VAD Hospital at Burgage Manor - Commemorative Event 13th & 14th Ju

[Squadron Leader]

Help needed please....!

We are planning a commemorative event next year at the Manor and are desperately trying to trace any relatives of the VAD staff and patients that were part of the hospital during the years 1915 to 1918.

Certain documentation exists (mainly old private letters) which has enabled us to put a list of 26 patients together - but no staff so far. We also have a few old photos of the patients at the hospital - which unfortunately are too big to upload here. We are however completely lost as to the best way forward in tracking any relatives of these people. I could send patient lists and photos separately if required.

We considered Facebook and getting in touch with Regimental associations but so far have held off making any announcements. I have only just come across this forum so am pleased to open the floor to any discussion as to the best way forward.

Thanks for looking.

Jonathan Wild

[Pighills]

Hello Jonathan and welcome to the forum.

You need to upload your photos to an outside photo hosting site, such as photobucket, then copy and paste the link here.

Have you given any thought to a local newspaper and/or radio article to trace people?

I'm sure others will be along shortly to give more sage advice. Looking forward to the photos!

[Sue Light]

Jonathan

The British Red Cross Society are currently putting their First World War volunteer records online and the search engine seems very good. At present only surnames up to letter 'C' but more going on all the time. If you enter 'Burgage' in the 'Hospital' field there are already a number of names that come up with some connection. So plenty more to come I'm sure to help find the staff members.

BRCS Volunteer Records

Sue

[Squadron Leader]

Thanks Kim and Sue for your very welcome advice. Watch out for photos to appear here.....!

We will be trying all avenues for anyone who might have connections to the place and I think radio and newspapers are a great idea.

Great steer on the BRCS website - Cheers

Jonathan

[Squadron Leader]

A first attempt at a link to some photos and patient records.......hope it works!

http://s1379.photobucket.com/user/jonathan-wild/library/VAD%20Hospital%20Burgage%20Manor

[Susan Tall]

You'll have quite a tricky task trying to contact relatives of the patients at the hospital as they will have come from all parts of the country.

I tried to look a few up on Ancestry for service records but it is difficult with common surnames. I did find that CSM Mounteney had won a DCM with the citation in the London Gazette which also said he was from Fermoy. There is a photo of him on ournottinghamshire.org.uk.

You could try searching the Commonwealth War Graves website in case any of them returned to the front and were killed or died from their wounds. This might give you details of relatives.

Otherwise you'll just have to hope someone recognizes the names on here. You could perhaps start another thread with the names clearly set out and regiments, perhaps in the Soldiers section.

Good luck. Don't despair. I managed to find relatives of a man from Kenilworth by doing a family tree going backwards and then working forwards on several lines and eventually found some relatives in London who had a vague recollection of him.

[Squadron Leader]

Brilliant Susan - that's a real help. I'm just about to put a Facebook page together for the weekend so hopefully that might generate a bit of interest?!

With regard to the 'allocation' of patients to hospitals any ideas how that was organised? Was it first come first served?

Also I'd like to find how the hospitals were 'branded' - are there any original signs for any other hospitals around the country. If you know where I could find any imagery or literature then that would be great!

Thanks again

Jonathan

[Susan Tall]

Jonathan

As to the 'allocation' of patients have a read of Sue Light's article 'Which Hospital?' on her splendid Scarlet Finders website www.scarletfinders.co.uk

You can find a list of all the auxiliary hospitals on the British Red Cross website www.redcross.org.uk and The Long, Long Trail (link at the top of this page) will tell you about military hospitals.

This should get you off to a good start on the different 'brands' of hospital. I've been helping on a project about Red Cross Hospitals in Warwickshire and it took me some time to work out the difference between the military hospitals, general hospitals, Red Cross and VAD hospitals.

You've probably looked in your local archives but I found at Warwick County Record Office several photo albums kept by the nurses at different VAD hospitals. These would often include the name of patients and some had letters the men sent when they returned home. There was also a very useful book issued by the Red Cross in 1916 - a sort of annual report for the county with photos and details of each hospital - even included all the names of the staff. They probably did them for each county so you might be lucky to track one down for Nottinghamshire.

Don't forget the National Trust property at Dunham Massey, Cheshire. This had been used as a Red Cross Hospital and they have recreated it. It's closed at the moment but will be open again next February.

Good luck. Hope you get some results with your Facebook page.

Sue

[Squadron Leader]

Thanks a million Sue - you are a massive help!!

Jonathan

[Squadron Leader]

Just to let everyone know we've started a FACEBOOK page for our event planned for 13th and 14th June this year.

Search for 'MEMORIES OF A HOUSE AT WAR' and it should bring you to the VAD Hospital Burgage Manor site.

Please feel free to post anything of interest on there!!

Many thanks

Jonathan

[catfishmo]

We are hoping to make a trip to France and England this summer and might very well be there on this weekend. Since VADs are sort of 'my thing' I would love to come!

Have you considered making a website? You can make one for free and pretty easily on Wix.com. I don't get on Facebook that much so a website with things like map (for those of us not too up to snuff on England's geography), transportation, lodging, itinerary, etc would be most welcomed.

What a fantastic idea!

~Ginger