johking Posted 11 July , 2006 Share Posted 11 July , 2006 Hi there Visiting Rouen this summer and wondered if the No 2 Red Cross Hospital where my granny nursed was an actual building which may still exist, or was a tented hospital. Does anyone know? Many thanks Jo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue Light Posted 11 July , 2006 Share Posted 11 July , 2006 Jo Not tented - it was in Le grand séminaire, Rue du champ des oiseaux, and there's a picture on this page, if you scroll down to the bottom. Rouen Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johking Posted 11 July , 2006 Author Share Posted 11 July , 2006 Hey Sue - you are a gem indeed. Address and all, how cool. I have some photos which might just be the hospital and grounds, with groups of nurses - also a couple of interiors. Have you ever been and would you recognise it? Would the photos be of any interest if I put them up here? Jo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue Light Posted 11 July , 2006 Share Posted 11 July , 2006 I have some photos which might just be the hospital and grounds, with groups of nurses - also a couple of interiors. Have you ever been and would you recognise it? Would the photos be of any interest if I put them up here? Jo No, I've never been, but would love to see the photos - if it's the same place maybe you'll be able to get some 'Then and Now' shots when you go. Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johking Posted 11 July , 2006 Author Share Posted 11 July , 2006 OK Here's one for starters It might be the back of that Rouen building? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johking Posted 11 July , 2006 Author Share Posted 11 July , 2006 And this is the same place - you can see the swooping stairs from the previous photo in the background Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johking Posted 11 July , 2006 Author Share Posted 11 July , 2006 Another group. Not so clear whether this is the same place or not. My grandmother back right (prompting daughter to ask "Was she a nun?"). Also note unhygenic dog on lap bottom right. More after tea! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparky53 Posted 11 July , 2006 Share Posted 11 July , 2006 My Gt Uncle Richard Ridge was admitted to 12 General Hospital Rouen 24/11/1917 Would it have been on the same site or elsewhere? Cheers Jane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johking Posted 11 July , 2006 Author Share Posted 11 July , 2006 Hi Jane As I understand it, the Red Cross hospitals and the General Hospitals were not the same thing, but Sue will put you right. Here is an interior - a long corridor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johking Posted 11 July , 2006 Author Share Posted 11 July , 2006 And my favourite. I would like to know what the object on the right at the back is... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johking Posted 11 July , 2006 Author Share Posted 11 July , 2006 Couple more: This one has the name of a photographer in Le Tréport on the back, so I wonder if it could be Lady Murray's Hospital at Le Tréport where my granny also worked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johking Posted 11 July , 2006 Author Share Posted 11 July , 2006 And finally, from the same set, the port of Dieppe - perhaps she landed there originally, or went there for nights out (did they have such things?) and that is why she kept the photo? That's them all now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petestarling Posted 11 July , 2006 Share Posted 11 July , 2006 Jo Fantastic photographs, which I have not seen before. I hope to be in Rouen this autumn. My great uncle died in No 6 General Hospital. I have never seen that strange item at the back of the Operating Theatre photograph before. Perhaps it was an early X-Ray plate viewing box. I will look in some of the early medical equipment catalogues we have at work. Pete Starling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue Light Posted 11 July , 2006 Share Posted 11 July , 2006 Jo What wonderful photos - aren't you lucky! I can't see much similarity between the two buildings, but the web site one is only a tiny corner. There seems to be a distinct lack of chimneys, but the modern roof looks as though it's been converted and has windows in it, so maybe it's changed a lot. I think you'll have to make the effort to visit a lot of Rouen gardens to find the right place, but with that great flight of steps, surely someone in the town will recognise it? I don't know the exact building that Lady Murray's [No.10 BRCS] was in, but when it opened it had capacity for forty patients in the main building, and another ten in a hutted building in the grounds, so it looks the right sort of size. Jane No.12 General was a British General Hospital [under auspices of War Office] as opposed to a Red Cross Hospital. When it opened in September 1914 it was on the Race Course at Rouen, and as far as I know it stayed there - so that one would have been in tents and huts, and any existing buildings on the site. Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johking Posted 11 July , 2006 Author Share Posted 11 July , 2006 Thanks Pete - I wondered about x-rays too. If you find out do let us know. Sue - yes, I am very lucky to come from a family of hoarders! I shall head for Rouen (and possible Le Tréport too), armed with my printouts and see if I can find out anything. Will report back in due course. Cheers and thanks again for your help Jo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparky53 Posted 11 July , 2006 Share Posted 11 July , 2006 Jane No.12 General was a British General Hospital [under auspices of War Office] as opposed to a Red Cross Hospital. When it opened in September 1914 it was on the Race Course at Rouen, and as far as I know it stayed there - so that one would have been in tents and huts, and any existing buildings on the site. Sue Thank you for the information. He was shipped back to England after a week & must have convalesed for 7 months before returning to France where he got wonded again after 74 days this time he ended up here:- Admitted 16 (Phila USA) General Hospital LE TREFORT Cheers Jane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johking Posted 11 July , 2006 Author Share Posted 11 July , 2006 Hi Jane That must be Le Tréport, close to Dieppe. See here: http://www.lestweforget.challock.org.uk/page16.html Jo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
