stately homes used as hospitals in ww2

The training centre was Roger Pratts masterpiece, Coleshill in Berkshire. On the declaration of a state of emergency, all hospitals, even some mental ones, were to discharge those patients no longer in urgent need of hospital treatment as well as moving patients from larger general hospitals in danger areas to more distant hospitals. Household items such as flour, sugar and tea were all rationed, the Mail Online reports. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. Pictured are troops outside Wentworth Woodhouse in South Yorkshire. Teresa bravely served as a nurse for the Red Cross on the Italian front line before immigrating to Britain, before marrying Lord Berdwick at the end of the war. For any other comments, please Contact Us. She then marshalled everyone to fight the fire, organising a chain to convey buckets of water from the river. Click to At Tottenham Park in Wiltshire, where the grounds were used as an ammunition dump by the Americans, an accidental explosion blew every pane of glass out of the house and the glorious conservatory. Thanks to its fame from the 1991 novel Regeneration by Pat Barker, and the subsequent film of that novel, Craiglockhart Hospital in Edinburgh is probably the most famous of the Scottish wartime requisitioned hospitals. The sods drank the contents of the wine cellar. One night the Caleys chocolate factory, not far from the hospital, was hit by incendiary bombs and the smell of burnt chocolate lingered in the air for days after. It was during the First and Second World Wars that many country houses, from Leeds Castle in Kent, then owned by Lady Baillie, to Wrest Park in Bedfordshire (recently used as a location in Belgravia ), that were requisitioned to By the 1980s, it was being used as a SWAT team training property and a place where the homeless escaped the elements. Creative Commons. Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire, once owned by Victorian Prime Minister Lord Melbourne, became home to the London Maternity Hospital (famous Brocket Babies include director Mike Leigh). Churchills Special Operations Executive, which trained secret agents, took over more than 70 country houses and Highland deer stalking lodges, and was jokingly Over eighty years since the first children were evacuated from cities across Britain, and as part of our history of childhood month here at The Archive, in this special blog we will take a look at how country houses were requisitioned by schools and their evacuated children. Back then it was all private and charity hospitals, even for acute care, with the armed forces having their own facilities, but governments, led first of all by Herbert Asquith and then David Lloyd George in WWI, and Neville Chamberlain followed by Winston Churchill in WWII, took robust steps to deal with the lack of hospitals they nationalised all manner of stately homes and country estates, turning them into auxiliary hospitals. Hopefully that will be the case, as it will mean this damned virus is finally being overcome, but questions persist. The mortuary porter, Gidney, would put bets on for the patients and always organised a staff sweep stake for the Derby and the Grand National I once won five shillings, a great occasion! It was meant to be torn down, but in 1984, local residents voted to keep it standing because of its historical nature. We shall fight them from our country houses may lack the heroic ring of Winston Churchill, but it was arguably how we won the war. Throughout the Second World War, Highclere Castle was home to children evacuated from London. Its owner, Sir John Stirling-Maxwell, had inherited the house with its stunning art collection, and he would go on to play an important part in the war effort. However, the girls from Queen Margarets sprang into action and helped to save many valuable objects in the fire, using a pony and trap, and blankets and sheets. 05/08/2014. By far the largest numbers of houses requisitioned were taken over by the military, and used after Dunkirk for training and housing the growing army being readied for the invasion. One of the surgeons insisted on his gloves being dropped in boiling water before being worn. In the older wards, there were open fires, which were lit in cold weather, the porters brought up buckets of coal and the maids raked out the ashes and kept the fire made up. At Coleshill House in Wiltshire the owners dogs were so traumatised by the explosions let off by trainee saboteurs that the pooches had to be given aspirin and brandy on a regular basis. In a later attack, the main block of the hospital was hit, knocking out the X-ray department and main operating theatres and cutting off the heating and gas supplies. Eisenhower was at Southwick House, where the restored War Map set for H-Hour on D-Day is still in the drawing room. Every Tuesday, we re-visit an article from Country Lifes architecture archives. Lady Stamfords daughter, Lady Jane Grey trained as a nurse in order the help the wounded soldiers who came to the Hall to recover. Not a stately home, of course, but two pavilions of the home of Nottinghamshire Cricket Club, built in 1841, were transformed club into wartime hospitals. Lady Maxwells brother, Aymer, was killed by a shell burst in the first few weeks of the war while out ensuring his men were sheltering