| ADMS | Assistant Director of Medical Services |
| Alwyn hut | Small detached cubical apartments of light wooden framework, over which canvas is stretched, with wooden floors and windows of celluloid – and a stove |
| Arabeah | Also araybier or arabier. Open-fronted, single-horse drawn carriage. The taxi of Cairo |
| Archies | Anti aircraft guns |
| Arnaut | Albanian peasant |
| Armstrong hut | Similar to Alwyn hut. Canvas and wood collapsible hut used by the British in the First World War |
| ASC | Army Service Corps |
| Asepsis | Practice of ensuring that bacteria (or other contaminants such as viruses, fungi or parasites) are excluded, to prevent infection during surgery, wound dressing, or other medical procedures |
| Aubu | Probably a corruption of the French obus – an artillery shell |
| Beatrice stove | Cast iron stove fuelled by kerosene oil. Used to provide heating or for boiling water or cooking |
| BEF | British Expeditionary Forces |
| Blessé | Wounded |
| Bougez | French for ‘move’ |
| Brassards | Badge worn on the arm |
| Carrel tubes | System consisting of glass syringes and rubber tubing used to irrigate infected wounds with an antiseptic solution, developed by Dr Alexis Carrel |
| Catwyk | A Dutch ship, carrying a cargo of grain, torpedoed by a German submarine near Flushing on 14 April 1915 |
| CCS | Casualty Clearing Station |
| NB. Depending on the type and extent of his wound a soldier would either struggle on his own, be carried by a comrade, or placed on a stretcher and taken to the regimental aid post situated somewhere on the edge of the battlefield wherever the regimental medical officer could find suitable shelter. Stretcher-bearers, trained in first aid, treated haemorrhages, and gave other immediate help. At the aid post the wound was dressed and then the soldier was taken further back to a field dressing station. After having an anti-tetanus injection he was sent by ambulance to a CCS situated well behind the line. When fit enough he was put on a hospital train which took him to a base hospital. He then either returned to fight again, or was sent back to England to convalesce | |
| Chaldeans | People originating from the ‘land of Chaldea’ – a territory in southern Babylonia (modern southern Iraq), lying between the Rivers Euphrates and Tigris, at the head of the Persian Gulf |
| Char | Tea, Chinese (Mandarin) ch’a |
| Crossley Tender | Vehicle manufactured by Crossley Motors. The 34cwt tender had room for eleven men, three in front with the remainder facing each other on bench seats down each side of the rear. Weather protection was provided by two hoods, one for the front and one for the rear |
| DMS | Director of Medical Services |
| DDMS | Deputy Director of Medical Services |
| DADMS | Deputy Assistant Director of Medical Services |
| DGMS | Director General Medical Services. (Post held by Sir Arthur Sloggett from October 1914 until June 1918 when he was succeeded by Lt. General C. Burtchaell) |
| Dixies | Iron pot or kettle for tea/stew etc. |
| DT | Delirium Tremens. Trembling and delusions resulting from excess of alcohol |
| Duma | Russian Parliament |
| Enteric fever | Alternative name for either typhoid fever or paratyphoid fever. See Typhoid fever |
| Eusol dressing | Dressing soaked in eusol (a disinfecting solution consisting of chlorinated lime and boric acid) used for wounds and ulcers |
| FANY | Nick-named ‘Fanny’. First Aid Nursing Yeomanry |
| Flavine treatment | Brownish-red crystalline powder used as an antiseptic |
| Formaline | Also known as formalin. An aqueous solution (in water) of formaldehyde (a pungent gas), used as an antiseptic and disinfectant. Also used for preserving tissues for histological study (the study of tissues under the microscope) |
| Formamint | Sore throat lozenge manufactured by A. Wulging and Co., and marketed as ‘The Germ-killing Throat Tablet’ |
| FRCS | Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons |
| Gas gangrene | Severe form of gangrene – tissue infection. The battlefields in France consisted of heavily-manured soil and wounds infected with anaerobic (low oxygen) bacteria became swollen The bacillus in the wound created gas which could be felt in the tissue when the swollen area was pressed with the fingers. If soil and pieces of uniform were present gas gangrene would set in even in a slight wound. There were no antibiotics and no effective disinfectant. Amputations of affected limbs were the only hope, but if the infection spread the men died from the toxic effects of the bacteria NB. Not be be confused with the poison gas in shells first used by the Germans at the Second Battle of Y pres in April 1915 |
