The interesting Great War Ypres ‘First Deployment of Phosgene Gas Attack’ Casualty Treatment operations 19 December 1915 Medical Officer’s Military Cross and double Mention in Despatches group awarded to Major K.K. Drury, M.C., M.D., Royal Army Medical Corps, a noted physiatrist and graduate of Trinity College Dublin, whose family paper mill business in Saggart, County Dublin, as founded by his father and run by his elder and younger brothers, became iconic in Irish Republican history, as James Connolly’s newspaper, The Worker’s Republic, was printed on its paper, and later so was the 1916 Proclamation of the Republic. Drury, who was from Saggart, and who originally attended Tipperary Grammar School, qualified in medicine in 1912, and as a physicshiatrist in 1914. He practiced initially at the Stewart Institute in Chapelizod on the edge of Dublin, and then at the County Asylum in Warwick, before working post war at the County Mental Hospital in Sheffield, and later served on the Sheffield Regional Hospital Board before latterly becoming Superintendent of Carlton Hayes Hospital. Drury was President of the Royal Medico-Psychological Association during 1951-1952. Present out on the Western Front from September 1914, he was stationed at St. Jean between Ypres and Wieltje, and most probably supporting the 49th (West Riding) Division, when it suffered the most casualties owing to the first deployment of phosgene gas on the Western Front on 19 December 1915. He later received Mentions in Despatches for the Battle of Arras and the German Spring Offensive, and may well have been involved in the diagnosis and treatment of shell-shock, what is now known as post traumatic stress disorder. He also became a noted silversmith later in life, and his elder brother, Noel, a noted Irish motorcyclist and ’TT’ racer, would have his wartime diaries of his service with the 6th Royal Dublin Fusiliers published by the Army Records Society, in which is included an image of Kenneth Drury on the Western Front.
Group of 4: Military Cross, GVR cypher, the reverse engraved ‘ST. JEAN K.K. DRURY 19-12-15 YPRES’ 1914-1915 Star; (CAPT. K.K. DRURY. R.A.M.C.) British War Medal and Victory Medal with Mentioned in Despatches oak leaf; (MAJOR K.K. DRURY.) Mounted swing style for wear on original ribbons and old mounting bar.
Condition: Good Very Fine.
Together with the following:
Royal Medico-Psychological Association Past President’s Jewel, silver-gilt and enamels, jewellers initials ‘W & A M’ for W & A Mussett, hallmarks for London with date letter ‘m’ for 1927, the enamel work exceptional, reverse engraved: ‘K.K. Drury / M.C., M.D., D.P.M. / President / 1950-51’, complete with original ribbon and gilt top bar with needle pin fitting.
An unmarked silver General Practitioner’s Committee cross displaying a native African warrior at the centre and bearing the embossed letters ‘G P C’ to the obverse.
The recipients tunic medal ribbon bar for his awards of the Military Cross, 1914-1915 Star, British War Medal.
Kenneth Kirkpatrick Drury was born on 18 May 1885 in Saggart, County Dublin, the second son of John Girdwood Drury and Frances Mary Figgis. His father was a merchant, who also ran a paper manufacturing business Swift Brook Papermill in Saggart, and the family lived at nearby Kenilworth House. His mother’s family ran a flour mill business in the same area. Unlike his elder brother, Noel Edmund Drury (1883-1975), who was sent to be educated over in England, he was educated at Tipperary Grammar School. The third brother, John Girdwood Drury (1895-1919), known to all as Jack, was born in 1895, in the same year that his mother died.
On completing his time with Tipperary Grammar School, he went on to study medicine at Trinity College Dublin from November 1906, having followed in the footsteps of his elder brother who had returned from England to be educated there, though he does not appear to have completed his degree. Kenneth Drury graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 1912, and in the following year would be listed in the 1913 Medical Register as practicing at Swift Brook, Saggart, County Dublin. He completed a second degree at Trinity College which he completed during 1914, specialising in psychology, and took posts first at the Stewart Institute in Chapelizod on the edge of Dublin, and then at the County Asylum in Warwick, England.
Meanwhile on the death of their father in 1907, the elder and younger brothers had taken over the family paper mill business in Saggart, The Drury family paper manufacturing business was known for manufacturing particularly high quality paper, and would become iconic in Irish Republican history, as James Connolly’s newspaper, The Worker’s Republic, was printed on its paper, and later so was the 1916 Proclamation of the Republic. It is ironic that the paper would become iconic in Irish Republican history, because Noel, the eldest brother, was also a magistrate and in that role was involved in the preparation of an address to the King and Queen on their visit to Dublin in July 1911. As the middle son, Kenneth Drury was never a part of the family business, and practiced and distinguished himself in medicine.
