The Doctor’s New Testament

Smaller than a pack of playing cards, the pocket-size New Testament is easy to overlook in our archives. It belonged to Captain Patrick Gillies. In 1915 he marked some chapters with dates and places, shedding light into his service as an Army doctor during the Gallipoli campaign.

“Capt Gillies RAMC (Royal Army Medical Corps), Easdale, Oban, Argyll”

"25th Aug 1914. I ask you to put your trust in God. He will watch over you and strengthen you. You will find in this little Book guidance when you are in health, comfort when you are in sickness, and strength when you are in adversity. Roberts, FM"

The practice of distributing bibles to military personnel dates back to 1779 with the formation of the Naval and Military Bible Society. The New Testament in our archives, with rounded corners on its 491 pages, was tiny enough to fit comfortably into a soldier’s breast pocket. 

In the early weeks of the First World War, the Scripture Gift Mission had asked Lord Roberts to write a foreword for a new edition. The Field Marshal’s response was reproduced on the inside cover of every copy.

Alma, Marchioness of Breadalbane, wrote this personal and touching dedication. Her husband, the Marquess, was Lord Lieutenant of Argyllshire. Their summer residence was Ardmaddy Castle and Patrick had been their local doctor before the war. Alma was president of the Argyllshire Red Cross and in this capacity would have known him too.

The Marchioness had always been a great supporter of Easdale’s Territorial company, which Patrick Gillies had commanded. Four years earlier, at the 8th Argylls’ training camp of 1911, the battalion’s adjutant had recorded: "The men of H (Easdale) Company were handsomely treated to gifts of roast lamb and home-made cheese and a supply of oranges, by the Marchioness of Breadalbane, who has always shown a great interest in this company.”

Of more significance is the date of this inscription. May 1915 marked a turning point both for Easdale’s soldiers and for Patrick Gillies himself. At the outbreak of war the Territorials of the Highland Division had moved to Bedford for training. Now ready for combat, they deployed to France in May 1915, to the trenches at Richebourg. But Patrick Gillies did not go with them: his medical skills were more important than command of an infantry company. The War Office had called for more doctors. Patrick’s experience in a military hospital in South Africa during the Boer War was compelling. He handed over command of H Company in early Spring 1915. In July he was commissioned as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps.

Friday 13 August was the day that SS BELTANA departed Devonport, bound for Alexandria via Malta. BELTANA was a P&O liner pressed into service as a troop ship. Early pages of Patrick Gillies’ diary survive in our archives and we know that he was appointed Medical Officer in Charge of Troops. There were 1800 men aboard. His time was occupied with daily sick parades, sanitary inspections of the ship, and leading the two dozen regimental medical officers who helped him.

At Gallipoli the August offensive failed to break the stalemate of April’s amphibious landings. Medical services were overwhelmed. The nearby island of Lemnos, despite 18,000 beds, was full. Casualties were being evacuated to Egypt and to Malta. By the time the BELTANA reached Alexandria in late August, there was an established medical infrastructure. Trains took casualties from the docks to the Sidi Gebar district, where Mustapha Barracks housed a military hospital, one of many in Alexandria and Cairo. Here too were overflow camps and convalescent depots for soldiers with minor wounds or dysentery. 

Captain Gillies did not spend long in Alexandria. He was required for service aboard HMHS LETITIA, a hospital ship. Built in 1912 it was commandeered by the Admiralty in 1914, refitted with operating theatres, wards and the latest equipment, and manned by medical and nursing staff. Its role was to shuttle casualties from Gallipoli to the large hospitals in Alexandria and Malta, stabilizing the wounded and treating them as best they could during the voyage.

LETITIA even came under fire off the coast of Gallipoli, despite the clear markings of three red crosses on each side of the white hull, which also had a distinctive green stripe along its length.

The LETITIA left Alexandria on 8 September, reaching Malta three days later. The Ghain Tuffeiha Convalescent Camp on the north-west coast had only just received its final delivery of beds and equipment to prepare for the thousands of casualties being brought by the LETITIA and other ships.

Malta underwent a dramatic expansion of medical facilities in 1915. By the time Patrick Gillies arrived, there were 13,000 beds across more than twenty sites, earning the island the title ‘Nurse of the Mediterranean.’ Only half of the casualties had been injured in battle. The other half suffered from disease, mainly dysentery and typhoid.

The Gillies family Bible records that Patrick was Medical Officer in Charge St Andrew’s Hospital. On the north-eastern side of the island, on a high plateau overlooking the sea, St Andrew’s Barracks had been converted to a hospital earlier that year. It was one of the largest and most modern in Malta.

Patrick Gillies marked chapters of St Paul’s Epistle to the Romans with successive dates from 9 to 24 September. He also wrote the words Dulce amaria beneath verse 21 of Romans 6. Was sweet bitterness a response to the theme of the Epistle? Or was it a private reflection on what he had witnessed as a doctor in war?

Copyright © 2026 Tim Sinclair for the Slate Islands Heritage Trust

January 2026