Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley

[MSJ]

I'm new to the Forum so apologies if I haven't got this right! I am researching 1st WW service of my grandfather Edward V Joyce

 

He served with the 10th (Service) Battalion Hampshire Regiment - Private 9956 On the 9th September 1915 he was wounded in the left thigh at Gallipoli. He was subsequently evacuated to the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley. Does anyone have information on how these evacuations operated, any information on the hospital, including possible pictures?

 

At sometime later he was transferred to the Royal Engineers, WR/286070 - Is it possible to identify from the number the date of that transfer took place & the Unit/Company. I believe the WR may refer to 'Railway' which would make sense as he worked for Southern Railway before the war.

 

Hopefully someone may be able to assist 

 

 

 

[sotonmate]

You may know that Netley Hospital is on the east bank of Southampton Water. The main part of the hospital is long demolished but the main chapel and tower are still seen from my side of the water ! There is shortly to be a high cost renovation of the site so it will be there for quite a while yet. The extensive grounds are a leisure area now, though the military Cemetery is tucked away in a wood about half a mile from the Chapel.

Edward would have been evacuated from Gallipoli by barge etc to a small hospital ship and fed onto a larger one in a safer area ( one of them HMHS Britannic the Titanic's sister ship) and brought back to England, in this case almost certainly to Southampton where casualties for Netley were then loaded onto a train and taken there. Netley was built with a pier to take ships with casualties from the Crimea period, but on completion no one had taken account of the shallow nature of the seabed there so ships had to either lay off and discharge over the side or berth in Southampton Docks.

If you google Royal Victoria Country Park you will see what remains of the original area.

WR is a prefix for Waterways and Railways of the RE.

[frev]

Welcome to the forum...

 

You'll find some info and photos of the hospital here:

Cheers, Frev

[Matlock1418]

Generally - Emily Mayhew's book "Wounded - the long journey home from the Great War" ISBN 9780099584186 is enlightening on the whole evacuation process.

[WilliamRev]

This has been posted on the forum before, but there is an interesting few minutes of film showing Nettley hospital in the early 1960s HERE, just before it was demolished. There are some Chelsea pensioners with Great War and Boer War medals. It is fascinating, and the sheer scale of the hospital is amazing.

 

My interest in the hospital began when I found that my grandfather (in avatar) was wounded for a third time, being badly gassed late October 1918, and was temporarily blinded and spent 7 months at Nettley recovering. By that time in the war all of the patients were housed and treated in a vast village of huts behind (north of) the hospital, the main hospital itself being used to house refugees and medical staff.

 

Nettley had its own railway station around 100 yards north of the hospital, and day and night trains of wounded arrived via Southampton from the Western Front. They were triaged at Nettley, and then many proceeded by train to London or further afield to other hospitals, whilst others stayed at Nettley for treatment. 

 

The chapel, which still stands, used to house a small museum, but all is now closed for refurbishment (the huge tower lets in rather a lot of rain and was becoming unsafe), and when it reopens in a couple of years time we are promised a much bigger museum, and the tower will be open for visitors.

 

William

 

 

[WilliamRev]

Further to my post above I have been trying to find the account I posted last year about the trip that my brother and I made to Nettley chapel/tower/museum in November 2015, which turned out to be the very last day that it was open to the public before the current refurbishment. Alas it doesn't currently show up using the forum search facility. Perhaps others will have more luck.

 

Anyway, here is the photo of the tower that I posted at the time.

 

William. 

[MSJ]

Thanks everyone for your help & submissions/attachments, really interesting reading. I am still left wondering how long my grandfather stayed there for. I also believe he may have met my Gran there as I believe she was some sort of Auxilary Nurse.

[alantwo]

MSJ

 

You can find the link William is referring to through this post.

There is a web-site www.netley-military-cemetery.co.uk which you may find of interest.  I did the tour of the CWGC cemetery and our guide was excellent and very informative, cost £4.00.

 

With regard to the length of time a patient stayed I can only give the example of my grandfather who was also evacuated from Gallipoli.  He spent about three weeks at Netley before being moved to Addington Park Hospital.  I guess it will depend upon the nature of the injury or disease etc.

 

Regards

Alan

 

[MSJ]

I am trying to contact GLEN who posted the following sometime ago - 

 

'Just found this post whilst searching for something else, but I hope that I can address some of the frequent questions. I have looked in detail at the WR/ numbers listed on CWGC.

Firstly all numbers should contain 6 digits, CWGC has some that are 5 digits that appear to br typos.

I have compiled a database of all WR/ numbers and then sorted the list by number. The vast majority of numbers in the WR/100000 and 200000 series, where a unit is shown are in Railway Companies. For 300000 the majority are IWT, (with a small group of 3552xx being the exception)

There are only 23 listed with WR/4xxxxx and only 6 of those have a unit shown (5 Railway and 1 Roads and Quarries). The 5xxxxx and 6xxxxx numbers are all IWT (with a single Raiway exception)

The image below shows some extracts from this database.'

 

My grandfather was discharged from the Royal Victoria Hospital sometime in late 1915 having been wounded at Gallipoli. He was then transferred to the Royal Engineers No WR/286070 I am trying to establish dates & what company/unit he went to, it was probably 'Railway' as before the war he worked on the railway. It would also be good to identify whether he was sent overseas again.

 

There may be a database that could assist with some of the detail. Thanks for any further help, you have all been great so far

 

 

[TEW]

4 hours ago, MSJ said:

Thanks everyone for your help & submissions/attachments, really interesting reading. I am still left wondering how long my grandfather stayed there for. I also believe he may have met my Gran there as I believe she was some sort of Auxilary Nurse.

 

You could try her name in this database for VADs

http://www.redcross.org.uk/About-us/Who-we-are/History-and-origin/First-World-War

If she shows up, her dates at Netley should be given.

TEW

 

 

[MSJ]

Thanks you, you have all been so helpful