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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Southampton, England


DDP1955

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Hi Guys

I have a couple of people I'm researching who embarked from Southampton. As a result, I am trying to find out what sort of a role Southampton played in moving people around and treating thier medical conditions. I am aware of the Netley Hospital but presumably there were other medical facillities as well. I have spent the last hour on google, so either I am using the wrong search criteria or I need a lesson on how to use a search engine. There has to be a website I can use to get the information I want. Can somebody point me in the right direction please?

Many thanks

Dianne

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Because it is a major shipping port, Southampton has a good railway network, so troops or wounded could be whisked off virtually anywhere fairly quickly once off the ships. The same applys to troops and equipment going out, they could be held waiting outside of the city and when needed could be trained straight into the docks and onto the ships

You might want to have a trawl through this thread for some more local hospitals -

Grant

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The area north of So'ton (towards Winchester) was dotted with camps. Around Twyford, Shawford, Wickham, etc, were a lot of transit and training camps. There are at least three memorials which represent this: at Twyford (on the Downs, overlooking the M3) is a memorial to the blokes who marched past on their way to So'ton; there is a similar one near Wickham, and not far from the Twyford waterworks is a memorial to the 2nd Battalions of many of the London Regiments who trained there in 1916 period.

Additionally, Southampton Common was a large transit camp for much of the war, and there were equine camps in the area between Swaythling and Chilworth.

As Grant says, So'ton had (still has) an excellent rail network to move people about.

The local rag (Southern Daily Echo) has an extensive archive, and frequently runs picture spreads; there is also a very active Local History Society in Bitterne (a part of the city), so might be worth checking them out.

As you know, I live in the area, so if you want a tour some time, give me a shout.

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As you know, I live in the area, so if you want a tour some time, give me a shout.

London Calling - Summer 2009 meet.

Guided tour of Southampton's Great War sites followed by drinks at Mr B's :lol:

Andy

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I am also a proud Sotonian - but now languishing in darkest Surrey.

Just to put Netley in context , it was a very large military hospital before the Great War and was vastly augmented with temp buildings during the war. it's cemetery dating back into the 19th C is superb and in a really eerie position across a causeway from the hospital site. Must go again soon.

And of course the docks - visible from Netley - were hugely important.

A Home Counties GWF visit to So'ton would be an excellent idea.

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Please be aware I am not a Sotonian.

I just live here. If home is where the heart is, I'm a Claire Groganonian.

On-topic, why not a nice summer Saturday Southampton trip? Avoid any clashes with events at the Rose Bowl, of course.

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Thanks for all the replies and also Mr B's kind offer of a tour around the WW1 relevent sites in Southampton

It makes me feel somewhat pathetic, considering I lived in Southampton for more than 30 years, but have no idea of the role Southampton played in the Great War. I only realised, as a result of researching my great uncle who embarked Southampton for Malta with the 1st Battalion, City of London (Royal Fusilliers)

I look forward to the tour ...

Dianne

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Sounds like an excellent idea Steve. Can you still hire barbeque pitches at Netley? If so we could wind up with a few blackened sausages etc.

Follow up

http://www3.hants.gov.uk/hampshire-country...cp/rvcp-bbq.htm

This is a link to the BBQ option there. if there were enough definite takers we could wind up the visit with some nosh on site.

Keith

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Please be aware I am not a Sotonian.

On-topic, why not a nice summer Saturday Southampton trip? Avoid any clashes with events at the Rose Bowl, of course.

I started this in jest but why; not count me in.

If I miss the last train home (again) I could always stagger round to my parents in Mudeford for the night.

Andy

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  • 4 weeks later...
Hi Guys

I have a couple of people I'm researching who embarked from Southampton. As a result, I am trying to find out what sort of a role Southampton played in moving people around and treating thier medical conditions. I am aware of the Netley Hospital but presumably there were other medical facillities as well. I have spent the last hour on google, so either I am using the wrong search criteria or I need a lesson on how to use a search engine. There has to be a website I can use to get the information I want. Can somebody point me in the right direction please?

