No 2 Red Cross Hospital Rouen UPDATE

[Redradial]

Superb photos of the hospital. My grandfather too passed through the 2nd RCH in Rouen in 1918.

The black object is certainly intriguing, and the examination bed looks far too frail to take the weight of a reasonable sized man.

Hope you have a reply from them soon.

Red

[johking]

Hope you have a reply from them soon.

Red

Hi Red

Glad you liked the photos.

No reply from France at all, sadly.

Jo

[johking]

A reply! Here is the French, the gist being that my photos are indeed of the building at 45 Route de Neufchatel, so it must have been used as the hospital my grandmother worked in:

"Veuillez excuser notre retard à répondre à votre si gentille lettre de juillet et surtout de n'avoir pu être là pour comparer le bâtiment avec la photo. Oui, c'est exactement celui-là. Le bâtiment fut autrefois, je pense, archevéché et grand séminaire mais je suis trop nouvelle à la bibliothèque pour en bien connaître l'histoire. Les salles du rez de chaussée sont actuellement les salles de cours du Centre Théologique Universitaire. Aux étages, correspondant au grand couloir de la photos sont des chambres de prêtres, archiviste etc. Le grand escalier est bien là mais en très mauvais état et nous manquons des fonds nécessaires à sa restauration. La bibliothèque se voit à peine sur la photo, elle longe la rue qui grimpe très fort avant d'entrer par la grande grille. Si vous revenez en Normandie prévenez-nous nous ferons tout notre possible pour vous acceuillir."

Hooray!

Jo

[jamesperry]

Jo,

It must have been fun tracking all that down. I took an interest in your quest as my great great uncle George E Howe 265865 1st Herts Bn is buried at the St Sever cemetry extention at Rouen. Apparently most buried there were from the hospitals at Rouen although I've no idea which one my uncle was in.

James

[johking]

It was indeed great fun James. Even my husband, who is family-history-phobic, was very taken with the quest.

Jo

[Paul Reed]

Hi Jo - thanks to Sue we have linked in some photos I have in my collection here:

 

 

[Antonia G]

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!

Better late than never I suppose, but hope this is of interest. Jo, the photograph you showed on this post definitely has Lady Murray in the middle of the front row, with Major Newman on her right; on her left is Matron (never named, just 'Matron'!) and the officer sitting at far left was a Captain Kirkwood (RAMC). My great-aunt was a VAD at No 10 British Red Cross in Le Treport and although her photograph album from that time doesn't include mention of your grandmother I do know the 'unhygenic dog' was called Markey! (he appears in several photos - I wondered, as they were partly housed in huts and tents, whether a good ratter was regarded as an essential item!). The picture isn't quite clear enough for me to identify the other nurses with any certainty.

[Antonia G]

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 -

....

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!

....

Jo

Forgive me for returning to this topic again, but I've just found this photo - it had been tucked in behind another one, but I think we can take it this is of the very celebrations in Le Treport as translated by Jo above. At least one chap on top of the vehicles banging a pan, as advertised!

Antonia

[jldron]

<!--quoteo(post=492703:date=Aug 2 2006, 11:37 AM:name=johking)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (johking @ Aug 2 2006, 11:37 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=492703"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->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 -

....

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!

....

Jo<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Forgive me for returning to this topic again, but I've just found this photo - it had been tucked in behind another one, but I think we can take it this is of the very celebrations in Le Treport as translated by Jo above. At least one chap on top of the vehicles banging a pan, as advertised!

Antonia

Dear Antonia,

This photo in Le Treport is very interesting !

I am writing a book about the hospitals at Le Treport. Would you send me a file of good quality?

Soory for my poor english.

Best regards

jldron@free.fr

[Antonia G]

I'll be happy to send you the file, as soon as my computer at home is fixed! Hopefully I will also be able to scan and post some more photos from my great-aunt's album in the near future.

Best wishes,

Antonia

[johking]

Antonia

Sorry to be so late to reply - my subscription to this thread had stopped working and I didn't know anyone had added to it. Thank you so much for identifying my photo as being at Le Treport and for identifying some of the people in it, especially the dog! Here is a larger version - you might be able to spot some other faces in there.

Jo

[Simon_Fielding]

johking et al!

In case you don't get my PM

I've just found this thread of great photographs of the 2nd RCH 'then and now' that you posted some years ago - I'm interested as I'm researching a VAD nurse Gwynedd Llewellyn on a local war memorial who died of 'flu in November '18 and is buried at St Sever- if it's not too presumptious, I wonder if we could use a couple of the images? We aim to produce a non-profit book / website on the town's casualties, and have no pictures of Gwynedd other than her grave. Hope you feel able to say yes! No problem if not.

Best, Simon

[SurreyYeomanry]

I had a grandfather and great grandfather posted here at the Red Cross Hospital no 2 in Rouen. I uploaded the pictures they had of their time there to Flickr a number of years ago, which included a large ‘staff’ photo. I suspect many people’s relatives are included but sadly we don’t have any list of names etc. Hopefully this will let me post a link to the album or one of the images here.

https://www.flickr.com/gp/snailtrail/44246tgEPh