Collection CUMMINS - CUMMINS, Col Stevenson Lyle (1873-1949)

Key Information

Reference code

CUMMINS

Title

CUMMINS, Col Stevenson Lyle (1873-1949)

Date(s)

  • 1898-1917 (Creation)

Level of description

Collection

Extent

1 box, 1 oversized file or 0.02m3

Scope and content

Papers of Colonel Stevenson Lyle Cummins comprising memoirs of service in Africa and France, 1898-1918, and war diaries and other papers, 1914-1916. Copy memoir, 1873-1904, detailing service with Medical Service Corps in Egypt and the Sudan, including accounts of medical work handling wounds and cases of typhoid, diarrhoea, malaria, fevers, dehydration and scorpion stings at locations including: Genetti Fort, Sudan, Darmali Camp, Sudan; Omdurman Camp, Sudan; Waw Garrison, Sudan and the Kassala District, Sudan; also accounts of Battle of Omdurman, 1898; an expedition to recapture the town of Gallabat, Sudan, from Abyssinian forces; expeditions in the Bar el Ghazal region, Sudan, to capture cattle and burn huts in Dinka villages and visit friendly Dinka chieftains; and an attack on Ibrahim Wad Mahmud, slaver, at Jerok, Sudan. Includes detail of hunting expeditions and daily life for troops. Copy memoir of World War One service, 1914-1918. War diary kept by Cummins as Deputy Assistant Director General, Medical Services, British Expeditionary Force, France, 1 Jan - 31 Dec 1915, with appendiced reports, memoranda and correspondence on: treatment of cerebro-spinal meningitis, trench foot (described as 'chilled feet' or frost-bite) and the supply of waterproof paper stockings, gum boots and whale oil as preventatives, anti gas precautions; logistical reports concerning personnel, evacuations, ambulance trains and barges; reports of an enquiry into an enemy chlorine and bromine gas attack to the south of "Shell Trap Farm" (village of St Julien, near Ypres), 24 May, 1915; report on captured German trenches, 16 June 1915; copy letter from General Sir Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready to the War Office regarding the establishment of a Central Laboratory for experimental work on prevention of gas asphyxiation; copy letter from Sir Arthur Sloggett to Sir Alfred Keogh, 9 Dec 1915, on the possibility of researching improved personal armour at Imperial College London. War diary for Report Centre GHQ, Hazebrouck, 10-17 March 1915, detailing logistics of transportation of wounded from Clearing Stations. War diary for Advanced GHQ, 8-23 May 1915, including casualty figures at Gas Clearing Stations; routine orders issued by General Sir Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready, Adjutant General, British Expeditionary Force, 18 Aug 1914, concerning procedures if taken prisoner, if a white flag should be hoisted by the enemy, the speed at which to drive motor-cars, and the correct procedure for saluting; report on the provision and stocking of ambulance trains, 9 March 1916; report on provision of extra personnel for Casualty Clearing Stations during heavy fighting, 9 March 1916; undated casualty figures at Casualty Clearing Stations for the 1 Army, 2 Army and 3 Army.

System of arrangement

As set out above in Scope and Content.

General Information

Name of creator

(1873-1949)

Biographical history

Born 1873; educated at St Faughnan's College, Roscarbery and Queen's College, Cork; entered Royal Army Medical Corps, 1897; employed with Egyptian Army, 1899-1909; took part in Nile Expedition, 1898; served in the Sudan, 1900-1904; awarded the Ottoman Imperial Order of Osmanieh, 1907; worked as Professor, Royal Army Medical College, Feb-Aug 1914; Assistant Director of Medical Services, 16 Division, British Armies in France, Jul-Sep 1917; Assistant Director of Medical Services, British Armies in Italy, Oct 1917-Apr 1918; Professor of Pathology, Royal Army Medical College, Jul 1919; retired from Army, 1921; David Davies Professor of Tuberculosis, Welsh National School of Medicine, 1921-1938; died May 1949.

Custodial history

Donated to the Centre by the family, Jan 2006.

Conditions governing access

Open, subject to signature of Reader's undertaking form, and appropriate provision of two forms of identification, to include one photographic ID.

Conditions governing reproduction

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied from open material for research purposes only.

Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, via the Archives.

Language of material

  • English

Script of material

Finding aids

This collection level description.

Existence and location of originals

Original copy of memoir remains with family.

Off-campus collection

Please note: We require 7 days notice to retrieve this collection as part, or all of it, is held off-campus. Read more ›

Related descriptions

Note

CMG, CB

Alternative identifier(s)

People and Organisations

Genre access points

Rules and/or conventions used

Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000.

Script(s)

Archivist's note

Entry compiled by Katharine Higgon

Accession area