A Doctor at War Read online

  A DOCTOR AT WAR

  A DOCTOR AT WAR

  THE STORY OF COLONEL MARTIN HERFORD

  THE MOST DECORATED DOCTOR OF WORLD WAR II

  M. R. Hall

  CONTENTS

  INTRODUCTION

  CHAPTER 1 THE FORMATIVE YEARS

  CHAPTER 2 THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR

  CHAPTER 3 THE FINNISH EXPEDITION

  CHAPTER 4 STOCKHOLM TO CAIRO

  CHAPTER 5 THE EXPEDITION TO GREECE

  CHAPTER 6 THE DESERT WAR 1941–1943

  CHAPTER 7 SICILY

  CHAPTER 8 ITALY

  CHAPTER 9 1944 – A TOUCH OF PROVIDENCE

  CHAPTER 10 ESCAPE FROM APELDOORN

  CHAPTER 11 INTO BELSEN

  AFTERWORD

  INTRODUCTION

  Now and again one has the privilege of meeting someone truly inspiring. In the summer of 1995 I had such an encounter with the then 86-year-old Colonel Martin Herford, the most decorated British doctor of World War II. I was a 27-year-old lawyer trying to become a writer of fiction, but as fate would have it, my first published work would be in the realm of non-fiction; through a series of happy coincidences I landed the job of recording this remarkable man’s wartime experiences.

  It’s fair to say that scarcely a month has passed in the intervening years in which I haven’t thought about what it must have been like for Colonel Herford to have served first in the Spanish Civil War, then in Finland, then in every major theatre of World War II right through to the liberation of Bergen-Belsen in April 1945. There can have been very few soldiers who saw as much of the world’s biggest and most devastating conflict as he, and who emerged so philosophical and faithful to their principles. He was a living testament to the efficacy of Churchill’s famous maxim: ‘When you’re going through hell, keep going.’

  At a time when our ephemeral culture is finally showing signs of giving way to more sober and thoughtful perspectives, I feel we may need the stories of men like Colonel Herford more than ever: like the war years, those ahead promise to require inspired and outstanding individuals to subordinate their egos to vast group efforts. Virtue may once again have to suffice as its own reward.

  The following pages are a simple account of Colonel Herford’s war written by a young man who scarcely appreciated the enormity of what he was setting down. But what I did understand even then was that the military doctors, nurses and stretcher-bearers of World War II frequently risked their own lives to save the lives of others. The image of a team of medics tucked safely away in a hospital tent well behind lines is far from accurate. Very often the wounded were treated in the midst of battle with bullets flying and shells exploding all around. Were it not for the efforts of the thousands of medical officers and staff who accompanied the Allied armies throughout battles across three continents, the fatalities would undoubtedly have been far higher.

  When it came to discussing his experiences, Colonel Herford proved to be a modest man with that self-deprecating reserve typical of the wartime generation. He was, and always had been a Quaker, and self-aggrandizement was definitely not his style. Consequently it wasn’t always easy to extract detail from him – especially that concerning his own acts of heroism – but thankfully he possessed an old leather suitcase full of diaries, letters, notes and official dispatches through which I sifted for several months in an effort to distil the unembellished facts. I am glad to say he gave his full approval to the finished text.

  When I cast back my mind nearly 18 years I recall a man with a dogged yet peaceful spirit. After a simple dinner in his farmhouse on the Cornish coast, he led me outside and pointed out the constellations in a perfectly clear night sky. Despite all he had witnessed and experienced during the ugliness of war, he remained in awe of God’s infinite creation. He had seen the worst mankind has to offer, yet remained an idealist who spent his post-war years dedicated to the practice of medicine. He was one of the 20th century’s many quiet heroes, and this small volume is dedicated to his memory.

