Did Canada make its own stretchers?

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Ed Storey

Like everything Commonwealth, there are different Marks of Stretcher depending on when they were manufactured and their intended use. A few of the older wartime stretchers used to lurk about in the back of QMs and 4 Brigade in Germany seemed to be the happy hunting ground for strange odds and ends. Some of this stuff migrated to the Balkans when Lahr and Baden closed in the early 1990s, so quite a bit of 4 Brigade material was used in that theatre.

Attached a photograph of a wartime stretcher slung off a Canadian Grizzly taken at Tomaslavgrad, Bosnia in late 2000.

That's amazing Ed. As their function hardly changed I reckon they could serve for a long time.

There must have been a large stash of British or Canadian made stretchers somewhere in the Netherlands, as they turn up at dump stores every now and then. Most seem to have come from Civil Defence stock, taken over from the Army.

As they are too long to ship by parcel service, I need to plan a trip to one of these dump stores and buy myself a pair for use in my C15TA.

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[Alex van de Wetering]

I wonder if the length of stretchers increased over time, due to people being taller than in the 80 years ago??

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Alex van de Wetering

I wonder if the length of stretchers increased over time, due to people being taller than in the 80 years ago??

Good point! One of the sellers lists the dimensions of the stretchers as follows:

Length over all: 230 cm
Length of canvas: 180 cm long x 57 cm wide

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[Ed Storey]

That is quite the stash of British wartime stretchers! From what little I know about stretchers, they are Stretcher, Ambulance, Mk II. Attached is a photograph of Canadian stretcher training taken in 1947.

1. RCAMC Stretcher Drill - KD Uniforms and Sun Helmets. copy.jpg

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Thanks Ed, here’s another photo of stretchers in use by the RCAMC:

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A jeep ambulance of the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps (RCAMC) bringing in two wounded Canadian soldiers on the Moro River front south of San Leonardo di Ortona, Italy, 10 December 1943.”
Source: Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3314438

[derk derin]

As far as wartime “style” stretchers here in Manitoba are concerned I’ve been buying them as I find them over the last 35 plus years adding them to my medical corps collection.
Having a stretcher jeep, a Universal carrier Mk1 and a Ford 60 CWT ambulance I knew I needed a lot of them to outfit my vehicles.
Not to mention my Medical corps displays in the basement.
I won’t get into post war stretchers, trying to keep this post short!
I decided today to have a look at them all and see how many I actually have and how many are Canadian military marked so I started pulling them out and looking carefully for markings.
I counted 8 in the basement with my displays and 11 of them outside with the vehicles.

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[derk derin]

Going through all of them made me realize while the construction is basically similar in appearance they all seem to be manufactured in a different way.
The folding framework & feet are similar in design but differ slightly;

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[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by derk derin

As far as wartime “style” stretchers here in Manitoba are concerned I’ve been buying them as I find them over the last 35 plus years adding them to my medical corps collection.
Having a stretcher jeep, a Universal carrier Mk1 and a Ford 60 CWT ambulance I knew I needed a lot of them to outfit my vehicles.
Not to mention my Medical corps displays in the basement.
I won’t get into post war stretchers, trying to keep this post short!
I decided today to have a look at them all and see how many I actually have and how many are Canadian military marked so I started pulling them out and looking carefully for markings.
I counted 8 in the basement with my displays and 11 of them outside with the vehicles.

Wow Derk, thanks for making all those photos of your collection!
It shows that behind every single item, even mundane as a stretcher, there is a whole history of the design, manufacture and use which is often sparsely documented.
I'll sit down and digest your info in detail later.