Lady Sykes Hospital Dunkirk

[TrevorHH]

Hi

 

I am doing some research on the Lady Sykes Hospital which I believe was originally in Hull and later moved to Dunkirk before moving back to the UK later in the war. Does anyone have any further information on this hospital please. I am researching a surgeon Major Reginald C Tweedy RAMC who worked there in 1915-16. Many thanks  Trevor

[seaJane]

Nothing in the Hospital Records Database I'm afraid. I know someone I can ask, however.

[TrevorHH]

SeaJane

 

Thank you, would be interested if you can find something.. I have some newspaper cuttings referring to it. Dr Tweedy was there Dec 1914 - Jan 1915 according to these. Trying to find some more background info. I believe it was created under the auspices of the French Red Cross. Any references to it or Dr Tweedy's involvement, gratefully received. Eg how long was it in existence? The address in Dunkirk I have for it (from a letter published in a newspaper)  is .Villa Belle Plage, Malo Les Bains Dunkirk.

 

 

Thank you

Kind Regards

Trevor

[seaJane]

Trevor,

 

Friend says: "Try the Brynmor Jones Library at the University of Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire Archives Service, both of which hold Sykes family papers."

 

Hope that helps. Google the institution names with 'contact' and you should find where to ask.

 

sJ

[TrevorHH]

Thank you for the pointers. I will contact the organistions you mention.

Kind regards

Trevor

[MaureenE]

Trevor, you may already have this, but it may be of general interest

This is an extract from a letter sent by Dr R. Carlyon Tweedy to the Leamington Spa Courier and Warwickshire Standard, published on 4 December 1914. He describes the situation at Lady Sykes’ hospital near Dunkirk in the early months of the war.

 

WITH THE FRENCH RED CROSS

 

Lady Sykes’s hospital

Villa Belle Plage

Malo-les-Bains

Dunkirk

November 27th

 The Hospital to which I have the honour of belonging has been organised by Lady (Mark) Sykes for work under the French Red Cross Society (Union des Femmes de France). it works entirely for the French and is absolutely independent of any outside assistance (English or French)…

 We have about 40 beds in a large house on the seafront at Malo-les-Bains (outside Dunkirk), and our methods are as follows: - Each night, at any time between 9pm and 2am, one or more trains of wounded arrive at Dunkirk Station – as many as 1,500 and more in a night sometimes. The worst cases are taken out and laid on beds in one of the goods sheds – there are 200 beds prepared. The rest go on by train or ship to one of the Base Hospitals. Some of the cases are dressed in the sheds and sent on. The remainder are distributed among the local hospitals. We send one or more motor ambulances and bring back as many cases as we have vacancies for.

 Then the work begins! Practically all the wounds we get are badly septic. Amputations are terribly common, and one learns what gangrene, tetanus, and secondary haemorrhage mean. Many wounds are three, four and even more days old before we get them. Of course our mortality is sadly high; but the men themselves are splendid…

 R. CARLYON TWEEDY, M.D.

 Taken from the link http://www.mylearning.org/hospitals-and-nursing-in-the-first-world-war/p-4715/ Hospitals and Nursing in the First World War  my learning.org.

Cheers

Maureen

[royalredcross]

There is only a short reference to this hospital in Binyon's work:

Another hospital of forty beds was established at Malo-les-Bains in the villa Belle Plage by another English Lady in November; and this was closed altogether in May 1915, again owing to the bombardment of Dunkirk.

 

NGG

[MaureenE]

There is also a paragraph on the link http://www.ww1-yorkshires.org.uk/html-files/soldiers-photos/sykes-mark.htm which is about Lady Sykes' husband Lt Colonel Sir Mark

Sykes:

 

Although Sir Mark did not go to France with the 5th Battalion, he had been on the Western Front in September 1914 on a fact-finding tour primarily aimed at seeing how his Waggoners were faring. On his return to England he and Lady Sykes (his wife), having already paid for the Metropole Hotel in Hull to be converted into a military hospital, endeavoured to improve the medical arrangements at the battle-front. In October 1914 Lady Sykes, accompanied by several nuns, took charge of a 150 bed hospital in a chateau just 25 miles from the front. A month later she set up a 35 bed hospital in a villa in Dunkirk, and in a joint effort with the French Red Cross she brought over 5 doctors, 25 nurses, and scores of orderlies and drivers from the East Riding to her hospital at Villa Belle Plage. Lady Sykes continued her work in France until the summer of 1915 when army medical arrangements began absorbing such private ventures

Cheers

Maureen

[TrevorHH]

Dear All

Thank you for the additional information. Most useful. Yes, I already had  copy of Dr Tweedy's letter. In fact there were two. The second one was written when he returned home in Jan 1915 describing his experiences. His obituary states he returned to France in Summer 1916 (for a short time) but not where, hence my query regarding when the hospital closed.

 

Again according to his obituary (from the Royal Leamington Spa Courier 20/7/1917) he was at two hospitals in the UK (before his death) which were the 2nd Birmingham War Hospital and the Kenilworth Red Cross Hospital. My research started when his grand daughter showed me the attached framed certificate. Sadly which hospital of the three connected with Dr Tweedy it refers to is not known as the name of the hospital is not written on the back of the frame. Has anyone seen these certificates before?

 

Many thanks again

Kind regards

Trevor

[TrevorHH]

The Back of the frame.

Trevor

[ianshuter]

re Temp Major Reginald Carlyon Tweedy here is our page which contains extra information to that above above and shows that he was a Surgeon in France. He became an Army Officer in 1916 according to the London Gazette (link on page) in order to serve at the 2nd Birmingham War Hospital.

He was given the British War & Victory Medal's because of his service with the Red Cross in France (see medal roll)

He died of Tuberculosis, Pleurisy and pneumonia (death cert on his page)

https://www.swfhs.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3214:maj-rc-tweedy&catid=16:the-men-who-fell-in-ww1

Edited 5 March by ianshuter
updated