Eastbourne Central Military Hospital

[ericwebb]

My researches into a young infantry officer who died of influenza, complicating wounds, shortly before the Armistice have lead me to roll-of-honour.com [wonderful!], according to which his name appears on the Hospital's war memorial, removed to a museum in Eastbourne when the Hospital itself was demolished a few years back. [interestingly - but I am sure not uniquely - to my certain knowledge it also appears on at least 3 other memorials up and down the land.]

Beyond that, on-line searches reveal nothing more about the Hospital. There are just over 100 names listed. As it was seemingly a convalescent hospital, presumably therefore with a fairly low death rate, it must have been a fair size and/or open over a large part of the War, but it cannot have been huge. Can anyone add anything, or point me in a potentially fruitful direction? When founded/opened, where, when closed, would all be of interest. Photos would be an enormous bonus.

Thankyou all,

Eric Webb

[BJanman]

Hi

There is a book called 'Eastbourne's Great War 1914-1918' by R A Elliston. I do not know if it is out of print but the copyright is R A Elliston 1999. The ISBN is 1. 85770 146. 1

There is a chapter in it called - The RAMC and The Army Hospitals and another one on - The Red Cross Auxiliary Hospitals. There is also a photograph of the Staff at the Central Military Hosptial 1918 with the hospital in the background.

Hope that helps

Barbara

[Chris_Baker]

There were several hospitals and convalescent camps in Eastbourne. One I have come across several times in my studies was at De Walden Court, a large house now sadly apparently demolished and built over.

[chrisharley9]

Nice to see my research mentioned - I know little about the hospital other than it was St Mary's hospital demolished in 1994. At least someone had the foresight to move the memorial

Chris

[ericwebb]

Thankyou all so much. Thankyou Barbara in particular for pointing me towards the book. It's no longer in print but AbeBooks had three. They now have two :-).

Eric

[Stanley_C_Jenkins]

It is possible that the hospital in question was the so-called "isolation hospital" that is shown on old maps of the Crumbles area, to the east of Eastbourne. Much of this shingly beach area appears to have been used for military purposes - an aerodrome, firing range and various batteries being established on the Crumbles at various times.

[Liz in Eastbourne]

On 18/05/2008 at 19:36, Chris_Baker said:

There were several hospitals and convalescent camps in Eastbourne. One I have come across several times in my studies was at De Walden Court, a large house now sadly apparently demolished and built over.

 

I've just happened upon this thread of more than a decade ago and only want to say that De Walden Court was not demolished - it was just converted into flats, and is still there.

The late Bob Elliston's book on Eastbourne in WW1  is still the only one as far as I know to cover the hospitals.  The Central Military Hospital was the former workhouse in the Old Town, which after the war became St Mary's hospital, as stated by Chris Harley above.  If anyone's in Eastbourne on a Saturday, the Heritage Centre in Carlisle Road, just inland from the seafront, is running a good little exhibition on 'Eastbourne in Sickness and in Health' with a timeline on the various hospitals.

 

Liz

[Guest]

The "Isolation hospital" on the Crumbles (1895 to 1940) in an old photo appears to have been part of the old Langney Fort buildings, built as part of the coastal defenses against Napoleon.

There was also a West Fort which succumbed to the sea around 1849 as did part of the Langney Fort, I would think around the late 1800's.

There are photo's showing the collapsed Langney Fort around 1912.

I have found this Webb page to be very informative as I am passionate Eastbourne's history and would be interested to learn if my assumption are correct.

John