CAPTAIN ETHELBERT ELDRIDGE MEEK
CANADIAN ARMY MEDICAL CORPS
30TH MAY 1918 AGE 40
BURIED: BAGNEUX BRITISH CEMETERY, GEZAINCOURT, SOMME, FRANCE
War Diary: 3rd Canadian Stationary Hospital, Douellens
30 May 1918
"On the night of 29-30 May hostile aeroplanes were heard in the area. The night was clear and the moon was shining. About 12.25 an hostile aeroplane passed over the hospital, dropped a flare, and immediately a bomb was dropped which struck the main building over the sergeants quarters, Ward S.6 (officers ward) operating theatre and X-Ray room, which collapsed immediately. Almost instantly a fire broke out and the whole group of buildings in the upper area was threatened. .... During the work of rescue and while other members of the unit were combating the fire, the aeroplane returned and dropped more bombs ... At this time the flames were mounting sky high and the whole upper area was clearly illuminated and the buildings sharply delineated. The red crosses on the buildings being very visible so that there was no excuse for his not knowing that it was a hospital. ... Three surgical teams were on duty that night but two had completed their operation and had gone for their midnight meal. The other team (Capt. E.E. Meek, C.A.M.C. and Lieut. A.P.H. Sage, M.O.R.C. U.S.A.) were finishing their operation and they, their patient, Sisters A McPherson and E.L. Pringle, the orderlies and stretcher bearers, were all victims of the bomb. ... The night was clear and bright. There should have been no difficulty in the airmen recognising it as a hospital. The plane is stated to have been at a height of about 6000 feet. The hospital is well marked with red crosses which airmen say are quite visible from the air. There is no doubt that the occupants of the aeroplane knew it was a hospital for when they came back and dropped bombs a second time, the flames clearly illuminated the red crosses on the buildings. This hospital, being in the Citadel, is surrounded on three sides by fields and on the fourth by a French hospital. There were no camps or dumps of any description in the vicinity of the hospital."
Captain Meek was a surgeon from Regina, Saskatchewan. Born in Nova Scotia the son of Benjamin and Ella Meek, he was married and the father of a daughter when he went abroad with the Canadian Army Medical Corps in April 1916.