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Remembered Today:

Grandmother cared for grandfather in a Bristol Hospital, but which?


clive_t

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Hi

This is such a mish-mash of unanswered questions that I'm not entirely sure which forum to put it in! Apologies to Mods if this is in the wrong place, but:

My paternal grandfather, Frederick Ernest George Tucker was apparently nursed back to health by a nurse (Mary Ann O'Brien) who he then subsequently married, and is of course my grandmother.

I know for a fact he was in the Somerset Light Infantry, although I am not sure which Battalion - I have his MIC as well as a scanned image of his discharge papers. He was discharged in Jan 1916, having arrived in France on 1st June 1915. Stories suggest he was caught up in a gas attack at some stage. I have read somewhere about gas being used by both sides, but the effectiveness was a bit unpredictable reliant as it was on wind direction and speed. Anyway, as a result of that he was repatriated to a hospital in Bristol. Up until now I have always presumed it was Bishop's Knoll hospital, but it seems that this was primarily for Australian soldiers? I have tried searching for MICs for Mary - I have some with that name, but I am not convinced any of them pertain to her. I have been told that she was an auxilliary nurse, but have no actual evidence of that. If anyone can point me at where to look for information about Mary's nursing career.

Thanks in advance

Clive

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Hi Clive,

Assuming it's 15980 Frederick Tucker, his medal card says that he was 1st Battalion.

The SWB roll shows that he enlisted 9/11/1914 and was discharged due to sickness 18/1/1916.

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Thanks Mr IPT - the dates and the service number you mention certainly tally with the information I have. I would ask, though, does that SWB roll show any other information about the nature of the sickness? All I have on his discharge papers is "No longer physically fit for war service"

But thank you very much for your reply

Regards

Clive

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  • 3 weeks later...

Bishop's Knoll was intended primarily for Australians, but accepted other casualties, at least until mid/late 1916. However, it was a relatively small operation (100 beds) compared to the Bristol Royal Infirmary (technically 2nd Southern General Hospital, of which Bishop's Knoll was an auxiliary) and the Beaufort.

2SGH was originally the new wing of the BRI (opened 1912) plus Southmead and shortly after, Bishop’s Knoll. To this were added over time the various Red Cross Hospitals which handled convalescent wounded: Cleve Hill, Handel Cossham and Almondsbury (1914); Foye House, Kingsweston, Homeopathic (1915); Bruce Cole, Eye Hospital, Bristol General, Queen Victoria and Red Maids School (1916); Ashton Court (1917).

The Beaufort War Hospital was under separate command, and itself accumulated a number of auxiliary hospitals, as far afield as Longleat and Weston. In June 1917 2SGH and auxiliaries had 5,789 beds (88,966 admissions over the course of the war) and the Beaufort and auxiliaries 2,477 beds (29,434 admissions).

Ok, but not much help! As far as I know no hospital records that may be of help exist. In the absence of his service record, all I can suggest is that the local papers might well have featured the story of a hospital romance of this sort, and might be worth checking. It might also be worth searching historical nursing journals for mention of Miss O'Brien.

Charles

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  • 2 years later...

Dear Clive_t,

We are doing some research on the Red Maids Hospital and were wondering if you managed to discover which hospital your grandfather and grandmother were at. If it is the Red Maids Hospital we would be very interested in any more information you can give us about this.

Lily and Florrie

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