1913

Frank Holmes Cushman, who became a dental surgeon after graduating from Dartmouth, went to England with the First Harvard Surgical Unit in June 1915. His party consisted of 41 doctors and 75 nurses, including Don Cunningham, who was then a student in Harvard Medical School. The doctors of the unit, after being commissioned in the British Army and outfitted with the regular service uniform and equipment, were soon sent to France at the time of a British offensive and assigned to a huge camp near Boulogne containing six hospitals of 1040 beds each.

In a beautifully written letter to secretary Wright Hugus, Frank described his experiences in England and France in most interesting detail. His great admiration for the badly wounded British soldiers is well worth repeating:

"The life certainly had its compensations, for it was more than a joy to work for such men as the Tommies have proved themselves to be. Many of them are merely boys of eighteen or nineteen, but such cheerfulness and courage as they show is utterly beyond belief. One boy of nineteen, with an eye and nose gone, both jaws terribly shattered, a bullet in his upper arm, and a broken lower arm, when asked how he felt, invariably replied, 'ln the pink, thank you, sir.' Another, a Scotch lad of eighteen with both jaws broken and a bullet through his chest which kept him on the edge of Eternity for three long months, always had a smile and a 'Champion, thank you, sir!' ready for your inquiries. He was signed to go to England on the hospital ship Anglica, which, you remember, was torpedoed in the channel. The day before, he developed a temperature and was held back; and that afternoon, when we got the news of the sinking, I went into the ward, and the boy had his smile and a 'Well, my luck was with me again, sir! ready for me. I could go on all night telling you of instances like that, and of the wonderful look of contentment on the faces of the men as they come in and lie down on a bed for the first time in many months. It's a vivid picture in my mind, and I reckon always will be, and yet the awfulness of it is such that I can hardly believe it's not all a terrible nightmare. It almost seemed a crime to try to fix the men up, for back then they must go again, to become targets for more bullets."

Frank was mustered out of the British Army and returned home in June 1916. When the United States entered WWI he enlisted in the Dental Corps at Camp Devens in April 1918 and went overseas again as a captain with Base Hospital No. 7. He returned home in March 1919 and was discharged in April 1919. From then until his death in 1946 Frank practiced dental surgery in the Boston area.

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