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Pte. Tom Nuttall
British Army 20th (Tyneside Scottish) Btn. Northumberland Fusiliers
Tom Nuttall was my maternal grandfather who fought in WW1. He was born on 28 February 1891 in Bury, Lancashire. He joined the Tyneside Scottish and went off to war when he must have been 22 or 23yrs old. This is what I know of his story in the war.
Going over the top whilst fighting he was gassed in both lungs as well as shot in the chest and was left lying for an indeterminable time in no man’s land, assumed to be dead. His body, still breathing, was later found by the Germans and he was pulled behind their lines and taken to what I assume was a German field hospital. Both lungs were badly damaged and a German surgeon removed the one lung which was irreparable, and left one damaged lung remaining. This surgeon cared for my grandfather and was the main cause of bringing Tom back to life. I gather that the surgeon spoke English and that he let slip (intentionally?) clues as to where the field hospital was in relation to the lines.
When my grandfather had recovered enough energy he somehow managed to escape from the hospital and with the clues he had gathered whilst he was a sick and wounded patient he managed to find his way back to the British lines. I don’t know how long that journey took, or how he made it. I believe that despite his wounds he went on to fight again before the war ended.
His one remaining damaged lung meant that he always had trouble breathing for the rest of his life, but he never complained. He died in his 60s. Like so many men he rarely talked of his war experiences, but my mother (his daughter) when she was young used to listen outside the door on occasions when his few surviving friends would visit him at home and they would share tales of their harrowing war experiences together. She was fascinated and later, when she was an adult herself, she asked him questions and got the story.
