making, though he had tried to learn the flute as a young man.  Alexander was a keen photographer and used a glass plate camera, developing his own negatives and printing his own pictures.  Lightning storms were one of the natural phenomena that fascinated him.  He also used a stereoscopic camera to take photographs of curios and artefacts that he acquired on his travels, which gave an appearance of depth to the images when viewed in a stereoscope.  However, he seemed to have no interest in fine art, unlike his soap manufacturing cousins, James and Alexander Milne Ogston, who spent lavishly on the works of prominent artists.  On the other hand, Alex Ogston liked reading adventure stories, such as the works of RL Stevenson and Rider Haggard.  He was also a fan of Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare.  Ogston himself enjoyed a fine command of descriptive prose, as is clearly evident in his own non-scientific works, “The Capture of Tosheen” and “Reminiscences of Three Campaigns”.  The following passage from the latter work gives a description of the landscape of Suakin, Sudan at dusk.

“I can even now vividly recall the pure delight, such as life does not often afford, of my first evening out there behind the farthest corner of the low breastwork of the camp, where all was sinking into stillness, fanned by the pure gentle air of the desert on which we looked, watching the purpling sunset sky, ornamented by the horizontally placed crescent of the new moon floating boat-like about thirty degrees above the horizon, its convexity directed straight downwards, showing as a brilliant green against the coloured heavens, with the still-lighter green disc of its unilluminated side as a faint circle above it, while the stars emerged and the sky darkened and the camp fires burned red, with black figures flitting across them, and the horses neighed and the camels groaned, till all sank to repose.  The Great Bear was out of sight in the north; Orion and Sirius, which fringe our southern Scottish sky, were right overhead, and in their accustomed place on the southern horizon was the Southern Cross”.     

Dr Harold Edgar Smith (MA 1901, MB, ChB 1910) told the following tale about Alexander Ogston’s use of anecdote in teaching.  “The date, gentlemen, is the 12^th August and the only son of a County family is learning to shoot at the butts and a pellet, possibly a ricochet, enters the boy’s eye.  The boy you may be sure is brought as soon as possible to your consulting room.  But gentleman, the boy’s parents by tears and supplication and every artifice will try to postpone the operation.  If you listen to their entreaties, you may blind their boy”.  (Due to sympathetic ophthalmia, the transference of inflammation from the injured to the uninjured eye – treatment is the immediate removal of the injured eye).  On opening his surgery class in October 1901, Ogston heartily wished that the session might be a successful and useful one to them.  “Even one session was a big slice off a human life, and he hoped it might be a slice full of service and happiness to them”.  Professor Ogston was not usually given to such social niceties.  Perhaps he was mellowing with the years and also becoming aware of his own limited remaining time?

Another striking aspect of Ogston’s personality showed up in his classes.  Simply by his presence he was able to command respect and order.  No student ever tried to disrupt his classes.  It is tempting to contrast this quality, present in abundance in Ogston’s mien, with the hapless Professor Johnston, who became an inevitable victim of student high jinks.  Further, Ogston’s ability to compel order and attention extended to engendering the sort of student loyalty that most academics can only dream of, as evidenced by their actions to persuade him to reconsider his resignation from the Senior Surgeoncy in 1892 and their welcome for the boss on his return to Aberdeen Joint Station from the Sudan in 1885. 

There are many anecdotes extant concerning Alex Ogston’s meticulous attention to both his patients and his clinical students.  Dr William Henderson (MB, ChB 1912).  “Sunday morning from 10am to near 11am was a time which Ogston devoted specially to investigating complicated cases, only they were never “cases” to him.  They were human beings for whom he sympathised”.  Lady Gray, Elgin had a high regard for the thoughtfulness of Ogston’s work.  “I believe that in training his students he bore in mind that many of them would go to country practices and therefore in his operating work he used as few tools as possible to show what could be done with simple things if necessary.  He had no elaborate operating table with many gadgets but a plain wooden “kitchen” one such as would be available in a cottage”.  She also observed the devotion of his support staff.  “On the wards he was largely worshipped by his nursing and dresser staff.  He was a bit aloof and did not suffer fools gladly.  Unobtrusive but assertive.  Confronting a man who thought he should have more active treatment, AO said “There are two things we can do.  We can operate.  It may kill you.  Or we can wait.  Which will you do?”  “I’ll wait, Sir”.  “I think you are wise””.  Gently putting the man in his place, without putting him down.

