Here the first great sorrow came to the Unit in the illness and death of their beloved Commanding Officer, Lieut.-Colonel MacLeod. He contracted anthrax poisoning, from which he died January 4, 1917. With military honors and amidst a large concourse of sorrowing comrades he was laid to rest in the cemetery at Bramshott.
Command of the Unit was taken by Major H. E. Kendall, who was promoted to the rank of Lieut.-Colonel. Lieut.-Colonel Gilmore of Toronto took charge of the surgical section.
The spring of 1917 was a very hard period, as was also the fall of 1917. The damp and chilly English climate was very trying to new Canadian troops, and there was a large amount of sickness. A good many battle casualties were also received from France.
A call came from France for more Canadian hospitals, and No. 9 Canadian Stationary Hospital was selected. The Unit was ordered to proceed to France, and sailed from Folkestone in December, 1917, landing at Boulogne the same day with the following officers: Lieut.-Col. H. E. Kendall, Officer Commanding; Major Charles Hunter, Major Adair, Quartermaster; Capt. J. Williams, Pathologist; Capt. H. L. Reazin, Capt. J. W. Lord, Capt. Andrew Love, Capt. W. F. MacIsaac, Capt. A. F. Slayter, Capt. D. A. Webb, Capt. J. Wilfred, Hon. Capt. J. O. Ralston, Chaplain; Hon. Capt. P. White, Chaplain.
Major Adair was subsequently Quartermaster at No. 3 Canadian General Hospital at Boulogne, where he died suddenly of uræmia following influenza in the spring of 1919.
On arrival in Boulogne the Unit received orders to proceed to Longuenesse, near St. Omer, and open a hospital of four hundred beds. Here everything was found to be in readiness. There were hutted wards of corrugated iron, wooden administration buildings complete in every detail and ready for occupation. There was an excellent, well-lighted, well-ventilated and thoroughly-equipped operating room. The quarters provided for officers, nursing sisters and men were all that could be desired.
It was only a few days before the Unit was ready to carry on, and early in January, 1918, the first convoy was received, consisting of over one hundred wounded soldiers from the Front. Excellent and steady work then continued.
In February instructions were received from headquarters to enlarge the hospital to nine hundred beds. With willing hands and enthusiastic workers this was soon completed, and during the month of March a great many surgical cases were dealt with. Capt. A. Loos and Capt. A. F. Slater were the surgical specialists at this time. On account of the large number of surgical cases application was made for assistants. Capt. T. MacGregor, a noted Scotch surgeon of Glasgow, was sent for temporary duty. The officer in charge of the Medical Division was Capt. H. L. Reazin, a successful and well-known practitioner of Toronto.
During the spring of 1918 the St. Francis Hospital Unit carried on under precisely the same conditions of harassing shell fire and nightly bombing as described in connection with the Dalhousie Medical Unit.
The nursing sisters and hospital Staff displayed great courage all through these trying times, remaining at their posts in the operating room and hospital wards. No pen can describe the nerve-testing and nerve-wracking experience of hearing the swish through the air of those terrible and deadly bombs, then the terrific explosions and rocking and trembling of the earth which meant destruction and death to many. The way those splendid young women carried themselves was magnificent. Without a quiver or the slightest hesitation they kept right along with their work and soothed and encouraged and ministered to their patients. They were the same living contradiction here as elsewhere to all logical relations, and the harmony of things. They would jump up on the operating table and scream at the suggestion of a mouse or trench rat; but would go out into the storm and darkness and fire to give a drink of water to a wounded soldier.