| > > > 1st Southern
General Hospital |
| The
1st Southern General Hospital in Birmingham was just one of many
large war hospitals that were developed to treat the flood of
casualties coming back to Blighty from the fighting fronts and
the training centres in the United Kingdom. The details shown
here illustrate how these hospitals were established and massively
expanded. In the case of the establishments that grew up in the
Birmingham area, many still operate as medical facilities today. |
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| Formation:
As part of the organisation of medical facilities in the home
countries when the Territorial Force came into being, it was
decided in 1909 to employ the new
buildings at the University of Birmingham as
a 520-bed hospital, should war mobilisation ever be needed. Plans
for the equipping and supply of the hospital were made -
and carried out to the letter in August 1914, some 5 years after
the original planning was done. The first convoy of 120 casualties
arrived on September 1st 1914. |
University buildings |
 |
The
main hall of the University of Birmingham, in the Selly Oak
suburb of the city. This building formed the centrepiece
of the 1st Southern General Hospital during the war. |
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| Expansion:
by Spring 1915, more University buildings had been taken over,
providing up to 1,000 beds. Summer 1916 saw
a further expansion at "HQ", adding another 570 beds.
At the peak, the hospital could cater for 130 officers and 2357
other ranks. |
| In May
1915, the Poor Law Infirmary on Dudley Road was
also taken over. By the Somme battle in mid 1916, it had been
expanded to 1,560 beds. In May 1917
the Dudley Road facility was separated as a hospital in its
own right, adopting the title 2/1st Southern General
Hospital. At this time, there were in total 8827 beds
in the city. |
Dudley
Road |
 |
The
facade of the 2/1st Southern General on Dudley Road. |
|
| Wordsley
Infirmary was taken over as the Stourbridge annexe
in the summer of 1915; it had
510 beds. |
| October
1915 saw the establishment of two more annexes, in school
buildings at Selly Park and King's
Heath suburbs. It was soon discovered that there was
confusion between the Selly Oak location of the University,
and nearby Selly Park. The latter was renamed as the Stirchley
annexe. Each of these had 225 beds, with tented accomodation
in the gardens for a further 320 each. |
| Main
hospital supplies depots were established in Birmingham and Worcester. |
Writing
home |
 |
"1st
Southern General Hospital, Stourbridge, Worcestershire.
September
30th 1915.
Dear
Mother, I have arrived at the Military Hospital at
Stourbridge, Worcestershire. I have been wounded
in the knee and am going on quite well, it is not
very serious so do not be alarmed. I have got to
England alright this time. Hoping to hear from you
soon. From your loving son Will.
StourbridgeTown
VAD."
Will
Townsend had been wounded at Bellewaarde near Ypres
five days before while taking part in an attack made
by his battalion, the 5th (Service) Battalion, KSLI.
His younger brother Gabriel had been killed in the
same action. |
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| Auxiliary
Hospitals attached to the 1st Southern General Hospital |
| In
late 1914, steps were taken to establish auxiliary hospitals
in large private houses in the Birmingham area. They were
under the general organisation of the 1st Southern General
Hospital, which became known as "HQ". |
| "Uffculme",
the former home of Richard Cadbury, was initially used to
house Belgian refugees from September 1914, but in November
1916 it was taken over by the Friends Ambulance Unit, and
developed into a 200 bed hospital. In 1918 it became the
regional limb fitting centre, for soldiers domiviled in the
counties of Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Northamptonshire,
Leicestershire and Oxfordshire. |
| "Moor
Green Hall Hospital" was established in November
1914, with 63 beds. It treated 1500 casualties during
the war. |
| "Hill
Crest", Richmond Hill Road, Edgbaston, was
also established in November 1914,
and was the first to be operated by the Voluntary Aid Detachment,
staffed by a St John's Ambulance unit. It had only 25 beds,
but soon moved to "Harborne Hall" and
expanded to 126 beds. |
| "The
Norlands Hospital" was established by the
British Red Cross in April 1915,
with 60 beds. It treated 1900 casualties. |
| "Lordswood
Hospital", Harborne, was established by the
VAD in May 1915,
with 30 beds that eventually expanded to 70. It treated
2152 casualties. |
| "Highbury" in
Moseley was established by the VAD, in the former home of
the Chamberlain family (Joseph and Austen Chamberlain) in
May 1915 , with 140 beds. Highbury was funded by, among
others, the employees of the Kynochs works in Witton. Highbury
was later converted into a neurological section. Photo
of Highbury today. |
| "Moor
Green House" was established as an annexe
to Highbury, and became designated the 4th Auxiliary Hospital,
Moseley. In May 1917, it was reserved for the treatment
of officers. |
| "The
Beeches Red Cross Auxiliary Hospital" was
established in December 1915,
with 46 beds. It treated 982 casualties, and from 1918
specialised in facial injuries. |
| "Allerton" on
Lichfield Road, Four Oaks, was established in January
1916 , with 54 beds. "The Hollies" on
Four Oaks Road opened as an annexe in October
1917, adding a further 32 beds. |
| "Stoneleigh",
Victoria Road, Stechford, was established as a VAD hospital
in July 1916, with 62 beds.
