Located sixty miles or more to the rear of the war's entrenched front lines, Hôpital Temporaire received casualties from battles in the Argonne Forest and Champagne Offensive (1915), Verdun (1916) and the Meuse-Argonne Campaign (1918).

Throughout the war wounded soldiers arrived in Haute-Marne via hospital train through Latrecey-Ormoy-sur-Aube, a remote station located 11 miles from Arc-en-Barrois, and were transported to the château aboard Hôpital Temporaire's small motor ambulance fleet.

[3] The British Red Cross and War Office officials did not want civilian interference in international military medical affairs and deterred amateur organizers from sending unauthorized voluntary hospitals to France.

In 1914 the British Red Cross and Order of St. John Ambulance Association officially combined forces to both authorize and restrict ad hoc philanthropy with tough committee oversight.

The hospital project gained approval in November 1914 after Emily Georgiana Kemp, a British artist, writer and international explorer, offered salary support for an 11-member corps of experienced trained nurses.

Lady Kathleen Scott organized the hospital's small auto ambulance service and led a contingent of volunteer drivers and orderlies to Arc-en-Barrois in January 1915.

Henry Tonks, retired doctor, painter and Slade Art School Professor was among Lady Scott's recruits, a founding member of the hospital serving from January to April 1915 as anaesthetist and ward physician.