Alma Russell Letters
Letters of British Columbia men on active service with Canadian and British Expeditionary Forces, 1914-1918. Learn more.
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this officer up to “A”. So up the schute I was pulled again (I might say that all this time I was in awful pain), so when I got to “A”, I asked the M.O. if I could remain on the stretcher as it gave me such pain to be moved, he said “yes”. The boat pulled out at 4 p.m. and we got to Dover at 7.p.m. and by Jove, the stretcher was getting hard as I had been on it since 11 that morning. Just before the stretcher bearers came along to take us off, the orderly stepped over my stretcher to get something off a cot that I happened to be close to and in stepping back he gave my splint such a kick and of course this again gave me unnecessary pain and needless to say I comforted myself with letting him have some real old B.C. language. Then they took us along the deck and as the tide was low, and the wharf high, we had to be lifted off the boat by a crane (they place about ten stretcher cases on a big platform sort of arrangement and hoist us up). I did not like the look of it, but it went off all O.K. When we land on the wharf they thought they would take me off the platform first so they lifted me up very suddenly, but unfortunately while placing us on the platform arrangement, my blanket was lying over the stretcher, and they had placed the stretcher alongside me on the top of it and consequently when they lifted me up, my blanket was pinned down and so, naturally this pulled my old leg over again, the pain was so great and I was so cross, that I never said a word, but thought a lot. From there they took me along to the train which was not very far away. When they took me into the compartment I asked again if I might remain on the stretcher instead of being put in a cot and the M.O. said “Yes”.
We left Dover Station about 8.15 p.m. or so, the movemnet of the train gave me a great shaking up, and the M.O. gave me a small tablet of morphine, which unfortunately had no effect on me. I thought that the train journey would never come to an end. Well, eventually we steamed
BC Archives, MS-1901 Box 1 File 6 / RUSSELL, Alma M., 1873 - 1964. Victoria; librarian. / Selected letter from Lieutenant Gordon Patrick Heinekey, 1917.