UK Hospitals 1917

[Sue Light]

I now have a complete list of all military hospitals active in the autumn of 1917 on my web site. They are extracted from a database, and I have considerably more information relating to number of beds, specialty etc., but hopefully this simple list of just under 2,500 hospitals will prove useful to someone.

[Ceinwen]

Sue, just found your post whilst having a 'wander' around the forum.

I've been researching a soldier who died in St Albans VAD Hospital, Bricket House, St Albans and was wondering if you had any further info on this hospital. I understand from someone else that it probably reverted back to a residential property after the war.

Any info you have would be gratefully received,

Thanks

Ceinwen

[grantowi]

Sue,

In the later part of 1917, part of the Chiseldon Camp (Nr Swindom, Wiltshire) was converted into a VD hospital with its own guardroom and barracks for a detactment of military police, to handle "the naughty boys".

It was seperated from the main camp by the railwayline and could accomadate just over 1,000 men.

Also the Victoria Hospital in Okus rd, Swindon was used to treat serious cases from the Chiseldon camp

And a bit earlier, at the start of the War, the swimming baths in Faringdon rd, Swindon were turned into a hospital - the pools were drained and boarded over - with 100 beds. It lasted until mid 1915 when it closed and the equipment transfered up to Chiseldon.

The Red Cross Hospital that is in your list for Stratton St Margaret, Swindon was based in the former Workhouse

Hth

Grant

[Sue Light]

I've been researching a soldier who died in St Albans VAD Hospital, Bricket House, St Albans and was wondering if you had any further info on this hospital. I understand from someone else that it probably reverted back to a residential property after the war.

Ceinwen

I think that all the information I have has already been included in the other thread about the same hospital a couple of years ago. I think the only likely way to go is to check with local archives/libraries in St. Albans, who might have some information on it. There were many hundreds of this type of private house used, and the majority no longer exist.

Sue

[Sue Light]

In the later part of 1917, part of the Chiseldon Camp (Nr Swindom, Wiltshire) was converted into a VD hospital with its own guardroom and barracks for a detactment of military police, to handle "the naughty boys".

It was seperated from the main camp by the railwayline and could accomadate just over 1,000 men.

Also the Victoria Hospital in Okus rd, Swindon was used to treat serious cases from the Chiseldon camp

And a bit earlier, at the start of the War, the swimming baths in Faringdon rd, Swindon were turned into a hospital - the pools were drained and boarded over - with 100 beds. It lasted until mid 1915 when it closed and the equipment transfered up to Chiseldon.

The Red Cross Hospital that is in your list for Stratton St Margaret, Swindon was based in the former Workhouse

Thanks Grant - I think I'm getting there! I've recently found the Farringdon Street Baths in the Red Cross list as closed, so that will be added in due course. And Chiseldon Camp 'Special Division' is said to have had 800 OR beds at the end of 1917, with 24 for officers - a very select officers' ward there! Amazing how many VD beds there were across the UK. I'm trying to find a good selection of images of the oddities among the hospitals, so an interior of Farringdon Street would be rather a good one if I can ever find one - do you think this might be the outside of that building?

Swimming baths Swindon

Sue

[grantowi]

Hi Sue,

That the correct photo of the GWR swimming baths, built by the railway company for its workers, it had two pools, steam rooms and private baths (all still there except the private baths)

Heres a photo of the interior as a hospital. This is the big pool (boarded over) and the lattice work around the walls is the viewing gallery

[Sue Light]

Thanks Grant - it looks a fascinating place for a hospital. Is there any chance of a larger version of it so I can see the detail?

Regards --- Sue

[grantowi]

Sue,

If you PM me an email addy, I'll try to dig some more up

Grant

[mpjbrennan]

Hi Sue,

Excellent list - many thanks for publishing it. I know of a few more hospitals in Northumberland and Durham ( see http://www.donmouth.co.uk/local_history/VAD/VAD_hospitals.html ) but perhaps they were no longer in operation by Autumn 1917. I note that you have Whinney House listed under Gateshead and Shotley Bridge. The first entry is correct; the second should read Benfieldside House. I am also interested in the entry for Bishop Auckland. I had no knowledge of this one, and I would be interested in any further details you may have. Finally, were you aware of Thirsk Town Hall having been used as an auxiliary hospital? (pics below)

kind regards

Patrick

[Sue Light]

Thanks for that Patrick - trying to cross reference all these hospitals makes my head spin! I will check through the list of Northumberland and Durham Hospitals. The War Office list doesn't name them in the same way, so not immediately clear if they are the same or different, e.g. Whitely Bay VAD Hospital on my list, I believe is 7th Northumberland VA Hospital on the Northumberland and Durham site, so I will have to go through them one by one and see what's there and what's missing.