royalredcross Posted 12 July , 2006 Share Posted 12 July , 2006 According to the Ministry of Pensions List, No. 12 General Hospital was established at Rouen on 17 September 1914 and remained there until January 1919. It was taken over by the American Army in June 1917. Norman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparky53 Posted 12 July , 2006 Share Posted 12 July , 2006 Norman, Jo and Sue - Thank you for the snippets of info the certainly help colour in Richard's story I have looked at Richard's Burnt Record again which is very hard to read and I believeImisread Trefort for Treport Sorry for hijacking this thread Jane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johking Posted 2 August , 2006 Author Share Posted 2 August , 2006 Well, back from France and I would thoroughly recommend the experience of accosting strangers with old photographs! Everybody was very interested and helpful. First Rouen. We went to the building at Le grand séminaire, 88 Rue du champ des oiseaux, and wandered in off the street as the doors were open and nobody was around. Eventually we met a very nice man who told us that the place had indeed been a séminaire but was now a hostel for the homeless. He looked at my photo and said it was definitely not the same place, no garden, no flight of stairs, etc... However, he then took us up some outdoor steps and we peered over a very high wall and through some very thick trees at the next door building, which has a huge garden. It was also a seminary. It was impossible to see but he was pretty sure it had the arches and stairs on my photo. The building was certainly perched above the garden in the same way as my photo. So off we set again up a very steep hill (on bikes!) but unfortunately it was now after 6pm and the building was all shut up, so while we could get into the front courtyard, there was a large locked gate that prevented us getting round to the back which would have clinched it. The building is now the Centre Théologique Universitaire de Rouen and the address is 45 Route de Neufchatel. I am going to send them a letter with my photo and see if they respond. Here is the building from the front: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johking Posted 2 August , 2006 Author Share Posted 2 August , 2006 And to save you scrolling back to check, here is my original photo cropped to show the building from the back above the large garden. What do you think? Is it the same building? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johking Posted 2 August , 2006 Author Share Posted 2 August , 2006 Drat, that didn't work very well for comparing purposes - gone onto a new page! Anyway, now Le Tréport. We found the building! (that was the timbered one of - as I hoped - Lady Murray's Hospital). We were finally directed to the Golf Hotel and as we approached it was obviously not the same building at all, so our hearts sank, but we went into reception anyway and there on the wall was a picture of "my" building after all. What had happened was that the original had been flattened in WW2 so they had rebuilt the hotel. They were so nice (and the hotel has a gorgeous camping in the lovely grounds btw) and the old mother talked to us all about the old times and insisted on phoning up the local paper and directing them to give us 1988 souvenir issues all about Le Tréport in WW1, more next post. Here is the Golf Hotel now and the building in the photograph in reception: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johking Posted 2 August , 2006 Author Share Posted 2 August , 2006 The 1988 souvenir issues were fascinating. Almost the first page I turned to was about the Golf Hotel. It seems to have been used as a French hospital first and 50 beds were put into it, but there is a photo of the building with a caption on it which says "Le Golf-Hôtel au Parc des Jeux. Pendant la Guerre, Hôpital Anglais no. 10 sous la direction de Lady Murray". So I think that's the clincher. There is some other good stuff about the British nurses and medical personnel there. Loosely translated - A journalist of the time talks about meeting the Red Cross nurses with their grey cloaks and little "bonnet" and their reassuring composure. Also there is quite a lot about the big hospital at the Trianon Hotel at the top of the cliffs which held 500 beds and then spilled out into a tented and wooden hutted encampment. It calls this the "Anglo-Canadien" hospital. It says that after 4 years Le Tréport almost became English and writes about them in glowing terms! "Ah, the 'Sisters'. They marked Le Tréport. Active and devoted women, they gave the best years of their lives for the wounded." The hospital camp was almost like another town and "the British had not lost their customs, soon planting lovely flowers round the wooden huts and many Tréport people remember fondly being invited for a 'cup of tea'!" Armistice day on 11/11/1918 was marked by all sorts of celebration, but the "real spectacle was provided by the British medical personnel who processed down the road from the cliffs. Soldiers, nurses and even the wounded, in an endless procession of lorries and cars all garlanded and decorated and everyone banging pans or tins in an explosion of joy". Apologies for the stilted translation! Finally, here is the Le Tréport military cemetery in a lovely situation on the hill looking towards the Channel. When we were there 5 people were tending it and it is immaculate. Jo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue Light Posted 2 August , 2006 Share Posted 2 August , 2006 Jo It sounds a wonderful trip, and yes, your accosting behaviour was very worthwhile! The brickwork on the two buildings certainly looks the same - would it have been possible that there was a way through from the first seminary into the large garden with steps, and they were connected in some way during the war? Let's hope you get a reply about it. And how lucky to get the 1988 souvenir issue - I'll reply off-list to your email about it. Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johking Posted 3 August , 2006 Author Share Posted 3 August , 2006 ... would it have been possible that there was a way through from the first seminary into the large garden with steps, and they were connected in some way during the war? Let's hope you get a reply about it. Sent off a letter today (in broken French!) so will let you know if and when they reply Jo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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