A large number of men who signed up in Camborne in 1914 – 22 in total – went into the R.A.M.C. 25th Field Ambulance. For more general information about this division – which provided medical support to soldiers at the front – click here.
An article in the Cornishman on Thursday 5 November describes the scene and gives a list of the Camborne men there: many of the names of these men appear on the Cornish ‘team list’ of the three rugby matches played at the front between Cornish and Devon teams.
The Cornish section of the Field Ambulance now in camp at Hursley Park, Winchester, under Captain W. Blackwood, R.A.M.C., includes 22 from Camborne and six from Porthleven. After a month at Salisbury Plain, the section went to Codford, where there were about 27,000 of Kitchener’s Army to be looked after. About three weeks ago they were sent to Winchester to be attached to the 8th Division of the Expeditionary Force, an honour the men fully appreciate. The Division includes the 2nd Devons Rifle Brigade, 2nd Lincolns (Capt. Blackwood’s brother is adjutant of the 1st Lincolns, now in France), the Irish Rifles, etc. The men are preparing stores etc., and personal kit for foreign service. The date of their departure, however, is not known. All the men seem well and fit. The following is a list of the Camborne men at Winchester awaiting orders:-
Staff-Sergt. R. Old, Sergt. W. J. Phillips, Sergt. F. Henwood, Privates F. Negus, E. Truran, E. Bray, L. Pentecost, R. Chinn, E. James, F. Head, YH. H. Nicholls, W. H. Trimm, P. Condon, J. Soloman, W. Bosanko, E. Fletcher, A. J. Williams, E. Rule, J. Wills, W. Brazier and J. Rule.
