Message in a bottle: the discovery of a young medical officer’s map from the 1917 Battle of Hill 70

Abstract

We report the serendipitous discovery of a map drawn by an army surgeon during the First World War. The map, entitled “Loos 36° NW3,’”was drawn by 24-year-old Captain Alexander Edward MacDonald in fall 1917 and was found in his old surgery textbook. MacDonald’s map depicts the positions of Canadian frontlines and medical units after the Battle of Hill 70. During the battle, Dr. MacDonald tended to the wounded in an aid post that he constructed in a ruined coal mine near the Front. MacDonald would go on to serve with distinction in the Battle of Passchendaele and Canada’s Hundred Days, and he received the Military Cross for gallantry. He maintained a passionate interest in cartography throughout his life and eventually became an authority among map collectors. Artifacts such as MacDonald’s map remind us of the realities of war and the sacrifices of our surgeon predecessors.

Fig. 1

Hand-drawn Loos map.

Fig. 2

The 1st Canadian Field Ambulance War Diary, dated August 15, 1917, recounts MacDonald’s service on the first day of the Battle of Hill 70. Reproduced with permission from Library and Archives Canada.