Hospital Admissions

[Paul Nixon]

I appreciate this may have already been covered in the past - if it has, apologies in advance and please point me to the riight link.

Can anybody tell me what process was used in determining to which British hospital, sick and wounded soldiers should be sent? Obviously some hospitals specialised in treating certain conditions and injuries but these aside, what was the reasoning?

It was the contention of a lot of old soldiers that I interviewed in the eighties that the authorities sent you as far away from your home as possible. In his autobiography, With A Machine Gun to Cambrai, George Coppard asserts the same, adding that possibly it was to discourage relatives from visiting and thus placing a strain on a railway network already crowded with troops

I would be interested to know from anybody what the real reason was.

Thanks in advance

Paul

[Sue Light]

Hallo Paul

At present I’m doing some work on the Territorial Force Nursing Service, and Military Hospitals, and although I had also read accounts of men being sent away from home, it seems that this was never the intention. By September 1914 there were three main aims when men arrived back wounded in the UK – to give priority to those most seriously injured, to clear beds in the largest hospitals as quickly as possible to make room for new arrivals, and to ensure that the men were transferred between medical facilities as few times as possible.

For men disembarking at Southampton, the most serious cases were transferred to the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, and the Southampton War Hospital on the Common, which soon had the reputation as being the one of the busiest and 'heaviest' hospitals in the UK. From Dover, the sickest men would be left in London. Lightly wounded men, and the walking wounded were often the ones chosen to do the longest journeys, and therefore ended up in Aberdeen

Apart from the worst cases the men would then be found a place on the next available train out, whatever its destination – there seemed to be no question of a Highlander turning down the 16.00 hrs to Waterloo because he’d rather wait for the 19.30 to Glasgow! Because men were often being wounded in large actions, it follows that men of the same regiment would be wounded, and evacuated together, and find their way back to England if not ‘en masse’ then certainly in tens, dozens and scores. So it was not surprising that, for instance, 50 Scots ended up in No. 2 Eastern General at Brighton, and 50 Royal Sussex men in Manchester – it was just the luck of the draw.

Throughout the war the pressure on beds was always enormous, and even very early, on 16th August 1914, all Home Commands were instructed by telegram to expand their hospitals to the fullest limit – of course this ‘fullest limit’ was never enough, and the number of beds was still increasing in October 1918. The expansion of the auxiliary hospitals and convalescent homes meant that most soldiers would eventually be transferred out of the main hospital, and this was more likely to be to a facility affiliated to that hospital, and therefore in the same locality.

The bed state nationally was being updated weekly, and it was really a question throughout of squeezing casualties in anywhere that had enough room to take them – choice would have put an impossible burden on a massively overstretched system. I’m sure there must have been many a bright young ‘walking wounded’ who seeing more than one train drawn up in front of him found some way of making a choice, but of course, the lack of relatives could only have proved an enormous help to the smooth running of the wards!

Sue

[Guest Johnsonm]

Sue

Thank you for the very informative reply and good luck with your research . Whilst I have always known the locations of the Military hospitals in Reading and district last year was very surprised to find a church hall which had a plaque on the wall commemorating its use in WW1 for treatment of wounded . By the end of 1918 they had attended to over 1100 men in what was quite a small area . Was this ususal practice or could it have been one of the local bigwigs using his or her influence to use the hall .

Maurice

[Sue Light]

Hallo Maurice

The expansion of the auxiliary hospitals meant that lots of extra buildings were taken over, although the preferred ones were pre-war military and civil hospitals, and poor law institutions - schools were left alone rather more then, as by early in 1915 the education authorities were getting a bit hot under the collar about the long term use of so many of their buildings. Perhaps it's more likely that your church hall was run by the Red Cross or privately by the worthies of the Church? The local newspapers may well have something about it - but the effort of finding out might outweigh the value!

Sue

[Terry_Reeves]

Maurice

For what it is worth, the village hall at Dumbleton in Worcestershire , where my grandfather was nursed after being wounded, also has a commemorative plaque on the wall. This was used as VAD hospital for some time.

[Paul Nixon]

Dear Sue

Thanks for your reply. Yes, that would make sense and coincidentally, explains the comparatively large number of 15th Division Scots who, post Loos 1915, were at No 2 Eastern General in Dykes Road, Brighton, some of them subsequently being transfered to the Auxiliary Hospital I have been researching, at Chailey.

Paul

[Guest Johnsonm]

Sue ,

Thanks for the information . Will try to do some research on the hall in question .

The church itself might be able to help .

Terry ,

Interesting to hear of the hall you mention also being used as a hospital . It seems they used whatever accommodation they could get for the wounded

Maurice

[robertb]

The 3rd Western General Hospital 'took over' the majority of the schools of Cardiff. They did so for the majority of the War.

