3rd Australian General Hospital

Savage was posted as a private to the Third Australian General Hospital and took many photographs of the staff, patients and hospital surroundings. He, along with the rest of the hospital staff, left Australia on board RMS Mooltan on 15 May 1915.

The hospital was established on Lemnos, a Greek island in the Aegean Sea, near Gallipoli in August 1915 with forty nurses arriving on 8 August.

FL1524676

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They were piped ashore by bagpipes and marched to their basic accommodation which consisted of rows of tents. The hospital began receiving patients the next day, with around 200 wounded arriving from Gallipoli. Over the next few days the numbers of patients increased dramatically, with around 800 patients being treated.

The steady increase in casualties was due to the August offensives that were taking place on the Gallipoli Peninsula and most of the casualties were suffering from gunshot wounds.

After the evacuation of Allied troops from the Gallipoli Peninsula in December 1915, the hospital staff left Lemnos for Egypt in January 1916. They later moved from Egypt to Brighton, England, and then to Abbeville, France where they remained until 1919.

Albert Savage documented all aspects of the Hospital while at Lemnos: the staff, patients, the tent accommodation and the medical facilities. In April 1917 Savage transferred to the Australian Flying Corps and worked as a stores clerk. He returned to Australia in November 1919.