Sir, I was interested to read in the BDJ of 9 June, Volume 222 No. 11, the article entitled The first dentists sent to the Western Front during the First World War (pp 893-897). My son Charles Sherwin (Guy's 1995) forwarded the BDJ to me as my grandfather, his great grandfather, Sidney William Bevis of Southsea, Hants (1890-1946) was a dentist in WW1.

He went to Guy's on 14 October 1909 and his registration date, LDS RCS was 21 June 1912.

In the London Gazette on 10 November 1914 he is listed as a Temporary 2nd Lieutenant in the RFA. His army record says he was a Dental Officer in the RFA.

On 18 August 1916, while still a Temp. 2nd Lt of the 107 Bde RFA he was awarded the Military Cross 'For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in that when telephone and visual communication was impossible, and his orderlies were absent on duty, he thrice carried messages from the front line under intensely heavy shellfire', at La Briqueterie 18 August 1916, on the Somme.

He was promoted to Captain and then to Major. He sustained a severe leg injury and at the end of the war had to have his leg amputated. He practised after the war in South Norwood, SE London and subsequently Beulah Hill, Upper Norwood, until his death in 1946. This was no mean feat, standing on one leg and using a pedal drill with his artificial one. I have correspondence between him and various consultants at Guy's supporting his request for a War Pension following injuries sustained in WW1.

As I read the article it struck me that the six dentists mentioned in the article were all qualified in medicine and dentistry. Maybe there were many more dentists working in the field who, like my grandfather, were solely dentally qualified?