Regards,

Rob

[kenf48]

Hi there is a list of hospitals on the LLT parent site http://www.1914-1918...ospitals_uk.htm

None listed but the same site shows units of the Coldstreams were garrisoned at Windsor which is not too far from Dorking for a young couple with a twinkle in their eye!

I believe all the Guards service records survive as they were held separately from the bulk of records and the museum will search for a small fee.

Ken

[centurion]

The lack of relatives could only have proved an enormous help to the smooth running of the wards!

I can remember one Matron in the 1960s, in whose small hospital I was unfortunate enough to be incarcerated who, still took that very attitude - indeed she seemed to think that patients themselves made the wards look untidy. Whereas today patients as far as possible are encouraged to be out of bed and moving around as soon as safe and practicable under her regime as long as you were in her hospital you stayed in bed, apart from calls of nature! There was one old soldier in my ward (a Salonika veteran) who caused her all sorts of angst by insisting on walking around (and getting his chums to smuggle in bottles of beer). There was constant warfare between the two. I wonder what the attitude was in the WW1 hospitals.

[Guest jaynesimms]

Can anyone tell me if they know of Percy William Spencer being wounded 1900-1919. My grandfather was in the Cold Stream Guards I think in the SA war he was in 1st Battlalion and the WW1 the 2nd Battlation? I believe he was sent to Anstie Grange Holmwood and met my grandmother there as they were married in 1910 and he was not a local boy to that area.

Hallo Paul

At present I'm doing some work on the Territorial Force Nursing Service, and Military Hospitals, and although I had also read accounts of men being sent away from home, it seems that this was never the intention. By September 1914 there were three main aims when men arrived back wounded in the UK – to give priority to those most seriously injured, to clear beds in the largest hospitals as quickly as possible to make room for new arrivals, and to ensure that the men were transferred between medical facilities as few times as possible.

For men disembarking at Southampton, the most serious cases were transferred to the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, and the Southampton War Hospital on the Common, which soon had the reputation as being the one of the busiest and 'heaviest' hospitals in the UK. From Dover, the sickest men would be left in London. Lightly wounded men, and the walking wounded were often the ones chosen to do the longest journeys, and therefore ended up in Aberdeen

Apart from the worst cases the men would then be found a place on the next available train out, whatever its destination – there seemed to be no question of a Highlander turning down the 16.00 hrs to Waterloo because he'd rather wait for the 19.30 to Glasgow! Because men were often being wounded in large actions, it follows that men of the same regiment would be wounded, and evacuated together, and find their way back to England if not 'en masse' then certainly in tens, dozens and scores. So it was not surprising that, for instance, 50 Scots ended up in No. 2 Eastern General at Brighton, and 50 Royal Sussex men in Manchester – it was just the luck of the draw.

Throughout the war the pressure on beds was always enormous, and even very early, on 16th August 1914, all Home Commands were instructed by telegram to expand their hospitals to the fullest limit – of course this 'fullest limit' was never enough, and the number of beds was still increasing in October 1918. The expansion of the auxiliary hospitals and convalescent homes meant that most soldiers would eventually be transferred out of the main hospital, and this was more likely to be to a facility affiliated to that hospital, and therefore in the same locality.

The bed state nationally was being updated weekly, and it was really a question throughout of squeezing casualties in anywhere that had enough room to take them – choice would have put an impossible burden on a massively overstretched system. I'm sure there must have been many a bright young 'walking wounded' who seeing more than one train drawn up in front of him found some way of making a choice, but of course, the lack of relatives could only have proved an enormous help to the smooth running of the wards!

Sue

[Sue Light]

From what I can see from the various posts about Percy Spencer, he was a private soldier in the Coldstream Guards, and so would not have been a patient at Anstie Grange, which was for officers only. There are so many possibilities about where he could have met your grandmother - she could have been working away, in service somewhere else - without a service record you would only be guessing, and there were many hospitals in Surrey that could fit the bill - only a few of them are included on the LLT website. I think you should try and get a service record for him first, which might have the answer. Copies of these are available for most members of Guards Regiments, and details of how to apply are on this page:

Coldstream Guards Archives

Sue

[Coldstreamer]

Can anyone tell me if they know of Percy William Spencer being wounded 1900-1919. My grandfather was in the Cold Stream Guards I think in the SA war he was in 1st Battlalion and the WW1 the 2nd Battlation? I believe he was sent to Anstie Grange Holmwood and met my grandmother there as they were married in 1910 and he was not a local boy to that area.

No medal card for P W Spencer Coldstream gds ww1 - might be worth setting a new topic