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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Cholderton Hospital (for women?), near Amesbury


Moonraker

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Very early on in my researches (in the late 1990s), I noted a reference to "a hospital for women at Cholderton (which was probably for servicewomen as it made returns to the hospital at Tidworth Barracks)". Since then, I've been unable to discover anything more about it.

Cholderton is on the Wiltshire-Hampshire border and off the main road between Andover and Amesbury; the Manor House there appears to have been the headquarters of several divisional commanders in the first part of the war. It would also have been the sort of building that would have been used as a hospital or convalescence home.

Googling produces no information (save that the Manor was gutted by fire three years ago). The only reference on the GWF appears to be one I made years ago in the list of hospitals thread.

So any information would be very welcome.

Moonraker

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Hello Moonraker.

Not much of a clue, but the address given in the attached list (search on "Cholderton") indicates Cholderton Lodge (about a mile east of Cholderton House (the recently burned Manor) may have been the location of a medical establishment.

http://www.fairestforce.co.uk/35.html

I think that the Lodge is over the county boundary in Hampshire.

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Cholderton Lodge was owned by Henry C Stephens of ink fame and was a military hospital during WW1 and after, according to this:

http://www.stephenshouseandgardens.com/assets/ugc/docs/InkCompanyTimeline_revised.pdf

The trust at the end refers to the London house but it might be worth contacting them on the off chance they have some more details:

ttp://www.stephenshouseandgardens.com/about/the-stephens-collection

TR

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Thanks, Stoppage and Terry, but sadly the reference to Cholderton in the first link appears to be to the nurse's private address - "Cholderton Lodge,Tilehurst, Reading]", 44 miles away from Cholderton village, and Stephens' home mentioned in the second link as becoming a wartime hospital was Avenue House in Finchley.

Cholderton is sometimes conflated with Park House, actually a hamlet that gave its name to a prewar camping-site and wartime hutments. Park House Camp was about 1.5 miles from Cholderton. It included an Australian

Convalescent Training Depot

and also accommodation for an overflow of VD patients from

Number 1 Australian Dermatological Hospital, Bulford

But I do not think this explains a reference to a hospital for women that made returns to Tidworth Hospital.

There is also the supplementary question of how and where ill and injured servicewomen serving on Salisbury Plain were treated.

Moonraker

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BRRC have two nurses stationed at the hospital. Eva Ball and Dorothy Crouch. The latter's record calls it a military hospital.

TEW

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There were sick/convalescent hospitals for nursing staff and other members of the women's services throughout the country. Women were not usually left sick in their own quarters for more than 48 hours - if they were acutely ill they would be admitted to hospital but if they needed more minor care/rest/convalescence they would be sent to one of these designated women's hospitals. Each unit was attached to a specific military hospital and both medical and nursing staff allocated to work there.

I don't have a list of all the UK hospitals - the most notable of them was the Sick Sisters' Hospital, Vincent Square, London, but they don't appear in War Office lists of military hospitals. As far as I know nurses and women's army would have separate hospitals - they would not be mixed units. I suspect that the one at Cholderton was the allocated hospital for the QMAAC/WAAC, though it could have been for the nursing staff.

Sue

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Thanks, TEW and Sue. TEW's information is a good example of how just a few words can prove very satisfying - and in this case conclusive - when researching a topic. (When I say "conclusive", I mean that he's confirmed there was a hospital at Cholderton House - but inevitably I would like to know more about it.)

Sue's post has made me realise that I don't know much about the distribution of QMAACs and WAACs around the Wiltshire camps. Women appear to have been based at most airfields and I've seen quite a few references to WAACs at Bulford, two miles from Cholderton, which would have been well located as a hospital for them.

Moonraker

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