However, he could easily become annoyed and prone to precipitate action if his personal dignity was offended, which happened several times in his career, for example his instant resignation as Joint Medical Officer for Aberdeen when his bill for treating patients during the smallpox epidemic of 1871 – 1872 was disputed, his resignation from the Senior Surgeoncy in 1892 over his workload, his hostility to Dr Wolfe, the retiring post-holder, being asked to arbitrate over his candidacy for the post of Ophthalmic Surgeon in 1868 and his successful objection to the unfair (as he saw it) allocation of space in the Marischal College South Wing extension in 1889.

One expression of Alexander Ogston’s outstanding intellect was his facility for learning foreign languages.  Both at school and at Marischal College he had enjoyed a classical education, studying both Latin and Greek.  As a medical student he had travelled widely in Continental Europe absorbing German in particular along the way.  His son, Walter, elaborated on his father’s employment of this skill.  “When he was in general practice, he spent much of his time while driving from the house of one patient to another, he would read foreign newspapers and, in this way, pick up language expertise.  When he went to Sudan, he took up the study of Arabic.  When in Italy in 1916 – 1917, he studied Italian”.

Another aspect of Alexander Ogston’s fundamental character was his reforming zeal.  He could not resist proposing change in any organisation where he perceived that things could be better organised for the general good.  His proposals for the reformation of the medical societies in the North-East of Scotland in and after 1872 was a pointer to future events when he was so prominent in unflinchingly publicising the deficiencies in the medical services of the British Army and Navy, and of making significant contributions to the processes of reform.  When serving at the Villa Trento hospital in Italy during 1916 – 1917 he proposed the conversion of the hospital from a base establishment to a mobile field hospital located nearer to the active front in order to be of more utility to injured soldiers.  Further, on his return to Italy in November 1917 he tried, unsuccessfully, to divert Trevelyan, from closing down the British hospital, then located at Castelbelforte, Mantua, since it would leave the British staff without local medical provision.

Alexander Ogston was supremely self-confident and never doubted his own ability to tackle almost any issue, situation or problem.  Possibly the only quality he ever claimed for himself was the capacity for hard work, but he did not overcome difficulties by unremitting effort alone.  His skill as a surgeon, his understanding of the scientific method, his analytical ability, his judgement of the importance of new advances, such as Lister’s antiseptic surgical technique, his ability to operate on any part of the human anatomy, or to advise on any medical condition all contributed to his comprehensive problem-solving capabilities.  That his self-confidence was not misplaced was obvious from the constant progress made by his professional career.

Many times, Alex Ogston demonstrated his physical courage, in warfare during the Sudan campaign, in South Africa during the Second Boer War, and with the Italians in North-East Italy for more than a year during WW1.  He seemed immune to the fear that afflicts most people operating in war zones, several times coming close to a violent end, though his closest brush with mortality was due to typhoid fever in the advance towards Bloemfontein in 1900.

His personal morality was also unshakeable.  He cared not one whit for the opinions of others “who did not matter” and always sought to do what he saw as the right thing.  This extended to him retiring earlier than necessary from both the Senior Surgeoncy at ARI and the Regius Chair of Surgery, because he felt that it was time to give way to younger men.  One of his students remembered the gist of his announcement to his last surgical class.  He said that he had decided to retire while he was still in possession of his powers of self-criticism, lest he should drift on to the time when he would fail to appreciate his own shortcomings.  But his pursuit of what some would have seen as self-interest, for example his attitude to the Ophthalmic Institute managers in 1868, his brush with the managers of ARI in 1870 when he was applying for the post of Junior Surgeon, and the mutual antagonism between Ogston and the Aberdeen Town Councillors over his medical bill during the smallpox epidemic of 1872 meant that he always had some detractors, but he overcame such hostility with his unremitting brilliance. 

Alex Ogston almost never talked about his patients, and he never took unjustifiable risks in the operating theatre.  However, he resented economy in treating his patients as the following story illustrates.  The House Committee of ARI was worrying about the cost of dressings and instructed the Superintendent to ask Ogston to be more sparing in his use of materials, as he was using more than the other surgeons.  Ogston asked the sister in charge, “Will you please dress that leg”?  The reply was “Yes, Sir, but what shall I dress it with”?  “Oh, any dirty rag you can find about the ward, Sister”, was Ogston’s ironic reply.  On another occasion he went to great lengths to ensure that a patient’s future prospects were not harmed by a misinterpretation of a scar on her neck, which had resulted from him operating to remove a branchial cyst.  Because the scar might be wrongly suspected as resulting from tuberculosis, he instructed his assistant, Dr William Henderson to provide the woman with a certificate to that effect.

