Ernest Cruickshank, medical graduate: World War One diaries The collection consists of eight volumes of Ernest Cruickshank's First World Ward diary and associated papers. The war diaries, marked 'Log II' to 'Log IX', describe Cruickshank's service in the RAMC, initially as Lieutenant then as Captain, from 11 May 1916 to 25 July 1919. The first four volumes (MS 4027/1-4) cover his experience on Ambulance Trains, while MS 4027/5-7 give an account of his service at the front in France, Flanders, and Italy. The final volume, MS 4027/8, describes his experience of the Armistice and his subsequent posting as O.C of the Nuremberg party of the Commission for the Repatriation of British Prisoners of War. The missing volume at the start of the sequence, 'Log I', which is mentioned at the start of MS 4027/1, presumably covered his initial service on Ambulance Trains from February 1916 to May 1916, and possibly also his work in military hospitals in England before that. The diaries reflect Cruickshank's lively interest in everything that was going on around him. As well as giving an account of his day-to-day activities, he includes reflections on war news and descriptions of various aspects of then-modern warfare: the heavy artillery and the experience of being under bombardment, attacks by aircraft and anti-aircraft defences, the organisation of the ambulance trains and the aid posts at the front. He writes about his medical work and gives details of the recovery and treatment of wounded soldiers, he describes his experiences of the battles of the Somme and the to-and-fro fighting at Ypres, and he records the destruction he sees at Arras and other places in France and Flanders. He records conversations with friends and others on the progress of the war, on troop movements, on the build-up to the Armistice. And after November 1918 he recounts discussions with a Belgian priest and German officers on the whole experience of the war. Cruickshank has also used the diaries as scrapbooks, and they contain a variety of pasted-in material and loose inserts that further illustrate his experience of the war. These fall into various categories: press cuttings, photographs, letters, official communications, and general ephemera. The collection also includes some separate papers, in particular Cruickshank's report on his work in Germany for the Commission for the Repatriation of British Prisoners of War (MS 4027/11) and an account by his brother Martin Cruickshank, who was in Germany when war was declared in 1914, describing his arrest as an enemy alien, his experience of the civil internment camp at Ruhleben near Berlin, and his release under an amnesty for doctors and clergymen (MS 4027/12), 1916-1919