behind well-fortified positions. With 2018 being the centenary of the end of the First World War, The Royal British Legion has launched the Thank You movement to both commemorate and express their appreciation for all of those who served and sacrificed for the war effort. In an eerie portent of modern virus-hit Britain, a superb badge or medallion in heavy silver was struck for the staff who worked at this Auxiliary Hospital they didnt have to buy their own, it should be said. Cookie Policy The Glory Days showcases the entire history of the ship, including its military occupation. If you dont have time for the tour, at least make sure to stop in at the gift shopthe walls are lined with memorabilia from the hotels time as a field hospital, including chairs, photos and clothing. By Sebastian Shakespeare for the Daily Mail, Published: 18:13 EDT, 22 March 2018 | Updated: 18:49 EDT, 22 March 2018, OUR UNINVITED GUESTS: THE SECRET LIVES OF BRITAIN'S COUNTRY HOUSES 1939-45. The views expressed are theirs and unless specifically stated are not Please report any comments that break our rules. This story has been placed in the following categories. Other auxiliary hospitals in Scotland included Drumlanrig Castle, the Dumfriesshire home of the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch and Queensberry, and their main residence at Bowhill. Using contemporary accounts in the British Newspaper Archive, we will delve into the difficulties and the benefits that schools faced once removed to these grand surrounds. Instead of Care in the Community there was the family network unattached aunts and cousins as well as closer relatives who could move in and take care of the patient and the household while necessary. As John Martin Robinson puts it in his absorbing volume The Country House at War: Nearly every house which was used to accommodate the military has some horror story to retail of staircases chopped up for firewood, subsidiary wings gutted, the Van Dycks used as dartboards. At Hylands House in Essex and Marston in Somerset, there are stories of US troops driving jeeps up the staircases. The on call staff went off to get some sleep before going on duty in the morning. Inspired by her work at Howick, Lady Sybil later sailed to Petrograd in Russia and set up a further hospital there. For a brief time in their history, these resorts served as hospitals, training grounds and This site is part of Newsquest's audited local newspaper network. Surgical gloves were sterilises in linen envelopes with little gauze balls of talc to make the gloves easier to pull on. Lord Sherborne had just finished refurbishing Hinton Ampner in Hampshire when he received a telegram informing him that the Portsmouth Day School for Girls would be arriving in 48 hours. Open-cast mining at Wentworth Woodhouse |The Sphere| 20 April 1946, However, according to the Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, in 1950 Wentworth Woodhouse had found a new life after years of military occupation. Under a new government education scheme, the mansion had become Englands first publicly owned college of physical training for girls., Its first students are described as quickly settling down in the high-domed rooms with their great open fireplaces and delicately worked ceiling and wall decorations. Common rooms were set up the magnificent State dining room and in the Van Dyck room, with its ornamental ceiling and cut-glass chandelier.. 2023 Findmypast Newspaper Archive Limited - Proudly presented by Findmypast in partnership with the British Library, A Findmypast company - also visit: Penrhyn Castle was chosen by Kenneth Clark for the National Gallery its doors were the only ones large enough to admit Van Dycks vast equestrian portrait of Charles I, although the pictures were later immured in slate quarries near Blaenau Ffestiniog. 3 Figures for all Commonwealth nations include those still missing in 1946, some of whom may be presumed dead. WebThis is the reason why the majority of the wounded were send to hospitals many miles from their homes. During an earlier raids one of the Nurses Homes was destroyed and part of the top storey of the hospital was hit. Kids can participate, too, with a spy-themed historical tour of the hotel and a trivia game. The conversation will go back to what it should be about people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Today we look at a piece we ran last year which explained how some of the greatest houses in the country were converted into military hospitals during the First World War. The medal is the work of Hazel Ruthven Armour, a Scottish sculptor, and depicts a voluntary aid detachment nurse tending to a wounded soldier. During the First World War, Lady Maxwell became president of the British Red Cross. The first guests paid $20 per night (one of the most expensive rooms in the country at the time) and enjoyed entertainment in one of the largest and most opulent ballrooms in Florida. The exterior largely retains its Elizabethan appearance, but most of the interiors date from remodellings before 1800. Longleat became home to the Royal School for Daughters of Officers of the Army. She ordered medicines and other requirements from the dispensary and folded hand towels into pleats and tucked the fans behind the taps on the washbasins for the doctors use only. The most magnificent