207th Welsh Field Ambulance

[edelweiss123]

Picked up a nice photo today of A Company, 207th Welsh Field Ambulance. Names along the bottom. Thought id share it with you all. I believe it is WW2 but may be wrong.

Thanks

[Jerry B]

Very cool picture and probably dates to between 1939 and 1942 as they all, except the officers are wearing Battledress serge (37 Pattern) or pre austerity 40 pattern BD blouses as far as I can see.

[edelweiss123]

It's yours if you want it Jerry? We picked it up with you in mind? I have your address and it will be winging its way to you shortly.

[Jerry B]

Many thanks Vicky and James, very kind of you and this makes two I owe you.

[Spitace41]

Don't worry about it. It will fit in with your collection better than ours.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Very kind of you guys. Well done. You pair encompass the spirit of the forum very well. Proud to have you here.

Cheers, Ade.

[Jerry B]

Just been visited by James and Vicky and they dropped the picture off and I have to thank them for it, very generous of them.

I did some research after they left and one of the two officers was Major W.M.E.Anderson and as a Lt-Col he was co of 195th airlanding field ambulance and was wounded during the Normandy campaign and was awarded the DSO. He was better known as Bill Anderson.

Lieutenant-Colonel Bill Anderson

Maurice Anderson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

195th Airlanding Field Ambulance, RAMC

195th Airlanding Field Ambulance, RAMC

6th Airlanding Brigade | ParaData

[Jerry B]

Anderson,
William Maurice Eyre
"Bill"
W.M.E. Anderson
From Parkstone.


31.08.1908
Dublin
-
12.1986
Hastings and Rother, East Sussex
Lt.
07.06.1934, seniority 07.06.1933 [63162]
Capt.
07.06.1935, seniority 07.06.1934
A/Maj.
01.05.1940-31.07.1940
T/Maj.
01.08.1940-17.02.1942
WS/Maj.
18.02.1942
Maj.
07.06.1943 (reld 02.08.1946; own request)
A/Lt.Col.
18.11.1941-17.02.1942
T/Lt.Col.
18.02.1942-26.01.1943,
12.10.1943-28.03.1946
Distinguished Service Order DSO
24.01.1946
NW Europe 44-45
NW Frontier of India (Loe Agra and Mohmand) 1935 Medal & Clasp; 1939-45 Star; France & Germany Star; Defence Medal; War Medal
Education: MB, BCh, BAO Dub (1933), MD (1941; Trinity College, Dublin); graded pathologist (1939)
24.04.1933
-
05.06.1934
Lieutenant, Indian Medical Service (resigned 06.06.1934)
07.06.1934


commissioned, Royal Army Medical Corps [short service commission]
1934
-
1940
served in India
07.06.1939


permanent commission
1941
-
1943
Commanding Officer, 206th Field Ambulance RAMC
1943
-
1945
Commanding Officer, 195th Airlanding Field Ambulance RAMC (UK, France [Normandy], UK, Ardennes, Germany [Hamminkeln])
1945
-
1945
Commanding Officer, 171st Field Ambulance RAMC
1945
-
1946
Commanding Officer, 2nd Medical Light Commando


Info from here;

Officers of the British Army 1939-1945* --* A

Interestingly it has him commanding 206th field ambulance and not the 207th, so that maybe a mistake in the research.

So besides being a Para he was also a Commando.

[Jerry B]

I decided to try and research the other officer and had some success, he was Douglas George Adamson and was a LT-Col (Temp) before he was demobbed in 1945.

During his years in the RAMC, he served in Egypt, Syria, Persia, Iraq and Burma, finally becoming Assistant Director of Malariology, 14th Army with the rank of Lieut. Colonel. He was responsible for antimalaria organisation of the force during the advance from Imphal to Madalay, being twice mentioned in dispatches. He became the youngest serving Lieut. Colonel in the forces at the time he was appointed Assistant Director of Malariology of the 14th Army.

Included are two pictures of him during the war from the first link, as is the extract from his obituary.

Genes on the Web - Dr Douglas George Adamson MBChB MD FRCP

Viewing Page 8091 of Issue 34745

Viewing Page 3752 of Issue 37184

http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issu...s/385/page.pdf

[Jerry B]

From the gazette links he became a LT in Nov 39 and a temporary Major in July 45, though when he became a Captain is yet to be established which would allow us to date the original picture more accurately, but it must be after Nov 1939 and should be sometime before Autumn 42 because of the BD's. More research will hopefully produce an answer, though this mention from the first link above suggests the picture was taken before this event occurred in 1940. Dr Douglas George Adamson MBChB MD FRCP was in Africa & met with Archibald Ford at a port. circa 1940 at Africa.