 

Alexander Ogston’s wanderlust

At the age of 19 in the winter of 1863, while still a medical student at Aberdeen University, Alexander Ogston had his first taste of foreign travel when he undertook an extended educational tour of medical institutions across continental Europe, visiting Vienna, Prague, Berlin, Bohemia, Saxony, Switzerland, Prussia, the Hartz Mountains, Dresden, Cologne and Paris.  This journey also took in, from time to time, cultural activities and sight-seeing and Alex Ogston also recorded his observations on the places he visited, including reflections on the behaviour and attitudes of the people and cultures he encountered.  Many of his observations were frank and some were also uncomplimentary.  This initial set of foreign experiences established a habit which then extended for much of the rest of his life. 

The wandering surgeon early developed a special familiarity with Germany, German doctors and institutions, aided by his fluency in the native language and also propelled by the failure of senior British academics to recognise the vaidity of some of his scientific claims, in marked contrast with the Germans.  Ogston is known to have visited Germany to lecture in 1872 but is also believed to have visited the country on many other occasions in the 1870s and 1880s, though specific dates have not been uncovered.

The early 1880s saw AO extend the scope of his foreign travel to include trips to both Greece and Norway, both apparently undertaken solely for cultural and touristic reasons.

However, it was a desire to be fully informed in his teaching of military surgery and medicine which led to him branching out into a wholly novel type of foreign travel, the observation of the care provided to the sick and injured in war zones.  This primary objective was frequently expanded, in typical Ogston style, to include a semi-scientific examination of battlefields and military tactics.  His first military expedition was to the Sudan in 1884 – 1885 and was followed by further tours of war zones during the Second Boer War in South Africa in 1899 – 1900, and then during WW1 in Serbia (1915) and Italy (1916 – 1917).  His journeys to and from Serbia (twice) and Italy (twice) were all extremely trying, if not hazardous, and Alex Ogston had to rely on his wits and travel experience to extricate himself and his colleagues from a number of complicated situations.  But his persistence carried him though and he did not have to abandon any of his journeys during WW1.

Over Christmas and New Year 1896 – 1897 Alex Ogston travelled as an official representative of Aberdeen University on the occasion of the centenary of the Imperial Military Academy of Medicine in St Petersburg.  He used the occasion additionally to investigate the arrangements made in the Russian armed forces to deal with military casualties.  Also, in the late 1890s he visited Germany on several occasions for similar purposes

Alex Ogston, with his penchant for foreign travel made a number of other overseas visits in the 1880s and 1890s.  In 1884 he was the Aberdeen University representative at the International Medical Congress held in Copenhagen.  Then, about 20 August 1894, AO left England for South Africa by steamer and sketched various sights along the way, including Finisterre, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands, St Helena, Cape Town, the Karoo Desert, Mr Justice Solomon’s Bungalow, the Court House at Kimberley and, on the return journey, Tenerife, and Madeira. He probably landed about the middle of October 1894.  Mr Justice Solomon served as a judge in the Griqualand West Supreme Court between 1887 and 1896 and between 1888 and 1896 he lived at The Bungalow, now known as Rudd House in Kimberley.  Its location is close to the De Beers Diamond Mine.  Later Justice Solomon served as the Chief Justice of South Africa.  It is unclear if Alex Ogston was visiting Justice Solomon, or merely recording a prominent local building.  Thus his stay in South Africa must have been quite brief, given the time taken for the sea journey.  He saw at least one private medical patient while he was there but author David Rennie has suggested that the principal purpose of his visit may have been to reconcile with his estranged son, Francis.  He had been sent to school at Clifton College, Bristol but, having no funds, he stole money from another pupil and was expelled from the school.  When he returned home to Aberdeen, he was turned away from 252 Union Street by his father and step-mother.  Francis then worked for Messrs George Thompson & Co and lived in India and South Africa.

