The time set for leaving Halifax for Overseas was December 31, 1915, via St. John, N.B. The departure at one time of so many professional men and women, who stood high in the confidence of the people of Halifax and Nova Scotia, was a poignant reminder of the serious proportions assumed by the Great War.
On the evening of the last day of 1915, when Dalhousie Unit entrained at North Street Depot, a large concourse of people were assembled, not only of Halifax but from many other parts of the Province. The bands of the 1st Canadian Artillery and 63rd Rifles, as well as the pipers, joined the citizens of Nova Scotia in a fitting farewell. Their train pulled out amidst music and cheers.
The Unit arrived at St. John at 6 a.m., New Year’s Day, and went aboard His Majesty’s Troopship Metagama. At noon the officers were entertained at luncheon by the medical profession of St. John at the Royal Hotel. The Unit sailed at 9 o’clock on the evening of January 1, 1916, with several other Units, with Col. H. C. Bickford as Officer Commanding troops.
Sea voyages are pretty much alike. There are those who like their beer and poker, or bridge, and those who like to laze and read and sleep and sleep and read and laze, or sit and think, or simply sit, while others wish they had taken the advice of the poet—“Praise the sea but keep on land.” A convoy of torpedo boat destroyers was met at noon on the eighth day out, and at 3 a.m. on January 10th the Unit landed at Plymouth and disembarked at 9 a.m.
The personnel on arriving in England was as follows: O.C., Lieut.-Col. John Stewart; Majors E. V. Hogan and L. M. Murray; Captains M. A. MacAulay, V. N. MacKay, K. A. MacKenzie, E. K. Maclellan, S. J. MacLennan, D. A. MacLeod, J. A. Murray, John Rankine, Frank V. Woodbury, Karl F. Woodbury (Dental Officer), Lieut. S. R. Balcom, Dispenser; Lieut. Walter Taylor, Quartermaster; Miss L. M. Hubley, Matron, and twenty-six Nursing Sisters; one hundred and twenty-three N.C.O.’s and men.
The officers, non-commissioned officers and men entrained at once for Shorncliffe, where they arrived in the evening, while the matron and nursing sisters proceeded to London and were temporarily quartered at Bonnington Hotel. They were afterwards distributed for duty between the hospitals at Westcliffe, Moore Barracks and Ramsgate.
On the 11th the Unit was inspected by Lieut.-Col. F. W. E. Wilson, of Niagara, Ontario, A.D.M.S. Shorncliffe area.
Billets were secured and the medical officers were employed on medical boards or as medical officers to various Units in the training camps, while the non-commissioned officers and men were assigned to various duties.
On January 17th Capt. F. V. Woodbury was stricken with that dread disease among troops, cerebro-spinal meningitis. For some days there was great anxiety on his account, but he made a rapid and complete recovery.
On February 5th Colonel Stewart, O.C. of No. 7 Canadian Stationary Hospital, was given command of Shorncliffe Military Hospital, with the forty subsidiary hospitals of the Dover area, in succession to Lieut.-Col. R. J. Blanchard, No. 3 C.C.S., of Winnipeg. He immediately recalled the nursing sisters and reassembled his Unit, and with his reorganized Staff manned Shorncliffe Military General Hospital and the Helena Hospital for officers. The Shorncliffe Hospital alone had 800 beds, and altogether there were some 10,000 beds in the hospitals taken over. Colonel Stewart and his Staff had a pretty busy time administering the hospitals of this large area. Sir Frederic Eve visited these hospitals periodically.