Official History Of The Australian Army Medical Services 1914-18 Vol. I-III (1930, 1940 and 1943) By A. G. Butler
 
Arthur Graham Butler, physician and medical historian was born on 25 May 1872 at Kilcoy, Queensland. After attending Ipswich Grammar School he studied medicine at St John's College, Cambridge in the 1890s. On his return to Queensland he went into general practice in Kilcoy and then from 1902-1907 at Gladstone.

In 1912 Butler joined the Australian Army Medical Corps (AAMC) and became medical officer of the Moreton Regiment. At the outbreak of the First World War he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) and was appointed regimental medical officer to the 9th Battalion with the rank of captain.

Butler was amongst the first to land at Gallipoli and remained there until October. He was the only medical officer to win the Distinguished Service Order at Gallipoli and was also promoted to major during the campaign. In February 1916 he was appointed Deputy Assistant Director of Medical Services, I ANZAC Corps and in November 1916 was promoted to lieutenant colonel.

In 1917 Butler's superiors felt that he needed a well earned break from the front and he was reluctantly sent to the Australian War Records Section (AWRS) in London to help collate the medical records of the AIF. From July 1918 he became Commander of the 3rd Australian General Hospital at Abbeville until its closure in closure in June 1919. He returned to the AWRS until his demobilisation in February 1920.

On his return to Australia Butler resumed his private practice in Brisbane. In 1922 he agreed to write the official history of the Australian Army Medical Services in the war. This task which was initially to take two years, occupied the next 22 years of his life. The three volumes were published in 1930, 1940 and 1943 respectively.

Documentation relating to Butler's activities on the completion of the official histories is very scarce. His work entitled The digger: a study in democracy was published in 1945. Memorial files indicate that he was working in the AWM Library in 1945-1947, however a more accurate date regarding his employment cannot be established. His duties in the library included the classification of medical material that was used by him as the official historian in preparing the medical official histories.
 
This series consists of correspondence, diaries, interview notes, journal articles, notebooks, maps, pamphlets and other printed material, reports and statistics used by Butler and his assistants in the writing of the three volumes of the medical official histories. There is also a collection of personal narratives by nurses and doctors which were collected while undertaking research for the volumes. As well as research and background material there are also drafts and notes for various chapters of the official histories. Butler's personal diaries and notebooks relating to his own war service have also been incorporated into this series.
 
This book set is Volume I (Part 1, The Gallipoli Campaign; Part 2, The Campaign in Sinai and Palestine; Part 3, The Occupation of German New Guinea).
 
Volume II (The Western Front: The first and third sections describe the role of the Medical Services in the following campaigns: Somme, Bullecourt, Flanders offensive (Messines and Ypres), and Amiens to the Hindenburg Line. The second section details logistics and medical adaptations for the unprecedented battlefield contexts that unfolded during the great war. Accordingly, separate chapters treat surgical innovations, the problems of evacuating injured soldiers from the front lines, clearing stations and field hospitals, preventive medicine, and so forth.
 
Volume III With this volume Colonel Butler completes the task assigned him in writing the History of Medical Services of the Australian Army in the War of 1914-18.
SECTION I discusses the technical problems of chemical warfare, moral and mental disorders, venereal disease, the influenza pandemic of 1918-19 and the surgery of repair and rehabilitation.
SECTION II is devoted to the medical services of the naval and the newly created air services.
SECTION III describes dental service, nursing and physical therapy.
SECTION IV continues the story of the invalid soldier, his return home, the medical problems of sea transporation, the reexamination and the technical problem of pensioning.
SECTION V furnishes statistics on the total casualties sustained by all the belligerents. A special feature of this section is a detailed clinical analysis of the figures of mortality and morbidity comprising the life history of the Australian Imperial Force.
 
Hard Cover
In Fair to Good Condition