Perhaps the most audacious, hazardous and demanding foreign expedition undertaken in his whole life by Alexander Ogston occurred in December 1908 in the aftermath of the Messina earthquake.  His mission was to recue his son, Alfred, and grand-daughter who had escaped the catrastrophe with their lives, and to recover the body of Ethel, his daughter-in-law, for Christian burial in a marked grave.  This project was undertaken at very short notice and was entirely successful.  Who could doubt that the achievement of these objectives depended heavily upon the personal characteristics of the Aberdeen surgeon

AO was also a keen traveller in the British Isles.  In 1871 he set the pattern by honeymooning with new wife Molly at Windermere in the English Lake District.  Subsequently, he organised family cycling holidays in various parts of Britain, including Loch Lomond and Galloway.  Alex Ogston was also an avid explorer of the Grampian Mountains on his doorstep in Aberdeenshire.  Sketches he left behind, mostly from 1894, help to identify some of his mountain destinations he reached, including the Falls of Tarf in Glen Tilt and the Wells of Dee, Braerioch, by the Lairig Ghru, which he visited in the company of his sons, Walter and Alfred.

Falls of Tarf, Glen Tilt.

Wells of Dee, Braerioch.

Alex Ogston became addicted to travel, especially overseas, and rarely missed an opportunity to extend his tally.

 

The essence of the man

Many obituaries appeared recounting the principal achievements of the departed surgeon but perhaps the most telling comments, the remarks that penetrated to the essence of the man, came from those who knew him best, his contemporaries and former students, subsequently risen to positions of high responsibility.

Alexander Ogston’s son-in-law, Professor Sir Herbert Grierson, Professor of English Literature at Aberdeen, and then at Edinburgh Universities assessed the great man as follows.  “Sir Alexander was in many respects a characteristic Aberdonian, cautious, shrewd, realistic and scientific in his outlook on life but with a strain of idealism and a touch of boyishness in his nature”.

Surgeon Vice-Admiral Sir James Porter. MA 1874, MB CM 1877 (Aberdeen), Director General of the Medical Department of the Navy. “Sir Alexander Ogston was the first pioneer in dealing with the medical conditions prevailing in the Army and Navy in modern times.  That work he did without fee or reward”.

Professor Ashley Mackintosh, Chair of Medicine, Aberdeen University, in opening his class on 4 February 1929.  “Sir Alexander was at his best in the wards and operating theatre.  He (Mackintosh) would refer only briefly to only two lessons which he (Ogston) taught them … The first was method in their work.  It was a real education to note how carefully he examined a patient and prepared for an operation.  The second was the daily habit of courtesy and gentleness in dealing with the poorest and most complaining of their sick brethren.  But the man himself was greater than teacher or scientist.  Physically, nature had favoured him.  Osier in Aberdeen had called him “the Adonis of the profession”.  He was indeed a most striking and impressive personality.  It might be truthfully said that he did not lay himself out to attract his students, and yet, such was the inherent and indefinable power of the man that no teacher of his time, he would venture to say, wielded greater or even as great influence.  They knew they were in the presence of one of the really big men, rarely met”.

Alexander Ogston’s successor, Sir John Marnoch said, “Nature had gifted him with a fine brain, but she had also endowed him with an imposing frame.  The tall commanding figure, the sparing sentences deliberately uttered and an almost old-world courtesy combined to make a personality not easily forgotten”.  Marnoch also recorded, “To the present generation of students he was unknown, except by name and reputation, but in his time, he was the most outstanding figure in the University.  He early made his reputation, which was world-wide, by his researches into the cause of suppuration, and, as one would have expected from his scientific bent, he at once realised what Lister’s great discovery meant to suffering humanity, and became an ardent pioneer of the antiseptic system of surgery, upon which our present-day methods are based.  Upon those of us who were privileged to be his students when he was at the zenith of his fame as a teacher in surgery, he made a great impression”.

Perhaps the final word on Alexander Ogston should go to Professor William Bulloch, MB M Chir 1890 (Aberdeen), Professor of Bacteriology, University of London.  Speaking of Alexander Ogston’s status as a bacteriological pioneer, Bulloch said, “Ogston’s work on the bacterial causation of acute suppuration was the only English one which today finds a permanent place in the history of bacteriology in its golden age”.

 

Concluding statement

It is surely important not to let humanity forget this intellectual titan who did so much for the advancement of antiseptic surgery, surgical innovation, the understanding of bacterial disease in surgical wounds, the reformation of military medical organisation, the development of the Aberdeen University estate and who three times saw active service as an operative surgeon, on the last occasion at the age of 72 - 73.

Sir Alexander Ogston's son, Walter Henry, who died in 1957, wrote, “I had always hoped that someone would come forward to compose his biography.  But this was not to be”.  It is to be hoped that the descendants of the great man, and others, will find something of value in the present assessment of Sir Alexander’s life.  

 

Don Fox

20221006

20260514

donaldpfox@gmail.com 

I am indebted to the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle for granting access to materials in their possession, which are identified by references starting with "RA"