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RAMC profile of:
Samuel Ernest PICKEN M.B., B.Ch.
 
 


Place or Date
of Birth:

Service Number:

TF Number:

Rank: t.Capt (a/Maj)

Unit:

Attached To: 10th Bn. Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers

Enlistment Location:

Also Served: 109th Field Ambulance

Outcome: Survived the war

Date Died: 14th July 1935
Age Died: 45

Where Buried and/or Commemorated:

Awards: MC; MID

Gazette Reference: 17/9/1917; 29/5/1917
 


Other Information:

Samuel was educated at the Belfast Royal Academy and studied medicine at the Queen's University, where he graduated in June 1914. He volunteered for service on the outbreak of war and gained a temporary commission at the rank of Lieutenant within the R.A.M.C. on 9th October 1914. He was promoted to temporary Captain exactly one year later. Samuel was awarded the Military Medal for “Conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in going forward under heavy shell fire and attending to the wounded in advanced trenches and shell holes. He remained in the shelled area for a ling period, working incessantly and efficiently at the dressing and evacuating the wounded. He has always shown the same gallant spirit and devotion to duty.” He also served with the Army of Occupation, and was promoted to Acting Major on 13th December 1918. Relinquished the rank of acting Major on 12th October 1919, he finally left the army on 10th April 1920 and took up general practice. A comrade wrote of him - “When I joined them (the 10th R.I.F.) I found that Dr. S. E. Picken, in the spite of his youth and inexperience, had established himself as a very efficient medical officer, and had identified himself heart and soul with the battalion, which he served so faithfully till the end of the war. We have often seen him with absorbed and pitying face, skillful hands, and infinite patience, spending hours in trying to make the waiting easier from some tortured soul. Many to-day, looking at their visible scars, will bless Sammy Picken for smoothing the first hours of shock and pain, and for seeing that they were sent back with all speed to quieter regions. Sammy was a battalion M.O., a front line doctor, during all his time in France. It was his own choice.... I remember a dressing station, with a wooden cross at the entrance marking the grave of the previous medical officer, a distinguished V.C. with bar, and a “pill box” in the salient swimming with water, shelled night and day - a death trap, because from our point of view the door was turned the wrong way. These were some of the residences which Dr Picken had to occupy in the performance of a duty he never shirked. He did not talk much, but he had a keen sense of humour, which made him a delightful companion. He rejoiced in the quaint sayings and extraordinary actions of his men, and he was in his glory when a “rag” was in progress, and was ever ready to lend a helping hand. When Sam Picken was promoted, when he was mentioned in dispatches, when he was decorated, there was no doubt about the approval of all who knew him. We felt no honour could repay him for what he had done for all of us, and indeed honour he valued most was the enduring place which he held in the hearts of thousands of men. That he should have earned such a reputation for courage in a battalion that was noted all over the Western Front for its dash, its reckless bravery, its grim determination to do or die, speaks for itself.” Samuel died in a bathing tragedy when he, his wife and friends went bathing in the sea at Castlerock. It is believed Samuel suffered a heart attack when they were all leaving the sea and disappeared, his body was recovered a few minuets later in shallow water. He was the third son of Dr James Picken, Hazelbank, Randalstown, and Mrs Picken O.B.E., Richmond Crescent, Belfast. [Information sources: The British Medical Journal Obituary 1935, London Gazette; Belfast Evening Telegraph (Photograph: Belfast Evening Telegraph, kindly provided by Nigel Henderson)]


 
 
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