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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Fantastic Hospital Picture...


Peter Doyle

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Wanted! Chris Foster and I would like to know where this hospital photo was taken, if possible...We could have posted this almost anywhere on the Forum, just look at the diversiuty of the men in Hospital Blues. Black soldiers (including one guy in the Hampshire Regiment), Asian soldiers, Brits, Aussies; fantastic uniform details, superb views of hob-nailed boots, you name it, we've got it here. We want to use this in our cap badge book (at proof stage), but ideally, we'd want to know where it is! Any help gratefully acknowledged.

Best wishes

Peter and Chris

post-29053-1268060597.jpg

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Strange, but if that's barbed wire at the front of the photo it makes me think of a very civilised POW camp. And not a nurse in sight!

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Strange, but if that's barbed wire at the front of the photo it makes me think of a very civilised POW camp. And not a nurse in sight!

Barbed wire does not automatically = POW camp. I have barbed wire along part of my boundary - it keeps the sheep out of the garden - and I don't live in a POW camp civilised or otherwise. The wire in the photo might keep a sheep out but it wouldn't keep a POW in. It certainly hasn't constrained the photographer who is on the other side.

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Would the small girl on the left be in a POW camp?

Bruce

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Mediterranean, possibly Salonika, Egypt or Malta due to the built up buildings in the background. Looks like a bunch of men from a general or stationary hospital waiting for shipment(?) or just landed(?).

John

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I know - but the barbed wire just looked strange in what appears to be a peaceful village or town centre. And it looks as though there should have been room over on the left to get a decent shot without the wire. Maybe they did have problems with the sheep!

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I know - but the barbed wire just looked strange in what appears to be a peaceful village or town centre. And it looks as though there should have been room over on the left to get a decent shot without the wire. Maybe they did have problems with the sheep!

Don't think that's a village or a town centre. It could be a large hotel, stately home (or even a civilian hospital) taken over by the military

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I agree that it looks Mediterranean. Possibly after the armistice. Would the recovered patients travel in their hospital blues?

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I agree that it looks Mediterranean. Possibly after the armistice. Would the recovered patients travel in their hospital blues?

I think the name says it all Hospital Blues Once discharged from hospital they'd either be in uniform or civvie clothes

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Don't think that's a village or a town centre. It could be a large hotel, stately home (or even a civilian hospital) taken over by the military

True, I can see that: I was thinking of the awnings as having a commercial purpose.

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I asked that question because I'm certain that a member posted a pic of their rellie in them at home. Would they have been allowed to take them home?

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True, I can see that: I was thinking of the awnings as having a commercial purpose.

I thought they were a temporary (very un Mediterranean) hut at the front of the building.

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I asked that question because I'm certain that a member posted a pic of their rellie in them at home. Would they have been allowed to take them home?

Ther's been a couple of threads on Hospital Blues - from memory each hospital authority issued and were responsible for looking after their own. If so they'd want them back when a soldier left but I'm sure some 'leaked out'

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I can see at least three children in the photograph but no women. What is the uniform worn by the chap on the extreme left? Several of the men are wearing such including one in the foreground with one of the children sitting on his lap. The light coloured trouser cuffs and lapels are unusual.

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I can see at least three children in the photograph but no women. What is the uniform worn by the chap on the extreme left? Several of the men are wearing such including one in the foreground with one of the children sitting on his lap. The light coloured trouser cuffs and lapels are unusual.

Do you mean the hospital blues?

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The building is strongly remeniscent of several of the large public buildings in Salonika, but doesn't match any of them in the details. My guess too would be Malta.

Are those definitely Aussies? If so, that would also rule out Salonika.

Adrian

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The building is strongly remeniscent of several of the large public buildings in Salonika, but doesn't match any of them in the details. My guess too would be Malta.

Are those definitely Aussies? If so, that would also rule out Salonika.

Adrian

I can think of buildings like that in the rest of Greece but also in Cairo, Cyprus, S of France etc. To muddy the waters the style was sometimes used for sea side hotels away from the Med

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PD

Could it be MTARFA Military Hospital MALTA ?

I too think the Blues were prised off the patients before they left !

Sotonmate

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Would the small girl on the left be in a POW camp?

Captured sniper.

Very much a long shot, but does the rather ornate-looking thing over the main doorway on the central block have anything on? Could it be enlarged to see?

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Is this photograph cropped very severely? A building that size would hold a lot more patients than we can see. The girls are wearing hats but not sun hats. Whoever arranged the picture had ' clout'. I think we are looking at some of the ' walking wounded' from a military hospital who had been gathered together so that someone could take a picture, so not just a casual visitor yet there is no sign of staff. Do the children belong to a patient or to staff? If I saw that building without the patients I'd be thinking large city hospital complete with tacked on verandah for long stay, semi-mobile patients. I wonder why there are no nurses there? No answers, just more questions.

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