I do have an ommission on the page relating to Thirsk, as there should be two Red Cross Hospitals there, and I only have one - no idea why the second has gone missing. The actual entry from the WO list is below, and I imagine that the second (larger) hospital is the one that was in the Town Hall?

There is definitely some confusion over the Shotley Bridge/Gateshead entries for Whinney House, as the original document does give that name for both towns. So can I assume that there was no Whinney House in Shotley Bridge and should replace that with Benfieldside House, or is there any possibility that they were both there at some time during the war?

The two entries for Bishops Auckland are also below, the smaller of the two in part of Local Government Board premises, so probably either Poor Law Infirmary or Isolation Hospital.

Sue

[Sue Light]

Just to add that the numbers on the left hand side of the page refer to the central hospital to which these auxiliary hospitals were affiliated, and from where they received their patients.

25 was East Leeds War Hospital, Harehills Road

31 was Northumberland War Hospital, Newcastle-on-Tyne

41 was Sunderland War Hospital

1 was 1st Northern General Hospital (T.F.) Newcastle-on-Tyne

Sue

[mpjbrennan]

Hi Sue,

Whinney House was (and is) in Gateshead. It currently houses the Gateshead Academy for Torah Studies. I can only conclude that someone in the the War Office made a clerical error. Benfieldside House in Shotley Bridge was the 27th Durham V.A. Hospital.

Whitley Bay Hospital, located in Oxford House, Oxford Street, was indeed the 7th Northumberland V.A. hospital.

My interest in the additional Bishop Auckland Hospital was that although the numbering of the Durham Hospitals goes up to 28, I have never been able to find a reference to number 26. I wonder if this was it?

If you need any further info regarding Northumberland and Durham please don't hesitate to ask.

kind regards

Patrick

[Sue Light]

Thanks again Patrick - I've made quite a few additions to the pages today, and have just corrected the Whinney House/Benfieldside entry, though you might need to refresh the page before it appears as it's only just been done. I'll try and work my way through the Northumberland and Durham units and match them with the War Office version over the next few days. I notice that you have all the RRC/ARRC awards on your site - I now have a complete database of the RRC Register, and if you ever want the page images from the Register with their names on let me know and I'll send them - not startling, but another little snippet.

Regards --- Sue

[grantowi]

Sue,

Email sent of Swindon GWR swimming pool as Hospital

Grant

[mpjbrennan]

Hi Sue,

I believe I have uncovered the reason for the confusion over the Whinney House VAD hospital in Gateshead. There was another Whinny House (sic) in Shotley Bridge, where the Gateshead Guardians built a TB sanatorium in 1906. In 1919 the premised were leased to the Government for accommodating military casualties. The full story can be read at http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Gateshead/ (about 2/3 of the way down the page)

The few pics I have seen of the Whinney House (1st Durham V.A.) Hospital are of the building in Gateshead town itself.

Patrick

[Sue Light]

Right, I'll re-instate Whinn(e)y House in Shotley Bridge. The Workhouse site is so good, with great images, and surely one of the most in-depth and informative of sites, and amazing that comes from the pen of just one person, Peter Higginbotham.

Sue

[clive_hughes]

Sue,

I have been researching an RNVR officer who died in November 1918, I thought at the Bangor Military Hospital in North Wales.

His death certificate (received today) however just states he died at Garth Road, Bangor, which has some large houses but no hospital buildings. I thought the Military Hospital was at the other end of the town, at Glanadda (Caernarfon Road). Does your list give a specific location for the Bodlondeb, Military, and Penrhyn Cottage Hospitals?

Thanks for the link to your site by the way - very interesting indeed.

Clive

[Sue Light]

I have been researching an RNVR officer who died in November 1918, I thought at the Bangor Military Hospital in North Wales.

His death certificate (received today) however just states he died at Garth Road, Bangor, which has some large houses but no hospital buildings. I thought the Military Hospital was at the other end of the town, at Glanadda (Caernarfon Road). Does your list give a specific location for the Bodlondeb, Military, and Penrhyn Cottage Hospitals?

It doesn't seem to be any of them Clive I believe Bodlondeb was at Glasinfryn, so a good way out, and although I don't have an address for Penrhyn Cottage Hospital, the web suggests that it was in Farrar Road, so half-way between Glanadda and Garth Road. I wonder if it was an annexe to the Military Hospital used for expansion during the war?

