EBME Forums Forums Free discussion Out of Hours WWII Military Hospitals

One of the joys of the nomadic lifestyle (?) is coming across places of interest that might have otherwise passed unnoticed. Imagine my delight, then, in discovering that the Camping and Caravanning Club site at Wolverley just outside of Kidderminster was the location of the U.S. 52nd General Hospital during the Second World War. Imagine, too, a hospital that treated 21,000 patients, including around 10,000 battle casualties, but that lost only four to war-inflicted wounds. Imagine also nurses working 16-hour shifts, and 40-patient wards being looked after by just three members of staff. Of course, the real question is, how did they manage without a biomed tech? (perhaps they did have one, who knows)?

I have also come across the site of another U.S. Military Hospital farther south in Worcestershire, near the idyllic village of Hanley Swan, just outside Malvern (but haven't found any web-link as yet). I believe that Frenchay, Stoke Mandeville and Musgrove Park (Taunton) hospitals all have a WWII heritage also (and that North Midd. has a proud history of service during the First World War).

Anybody know of any more (there must be dozens)?

Lincoln St George's Hospital ( now closed and site built on ) was another WWII hospital - sorry I can't remember off hand if it was USAF or RAF!

Canadian Hospital at Cliveden is one.
There used to be a sign at one of the entrance gateways indicating what it used to be up until fairly recently! It's some time since I've been past there so it may now have gone.

Harefield Hospital was used by ANZAC forces during both WW's.
There is a cemetary as you approach Harefield village where those who did not survive are buried which I've visited.

Some others include;

St.Bart's Hospital in London where many wounded were treated during the First World War also The Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel.
Both sites have plaques commemorating the fact.

And finally, a list of WW1 UK hospital sites.

Yes Geoff, Musgrove Park's 'old building' is a WWII build. The corridors were designed to allow American jeeps to manouver around them.
Sadly though, or perhaps not, the buildings are to be replaced by our brand spanking new surgical build in the next few years.

Cheers
Mark

Thanks for those brilliant links, Gee Bee. Anything about the locations of U.S. WWII Military Hospitals in Britain?

Yes, Mark, I recall the old building with affection. I believe that the "spider block" layout remains an efficient architecture, and I doubt that the quality and longevity of the "new build" will be anything like the original. It amazes me how solid those WWII buildings were (are), especially when we remember the urgency with which they were constructed. Gypsum board and galvanized studding versus bricks and mortar? No contest! Please do what you can to keep a bit of the original building(s). How about enlarging your department by moving in?

Here's one I was alerted to by my good buddy Tony Dowman.

Luckily, there seems to be a fair amount of information on the wonderful worldwide web.

And, in passing, it seems that things are not so good for military medical facilities in the UK these days, as this short clip shows. Makes you wonder what's going on, doesn't it?

I am currently working at Royal Hospital Haslar. The MoD has just handed over management to Portsmouth Health Trust (PHT). It has traditionaly been a Naval Hospital for some 254 years (i'm sure some of the staff still work here). It has great history (the term 'up the creek without a paddle' derives from Naval patients being pushed up Haslar creek from their warships to the hospital, where they eventually die or get fixed to fight another day!!)and I feel this history will be lost by the NHS world.

No more UK based military hospitals left! Armed forces personnel now just join the queue along with the other tax dodgers and illegal immigrants. Although SPECIALIST MILITARY! wings are cropping up in various hospitals near you soon!!

Napier University (Tech College really) took over what was Craiglochart Hospital in Edinburgh. This was used during WW1 as a hospital for shell shocked officers (presumably it was easier and cheaper to shoot the poor erks!). Amongst the people treated there were the war poets: Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, see http://www.napier.ac.uk/warpoets/.

In the eighties, when stationed at RAF Cosford the hospital there still existed. It was used during the war and then immediately after for the treatment of returning POWs from the Far East.
Spectacularly the wooden creosoted huts were torched one day to clear the site. Don't know what that did for our carbon footprint!

We hear you, Simon. But this is Modern Britain, I'm afraid, Mate!

Thanks for that, Papa Doc. Meanwhile here's another link for those not yet versed in the lore of our War Poets.

The Princess of Wales Hospital in Ely is ex-military. I spent many a happy day wandering around the wards with my trusty screwdriver when it was an RAF Hospital. I believe it beacame an NHS Hospital in 1992 (Not certain as that was when and why I left the forces - I could see the writing was on the door for military Hospitals) Not sure if it was open during WWII though.

There was another place we used to visit called RAF Nocton Hall. This was definately WWII, with pictures on the walls of patients smoking their fags around a coal filled heater in the centre of the ward. Those were the days