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

[Douglas Barry]

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 Dáil - 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