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Remembered Today:

Military Subsidiary Hospital - Burnham


nhclark

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Pte. Claude Watsham, 2nd/2nd London Regiment, wounded in the chest at the Battle of Amiens, 8th August 1918.

After treatment in the field, repatriated to England on the Carisbrooke Castle, 14th August 1918.

Several subsequent medical documents (which are hard to read) are clearly stamped "Military Subsidiary Hospital, Burnham."

Can anyone tell me where this hospital might have been?

Thank you,

Noel

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Noel

Can't help you from my list of hospitals but from my 1969 Post Office book of 'Postal Addresses I find: -

BURNHAM, Bucks

BURNHAM GREEN - Welwyn, Herts

BURNHAM MARKET - King's Lynn, Norfolk

BURNHAM-ON-CROUCH - Essex

BURNHAN-ON-SEA - Somerset

BURNHAM THORPE - King's Lynn, Norfolk

Don't know if that is any help, I assume that they existed in 1918 so any other information that you may have on him might pinpoint a location.

Cheers, Tony

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Noel

Can't help you from my list of hospitals but from my 1969 Post Office book of 'Postal Addresses I find: -

BURNHAM, Bucks

BURNHAM GREEN - Welwyn, Herts

BURNHAM MARKET - King's Lynn, Norfolk

BURNHAM-ON-CROUCH - Essex

BURNHAN-ON-SEA - Somerset

BURNHAM THORPE - King's Lynn, Norfolk

Don't know if that is any help, I assume that they existed in 1918 so any other information that you may have on him might pinpoint a location.

Cheers, Tony

Tony,

Thanks for your reply. Claude came from Wivenhoe, Essex, so my first thought was Burnham-on-Crouch, but I have not found anything to suggest that there was a military hospital there.

Trawling through all the pages again, I confirm that he left France on the Carisbrooke Castle on 14th August 1918. I've just found another document that is headed "Bristol Hospital" and has various other stamps and annotations (incuding "Surgical", "4nd S.G." and "T.F. 6065" - I think that the last annotation is actually the "case number), but which shows him as being admitted on 15th August 1918 from "S. Convoy" (which perhaps is "Shipping Convoy"?) and discharged on 30th September 1918 after "47 days treatment."

His "Medical Case Sheet" is the one stamped "Subsidiary Hospital Burnham." In the left hand column, which is headed "Station and Date" is written "Burnham", and then there are various entries - date of wounding, and then "2nd September Present condition etc. etc." and then a few more entries until the last one dated "30-9-18."

There's another fragment of a document showing an admission date of 2nd September and a discharge of 30th September, and another showing a discharge date of 2nd September and "Destination Burnham." Later on there's a paper showing that he rejoined his unit on 30th September (but he did not return to France).

Putting this all together I have established the following timetable:

8th August - wounded Battle of Amiens

14th August - repatriated England on Carisbrooke Castle

15th August - admitted Bristol Hospital for surgery

2nd September - discharged surgery unit to Burnham Subsidiary Hospital

30th September - discharged from Bristol Hospital altogether back to unit.

Can we deduce that Burnham was a subsiduary of Bristol Hospital? But just exactly where was it? One would be attracted to Burnham, Somerset, except that as far as I can tell, the hospital there was not built until 1922.

Any Bristol Hospital experts out there?

Noel

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Hello Noel

2nd Southern General Hosptial, Bristol had an affiliated hospital - Burnham: Hart House Aux, 102 O/Rs.

It is possible that I have further information on it but I need to look it up and its a bit late now.

Someone else may recognise it now anyway and have some info.

Barbara

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Hello Noel

2nd Southern General Hosptial, Bristol had an affiliated hospital - Burnham: Hart House Aux, 102 O/Rs.

It is possible that I have further information on it but I need to look it up and its a bit late now.

Someone else may recognise it now anyway and have some info.

Barbara

Barbara, many thanks. Brilliant stuff.

Ahh, now I can see another entry on one page that says "2nd. S. G. H. Bristol."

If you can find out anything more about it in due course I shall be most grateful.

Thank you again.

Noel

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Noel

Barbara beat me to it with 2nd Southern General Hospital but has given me an addition to my list "Burnham - Hart House Auxiliary Hospital" (thanks Barbara). 2nd S.G.H. subsequently became Bristol Royal Infirmary.

I don't know Bristol so I imagine that Burnham could have been a small village that did not justify a mention in the Post office listing or could even have disappeared by 1969.

Cheers, Tony

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Noel

Barbara beat me to it with 2nd Southern General Hospital but has given me an addition to my list "Burnham - Hart House Auxiliary Hospital" (thanks Barbara). 2nd S.G.H. subsequently became Bristol Royal Infirmary.

I don't know Bristol so I imagine that Burnham could have been a small village that did not justify a mention in the Post office listing or could even have disappeared by 1969.

Cheers, Tony

Tony, Barbara - I've just stumbled acorss the following web-site, which may be of general interest - well, I'm sure that it will!: http://www.juroch.demon.co.uk/UKhospitals.htm

If you use "Ctrl-F" to search for "Burnham" the second hit is for Burnham, Somerset, and shows two auxiliaries there - Hart House and The Gables.

Many thanks to both of you.

Noel

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Hi Noel

I've had a look through the info I've got on the Southern General Hospitals but it mainly the 1st and 3rd. Typical really, I was hoping I might have a picture for you.

Thanks for the link above, I need to check it against the lists I have but it looks as if there may be a few more for me to add. :)

Barbara

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I am sure that Bristol Hospital has been correctly identified as the Military Subsidiary Hospital, Burnham in this case.

It may be of interest to people browsing this thread later for injured military ancestors that there was a cottage hospital in New Road, Burnham on Crouch, Essex that was used as a subsidiary hospital for the duration of WW1. Locally Burnham on Crouch is usually referred to as Burnham with the full named used only to differentiate it from the many other Burnham's in the UK.

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I am sure that Bristol Hospital has been correctly identified as the Military Subsidiary Hospital, Burnham in this case.

It may be of interest to people browsing this thread later for injured military ancestors that there was a cottage hospital in New Road, Burnham on Crouch, Essex that was used as a subsidiary hospital for the duration of WW1. Locally Burnham on Crouch is usually referred to as Burnham with the full named used only to differentiate it from the many other Burnham's in the UK.

Yes, I've just checked and it's listed on the web-site that I gave before - http://www.juroch.demon.co.uk/UKhospitals.htm

But in Claude's case, as you say, I'm sure that we have correctly identifed Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset.

I think that I'll save the contents that web-site to disk before it disappears! It could be fairly handy in the future.

Noel

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