E Alan Mackintosh in England: August 1916 to September 1917
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Mackintosh was evacuated from High Wood on the Somme on 3rd August 1916. He sailed on a hospital ship from Le Havre on 6th August and arrived at Southampton on August 7th. His wound is described as ‘septic poisoning from enemy wire’. He was admitted to the Red Cross Hospital at Netley, near Southampton. He was on leave from the hospital from 19th August to 9th September. This was increased by one month ‘owing to relapse’. He was suffering from septicaemia. His address was then 23 Vernon Terrace, Brighton. View former hospital site on Google Maps View Vernon Terrace address on Google Street View |
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Once he had recovered sufficiently to resume duty he was sent to Ripon which had a large number of basic training camps. He was not well. He wrote to John Lane, his publisher: ‘I am still here with my leg pretty bad and one of my eyes is almost blind... I hope to be able to get to town soon.’ On November 7th he wrote: ‘I am still engaged in doing nothing in particular in this beastly hole, where, as you can see, there is not even black ink. It is a ghastly life and my eyes are possibly going blind which does not improve matters.’ View location on Google Maps |
Training camp at Ripon
Bayonet practice
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He was posted as bombing officer to No. 2 Officer Cadet Battalion at Downing College, Cambridge. The end of course magazine, Graduating in Arms, contained a cartoon of Alan Mackintosh, showing him with his pince nez spectacles (always removed for photographs). As well as carrying out his duties, coaching officer cadets in the technicalities and tactics of hand grenades, he tried to give them a flavour of university life by coaching a team of cadets in rowing. View location on Google Maps Photo of Downing College by Jack Stow/Flickr, used under a Creative Commons licence. |
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In the early months of 1917 he fell in love with Elizabeth Sylvia Marsh, a Quaker, who was serving in the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) in Earle’s Colne village hall. Earl’s Colne was then linked to Cambridge by an hour and a half’s journey on the Colne Valley Light Railway. Sylvia had started as a VAD nurse at Earle's Colne in September 1915 and her service there ended in December 1917, after Alan’s death. Whether they met socially or in the course of his treatment is unknown. After returning to France, Alan wrote about their separation in the poem To Sylvia. View on Google Street View |
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