Hadfield-Spears Ambulance Unit

Under the designation of HCM (Hôpital chirurgical mobile) 3 Ambulance Hadfield-Spears, it was attached to the Free French forces (1st Free French Division) in the Middle East, North Africa, Italy and France before being dissolved in Paris in June 1945 on the order of General Charles de Gaulle.

She explained to the French Consulate in London that 'the gift was the repayment of a debt she owed to France for the happiest years of her life'.

[3] In the First World War, this well-connected American from Philadelphia had been one of the first to start a Red Cross hospital for the treatment of wounded and sick servicemen.

Mary had close ties with France – it was while her unit was on the Somme in 1916 that she met Captain Edward Louis Spears, a British liaison officer attached to the French army.

Mary Borden (Mrs Spears) agreed to be in charge of the (largely British) female personnel – the nurses and drivers of Lady Hadfield's new field hospital with its 100 beds.

[10] Complete with tents, X-ray equipment, sterilizing apparatus, surgical instruments, beds, bedding, linen and ward equipment, the Hadfield-Spears mobile hospital left Paris in February 1940 for the village of St Jean le Bassel, near the front line in Lorraine.

The medical officer in charge was Le Médecin Capitaine Jean Gosset – under him were three young French surgeons, a radiographer and administrative staff.

[12] The Hadfield-Spears unit was attached to the French 4th Army, which was commanded by Général Réquin, a former World War 1 comrade of General Spears.

Their predecessors had left the wards in poor condition and they spent two weeks getting the place into shape before moving patients to their new quarters.

On 20 May, the news came through that her husband had been promoted to Major General, although she did not then know that he had been appointed Churchill's personal representative to the French Prime Minister, Paul Reynaud.

While queuing to refuel at the barracks in Gannat, between Moulins and Clermont-Ferrand, they heard that Marshal Philippe Pétain had asked the Germans for an armistice.

At Brives, their commanding officer, le Médecin Capitaine Jean Gosset, managed to send a telegram to warn the British Embassy at Bordeaux that the unit was splitting up, and that the 26 women would be continuing alone.

[19] Here they were transhipped to a passenger vessel, the Etric [sic],[20] which already had on board a large number of British subjects (mainly well-to-do ladies and their staff) evacuated from their villas in France.

Mary Spears and her party of 25 British nurses and MTC drivers docked in Plymouth on 26 June 1940 with nothing but their personal effects.

These conditions – including the proviso that Mrs Spears would exercise complete control over the female personnel – were accepted in writing by General Charles de Gaulle, who was by now leading the Free French Forces from his headquarters in London.

De Gaulle was unable to provide this manpower from his forces, but drivers were forthcoming from the American Field Service, and hospital orderlies from the Friends' Ambulance Unit in London – the latter all conscientious objectors.

De Gaulle's, Free French had few medical officers and it took months to assemble a team of four doctors who would be led by Colonel Fruchaud.

[28] The Hadfield-Spears unit reached Suez on 2 May, expecting to sail back to Port Sudan and from there to Abyssinia, but plans had changed and they were told to make for Palestine.

The river Sarre at Sarreguemines – the front line. The town had been abandoned by its French inhabitants. Girls of the Hadfield-Spears unit went for crockery from the china factory. They peered across to the German bank. ‘We could see what appeared to be a deserted café. The windows were wide open, the deep grass in front had grown up through the iron tables and chairs.’ [ 11 ]
The beach at Arcachon in southwestern France. After their arduous trek ahead of the German advance, girls of the Hadfield-Spears unit relaxed among French holidaymakers on these sands before transferring to a British warship. Their evacuation from Arcachon was supervised by Lieutenant Ian Fleming of the Royal Navy.
Lady Spears (centre) with Sir Edward Spears (left) in December 1942 in Lebanon on the steps of their residence [ 29 ] – that of the First British Minister to the Levant. To the right of Sir Edward stands Henry Hopkinson , private secretary to the Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Sir Alexander Cadogan ; Richard Casey , Minister Resident in the Middle East, is to the right of Lady Spears, with Mrs Ethel Casey to her left.