| Glaxo | Name of a dried milk product (trade marked in 1906) produced by a heritage company of the pharmaceutical company, Glaxo Smith Kline. Derived from galatin, the Greek word for milk. Marketed under the famous slogan ‘Glaxo Builds Bonnie Babies’, the Glaxo product was an outstanding success and later the trade mark was chosen as the company’s name |
| GS Wagon | General Service Wagon |
| Gothas | German aeroplanes |
| Grandmothers | 15in guns |
| Gutta-perche | More commonly known as gutta-percha. A rubbery substance derived from the latex of certain tropical trees, found mainly in Malaysia and the South Pacific. Used in manufacture of orthopaedic splints and in dentistry (e.g. for filling cavities) |
| Jaconet | Medium weight cotton cloth |
| Keating | Keating’s powder used for killing fleas and other insects (ticks, beetles, mosquitoes, flies, etc.) |
| Kepis | Military cap |
| Kvass | Fermented beverage |
| Laparotomy | Incision and exploration of the stomach |
| Lazarette | Mobile Field Hospital |
| L. of C. | Lines of Communication |
| [Long] liston’s | A long splint extending from the axilla (underarm) to the sole of the foot |
| Macconicie | Special ration of meat and vegetables – a welcome relief from bully-beef |
| Mealie meal | Ground maize |
| Monitor | Gunboat specially designed for use in shallow water |
| Marmite | A metal or earthenware cooking pot with a cover, usually large and often with legs |
| Mitrailleuse | Many-barrelled breech-loading machine gun |
| Moribund | The dying |
| MWF | Medical Women’s Federation |
| Nunc Dimittis | Latin – Permission to depart. [Song of Simeon – Luke ch. 2, v. 29 ‘Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in Peace …’] |
| NUWSS | National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies |
| OC | Officer Commanding |
| Otalans [Ortolan] | Any of several new world birds |
| Paliasse | Straw mattress |
| PB men | Permanent Base Men |
| Permanganate of Potash | Also known as potassium permanganate. Forms dark purple solution when dissolved in water, which is used as a disinfectant or antiseptic |
| Picric acid | More formally known as trinitrophenol. Yellow intensely bitter substance used in dyeing, medicine (as an antiseptic in the early twentieth century, e.g. for burns, smallpox, etc.) and also used in the manufacture of explosives. |
| PMO | Principal Medical Officer |
| Poilu | French soldier |
| Polenta | Pearl barley. Kind of barley meal |
| QA | Abbreviation for QAIMNS |
| QAIMNS | Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service |
| RAMC | Royal Army Medical Corps |
| RMLI | Royal Marine Light Infantry |
| RMO | Regimental Medical Officer |
| RTO | Railway Transport Officer |
| Sanitar | Hospital attendant or medical orderly [Crimean or Estonian] |
| Salines | Consisting of, or based on, salts |
| Sawyer stove | Stove invented by Alexis Sawyer, a French chef who worked at the Reform Club, London, and became an established name. During the Crimean War, when soldiers were dying of malnutrition, Sawyer went to the Crimea, worked with the troops, and invented the stove, still used by the army today |
| SWH | Scottish Women’s Hospitals |
| Sloughing | Casting off a diseased tissue |
| Solignum | A preservative treatment for wood/timber |
| Somnytics | Possibly the brand name for a sleeping drug |
| Tatars | Muslim people who lived in the Crimea and along the Volga. Annexed by Russia in 1783. (Also known as Tartars) |
| Taube | A monoplane with a bird-like wing shape. A generic term for this type of aircraft |
| Trepanned | Trepan, a surgeon’s cylindrical saw for removing part of the bone of the skull, to relieve pain |
| Typhoid fever | An infectious disease contracted by eating food or drinking water contaminated with the bacterium salmonella typhi. See also Enteric fever |
| Typhus | Acute infectious disease spread by insects or similar animals. In the First World War a typhus epidemic spread between humans by body lice |
| VAD | Voluntary Aid Detachment |
| Verst | Russian measure of length – about two-thirds of an English mile |
| WS and WCC | Women’s Sick and Wounded Convoy Corps |
| Zouave | Member of the French Light Infantry Corps. Originally formed of Algerians and retaining Oriental uniform |
| Zwicka | A drink |