Owing to the outbreak of the Great War, the two older brothers were commissioned into the army. The older brother would go on to write a diary, this being later edited by Richard S. Grayson and published by the Army Records Society, titled ‘The First World War Diary of Noel Drury, 6th Royal Dublin Fusiliers. Gallipoli, Salonika, The Middle East and the Western Front’. In the publication, figure 4 shows an image of his brother Kenneth Drury when a medical doctor on the Western Front in 1917. In addition, Noel was was a significant pioneer of motorcycle racing, and became the sixth to win the twin-cylinder version of the 1908 Tourist Trophy, the famous ’TT’, on the Isle of Man. He raced in the second ever ‘TT’ and was only the second Irishman to compete.
With the Great War, Kenneth Drury was commissioned as a temporary Lieutenant into the Royal Army Medical Corps on 31 August 1914, and saw service out on the Western Front from 7 September 1914. He was confirmed in the rank of Lieutenant as per the London Gazette on 9 January 1915, and was promoted to Captain on 1 April 1915.
Drury’s award of the Military Cross was announced in the King’s Birthday Honours List as published in the London Gazette for 3 June 1916, and is therefore one of those which does no carry a citation, However we do know when he won it, namely a Ypres on 19 December 1915, a fact helpfully engraved onto the reverse of his cross.
19 December 1915 is an important date in the history of chemical warfare, as it was on this day that the German forces first deployed phosgene gas. This gas attack took place at Wieltje, north-east of Ypres. German gas attacks on Allied troops had begun on 22 April 1915, during the Second Battle of Ypres using chlorine against French and Canadian units. The surprise led to the capture of much of the Ypres Salient, after which the effectiveness of gas as a weapon diminished, because the French and British introduced anti-gas measures and protective helmets. The German Nernst-Duisberg Commission investigated the feasibility of adding the much more lethal phosgene to chlorine. Mixed chlorine and phosgene gas was used at the end of May 1915 against French troops and on Russian troops on the Eastern Front.
In December 1915, the 4th Army used the mixture of chlorine and phosgene against British troops in Flanders, during an attack at Wieltje. Before the attack, the British had taken a prisoner who disclosed the plan and had also gleaned information from other sources; the divisions of VI Corps had been alerted from 15 December. The gas discharge on 19 December was accompanied by German raiding parties, most of which were engaged with small-arms fire, while they were attempting to cross no-man's land. British anti-gas precautions prevented a panic and a collapse of the defence, even though British anti-gas helmets had not been treated to repel phosgene. Only the 49th (West Riding) Division had a large number of gas casualties, when soldiers in reserve lines did not receive a warning in time to put on their helmets. A study by British medical authorities arrived at a figure of 1,069 gas casualties, 120 of which were fatal. After the operation, the Germans concluded that a breakthrough could not be achieved solely by the use of gas.
According to information found online, Captain Drury was stationed at nearby St. Jean (Sint-Jan) when the phosgene attach occurred at Wieltje, the two being very close to each other, and he must have distinguished himself in the aftermath of the attack, presumably in handling the treatment of casualties. Further study would also indicate that he had some form of involvement with the medical services within the 49th (West Riding) Division, this owing to his immediate post-war medical work with the County Mental Hospital in Sheffield.
Drury would be further Mentioned in Despatches twice for gallant and distinguished services during the war, the first in the London Gazette for 29 May 1917, an award for the Battle of Arras when serving with the Army Medical Services Headquarters Staff, the second in the London Gazette for 25 May 1918, an award in response to the German Spring Offensive operations. He had been appointed to Acting Major on 25 February 1918. It is quite possible that he was involved in the treatment of shell-shock, the early name for post traumatic stress disorder, something very much in the news to this day.
During a period of home leave, he married Martha Elizabeth Tomb in Willesden, Middlesex on 5 July 1918, and they went on to have a son, Dennis Arthur Noel Drury. As a Captain and Acting Major, he relinquished his commission in the army on 15 March 1919, and went to work with the County Mental Hospital in Sheffield. With his younger brother having died of the Spanish flu in 1919, his elder brother went back to work in the paper mill, and managed it until February 1926, when owing to the post-war slump in the paper trade, it closed. At that point, the Irish Times, said, ‘The village of Saggart was almost entirely dependent on the mills, which employed from 80 to 100 hands.’ With a sale secured in December 1927 the mill reopened in January 1928, at which point it was the only paper mill in the Irish Free State.
Kenneth Drury continued to practice as a psychiatrist, and would later serve on the Sheffield Regional Hospital Board, and in 1952 whilst living in Harborough, Leicestershire, was appointed a member of the Standing Mental Health Advisory Committee of the Central Health Services Council. He was also President of the Royal Medico-Psychological Association during 1951-1952. As a pastime, he is also recorded as a silversmith, with examples of his work, bearing the jewellers initials ‘KKD’ known within the antique silver trade. Drury was latterly the Superintendent of Carlton Hayes Hospital, and died at Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset on 9 August 1984m web aged 95. His funeral service was held at Woodsping Crematorium in Weston-super-Mare.
