The Gratitude of a King

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George V, King of Great Britain (1865-1936)
Letter of Appreciation to the Harvard University Hospital Unit,
October 10, 1919


Gift of Aileen Gorgas Wrightson to the Archives of Harvard Medical School, 1968

The British Embassy transmitted this document to the U.S. Secretary of State, who then sent it to President A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On December 18, 1918, Arthur James Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary, wrote to A. Lawrence Lowell to express gratitude for the work of the Harvard Surgical Unit:

May I therefore count on your good offices to let every member of the Unit know how grateful His Majesty's Government feels for the generous offer made and carried out in December 1916.  Through two strenuous and memorable years the work of General Hospital 22, the largest Hospital unit serving with the British Army, had held a record for skillful and untiring treatment of our wounded.  The memory of so much service and self-sacrifice can never pass from us; it will be cherished in perpetuity by the relatives and friends of those whom the Harvard Unit has tended with such admirable devotion.