Series 2 - War Correspondence

66 items

Letters and associated papers relating to the war service of Peter Freyer during the years 1915-1920. At the beginning of World War I Freyer placed his services at the disposal of the Director General of Medical Services. In Jan 1915 he was appointed consulting surgeon to the Indian hospitals at Brighton. When the Indian hospitals were closed he became the consulting surgeon to the hospitals for British troops at Brighton. In March 1916, at the request of Sir Alfred Keogh (1857-1936), Director General Army Medical Services 1914-1918, he became consultant to all the army hospitals in the Sussex district of the Eastern Command. Like Freyer, Keogh was also a graduate of Queen's College, Galway, and he was the instigator of far-reaching medical reforms in army practice. He is described in the DNB as 'an organizer and administrator of the first rank'. Keogh's successor as Director General was Thomas Herbert Goodwin (1871-1960) and it was to him that Freyer applied in Aug 1918 [see P57/143] for permission to visit military hospitals in France. A request that was at first acceded to and then withdrawn. In Aug 1919 Freyer spent some time with his friends Sir William Robertson and his wife Mildred at Cologne, while serving in a temporary capacity with the British Army of Occupation on the Rhine. William Robertson had had a brilliant army career and was Chief of the General Staff at the War Office 1915-1918. However he did not get on well with Lloyd George and in the spring of 1919 was made Commander in Chief of the British Army of Occupation on the Rhine. A series of 23 letters from him to Freyer document his activities in Germany and prospects for his future career

Catalog

27/06/2013
29/07/2025