misfit in this story is Edvard Benes. It was a massive project with a star designer helming the renovationVictorian theatre designer J.P. Briggs. Perhaps none are as alluring as the instructors at Arisaig House, HQ of the secret Special Operations Executive in Scotland. Harlaxton Hall was the headquarters of the 1st Airborne Division of the RAF, the USAAF was at Wycombe Abbey, Disraelis Hughenden Place was used by RAF signals and Blickling became an officers mess for RAF Oulton. In the event that you consider anything on this page to be in breach of the site's House Rules, please click here. The village hall at Durris in Aberdeenshire became an auxiliary hospital, while the parish house at Cullen also served as a hospital. Set in the scenic Pollok Country Park on the south side of Glasgow, which also houses the Burrell Collection, it was home to the Maxwell family for six centuries. Every room was occupied, for 25 cents per night. Howick Hall provided a great atmosphere for those recovering from injuries. The Ministry of Health had attempted to requisition it during this time, and high maintenance costs meant that it had become something of a white elephant. The idea was that auxiliary hospitals would be used mostly for convalescence, and thats what happened at Pollok. Indeed, there is a sense that new life was being breathed into the old house, that some kind of poignant transaction between past and present was taking place: Soon the old panelled corridors will grow accustomed to the liveliness of students dressed in grey shorts, and scarlet cloaks; the empty library shelves will hold technical volumes; and the old ballroom will echo to the music of a modern waltz. The home was reportedly offered to the the Ministry of Health as a maternity hospital some time ago, and on the outbreak of war it was converted within twelve hours the furniture stored in two of the rooms, the pictures removed and the wall spaces labelled, the library boarded up and provision made for fifty beds.. Elizabethan Wanborough Manor on the Hogs Back near Guildford was one of the houses where trainee agents were plied with drink to see if they would talk when light-headed. We were fortunate in Norwich that pone of our orthopaedic surgeons, Mr McKee, was a pioneer in this field and by the time I left was having great success with metal pins for fractured neck of femur and plates and screws for thighs, but hip replacements were still in the future. Lady Carnarvon brought comfort and luxury to her wounded house guests, offering delicious food, wine and brandy to the soldiers. Does anybody know if there is a list anywhere showing which British stately homes have been used during the last 114 years by the military during any wars? GenesReunited, The State Apartments, a painting by Edward J Halliday, shows evacuated schoolgirls at Chatsworth |, Open-cast mining at Wentworth Woodhouse |, Requisitioning of Country Houses in the Second World War Hospitals, War Supply Depots and More, Who Do You Think You Are? He served as assistant controller of timber for the Commission during the war years. The extraordinary thing about the Stirling-Maxwells is that, like so many Scottish families both wealthy and poor, they had to soldier on after suffering great grief. Hundreds of women acted as nurses at Wrest Park in those four years, led by the owners sister Nan Herbert, who volunteered as matron. More than 100,000 recruits were trained at the hotel by the time its military occupation ended. Even higher in the social ranks than the Duke and Duchess was the late queen mother. The Italianate mansion, also known as Cliveden House, crowns an outlying ridge of the Chiltern Hills close to the South Bucks villages of Burnham and Taplow. Summers examines in detail the rich cast of characters that populated these houses. The number refers to the project number assigned to the ship when it first began to be built as one of the newest ocean liners for Cunard Line in 1930. After treatment for shock and preliminary assessment and clean up in Casualty, they came to the ward before going to theatre. Everybody was involved in the cleaning and tidying, Sister included. The stables were also converted into a ward to house more soldiers. The owners of Melford Hall in Suffolk returned to it after the war and discovered the wine cellar had been raided. Despite his parents lack of interest in medicine, Oliver, the eldest son of Nathaniel and Daisy Lloyd who was only 3 when the war began, grew up to be a doctor. He devised the F-S knife the Spitfire of the knife world which enabled silent assassination by a thrust to the carotid artery in the neck. And after the war, the interrelation between schools and stately homes continued to reap positive effects, both for those who found their education within their walls, and for the houses themselves. The comments below have not been moderated. A select number of country houses served the nations key commanders. It had been routine to wheel patients beds out on to the balconies during the day, as a precaution against TB and cross- infection, but once the air raids had started, this had been abandoned. When penicillin was introduced, quite late in the war for civilian hospitals, it as only given under strict supervision to patients in a desperate state. Newsquest Media Group Ltd, 1st Floor, Chartist Tower, Upper