American Ambulance Hospital of Paris ID bracelet

[Croix de Guerre]

The following is an ID bracelet identified to Edward Whittemore Shattuck who was born in Welsley, Massachusetts on the tenth of March 1887.  Shattuck graduated from the Bristol High School in Bristol, New Hampshire with the Class of 1904.  After graduating Shattuck worked as a statistician and then later with the Dodge Bros. Motor Company.  In November 1914 he applied for a U.S. Passport and volunteered as an ambulance driver with the American Ambulance Hospital of Paris.  He was first assigned as a member of the Paris Squad evacuating hospital trains at the great wounded reception center at La Chapelle.  By March 1915, we was working in one of the "field service sections", evacuating British wounded from the railway stations in Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise to various field hospital in the city.  In April, Shattuck was selected to be a member of a new ambulance squad dubbed "Section Z" that was being assigned to serve directly with the French 66th Division, which was then engaged in combat in the territory of Alsace.  This was a huge step forward in the history of the American ambulance service as this was to be the first group of Americans to operate directly on the front lines.  Shattuck served for several weeks and then received word from home of a family emergency which required him to resign from the service and return to the United States.   The trial Section Z that he was assigned to was successful in its mission and in June 1915, it was expanded to a full size ambulance section by French military standards and renumbered as American Ambulance Field Service Section Three.  After the war when the final roster of SSU 3 was compiled, Shattuck was omitted with no reason given.  

 

This identity bracelet bears the name of the American Ambulance Hospital of Paris as well as a Internation Red Cross identity number.  This bracelet was issued to Shattuck at the same time as he received a Red Cross armband.  Both were inscribed with this assigned International Red Cross number that would identify him as a non-combatant in the event he was captured by the enemy.  Ed Shattuck's service was very early, lasting from November 1914 to April 1915.  I received this directly from his granddaughter.