Name/Title
1918/Mack: Stretcher bearersDescription
This is clearly not a posed photograph of stretcher bearers, but a real scene. The wording runs: "Tenderly lifting a serious case. Stretcher bearers at work."
Stereoview NO26 of British stretcher bearers at work, circa 1918. Photo 3D card with two near-identical images. When viewed through a stereoscope, the images will appear as a single, three-dimensional photograph.
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There is very little known about RJ Mack's time in the British Army during the First World War. He was exceedingly reticent about it. However, interviewed for a tobacco magazine in 1940, he did tender one vital piece of information which gave the name of the section of the Army to which he had belonged.
"He first came into the tobacco trade in 1919, joining his brother Fred Mack after serving in France as a divisional stretcher-bearer in the 32nd Division."
(TOBACCO 1 January 1941, pp.21-25, signed "A.E.T.")
Stretcher bearers were members of the RAMC (Royal Army Medical Corps) Field Ambulances, and RJ would have belonged to the 90th, 91st, or 92nd Field Ambulance of 32nd Division. All joined the Division in November 1915 just prior to the move to France, their very different type of training having taken place in different locations to the soldiery. (See "The Long, Long Trail", below.)
The Division saw heavy action, including in the Battle of the Somme which began on 1 July 1916 and is horribly well-known for its massive toll of casualties.
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FROM: "The Long, Long Trail" (https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/order-of-battle-of-divisions/32nd-division/, last accessed 28 April 2026)
The Division was largely comprised of locally raised units often known as 'Pals'. It was a predominantly Northern Division, although locally raised units from Birmingham and Bristol were also in the structure. [...After some months training] in November 1915 the Division received a warning order to prepare to sail for France. It remained on the Western Front for the remainder of the war and took part in the following engagements:
1916
The Battle of Albert*
The Battle of Bazentin*
The Battle of the Ancre*
* the battles marked * are phases of the Battles of the Somme 1916
1917
Operations on the Ancre
The pursuit of the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line
1918
The First Battle of Arras, a phase of the First Battles of the Somme 1918
The Battle of Amiens
The Battle of Albert^
The Battle of Bapaume^
^ the battles marked ^ are phases of the Second Battles of the Somme 1918
The Battle of the St Quentin Canal+
The Battle of Beaurevoir+
+ the battles marked + are phases of the Battles of the Hindenburg Line
The Battle of the Sambre, including the passge of the Oise-Sambre Canal, a phase of the Final Advance in Picardy