  Matthew Hall

  February 2013

  CHAPTER 1

  The Formative Years

  In 1905 on the Himalayan foothills above the North Indian town of Srinagar, Dr Ethilda Meakin was travelling alone with a party of 12 Indian servants for a well-deserved vacation in one of the dak bungalows frequented by the ex-patriot population as a holiday location. She had come to India three years earlier to preside over the Zanana Mission women’s hospital in Bombay, and had subsequently been appointed to the women’s hospital in Calcutta. The need for female doctors in India’s overcrowded hospitals was acute, as religious customs largely forbade native women from being examined by male doctors. But despite Ethilda’s robust Victorian constitution, the dust, flies and disease of the city could not be endured for months on end without occasional periods of relaxation. The sea voyage to England could take up to six weeks, so for those who could not spare the time, the next best thing was a vacation in the beautiful and refreshing mountains of the north.

  On her way up the hillsides that summer she encountered another tough and enterprising individual, Oscar Haarbleicher, a partner in the Calcutta-based company Allen Brothers, Importers Agents. The two of them struck up a friendship and soon became the subject of idle gossip amongst the well-heeled ex-patriots. The holiday meeting did not initially develop into romance, and the couple confined their intimacy to playing lengthy games of chess and walking together, but the English ladies would not let the opportunity of creating a successful match pass by – Ethilda was already in her early 30s, and Oscar several years older, both past the usual marriageable age. Over the coming months the two were thrown together at a succession of Calcutta social events. Close friends even bought wedding presents in anticipation of their engagement being announced; but it was two years before Oscar finally proposed, and several more months before they were married in Calcutta Cathedral.

  By any standards, Ethilda was an exceptional woman, highly educated, fearless and with an enquiring spirit – qualities she shared with other members of her family. Her father Edward Meakin was a leading expert in the history of Morocco who had previously set up the first English-language newspaper in Morocco, the Morocco Times. Ethilda’s brother Harold, a graduate of Barts, had commanded the medical contingent sent to the relief of the troops in Peking during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. Her sister Mary was the first Western woman to travel across the Trans-Siberian railway and wrote numerous books and translations of Goethe and Schiller.

  Her maternal grandfather was Samuel Budgett, the ‘Successful Merchant’, whose bust still stands on the stairs of Bristol City Museum. A pioneer of industrial reform in the employment of labour, his achievements are recorded in two immensely popular books of the time, Men Who Win by William Thegar and The Successful Merchant by William Arthur. Each of these sold many thousands of copies in Britain and America, and went through 22 editions, a rarity at that time. Ethilda herself had wanted to become a doctor from early childhood, much to the alarm of her parents, who, despite their adventurous lifestyle, held conventional ambitions for their daughter. In a bid to try to crush her zeal they arranged a trip for her to perform good works with a charity in Gorbals, one of the filthy tenement districts in Glasgow, when she was in her late teens. To their surprise she went willingly and there had her first real exposure to poverty, disease and deprivation; but this only served to strengthen her resolve, and in due course she won a place at the Royal Free Hospital, later qualifying as one of only eight female graduates in 1898.

  Once qualified, Ethilda also developed an intense interest in the fledgling science of psychoanalysis, and particularly in the writings of Farenzi and Freud. In 1909, on her way back from Calcutta for a period of leave in England, she decided to stop in Genev
a to attend a conference at which Freud was a principal speaker. She was travelling with her first son Harold, who was still a toddler, and by the time the ship arrived in Marseilles she was nearly nine months pregnant with her second child. Oscar had remained in India, and the prospect of crossing France by train with the danger of the onset of labour cannot have been attractive. But from Marseilles she cabled to her sister-in-law in England, asking her to join her in Switzerland. Undaunted, she travelled on alone to Geneva where she managed to give birth to a second son, Martin, in time to attend the conference. Oscar followed his wife to England where they remained until 1913. In 1912 they had a third child, this time a daughter, Sylvia, who was also to grow up to become a doctor.

  Martin spent the first four years of his life in Brighton. He became extremely close to his elder brother Harold, on whom he relied heavily as the two grew older and went to school together. To them, their mother was a relaxed, carefree figure who loved the open air and doted on her children, their father a somewhat stern Victorian gentleman. Although Oscar may have had a harsh exterior, he had a passionate interest in music and was an accomplished violinist. He desperately wanted his children to be musical, but the overbearing manner of his instruction only managed to frighten them, for whenever they sat at the piano they knew that any wrong notes would be met with a loud bellow, even from the top of the house. In 1913 Oscar had to return to India for six months on business.

