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

[pdzwig at summaventures.com (Peter Dzwig)]

Fascinating Story, Where did the photo come from?

Peter

On 20/11/2022 18:37, Douglas Barry wrote:
> My grandfather Tom Casserly, a sapper in the British Army's Royal 
> Engineers, is shown? hospitalised on the island of Malta in 1917. He was 
> fighting in Greece in the 8th Wireless Section in Salonika when he got 
> infected with dysentery and had to be shipped to Malta which was known 
> as "The Nurse of the Mediterranean" during WW1. Casualties from the 
> campaigns in Salonika and Gallipoli flooded the numerous hospitals 
> specially set up there. Photographer and camera unknown, but at a wild 
> guess, based on images with similar backgrounds, it was taken at St. 
> Georges Hospital near Valletta.
> 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/DouglasBray/TFC+Hospital+Malta+1917+b.jpg.html
> 
> Can be seen larger
> 
> I intend to tidy this up a bit, but the image print has been a bit 
> battered over the last 100 or so years, and is also quite small at 9 x 
> 10.25 cm, so it will be a challenge. However, I've just brought down my 
> old Epson Perfection 3200 Photo scanner from the attic as wrinkled and 
> ragged photos need a scanner, rather than a camera and stand setup, and 
> this is the first shot I've scanned. I've loads more of these as we were 
> never allowed to hear any family history other than generalities, let 
> alone see photos. Remember, In the last 110 years, Ireland has seen some 
> very fractious events - the 1916 Easter Rising, the War of Independence, 
> the Treaty and division into north and south. the Civil War, the 
> euphemistic "Emergency" (WW2 to everyone else) and many more culminating 
> in the "Troubles".? It turns out my grandfather who died in 1953 at the 
> age of 57 while still working as Chief Superindentent and head of the 
> Crimes Unit in the Irish police force - the Garda Siochana - was 
> involved in a lot of these events. All connections with armed resistance
> 
> Tom also contracted malaria out there in Salonika, and much later got TB 
> which ultimately killed him. That said he did return to Ireland, and, as 
> he had been a radio operator which was cutting edge tech at the time, he 
> got a job with the Department of Post and Telegraphs who placed him in 
> Dublin Castle. The Castle was the headquarters of the British Army in 
> Ireland, but Tom was not deemed to be a security risk - with his war 
> record, and the fact that his father was a sergeant serving in the Royal 
> Irish Constabulary, the Irish police force during British rule. Well, 
> they got that wrong...
> 
> Apparently, his position in the Castle was noted by Michael Collins, the 
> head of the IRA Intelligence unit, and he was recruited as one of 
> Collins's spies. He also evidently became utilised in other ways during 
> the War of Independence later on. When I visited the Garda museum to 
> check records four? years ago to try to discover just why he had been 
> recruited at Inspector level and why then, within nine months, had 
> become Superintendent, the written reason for his recruitment was "IRA 
> Battalion Intelligence Officer". My mother and her two sisters knew 
> nothing of this and it was only in 2020 I got to ask my uncle the 
> background on what turned out to be his deathbed. I discovered from him 
> that Tom had been in Michael Collins's "Squad" - a group of deep cover 
> IRA specialist assassins and when Arthur Griffith became President of 
> the D?il - the Irish parliament, he and two of my grand uncles Pat 
> Swanzy and Joe McCarthy - also both secret (to me) were Griffith's 
> minders when he was a priority target for anti-Treaty gunmen.
> 
> Anyway, here Tom is receiving succour from the British Army.
> 
> Douglas
> 
> 
> 
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-- 

Dr. Peter Dzwig