Many thanks

Dianne

Hi Dianne , linking on from my earlier post re Hazeley Down Camp ,there was a 150 + bed hospital (hutted ) and mortuary on the camp . I am waiting for a photocopy of the site plan to come through from Hampshire records office which may reveal further info . Seen some where some one researching military hospitals with Hazeley,spelt incorrectly "Haxeley ", mentioned . Shawford station may have been the transit point for the wounded as it was the preferred station for troops leaving the camp for France. If you get help re the right search engine and other IT goodies , pass it on because I am" thrashing around in the information jungle " as well !!

Dave

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Hi Guys

I have a couple of people I'm researching who embarked from Southampton. As a result, I am trying to find out what sort of a role Southampton played in moving people around and treating thier medical conditions. I am aware of the Netley Hospital but presumably there were other medical facillities as well. I have spent the last hour on google, so either I am using the wrong search criteria or I need a lesson on how to use a search engine. There has to be a website I can use to get the information I want. Can somebody point me in the right direction please?

Many thanks

Dianne

Hi Dianne, I wonder if you have tried this website, http://www.plimsoll.org/Southampton/Southa...war/default.asp, it is a website that I have found very useful in my research, I was born and bred in Southampton but moved out 1977, have a look around this site you may find something of interest, the street directory section is superb if you are looking for ancestors, along with the image section, a good all round site.

Happy Hunting Teddie :unsure:

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Dianne

There was also an unloading jetty at Netley Hospital,but the thinkers were on leave when it was conceived and they omitted to calculate the depth of water needed to receive the larger types of shipping at all times of tide,so it was too shallow for most of the time. It might have saved an awful lot of trouble had it been perfectly set up,as they had all facilities and a rail head on the site for nationwide distribution of the various categories of patient.

Sotonmate

PS If you want a pic of the "Old Contemptibles" plaque that still sits on the wall by the entrance to the Eastern Docks I can send it to you on receipt of an e-mail by PM.

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Hi Dianne , linking on from my earlier post re Hazeley Down Camp ,there was a 150 + bed hospital (hutted ) and mortuary on the camp . I am waiting for a photocopy of the site plan to come through from Hampshire records office which may reveal further info . Seen some where some one researching military hospitals with Hazeley,spelt incorrectly "Haxeley ", mentioned . Shawford station may have been the transit point for the wounded as it was the preferred station for troops leaving the camp for France. If you get help re the right search engine and other IT goodies , pass it on because I am" thrashing around in the information jungle " as well !!

Dave

Hi Dave

We must be using the same search engine! I've been trying to find out which regiments were at Hazeley and when. I seem to be running round in circles ....

Have you got the site plan, I'd certainly be interested in seeing that! Do you know if the Hazeley hospital was run by the RAMC or the Red Cross?

Dianne

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Thanks for posting this!

I'm currently trying to find out where the main thrust of activity was, in Southampton, especially which part of the shoreline ships departed from, and what medical facilities were available at the dockside, if any!

Dianne

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London Calling - Summer 2009 meet.

Guided tour of Southampton's Great War sites followed by drinks at Mr B's :lol:

Andy

Got a date for this yet?

I'll travel down from Merseyside, at the prospect of a pint of green chartreuse, with Kwak chaser, chez Broomers!!!

:D

Bruce

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Got a date for this yet?

I'll travel down from Merseyside, at the prospect of a pint of green chartreuse, with Kwak chaser, chez Broomers!!! :D

I'm sure Broomers (!!!!!) will rise to the challenge!!! Still waiting for a date from him ;)

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There was also an unloading jetty at Netley Hospital,but the thinkers were on leave when it was conceived and they omitted to calculate the depth of water needed to receive the larger types of shipping at all times of tide,so it was too shallow for most of the time.

Netley seems to have been magnificent but accident-prone. If I recall correctly, it was also built the wrong way round, so the jetty should have been on the other side, where it would have been even shallower ...

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According to an information board on site, the Netley Pier had gone by the GW. The staff obviously got fed up with paddling out to unload wounded onto lighters and barges, so a railway station was built. Netley Station (still there) is on the old LSWR line between Soton and Fareham, so would connect in with the lines from the North, and from London.

As for a date - well, I'll check the diary when I'm at work next week and see what I can come up with. We could even go to visit Hazeley Down, if desired.

