Orwell was shot through the throat by a sniper on 20 May 1937. He discusses the incident in Homage to Catalonia, pp. 131–3 [VI/137–9]. Eileen sent a telegram from Barcelona at noon on 24 May 1937 to Orwell’s parents in Southwold. This read: ‘Eric slightly wounded progress excellent sends love no need for anxiety Eileen.’ This reached Southwold just after 2 p.m. Orwell’s commandant, George Kopp, wrote a report on his condition on 31 May and 1 June 1937. When this report was lost (see Eileen’s letter to her brother, c. 10 June 1937, below), Kopp wrote another, for Dr Laurence O’Shaughnessy, Orwell’s brother-in-law, dated ‘Barcelona, the 10th. of June 1937’ (see below). It differs slightly from the version given in Orwell Remembered, 158–61. Kopp illustrated his report with a drawing of the bullet’s path through Orwell’s throat; Bert Govaerts, who uncovered details of Kopp’s life, suggests that this shows his training in engineering drawing. Kopp’s report is in the British Library, Mss Add. 49384, and is reproduced by kind permission of the Trustees. The slight errors in Kopp’s English have been corrected.
Eric was wounded the 20th of May at 5 a.m. The bullet entered the neck just under the larynx, slightly at the left side of its vertical axis and went out at the dorsal right side of the neck’s base. It was a normal 7 mm bore, copper-plated Spanish Mauser bullet, shot from a distance of some 175 yards. At this range, it still had a velocity of some 600 feet per second and a cauterising temperature. Under the impact, Eric fell on his back. The hemorrhaging was insignificant. After dressing at a first aid post some half a mile from the actual line, he was transferred to Barbastro and then to the Hospital of Lérida, where I saw him with Eileen some 50 hours after his having been wounded.
Eric’s general state was some sort of excellent; the temperature (taken in the left arm-pit) had never reached 37°C. Eric complained about his right arm aching from the shoulder down to the tip of the middle finger along a humero-cubital line and about a pain, according to himself severe but not unbearable, in the left side some where between the ultimate rib and the spleen. His voice was hoarse and feeble, but covering all the practical purposes of conversational speech. Breathing absolutely regular. Sense of humour untouched.
At the Hospital in Lérida, Eric only received an external treatment of his wound. After a couple of days, the dressing of the entrance wound could be dispensed with. He remained at this Hospital, under care of Dr. Farré, up to the 27th when he was transferred to Tarragona.
Dr. Farré told me on the 22d of May that no essential organ had been touched by some sort of unexplainable luck; he admitted that the pain in the arm might be produced by abrasion of one of the arm’s main nerves and that the pain in the left side was probably due to hitting the ground when falling from his tremendous height. He told me that there was nothing to fear about the basic wound.
We had Eric ordered to be evacuated from Tarragona to Barcelona and went to fetch him the 29th of May; we found him with a semi-complete aphorisia1 and a slight fever. The pain in the left side had disappeared in due course. The one in the arm (supposed of nervous origin) subsisted unchanged. The doctor at Tarragona’s Hospital had told Eric on that very morning that his larynx was ‘broken’ and that he would never recover a normal voice. In fact, Eric was able to utter any articulate sound but feebly and with the characteristic, grinding, noise of the brakes of a model T, very antiquated, Ford; his speech was inaudible outside a range of two yards.
Eric reached the sanatorium Maurín in Barcelona on the 29th at 10 p.m., having travelled 60 miles in a saloon-car without any special accommodation. His temperature reached at 11 p.m. 37.8°C (in left armpit); he received an aspirin and went immediately to bed, without any meal.
On Sunday, 30th, his voice had improved considerably, his temperature was normal in the morning and his appetite restored. He was able to walk about the place and its park without any exhaustion. I saw him from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and found his voice and spirits continuously improving during this period. Eileen was with her husband all the time and states his comportment was absolutely peace-timely.
Today, 30th.2 Eric travelled by tram and tube, on his own initiative, down to the Centre of Barcelona, where I met him at 11.45 a.m. He explained his escapade by the want of cocktails and decent lunch, which were duly produced by Eileen’s tender care (with help of a barman and several waiters).
Eric’s temperature had remained normal, the pain in the left side had not reappeared and the pain in the right arm was rather reduced. His voice, according to himself, had improved since yesterday, but Eileen and I don’t share this impression, without thinking it was worse. I explain this apparent contradiction by the fact that to reach his present quality of speech costs him less effort than yesterday.
I arranged to have Eric thoroughly examined to-morrow morning by Professor Grau of Barcelona’s University and for a subsequent treatment either by some professor, or by another prominent specialist of this town.
I propose to add to this ‘bulletin’ Professor Grau’s opinion with the narrative of the manipulations he will perform on my friend’s throat.
Professor Grau examined Eric to day, 1st of June, at 9.30 a.m. at the ‘Hospital General de Cataluña’. His diagnostic is:
‘incomplete semi-paralysis of the larynx due to abrasion of the right-side larynx dilating nerve.’
He confirmed Dr. Farré’s statement that no essential organ had been touched; the bullet went right through, between the trachea and the carotid.
Professor Grau said that electrotherapy was the only thing to be recommended just now and some sort of promise to restore Eric’s voice in a long, indefinite, but reasonable time.
He took Eric to Dr. Barraquer, specialist in electric treatments of nervous disturbances and began by having a private talk of some 12 minutes with his colleague. It is unknown if they spoke of Eric’s wound or of some other topic. When Eric, Eileen and myself were ushered in Dr. Barraquer’s study, Professor Grau explained the case just as if he had never spoken of it before and wanted his friend to investigate any possible nervous lesions outside of the purely laryngic zone out of which he somehow sort of hated to talk.
Dr. Barraquer’s additional diagnostic was: ‘abrasions of the first right-side spinal rachidean nerve,’ which accounts for the pain in the arm. Dr. Barraquer also advocated electrotherapy for both of the nervous lesions and it was agreed upon Eric coming twice a week (on Wed. and Fri.) to have an electrical treatment and once a week (on Fridays) to let Professor Grau look into his throat and hear him saying ‘aaaaaah’ whilst his tongue is maintained stretched out at full length by the Professor.
Both of the doctors concerned with the case are decent, efficient and fully civilised people, with a lot of similar cases having passed before them since war began; the machinery and installations of the General Catalonian Hospital is complete and modern; most of the nurses are brunettes.
Of course, the doctors have not given any definite opinion upon the duration of the treatment and I felt I could not possibly put any questions about it before they can prove by some sittings the effect of electrotherapy on Eric’s nerves. I think that in any case, it would be advisable to let the treatment go at least two weeks and then ask the medical people ‘what about having it continued in England?’.
I advocate you writing to Dr. Barraquer (who speaks a fairly good English) a ‘colleague’s letter’ in the reply to which you may be told something more than we, mere mortals, are admitted to hear.3 Then you would be able to form a reasonable opinion about the case and send Eileen definite instructions which, I am sure she will follow without any reluctance, so high is her admiration for your professional capacities.
With the hope I shall some day have the opportunity of sharing this feeling not only from faith but on experimental evidence, I remain
Yours sincerely
Georges Kopp
1. Kopp meant ‘aphasia’.
2. Presumably 31 May.
3. Kopp provided Barrequer’s address.