Dock Street, Newport, Wales, NP20 1DW Registered in England & Wales | 01676637 |. It was thought to be the first stately home to be converted into an auxiliary hospital. In 1914, as soon as they realised the war wasnt going to be over by Christmas, the government drew up an ambitious plan to cater for the casualties that began as a trickle from Belgium and France, and then became a tsunami from the various theatres of war the Western and Eastern Fronts, Gallipoli, the Middle East, the Balkans and the high seas, especially after the Battle of Jutland. It was in a 1940s issue of The Tatler, as it was then, where it was reported that the large rooms of Goodwood house were subdivided to make hospital wards, with a surgical ward being housed in the great ballroom and patients beds could even be found in the Grade I listed houses veranda. There was a brief break after all this activity for a drink and a snack in the dining room. Jennifer Billock is an award-winning writer, bestselling author, and editor. It was the countrys first health retreat. Norwich was quite heavily bombed, it was busy industrial area and also surrounded by airfields. That location served the hotel well during wartime, too. These hotels, once occupied by the military during World War II, now offer guests a chance to learn about that chapter in the propertys historyeither through artifacts on display or educational tours. Wrest Park in Bedfordshire acted as a hospital between 1914-1918, after it was donated by its owner Auberon Herbert. Another instructor was Gavin Maxwell, who went on to write Ring Of Bright Water. It was administered by injection and only by the house surgeons to begin with, then the Sisters were allowed to give it, and careful records were kept, to be sent to some central agency to evaluate its potential. The U.S. Navy decided to lease the property to use as a rest and recreation center for sailors. When the noise of bombs and anti-aircraft fire had died away and the All Clear had sounded, it was the signal for cups of tea all round and helping to make everyone comfortable and settled down again. This page has been archived and is no longer updated. To mark 100 years since the end of the First World War, the Royal British Legion drew our attention back to those grand family homes which opened their doors to wounded soldiers from all over the world, as well as their own boys at the front. contact the editor here. The hotel reopened at the end of 1944, but hit a long decline into abandonment. But, National Trust properties, like Beningbrough Hall in the north and Ham House down south, could serve as ideal facilities. How I yearned for more glimpses out of the window of Mr Benes playing croquet. Disaster struck when a fire broke out in the east side of the castle, destroying some priceless paintings. Palladian Foots Cray in Kent became HMS Worcester, a naval training establishment. The 5,000-acre (2,000 ha) estate is in Highclere in Hampshire, England, about 5 miles (8 km) south of Newbury, Berkshire, and 9.5 miles (15 km) north of Andover, Hampshire.It is the country seat Dozens of houses were so roughly treated that the owners never returned. Even before war began, large country houses were seen as a safe haven for the nations art treasures. Another unusual juxtaposition was to see Blenheim Palace, in Oxfordshire the birthplace of Winston Churchill play host to a school, in this case the displaced pupils of Malvern College in Worcestershire. 1 2 3 4 Next Crepello LE 8 Jun 2014 #21 fairmaidofperth said: Does my late father-in-law's family home near Vichy count? It was used by both the Air Force and the United States Maritime Service, to train recruits and also provide the military culinary staff a place to live. In July 1942, guests took a break from the luxury of the hotel as the U.S. Defense Department moved in. Among those treated were the war poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. Its owner, Sir Certain parts of this website require Javascript to work. On September 16, 1916, two soldiers discovered a fire in a room under the castle roof. One of the details found was even 1940s toilet paper. Both came under the expert guidance of Dr W H Rivers, who became close friends with Sassoon in particular. inaccuracy or intrusion, then please Did we have to build these Nightingales at such expense? Manual Transport The establishment of auxiliary hospitals, as they were widely known, in requisitioned properties in both world wars was the response from the then UK government to the actual and anticipated casualties. The former palace was transformed into a state of the art medical facility in under two weeks with the newest X-ray technology of the time of the time being installed and two operating theatres purpose built. Malvern Colleges stay at Blenheim Palace was not to be a long one, as in September 1940 the stately home was taken over by M15. Upon the outbreak of war in September 1939, boys public school Malvern College was evacuated to Blenheim Palace, the ancestral home of the Dukes of Marlborough and the birthplace of Winston Churchill. those of the BBC. I was working in the theatre then as a runner or dirty nurse and we were all promptly moved into the theatre in the Maternity block where there was water but no heating supply.

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