- 2nd London General Hospital during the Great War -
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2nd London General Hospital
The 2nd London General Hospital, Chelsea was located at St Mark's College at 552 King's Road, Chelsea and the adjoining LCC secondary school, it provided 66 Officer beds and 995 Other Ranks beds. It opened in September 1914, staffed by a Commanding Officer, Registrar, Quartermaster and six Lieutenants of the Royal Army Medical Corps. Consultancy was provided by staff from the London Hospitals, including Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals.St Marks College building had wards on two floors, with female nurses' accommodation on the third floor and the kitchens in the basement. Male medical personnel were housed in a detached building. A section of wall was removed between the college and the school to link the two parts of the hospital.
The school building was converted into wards for surgical cases, the smaller rooms became wards for serious cases or officers with 4 or 5 beds in each. The operating theatre was also installed with in the school. To allow direct access for patients brought in on ambulance trains, a section of wall was demolished to make an entrance onto the platform at Chelsea station. Two hundred additional beds of the 2nd London General Hospital were established at St Thomas' Hospital and a further 40 at the Great Northern Hospital in Holloway, use of a private motor car was donated by a local lady to ease the problem of medical staff traveling between the hospitals.
The first patients troops who had been injured during training in England, but by the end of September 1914, men were arriving from from the Western front. The patients mostly arrived in a terrible condition, their clothes stiff with mud and blood from wounds, which were often septic. The wounds were mainly caused by shrapnel to the upper extremities. By January of 1915 the Hospital had received 22 patients who had been blinded and The War Office decided that hospitals should specialize in their treatment of the wounded and in future all patients with eye injuries would be sent to the 2nd London General Hospital or to the 3rd London General, if no beds were available at the 2nd. Staff from St Dunstan's Hostel for Blinded Soldiers and Sailors, visited daily to help the newly blind to cope with the depression that inevitably accompanied the first moments of a lifetime of blindness. In May 1915 all Territorial General Hospitals were required to establish Neurological Sections, for the treatment of patients with shell shock or neurasthenia.
The 2nd London General Hospital closed in 1919 and the buildings were returned to their original use.
If you can provide any additional information, please add it here.
We are currently building a database of patients treated in this hospital, if you know of anyone who was treated here, please enter their details via this form
Patient Reports.
(This section is under construction)
Those known to have worked or been treated at
2nd London General Hospital
during the Great War 1914-1918.
- Bradbury Ernie.
- Clarke Charles. Pte.
- Maidlow Walter Charles. WO1
- Theobald MC. Reginald. Lt. (d.10th Apr 1918)
All names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed, please Add a Name to this List
Records of 2nd London General Hospital from other sources.
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Want to know more about 2nd London General Hospital?
There are:0 items tagged 2nd London General Hospital available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Great War.
240475Ernie Bradbury Worcestershire Regiment
I have a letter from and photo from Ernie Bradbury sent to my great Aunt's sister, Jessie Reeves, written from the A 7 Ward, Ninian Park, 3rd Western General Hospital Cardiff. Date unknown. I am trying to find out who Ernie Bradbury was.Richard Vines
235229Lt. Reginald Theobald MC 11th Btn., C Coy. Suffolk Regiment (d.10th Apr 1918)
Reginald Theobald was my great uncle, the much loved older brother of my maternal grandmother, Kathleen Hilda Poles nee Theobald.When war broke out he was about to go to Cambridge from Mill Hill School, on a Maths scholarship but never got there. He enlisted as Private 962 in the Royal Fusiliers and served in France and Flanders. He was a great sportsman, representing the school in cricket and hockey and being a good boxer. He also enjoyed joking and having fun with the family. He took a box brownie camera to the war (not allowed!) and I have an album of his photos of the time.
He was awarded his Military Cross in 1917 "For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He did valuable work in cutting wire, and also carried out an important reconnaissance. Later, while mopping up, although badly wounded, he got his party together, regained his company, and went on to the final objective." He apparently held his post for 10 hours whilst wounded. He returned to England to be treated at St Marks College Hospital Chelsea in January 1915, for wounds received at Vimy Ridge. He also had Enteric Fever.
He died aged 23 at the Battle of Lys at Erquinghem sur Lys near Armentieres in France on 10th of April 1918, leaving behind a fiancee and recently widowed mother. The delightful museum in Erquinghem sur Lys has information and photos of him and the small CWG cemetery there at La Rolanderie Farm has his grave.
Marilyn Longden
222122Pte. Charles Clarke 2nd Btn. Kings Royal Rifle Corps
I have been researching my family history for a number of years including my grandfather’s career, Private Charles Clarke (10424) in the 2nd Battalion, Kings Royal Rifle Corps in the Great War.He had enlisted in January 1912 and served until wounded then was discharged in February 1917. The family’s understanding of his discharge was that he was wounded and blinded in a gas attack in France sometime before February 1917 and we believe sent home to England recover at the 2nd London General Hospital. I am unsure if his medical records or presence is listed at that time?
There is a family story that one night during a zeppelin or Gotha raid, presumably in London 1917, and an incendiary landed near him while being taken down to a shelter and the blast bought his sight back. It would be good if we knew where he was treated and how long was he in hospital for and any other information you may have on archive if indeed you have any? Is he for example on any casualty list for treatment at St Marks College or St Thomas's which I believe to be the 2nd London General Hospitals?
Mike Mason
208940WO1 Walter Charles Maidlow Royal Army Medical Corps.
Sergeant Major Walter Charles Maidlow RAMC, was treated for Chronic Bronchitis at the 2nd Eastern General Hospital in Brighton. Exact date is not known but he was serving as a WO1 RAMC in the 2nd London General Chelsea in December 1916 when he contracted the disease. He was discharged from the Army on 31st March 1919. He had served with the RAMC in India between 1914 and 1916, also serving on three Hospital Ships. The Dunvegan, The Varsova and finally the H.S. Neuralia. I am still writing Walter’s story.Ivor Williams
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