Dead Man's Land
“So she avoided her old wards, which wasn’t difficult. Bailleul Hospital had once been a sprawling sanatorium housing TB sufferers from across Belgium. As well as the formidably gothic bulk of the main house, the grounds held a dozen isolation cottages and exercise and rehabilitation centres. It was to one of these latter single-storey buildings, now called the Notifications and Effects Department, that she headed.
The main N&ED operation took place in a single large room, containing rows and rows of open metal shelving, stacked high with boxes of belongings of the deceased. A team of orderlies worked at low wooden benches, packaging and sending on the deceased’s effects, either back to the regiment or the next of kin. The process generated a prodigious amount of paperwork, which was stored in the old gymnasium next door. Somewhere within the bureaucracy of those adjacent rooms was the confirmation she was looking for. That Shipobottom was not the only soldier to have died with a dread...ful grin on his face.MoreLess
The main N&ED operation took place in a single large room, containing rows and rows of open metal shelving, stacked high with boxes of belongings of the deceased. A team of orderlies worked at low wooden benches, packaging and sending on the deceased’s effects, either back to the regiment or the next of kin. The process generated a prodigious amount of paperwork, which was stored in the old gymnasium next door. Somewhere within the bureaucracy of those adjacent rooms was the confirmation she was looking for. That Shipobottom was not the only soldier to have died with a dread...ful grin on his face.MoreLess
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