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Hi Guys

I want to go to Netley (to look at the information in the Estate Office of the people buried in the cemetery), Hazeley Down (to see the memorial) and whatever part of Southampton Docks was most active in WW1 (just to see it all again), could be a busy day!!!

Netley I can find easily enough but Hazeley Down will be altogether different, I have no idea where it is. I used to drive through Twyford most days, so should know better!!!

D

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Hi

I notice that there are a number of people who know/have an interest in the area around Netley and wondered if you could throw any light on the following. I have a soldier's bible belonging to my great uncle Pte George Fraser with an inscription from Captain The Honble R Moreton dated 1917, Bishopstoke, Hants. Does anyone know if there was a training camp or other military establsihment at Bishopstoke at this time? Any help/suggestion on what he was doing in Bishopstoke - he served with 2nd Bn Middlesex Regiment - would be great.

Jan

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Bishopstoke is (or was) a village outside Southampton, on the Itchen.

I say was, because it is now part of a suburban sprawl from Southampton's boundary, through Eastleigh, to Fair Oak (where I live).

I'm afraid I don't know of any camps, etc, in the area, but given that Bishopstoke is on the outkirts of Southampton (about 5 miles distant), not far from the training grounds at Shawford and Hazeley Down, and very close to the railway at Eastleigh, I'd be amazed if there weren't camps, etc., there.

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Been to Netley a few times, and even more times stood on the promenade at Hythe watching the sun glint off the tower at Netley, eating chips from one of the few decent chippies left, Madgwick's. You could count me and my better half in for any excursion around these sites!

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  • 1 month later...

DD

Seeking your other thread concerning the Southampton Docks Detention Hospital and stumbled over this (again !). Only today I was seeking some info on the said Hospital and came across some data on the throughput at the Docks during the GWar. A huge list of men,animals and stores,both in and out. Some figures,though I am disappointed that the outbound ones are spoilt by a crease in the photocopied page:

OUT: Officers 271,920 : Men 4,550,360

IN : Total of 339,885,plus wounded 57123 Officers and 1,177,125 Men.

The same article mentions a bit about the infrastructure at the bridgehead,including a women's armaments group which repaired artillery pieces in the docks and re-shipped them back,often,it is stated,"cleaning the blood and mud from them" before they began the refurbishments. This was conducted in the vicinity of 50 Berth,where later the RNR had it's shore base as HMS WESSEX,and where I though may have been the site also of the Docks Detention Hospital you have been asking about elsewhere here,of which more later on the right thread !

Sotonmate

PS What of the "Sausage Fest", Broomers ?

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Seeking your other thread concerning the Southampton Docks Detention Hospital and stumbled over this (again !). Only today I was seeking some info on the said Hospital and came across some data on the throughput at the Docks during the GWar. A huge list of men,animals and stores,both in and out. Some figures,though I am disappointed that the outbound ones are spoilt by a crease in the photocopied page:

OUT: Officers 271,920 : Men 4,550,360

IN : Total of 339,885,plus wounded 57123 Officers and 1,177,125 Men.

The same article mentions a bit about the infrastructure at the bridgehead,including a women's armaments group which repaired artillery pieces in the docks and re-shipped them back,often,it is stated,"cleaning the blood and mud from them" before they began the refurbishments. This was conducted in the vicinity of 50 Berth,where later the RNR had it's shore base as HMS WESSEX,and where I though may have been the site also of the Docks Detention Hospital you have been asking about elsewhere here,of which more later on the right thread !

Sotonmate

You are certainly finding some really good information about the docks and the Detention Hospital

I'm amazed at the out and in bound figures for Southampton Docks. I became interested in the docks when I discovered my great uncle travelled to both Malta and France with the 1st Londons from Southampton. I think I'm going to have to re-familiarise myself with the docks. I just cant remember where HMS Wessex is or was. Can you give me some idea of where 50 berth is in relation to where South Western House is, I'm guessing its somewhere around there?

Dianne

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DD

Yes,near to SWHouse,go into Dock Gate 4,the main entrance to the Eastern Docks,and a hundred yards or so turn right,in front of the ABP building (dock owners),out to the end of the dock wall,which is now a new cruise terminal. This where 50 Berth still is but not as HMS WESSEX any more.

Sotonmate

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