Regards --- Sue

[clive_hughes]

Interesting reply, Sue

Bangor Military Hospital at Glanadda became St.Davids Hospital after WW1, and yours truly was born there (quite a while later). It was demolished in the name of progress a few years ago.

Farrar Road at first glance sounds an unlikely venue for the Penrhyn Cottage Hospital: in my youth it had the British Hotel at one end and the town football stadium half way down, plus ordinary artisan dwellings and a Rechabite Hall! However, my brother who is more of a local historian than I begged me to remember that the upper and slightly less frequented part of the road where it adjoins Holyhead Road had some more substantial dwellings. The Penrhyn family who dominated the area had more influence down near the sea shore and harbour, where the main A5 runs east towards Llandegai.

Bodlondeb is indeed the name of a substantial house, but not near Glasinfryn (though there might have been two of the same name). It is nearer the Menai Straits below the ridge to the west of the town. Glasinfryn however was the site of what in my time was Minffordd Hospital, long closed, but it looked old enough to have been operating in WW1 or earlier.

My brother couldn't think of a WW1 hospital in Garth Road, though the area was a "posh" residential part of town and could easily have provided a house large enough for say an officers' hospital/convalescent building. He thought that one such house (now demolished) did house a medical facility of some sort in WW2.

It doesn't get me closer to wondering where this officer died, but at the end of the exercise I know a bit more than I did yesterday! Thanks Sue.

Clive

[Sue Light]

Clive

I must be wrong about Glasinfryn - I have a note on the database that someone else passed on, but it's probably incorrect. I take it that the certificate doesn't give a number in Garth Road, but what was his cause of death, and was there anyone else present? I don't think I'd taken on board before that he was an officer. According to the War Office list there were no officer beds in Bangor. I don't know any background, but is it possible that he was a visitor at the time, and not actually a patient locally?

Sue

Edit: In fact, going through the list, as of October 1917, there were no officer beds anywhere in North Wales. So if he was a patient in Bangor, a house of some sort may well have been taken for officers during 1918.

[clive_hughes]

Sue,

You're right in that (maddeningly) only the road is given, not the exact address.

The RNVR officer was based over in Holyhead, 21 miles away and which had its own hospitals as you're aware. According to his death cert. he had been ill with influenza 5 days and pneumonia 4 days. No doctor's details are appended to the diagnosis of cause of death. Informant at the time of registration was a W.E.B.Minchin of Vancouver BC, Canada, present at the death. I am relying on a third-party transcript for all of this.

A private house might well have been used if there were no officer beds in the locality. His Admiralty, NZ, and probate papers as well as his gravestone give no other location than "Bangor" for the death; and the Military Hospital may well be no more than supposition on my part when taking rough notes many years ago!

Clive

[Sue Light]

I think that if he was in any sort of hospital, either a doctor or nurse would be entered as 'present at the death' even if he had family/friends around him at the time. It does sound as though he might have died in a private house of some sort - possibly a boarding house? It reminds me of some of the flu victims whose place of death was given as 'High Street' or similar because that's actually where they died - in the street. But after being ill for five days presumably he'd found a bed somewhere.

Sue

[clive_hughes]

Sue,

just found this on the local civic site re. Bodlondeb:

http://www.bangorcivicsociety.org.uk/pages/listedindex/1%20(62).htm

The location (if you want to see it via mapping sites) is LL57 2HX which places it right on the A5 Holyhead Road but outside & to the west of the town, close to the end of the Menai suspension bridge as can be seen by street-view. The deceased officer was buried not far away, just beyond the other end of the bridge!

Clive

Rats! Tried the link & it didn't work. Go to Bangor Civic Society website, use the little "Jump to" feature in top right corner of home page, select Listed Building Index and choose Bodlondeb...

Edited 30 September , 2011 by LST_164

[Sue Light]

Thanks Clive, those are nice images. And can you tell me where Carnarvon and Anglesey Infirmary/Dispensary was? Later Carnarvon and Anglesey General Hospital. I believe it closed in 1984.

Sue

[archangel9]

Hi Sue,

I recently came across this hospital in Dublin which doesn't seem to be on your list -

Leopardstown Park Hospital - established in 1917 as a hospital and home, for the care and treatment of soldiers who have been disabled or injured in the British Armed Forces.

http://www.lph.ie/history.php

John