Photos of nurses and VADs for sharing

[Morris]

I hesitate to post a few simple pictures taken by my father and his (first) wife that include some of the nurses and VADs he worked with, however they may also be someone that a relative is interested in.

The first photo was taken in Tournai in 1919 outside my father's billet and is of a group around his MO's offical car,

The people are from left to right:

de Rickman (a Belgian liason officer); Margery (my father's wife and unoffical VAD who did a bit of driving, helping out etc); Miss Bilton (a proper VAD) and my father (Captain Arthur Morris RAMC the MO for Tournai Area)there is also an enormous dog in the car. And on the very far left a tiny bit of the VAD driver's face and she was a Mrs Beasley.

(My dad didn't like this picture much as he thought he looked like a proper twit in it, but frankly it's nice to see him smiling, given what he was doing a year earlier!

Alfred

[Morris]

This photograph is also in Tournai in 1919 in the back yard of Dad's billet at the Hivres family.

Left to Right:

Van der Vries, (another liason officer) Grantham, Mrs Beasley and Margery in the foreground (taken very soon after dad had returned from a leave when he and Margery got married)

Alfred

[Morris]

Tournai again in 1919:

Mrs Beasley (The VAD driver), the mechanic (name unknown), Grantham, Margery and dad.

And has ayone got any idea what car it is by the way?

Alfred

[Morris]

The caption for the following was simply "Betts and Finnarn"

So I assume the nurse on the left is Betts and the man Finnarn (and that Finnarn was another of the doctors).

It was taken in 1920 at the 10th Stationary Hospital at Remy Sidings outside Poperinghe(Now Lijssenthoek cemetery)Or to be strictly accurate given they are actually standing between the railway tracks it was taken at the sidings.

Alfred

[Morris]

Also taken at the 10th Stationary Hospital, Remy. This photo is simply captioned Turnball

[Morris]

This one is somewhat stranger and is of Miss Acland The 10th Stationary Hospital hockey team goalkeeper Feb 1920 in Poperinghe.

It was a mixed team of doctors nurses and VADs as another photo I posted revealed at

Alfred

[TD60new]

Nice pics !

Thanks

[Morris]

The (Red Cross) nurse standing is my father's Cousin "Madge" (= Miss Marjorie Henry born 1890).

I'm afraid I have no information about the men in the photo or about the seated nurse

I do not know the exact location merely that it is a convalescent home in Suffolk, but it might be in or near Bury St Edmunds as there was a message from Madge about having seen a Zeppelin raid on Bury St Edmunds.

I'm not sure of the date either but believe it was taken in 1916 (The www mentions Zeppelin raids on Bury St Endmunds in both 1915 and 1916)

This is a link to a photo of the damage in Bury St Edmunds from a Zeppelin raid in 1915. http://www.flickr.com/photos/recoveringscot/2541560174/.

At [Broken link removed] it says that near Bury St Edmunds there was a hospital at Ampton Hall and an auxilary hospital at Hengrave Hall. The window and wall behind the group look old, so maybe its part of a "Hall". ( I favour Ampton Hall which is a brick building rather than Hengrave Hall which is stone one.)

Later in the war Madge also worked at St Thomas's hospital in London.

Alfred

[Andy Wade]

Yes, I just looked on satellite view on Google Maps for Ampton Hall and it does have two full height angled bay windows at the back of the hall. There is a bay window in the picture so maybe that's where it is. You'd have to get a picture of the back of the hall to see how the windows are constructed.

[Morris]

I'd forgotten to look at Google earth too. Thanks for the tip.

I've now looked at what I would call a the view of the front of Hall from the road (through the iron gates) and at an image of the Hall from the other side.(the back.) that i found afteer a bit iof a surf.

The red brick of the front and the stone mullions looks very similar to the building behind my dad's cousin.

I should have a chance to visit Bury St Edmunds fairly soon and might have a look if I can.

Alfred

[Morris]

Even if it's not the right palce reagrding Dad's cousin Ampton Hall is yet another place that played a part in the Great War. I found a site about the church at Ampton http://www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/ampton.htm that says this.

"The chantry chapel entrance is surmounted by the inscription Capella Perpetue Cantarie Joh'is Coket - the perpetual Chantry Capel for John Coket. But he could not know that it would all come to an end in a few short decades. The flanking niches were set with beautiful mosaics in the early 1920s. That to the west depicts St Christopher, and remembers that the rebuilt Ampton Hall was used as a military hospital during World War One. More than six and a half thousand wounded were treated there; the names of the forty who died are recorded on the north wall of the chantry chapel. That to the east depicts St George, and is in memory of Lieutenant Bernard Wickham MC, the only son of the Rector. He won his Military Cross on the Somme, and was killed in the Third Battle of Ypres in April 1917. He was just 22 years old."

There are also links to a photograph or two including these:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/norfolkodyssey/2369070984/

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and this one of the memorial which lists those soldiers whom died at Ampton:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/norfolkodyssey/2368888382/sizes/o/in/photostream/

Alfred

[Morris]

Suffolk records office site at http://www.suffolk.gov.uk/LeisureAndCulture/LocalHistoryAndHeritage/SuffolkRecordOffice/Friends/Purchases.htmHas a photograph of troops of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders lined up on the railway station at Ingham near Bury St Edmunds in October 1916.

To quote the site

"The photograph comes from an album of over 2,000 photographs taken during the Great War in and around Bury St Edmunds by Walton Burrell. Subjects include troops on Home Defence duties, many of them in camp; damage caused by Zeppelin raids; scenes inside Ampton Hall when it was in use as a military hospital; and, possibly unique, views of trench systems created locally for the testing of prototype tanks. It is not clear how Burrell was given permission to visit, and take photographs in, what were presumably restricted areas."

The collection is document HD997 at Bury Record Office

Purchased by the Friends in 2000

I'm tempted to find time to visit these records.

Alfred

[Morris]

Many years after I posted the above, I have been looking for things relating to this again and find that large numbers of photos of the area taken during the war by WR Burrell, and others, are now available to browse online, eg.
http://www.stedmundsburychronicle.co.uk/galleryww1/galleryww1page_06.htm