Medicine and Duty: The World War I Memoir of Captain Harold W. McGill, Medical Officer, 31st Battalion C.E.F.

by Harold W. McGill, Marjorie Barron Norris (Editor), Patrick Brennan (Foreword by)

Overview

Medicine and Duty is the World War I memoir of Harold McGill, a medical officer in the 31st (Alberta) Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force. McGill attempted to have his memoir published by Macmillan of Canada in 1935, but, unfortunately, due to financial constraints, the company was not able to complete the publication. Decades later, editor Marjorie Norris came upon a draft of the manuscript in the Glenbow Archives and took it upon herself to resurrect McGill's story.

Norris's painstaking archival research and careful editing skills have brought back to light a gripping first-hand account of the 31st Battalion and, on a larger scale, of Canada's participation in World War I. A wealth of additional information, including extensive notes and excerpts from letters written "from the trenches," lends a new sense of immediacy and realism to the original memoir and provides a fascinating, harrowing glimpse into the day-to-day life of Canadian soldiers during the Great War.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781552381939
Publisher:	University of Calgary Press
Publication date:	05/15/2007
Series:	Legacies Shared , #23
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	406
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Marjorie Barron Norris is a writer and historian who lives in Calgary. She has previously written about the history of nursing in World War I and on the history of the Calgary Local Council of Women.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Acknowledgements
Editor's Introduction
Maps

The Threat of War
The Outbreak of War
Mobilizations
Life in Barracks
The Move to England
Training in England
The Move to France
Baptism of Fire
Our Enemy the Mud
The Sawn of a New Year
The Battles of St. Eloi
The Coming of General Byng
The Battle of Sanctuary Wood
The Sumer in Belgium
The Journey to the Somme
The Battle of the Somme
The Battle of the Somme, Cont'd
After the Battle
The Souchez Sector
Out of the Line
The Storming of Vimy Ridge
Beyond the Ridge
The Lens Sector
Epilogue

Appendix: 31st Battalion Casualties to November 11, 1918
Index

Editorial Reviews

Norris has made a highly significant contributions to the literature of World War I and Canadian military medical history by her diligent editorial work.

—John Gilinsky, Canadian Bulletin of Medical History

Anyone with a general interest in Canada and the First World War will find Medicine and Duty worthwhile.

&mdashlAndrew Iarocci, Scientia Canadensis 

Everyone involved in this project has done military medicine a great service by ensuring that the sacrifices of doctors like McGill and the soldiers they served are not forgotten.

—Patrick Sullivan, CMAJ 

From the Publisher