It treated 1029 casualties. |
| "Stapylton
House", St Peter's Road, Harborne, opened
as a 35-bed annexe to Harborne Hall in May
1917. Funds were provided by, among others, employees
of W&T Avery, the weighscale manufacturers. |
| "Farcroft" was
established as a VAD hospital in Handsworth in early
1917, with 74 beds. It needed much refurbishment,
with funds provided by the Birmingham Brewers Association. |
| "Mayfield",
Harborne Road, Edgbaston, was established in early
1918. |
| A Monyhull Section
was used as a neurological unit for up to 18 casualties. |
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| 1st
and 2nd Birmingham War Hospitals |
| The
urgent need for more suitable hospital accommodation forced the
authorities to consider many alternatives. The Army Council specified
the need for an extra 50,000 beds across the country, in established
buildings with appropriate facilities, located near to a railway
station. In consequence, the Asylum War Hospital Scheme was launched
in January 1915. |
Formation:
The asylums in the United Kingdom were sorted into 9 Groups.
One asylum in each group would be cleared of its current patients,
who would be transferred into the others in the Group. The
emptied building would then be converted into a military hospital. |
| The Birmingham
War Hospitals: The Birmingham City Asylum at Rubery
Hill was chosen from the Midlands region's Group 4
of asylums, together with its annexe at Hollymoor.
These became the 1st and 2nd Birmingham War Hospitals, with
1100 and 930 beds respectively. In all, 1334 patients were
relocated to other asylums, including some very violent cases.
The first military casualties were received on 5 July 1915
(Hollymoor) and 30 July 1915 (Rubery). 1st BWH closed on 31
March 1919, having treated 20,000 casualties. 2nd BWH closed
on 1 March 1920, having treated 16,800 men. In the later stages
of the war, Hollymoor had been converted into a specialist
Orthopaedic Hospital. |
| Civilian Hospitals
turned over for war service |
| Both
the General Hospital, providing 100 beds, and Queen's
Hospital, which treated a total of 1600 casualties,
were occasionally used for military medical work. An
outpatients department for the Southern General Hospital
was established in the Children's Hospital on Steelhouse
Lane in 1915. |
| Staffing
the Hospitals |
| On
mobilisation, there was a total of 92 staff belonging to the Territorial
Force Nursing Service in the city. In May 1915, nurses and
auxiliaries of the Voluntary Aid Detachments joined the staffs
of the hospitals. By 1918 there were 578 nursing staff. |
| The
transportation of casualties |
The
initial convoys for the University arrived at the city's Moor
Street station, but a depot was soon
arranged at nearby Selly Oak Goods yard. The
convoys for Dudley Road hospital were unloaded at Soho
and Winson Green GWR goods station, where a special
platform was erected for the purpose. Casualities arrived at Stourbridge
Town station for the Wordsley facility.
For
the first two years of war, virtually all transport of wounded
was undertaken by volunteers: it was only in 1916 that
this was largely taken over by the VAD Motor Transport. The
volunteers and VAD not only moved casualties from the train
convoys to the hospitals, but they carried nurses to the stations,
stores to the depots, etc. A night-time car service also ensured
that no man returning on leave had a wearying, time-wasting
wait until morning: he was taken home by car.
In
addition, "Rest Stations" were established by volunteers
at Snow Hill and New Street stations,
where men could obtain a hot drink and a sandwich. This service
catered for 362,000 men from 2,372 trains
over the years of war. |
Eyewitness:
Mona Neale |
"I think it must have been about
1915 when wounded soldiers were first
brought to Soho and Winson Green station, just across
the gully from the
Talbot. The carriages were shunted onto the siding which
led to a goods
yard, where ambulances were waiting to take the wounded
to Dudley Road
Hospital via Handsworth New Road and Winson Green Road.
I remember seeing the soldiers, many with bandaged heads
and arms, and [my
brother] Wilf and I would wave to them from the top of
our garden wall.
Sometimes my father would take me with him to distribute
cigarettes, tobacco
and chocolate that the customers of the Talbot Inn had
donated for the
wounded troops. Mother was not too happy about my going
with him because I
would get so upset at seeing these poor souls, some of
them legless, but it
taught me the awful reality of war". |
 |
| Mona Ball née
Neale (1903-2000) began to write down her reminiscences
in 1983. I am grateful to her son John Ball for
this material. |
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Other
statistics |
| The
statistics of the human effort and suffering are quite incredible:
By Spring 1919, some 130,000 military
casualties had been treated in the Birmingham hospitals. The
majority had suffered wounds or sickness on the Western Front,
but this total included men coming from all of the theatres of
war, plus Belgian and Serbian troops, men from the navy, and
prisoners of war. By March 1919, 233,000 patient-journeys had
been made, in 43,300 car journeys in Birmingham alone. 762 ambulance
trains had been unloaded in the city. |
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