  Ethilda did not want to be separated from him, but decided to bring only the baby with her. This was nothing unusual as it was common practice for couples to leave their children with friends and relatives while they remained out of the country, both as an assurance against disease, and to give their offspring the benefit of an English education. A baby could not of course be left without its mother, but caring for it in India could be a hazardous business. Even in houses with staff, hygiene was poor unless the servants were very carefully instructed, and the common method adopted by servant women to quieten a crying baby was to scratch up some opium under the fingernail and give the baby the finger to suck.

  Although Ethilda and Oscar’s intentions for their two sons were entirely honourable, the manner of their departure was, by modern standards, traumatic. The two boys were taken by their parents to a house called Travishes on the outskirts of Exeter, run by Mrs Sweet, a lady who took in the children of parents who were in India. When they arrived Martin and Harold were introduced to some of the other children and told they were going to live with them. In the unquestioning way of a four-year-old, Martin happily ran out with them to look at the garden, excited at the prospect of having some new companions. But on his return he found that his parents had disappeared. Fortunately, Harold seemed to have had the situation explained to him, and was able to reassure his distressed younger brother, who was feeling desolate. Had Oscar had any idea of the political events which were to follow, he would surely have abandoned his trip or taken his sons with them. With the outbreak of war shipping from India was severely restricted, and Oscar and Ethilda did not see their sons again until 1917.

  At first the boys were happy in the house in Exeter. With the help of her two daughters, Mrs Sweet was mostly very kind, but on occasions the boys clearly tried her patience. In a letter to their father dated 22 September 1915 she wrote:

  The fact is that my daughters and I have been feeling for some time that Harold and Martin are beginning to require more strict supervision than we can give them. Whether it is due to neglect of training in their babyhood, and the constant absences of their mother, or from whatever other cause, their whole idea seems to be how they can take people in. They tell long stories of the French nurse who used to take in their mother so cleverly, so I think she must have a great deal to do with it… I feel sure that under the strict guidance of a man at the head of things they will improve with time, but nothing else will do. Of that I feel sure, and nothing could be worse for the training of the two younger children than to be brought up with their brothers until they have learned from a man that it is unmannerly [sic] to tell a lie or to pilfer things that do not belong to them.

  Despite these outbursts, the boys enjoyed their time with Mrs Sweet, and were often visited by relatives and friends of their parents, one of whom treated them to a memorable outing in a motor car – a rare and exquisite pleasure for small boys at that time. However, this relatively happy situation was brought to an abrupt end when Mrs Sweet’s only son, a padre in the Royal Navy, was killed when his ship struck a German mine in Portsmouth harbour. Although she had cared for Martin and Harold with the same affection she showed towards the other children, despite their German surname, visitors to the house constantly commented that it was not right for her to be looking after two young ‘Germans’. Finally she felt that she had no choice but to turn them out, and arrangements were made for them to go and live with a blind lady and her sister in Ilfracombe.

  Such was the level of anti-German feeling that Oscar changed the family name to Herford shortly after war broke out – a business colleague told him squarely that no Englishman would do business with a man with a German name. The sacrifice of his name was particularly upsetting to Oscar, as in 1848 his grandfather, a prominent German Jew in Hamburg, had sent his two sons out of the country, one to Manchester and one to Paris, declaring that Germany under Bismarck was ‘no place for a free man’. England during the Great War was obviously no place for a free German.

