Jump to content

American Ambulance Hospital of Paris "Red Book"


Croix de Guerre
 Share

Recommended Posts

Croix de Guerre

The following are photos of what at one time was probably a fairly common item, but subsequently most were discarded so that today they are very difficult to find.  This is the "Red Book" of Henry Wharton who was a very wealthy socialite and "Coal Barron" from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who put aside his personal pursuits and volunteered as an ambulance driver with the American Ambulance Hospital of Paris.  I need to take a moment and clarify that there was a difference between the "Field Service" of the American Ambulance, which became a separate organization known as The American Field Service and the "Paris Squad" of the American Ambulance Hospital of Paris.  In a very over simplified explanation, the Hospital or Ambulance in French terminology, meaning a military hospital, was formed in 1914.  By the late Fall of 1914, the American Ambulance had a number of small detached satellite squads operating outside of Paris, north in the Pas-de-Calais region helping the Brits and the French evacuate hospital trains to hospitals further inland.  At the same time, the American hospital had a squad of men evacuating hospital trains that were arriving at the freight station in Paris the "La Gare du l'Chapelle" known as the "Paris Squad".  In April 1915, the newly appointed director of The Field Service, (italics intended), A. Piatt Andrew, convinced the French government to allow three small sections of American ambulances to be directly attached to the French Army in the field.  These "field service" sections soon became Sections One, Two & Three.  During this time, volunteers were still arriving in Paris at the American Ambulance Hospital of Paris who either had no desire to serve in the field and/or who could only commit to an enlistment period of three months.  

 

Henry Wharton was just such an example. He was fairly mature at the time, (he was 49) and he could only volunteer for a period of three months.  The "Red Book" was essentially a receipt booklet used as a record keeping method to keep track of where and when wounded were dropped off or picked up from various hospital in and around Paris.  It must be understood that just because you were an ambulance from "Hospital A", that did not mean that you only were given wounded destined for your particular hospital. Often, particularly in times of a huge influx of wounded during campaigns, you were more likely to be given wounded to transport based upon the nature of their wounds.  (Most head and facial trauma were sent to the American Ambulance for instance, but not exclusively.). Henry's "Red Book" tallys the number, date, time and destination of the wounded.  The booklet came with a piece of carbon paper that was inserted in between the top and bottom copies, that were perforated to allow for easy removal and the driver's copy would receive a stamp from whatever facility he went to.  There were literally hundreds of various hospitals all over Paris so it must've have been daunting to locate some of these out of the way places in the dark of night.  Anyway, this is a neat little piece of esoterica that I thought perhaps a few of you might find interesting.  In closing, I will make a shameless plug: If any of you (besides kanemono who has the only other one I have seen) has one of these little books, I would love to see it.  I am curious to learn when they came into use.  If they were issued to the driver, the orderly or the car?  And what hospital's stamps it contains.

 

 

Cover.JPG

Screen Shot 2021-06-27 at 12.13.10 AM.png

Screen Shot 2021-06-27 at 12.12.59 AM.png

Screen Shot 2021-06-27 at 12.12.19 AM.png

Screen Shot 2021-06-27 at 12.12.09 AM.png

Screen Shot 2021-06-27 at 12.11.38 AM.png

Screen Shot 2021-06-27 at 4.29.58 PM.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Croix de Guerre

Well, what a small world we live in!   I just got this booklet and to be honest I have done much research on it as I have had bigger fish to fry BUT,,I knew the name sounded familiar. Apparently several years ago, the Wharton estate must have been dispersed and I remember buying a number of photos of this man's son Thomas.  Thomas Wharton also joined the ambulance service and ended up serving in the Norton-Harjes Ambulance service and then later volunteered as an aspirant in the French artillery corps.  (That is a whole other interesting story).  Unfortunately I sold or traded away these photos some time ago, but I still have a little passport size photo of young Thomas.  I'll look for the other photos.  They were studio portraits of Tom in his French officer's uniform.

 

 

624D29F6-A3DE-4D54-A5CB-61E5C0A2EDB4.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Croix de Guerre

Here they are!  I wish I had held onto them.  I still have a big pile of unidentified mostly children's photos from the estate that I bought to keep the dealer from throwing them in the trash.  Shame when this stuff falls into evil or ignorant clutches.  

844DDE33-81CE-4F2D-9BDF-0B440998CFFE.jpeg

00DA2C7C-4DE7-45CE-A043-17CDD74E8247.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Salvage Sailor

Glad you kept the images on hand to match them up.  I'm the annoying uncle always lecturing folks about writing names, dates & places on the backs of photos.  Sure, you know what they are and where and when they were taken.....so please Write It Down.

 

Fabulous (and ID'd) photos CDG

Aloha

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Croix de Guerre

Here is Tom's daddy Henry Wharton Sr. From his 1916 passport.(He was the owner of the Red Book).  Forest Gump would've called him a "Gozillianaire!" 

Screen Shot 2021-06-27 at 3.25.23 PM.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Croix de Guerre
1 hour ago, Salvage Sailor said:

Glad you kept the images on hand to match them up.  I'm the annoying uncle always lecturing folks about writing names, dates & places on the backs of photos.  Sure, you know what they are and where and when they were taken.....so please Write It Down.

 

Fabulous (and ID'd) photos CDG

Aloha

Salvage Sailor, I see you are from or live in Hawaii.  You ever heard of the Judd family?  If not, you ought to look them up.  They are "haole" but Judds have been on the Big Island since the Europeans and Americans referred to them as The Sandwich Islands.  The Judd's have an interesting connection with the American Hospital of Paris and Mrs. Whitney's hospital at Juilly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Salvage Sailor

Yes I am,

 

I recently had a letter posted from the Paris hospital from one of the Judd sons written to his mother in Honolulu.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Croix de Guerre
1 hour ago, Salvage Sailor said:

Yes I am,

 

I recently had a letter posted from the Paris hospital from one of the Judd sons written to his mother in Honolulu.

From WWI?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Salvage Sailor

Just after, 1919, primarily discussing financial and travel matters, nothing military related.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Croix de Guerre
1 hour ago, Salvage Sailor said:

Just after, 1919, primarily discussing financial and travel matters, nothing military related.

 

Dr. Judd and his wife traveled to Paris in 1915 and first served in Paris at the American Ambulance and then later they were assigned to Mrs. Whitney's American Ambulance B at Juilly where they spent the majority of their time.  Dr. Judd published a book about his time in France titled; With the American Ambulance in France.  I have communicated with some of the Judd family and they have proven to be lovely people, quite aware and proud of their forebears work during WWI.  Mrs. Whitney's Hospital has always been a particular interest of mine.  

Gate colorized.jpg

Screen Shot 2020-05-18 at 10.38.36 PM.png

Ambulance B Stamp.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...