SAFFRON WALDEN HISTORICAL JOURNAL

SAFFRON WALDEN HISTORICAL JOURNAL online

The Saffron Walden Historical Journal was launched in 2001 by the Saffron Walden Historical Society and continues to be published twice a year. We are now able to provide access to some of the early articles online freely available on open access. Articles are reproduced by kind permission of the authors and remain the copyright of themselves and the Journal. Their publication on this website does not constitute permission to copy into any other medium, without the express permission of the Editor, who can be contacted through this website. Please note that in most cases the original illustrations are not included but can be seen by consulting the original journals held at Saffron Walden Town Library.
Jacqueline Cooper, Editor; Gordon Ridgewell, Deputy Editor.

Article from Saffron Walden Historical Journal No 7  (2004)

SAFFRON WALDEN V.A.D. HOSPITAL

Saffron Walden V.A.D. Hospital was open and ready for occupation from April 1915, in a large house set amongst imposing grounds and now known as Walden Place. It was the property of W.T. Tuke, and was lent by Mr F. Tuke for the duration of the War.

It had accommodation for 50 patients in 12 wards, each of which comprised four rooms of six beds, two rooms of five beds, three rooms of four beds and two rooms of two beds. (N.B. There is a discrepancy here, as although the number of beds add up, the number of wards does not!). In addition there was a massage room, a dining-room, a smoke room, a small billiard room and two linen rooms. Sanitary arrangements were described as ‘good’.

Its first Commandant was Mrs D. Atkinson whose husband, John was the Medical Officer and Pharmacist. She enrolled in October 1914, and with the nursing and auxiliary staff, was ready to receive the first convoy of 50 wounded and sick men on 16 May 1915. From that date for three years and eleven months, until the last man was discharged, after the Armistice was signed, on 31 March 1919, the hospital was never empty or even temporarily closed.

Some interesting documents survive which paint a vivid picture of staffing and morale, particularly in an extract from a confidential report which praises the success of the establishment in glowing terms:

  Ladies who went in for exams to nurse at hospital – 126
Qualified and worked for under a month – 20
Qualified and worked for over 160 days – 26
Qualified and worked for over 40 days  –  40
Worked from the beginning to the end – 17
Left to work in Military Hospitals - 1

The confidential report states: ‘A good home lent by Mr. F. Tuke… Administrative accommodation is poor. The Staff work under considerable difficulties, which are bravely surmounted…. The Hospital is in good order… wards are crowded, but are happy and comfortable… All operations are done at the General Hospital [London Road, Saffron Walden, now Uttlesford District Council offices]… Perfect harmony exists between trained and un-trained workers.’

Some of the casualty lists have survived and from them it is possible to draw a representative picture of the workings of a typical V.A.D. Hospital. Convoys of men seemed to arrive from May 1915 on a once-monthly basis in numbers ranging from 13 to 46 suffering from a wide range of wounds, injuries and illnesses. The first extant C.2 Casualty Form (Army Form W 3034) is headed:

Nominal Roll of Sick and Wounded of the Expeditionary Forces, Admitted Discharged, Transferred, or Died (each heading to be shewn separately in  the body of the form), during 24 hours up to 12 midnight… .The last report furnished was up to 12 midnight… (Nil reports are not required). Separate forms should be used for (a) Officers, (b) Other ranks, (c) French or Belgian soldiers, (d) Prisoners of War.

At the top has been typed the following: ‘Admitted from H.M.A.T Ville de Leige at Dover to V.A.D. Hospital, Saffron Walden on No. 19 Ambulance Train, September 28^th 1917 and half-way down the form, Admitted from H.M.A.T. Stad Antwerpen. The form is then divided into five columns thus (I have added one actual example – the only Essex Regiment soldier listed):

  Regtl. No. Rank   Name             Corps              Disease or injury
15034       Sgt.   Moran C J (?)  11^th Essex          GSW Abdomen

It is apparent from the existing lists that Saffron Walden Hospital was exclusively for other ranks, but the range contained in the ‘Disease or injury’ column makes interesting reading. Analysing this intake of 28 September 1917, there are a total of 28 British Expeditionary Force (B.E.F) men; three Canadian Expeditionary Force (C.E.F.) and four Australian Imperial Forces (A.I.F.), a total of 35 admissions. The range of disability runs from the expected G.S.W. (Gun Shot Wound), S.W. (Shell Wound) to various parts of the anatomy, through Bleeding piles, Amputated Right Arm, Debility, Gassed, Fractured Tibia, Disease, to Albuminuria and P.U.O.

The second list dated 1 August 1918, and with the typed addition of ‘No. 18 Ambulance Train from Dover’, has the interesting change of who warrants a separate form. It now reads:

Separate forms should be…..(a) Officers and Nurses, (b) Each Colonial Force, (c) Other ranks, (d) French, Belgian, Italian, Russian, Portuguese,  or United States soldiers, (e) Prisoners of War, (f) Native Labour Corps,(g) Weekly Progress Reports; the Dangerous and Serious cases being shewn under distinct headings.

This injunction has not been followed as the same list shows 23 soldiers of the B.E.F., 16 C.E.F., and two A.I.F. on the same form, making a total of 41 admissions. Again the range of diseases and wounds, apart from the ubiquitous G.S.W’s is revealing – Bronchial pneumonia, nervous debility, cystitis, appendicitis, I.C.T. finger, V.D.H., and nephritis.

 
The third C.2 casualties form is dated 24 August 1918 and amended:

‘Nominal Roll of sick and wounded men of the B.E.F. France conveyed from Dover to Saffron Walden on No. 6 Ambulance Train ex. Prin Elisabeth.’ This time the form is sub-divided into three, each section signed by the Royal Army Medical Corps (R.A.M.C.) Officer in Charge, a Captain (signature illegible – typical doctor!). The three sections contain seven B.E.F. men, nine A.I.F., and five C.E.F. Also they are categorised in the ‘Regtl. No.’ (Regimental Number) column as ‘Cots.’ or ‘Strs’, which I take to mean they were brought on cots or stretchers. The range of disability is less varied this time, but does include Gastritis, P.U.O, and Empyema.

The final list surviving is simply headed: ‘Ex. H.S. St. Denis, No. 20 Ambulance Train,’ and is undated. Only page one is here and contains 35 names from the B.E.F. The only ‘new’ illness noted is rheumatism! In addition to these casualty forms some 69 photographs are held in the town’s museum archive. They include pictures of the hospital, the grounds and groups of patients and nurses, some annotated, as well as some drawings, ‘Done by Percy Whitehead of the 5^th. Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment, January 1917, Red Cross Hospital.’

The statistics survive for Saffron Walden V.A.D. Hospital. The number of soldiers received by direct line of ambulance trains between May 1915 and March 1919, was 1,012; from transfer from other hospitals, 89 making a total of 1,101 men. Altogether 603 were discharged cured and fit for duty, 497 were transferred to special hospitals and convalescent camps and one man died.

Thus a small record of what went on in many hundreds of hospitals all over the country, where pain, illness and death were fought against by doctors, nurses and auxiliaries, many of them working in a voluntary capacity.

  © Saffron Walden Historical Society & Stanley Robert Pike 2004

SAFFRON WALDEN HISTORICAL JOURNAL