  Martin’s and Harold’s experiences in Ilfracombe were not so happy. An old-fashioned governess called Miss Bobers was employed to look after them, and her antiquated methods of correcting misbehaviour go a long way to explaining why a generation of middle-class children grew up plagued with guilt and an inability to express their stifled emotions. Martin, being the younger and more temperamental of the two, was prone to tantrums and fits of tears. Miss Bobers’ ‘cure’ was to make him walk through the streets with a notice attached to his back declaring, ‘I must not be a cry-baby’. Even more cruelly, if the upset child wet his bed, which he frequently did, he was forced to parade with another notice reading, ‘I must not be a bed-wetter’. Thankfully, one day when Miss Bobers was accompanying Martin on one of his walks of shame a passer-by stopped and gave her a stern lecture. She was evidently shamed into submission herself, as the indignity was never repeated. It would be wrong to pass over this incident without remarking that Miss Bobers was probably not a wicked woman, but was merely carrying out what she had been taught – that only by shaming the child into recognizing his faults would he overcome them and grow in character. This view is reinforced by the fact that there is no suggestion that the boys were beaten or mistreated in any other way.

  The shipping lanes to the East were finally reopened in 1917, and Ethilda and Oscar immediately returned to their sons. By this time they had a fourth child, George. The usual practice in wartime was for husbands and wives to travel on different ships as accidents were a relatively frequent occurrence on seas littered with mines. Ethilda returned first with the two children without incident. Oscar followed on another ship with all the family furniture and possessions. Disaster struck when the ship hit a mine just off Marseilles. He was saved, but all their belongings were lost.

  Although every stick of furniture and shred of clothing had gone down with the ship, Oscar thankfully had sufficient money to buy a house in Reading. He was by now 48 years old and his firm had done well. He had a substantial amount of capital still invested with them, and expected a handsome return. Happy as he was to be reunited with his sons, the boys took some time to readjust to family life, and for a while were very disobedient. It took their parents several painful months to win back their trust and confidence.

  Ethilda was determined above all else that her children, including Sylvia, would receive the best education they could afford. When her daughter was still only two weeks old, she had visited Miss Lawrence, an old friend and the headmistress of Roedean School, and asked that her daughter’s name be put down. Latterly, educ
ating the children involved great sacrifice as in 1925 Oscar suffered a financial disaster. His former colleagues in India had risked his money in a series of ill-advised and highly speculative investments that came to nothing. Instead of being reasonably affluent, as he had expected, he found himself in his mid-50s virtually penniless. He was reduced to approaching charities for help with school expenses, and Ethilda worked as a schools medical officer.

  Martin and Harold were first sent away to school at Marlborough House, near Reading. Martin’s time there was not happy. He was small, although physically able to hold his own in most sports, and never easily fitted in with the other boys; because of his size, they treated him more like a mascot than one of the gang. Luckily he was very independent, and never minded to obey authority merely for the sake of it or to look for approval from his peers. These were qualities which were to distinguish him in later life, but which in the environment of a public school inevitably led to conflict.

  The headmaster of Marlborough House was an unhappy bachelor who lived with an ageing mother. He took out his frustrations on the boys by caning them with a fervour bordering on sadism. His favourite trick for singling out victims was to creep along the boarding house corridors late at night in stockinged feet, listening for boys talking; any boy who was heard would be called to his study the next morning for a severe beating. Any little fault in the classroom or misbehaviour in the playground was similarly rewarded, either with a sharp whack on the palm of the hand or with several painful strokes across the buttocks, which made sitting down very uncomfortable.

  Martin was greatly relieved when, the following year, he and Harold became day pupils and cycled to school. But the frequent beatings didn’t abate, and the headmaster’s excuses for punishing the young Herford became ever more tenuous. On one occasion during a French lesson, the young French master was showing the class his brother’s revolver which had been struck by shrapnel in the Somme and saved his life. The boys chattered excitedly as they heard the tale, attracting the attention of the headmaster who was passing along the corridor. He burst into the classroom and accused Martin of having made the noise. Despite the protests of the young French master, Martin was dragged off to the headmaster’s study and told to bend over. Martin refused and broke two of his canes before eventually being thrown to the floor and given a double thrashing. Despite the sharp, slicing pain, Martin yelled out, ‘Oh, sah! Oh, sah!’ in a successful attempt to embarrass his tormentor.