Alexandria to Durban via hospital ships

[Hazel Stringer]

Hi all,
Asking for a friend.
Is there aby surviving records for the Alexandria Military Hospital and hospital ships leaving for Durban circa 1941. Sorry not accurate date as yet.

Daisy 1942

[Graham Shaw]

Hi all,
Asking for a friend.
Is there aby surviving records for the Alexandria Military Hospital and hospital ships leaving for Durban circa 1941. Sorry not accurate date as yet.

Daisy 1942

Hallo Hazel. I almost fell into the trap of thinking you might be talking about the Alexandra British Military Hospital in Singapore,which suffered badly in the Japanese occupation in 1942.


So,re hospital ship movements ex Alexandria,Egypt.
There were many hospial ships serving throughout WWII,either purpose-built or converted,and regrettably,as we know a good proportion of them were attacked despite the rulings of the Geneva Convention.
The Convoy Web online databases would certainly be of assistance to you,but more info would be required from you or your researcher,viz.individual names of ships.Then,I could help you on this with the help of Convoy Web- ( convoy doesn't mean they always went in convoy,some went independently,or in special Naval detachments ) -to search for port movements,in this case from Alexandria out to Durban c.1941. Without any idea of the name of the hospital ship it will be a long trawl through the records otherwise.Any further pointers?
Regards
Graham

PS When you do know a name for a ship,here's a typical example of what info is presented-Courtesy of Arnold Hague Shorter Convoy series Database.

From:	SUEZ	Sunday, 12 January 1941.
To:	DURBAN	Saturday, 25 January 1941.
Official number of ships =	10 (TDS)

---

Vessel	Flag	Tons	Built	Pdt.	Cargo	Notes
ANDES	Br	25,689	1939		ITALIAN POWs
DUCHESS OF ATHOLL	Br	20,119	1928		EVACUEES
DUNEDIN STAR					BALLAST	DETACHED INDEPENDENT FROM ADE
EMPRESS OF CANADA	Br	21,517	1922		250 EVACUEES
ORCADES	Br	23,456	1937			171 TROOPS, 2032 PoWs
OTRANTO	Br	20,026	1925		268 EVACUEES
STRATHAIRD	Br	22,281	1932			2299 PoWs, INDEPENDENT EN ROU
STRATHALLAN	Br	23,722	1938			193 PASSENGERS & 124 TROOPS
STRATHNAVER	Br	22,283	1931			16 TROOPS, 558 PoWs
VICEROY OF INDIA	Br	19,627	1929		BALLAST	16 PASSENGERS

Data supplied by Don Kindell, extracted from the late Arnold Hague's paper

Also-A factual link HERE re BMH,Alexandria

[Colin Wood]

The El Nil would have been one. Sailed with a Jack Tye on Furness Ships in early 50's who had sailed on her out o Southampton.

[Graham Shaw]

Hospital Ships of WW11.The list may not be exhaustive.

• HMHS Aba
• HMHS Amarapoora
• HMHS Amsterdam
• HMHS Atlantis
• HMHS Brighton
• HMHS Cap St Jacques
• HMHS Chantilly
• HMHS Dinard
• HMHS Dorsetshire
• HMHS Duke of Argyll
• HMHS Duke of Lancaster
• HMHS Duke of Rothesay
• HMHS El Nil
• HMHS Gerusalemme
• HMHS Isle of Guernsey
• HMHS Isle of Jersey
• HMHS Karapara
• HMHS Karoa
• HMHS Lady Connaught
• HMHS Lady Nelson
• HMHS Leinster
• HMHS Letitia
• HMHS Llandovery Castle
• HMHS Maid of Kent
• HMHS Manunda
• HMHS Maunganui
• HMHS Naushon
• HMHS Newfoundland
• HMHS Oxfordshire
• HMHS Paris
• HMHS Prague
• HMHS St Andrew
• HMHS St David
• HMHS St Julien
• HMHS Tairea
• HMHS Talamba
• HMHS Takliwa
• HMHS Vasna
• HMHS Vita
• HMHS Wanganella
• HMHS Worthing

[Graham Shaw]

With ref.to Post # 3 (Colin Wood). HMHS EL NIL. Just doing a quick check on El Nil,as an example, for the year 1941 she is listed as doing only the following movements re Egypt in 1941.:-
arr Suez from Bombay Feb.9,1941
dep Suez Feb.17 in the 23 ship convoy BSF 2 but convoy dispersed,destinations not stated on Feb.22nd. Strangely,in that convoy containing mainly Troops and POW,s she is listed as carrying Cotton ! She next reappeared over a year later in the convoy lists on 20/6/42 in a Boston/Halifax-Liverpool convoy.

All the other hospital ships in that list would have to be checked re any possible presence in Alexandria/Suez,bearing in mind it was often not recorded due to wartime secrecy.

Best Regards
Graham

[Hazel Stringer]

Hi all,

Many thanks for the information, I know this group can always be relied upon to provide a pointer in the right direction. I shall pass the information on and we will see what we can find!

Hazel

[Jean Mhairi Brewer]

I am trying to find out more about a Civilian Prisoner of War returning to UK on HMHS Karapara - i see it is listed in your list - would you know of any further information I might be able to obtain?

[Doc Vernon]

Not sure but this may be of some interest to you??
Cheers

HMHS Karapara in the Great War - The Wartime Memories Project -

If you Type the below into a good Search Engine, a lot comes up about that Ship, worth a try to look.

Ship HMHS Karapara Returning with Civilian POW"s to the United Kingdom