This lithograph shows a casualty clearing station in France in the First World War (1914-1918). Claude Shepperson was the artist. He was a landscape and figure painter, illustrator and printmaker. The Ministry of Information commissioned him to produce a set of six prints showing the treatment of those wounded on the battlefields in France. Here he shows a casualty clearing station near the scene of the fighting. This temporary medical facility acted as a small mobile hospital. The wounded came here for treatment, including surgery if needed, and were then sent home to proper hospital facilities in Britain.

Many young women volunteered to work as nurses. These VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nurses often came from middle- and upper-class homes and had only a short period of basic training. Their working conditions were quite shocking. They had to deal with severely traumatised soldiers, many suffering from shell-shock. There was a severe shortage of effective pain-killing drugs, even for men undergoing major surgery such as amputation.