Reminiscences of Three Campaigns

Sir Alexander Ogston’s desire to play some part in the war was driven partly by his natural abilities and experience as a surgeon but also had deeper roots in his interest in military medicine. He had taken part in the Sudan Campaign in 1885, and visited military medical facilities in Germany and Russia, before he courted controversy with the army medical establishment when he criticised the care and facilities afforded the army during an address to the British Medical Association in 1899. With the outbreak of the war in South Africa in 1899 his eagerness to observe conditions in South Africa for himself meant he had to pay his own expenses and secure a letter of introduction from Queen Victoria to overcome the obstacles put in his way.

Ogston recorded his experiences serving as a surgeon in Serbia and Italy in two journals, including numerous sketches, plans, photographs and correspondence. These journals formed the basis of his book Reminiscences of three campaigns published in 1919, and describe in detail his work during the war, his impressions of his medical colleagues, the patients he treated and the events of the war as they affected the hospital and surrounding area.

Artist’s Response

For this project I choose the story of Sir Alexander Ogston. He was a 70 year old physician who volunteered to treat war casualties.

I thought it was interesting to look at how different professions found ways to assist the war effort. In my imagery I knew I wanted to incorporate the medical records he kept because they played an important role in his job and he later published a book based on them. While I could not find his exact records, my background imagery is a collage of things that I thought would have been similar. My final image also features a portrait of him sitting which I thought would be fitting to tell his story. The pills on the outside related to his medical profession and I thought they made the piece more visually interesting. The art student Orla Gaynor-Kirk helped me a ton throughout the process. We talked about ways of representing the story as well as the style I chose to emulate which was pop art in this case. She also helped me choose the printmaking process I used which was screen printing, in order to get the different colors.

If I could do this again I would focus more of my designing effort on photoshop. It might have helped me reach a more polished and concise design for elements such as my pattern. I would also have been able to make changes more easily than I was just drawing onto the acetate. The best part of the experience for me was definitely the printing. I went into the printing studio having a vague picture of how printing worked and came out several hours later mildly shocked by the amount of paint, water, and manual labour involved in the process. It took a while to get the hang of it but screen printing was very fun and I’m certain it’s an invaluable skill that I’ll be using later. Overall the experience was fun and educational and I’m glad to have been a part of it.

Khadijah Mohammed
The International School Aberdeen (ISA)

Khadijah Mohammed is from Nigeria and is 15 years old. This is Khadijah’s first year at the International School of Aberdeen.