Whitchurch Hospital (The War Years)

We pick up from last time and our blog number 52. Whitchurch Hospital (the Cardiff Asylum) had opened in 1908 with space for 750 patients and 150 staff, all within landscaped grounds with its own farm

Edwin Goodhall was the first Medical Superintendent

Only 6 years after the hospital opened, everything changed with the outbreak of WW1. The hospital was taken over by the military as the Welsh Metropolitan War Hospital, and all of the patients had to be evacuated elsewhere

Edwin remained in charge, but he was given the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, with other doctors and male nurses given military rank. There’s not much known about the female nurses however

It wasn’t long before injured soldiers began arriving in Whitchurch, many from the trenches of France and Belgium. Hospital trains began arriving at Coryton Station with horse-drawn ambulances ferrying the injured men to the hospital adjacent

Ernie Broad, our local sage recalls:
‘As a boy at the time of the Great War, the station was a gathering place after school. One of my friends and I used to watch the ambulance trains coming in, carrying the wounded soldiers from the front line. These casualties were then taken by ambulances to Whitchurch Hospital, which was made part of a military hospital at that time. When these boys were on the mend some would stroll about the village, and we boys would be told lurid tales about the fighting in the frontline. One chap by the name of Joe Simpson was shell-shocked, this being an injury to the mind caused by constant shelling by big guns. He stayed with us at our home for a few months. He was one of the lucky ones, and was eventually able to return home to Birmingham, and resume his work at the glass factory’

Like Joe, many of the soldiers were crippled by ‘shell shock’ and Edwin and his medical team began new therapies to help. Nowadays, this would have been diagnosed as PTSD

There’s a photograph in Steve Nicholas’ book showing the Old Oak Tearoom, on Pendywallt Road, it was opposite the main entrance to the hospital and is now a modern block of flats. I’ve often wondered how such a tearoom could survive away from the village. Then, when you realise how many families of patients might have visited over the years, it would have been a godsend; a walk just outside the hospital grounds for a cup of tea with their loved one just to break the monotony

We’ve been privileged to read some autograph books of local girls helping at Whitchurch. Many are really innocent and playful, but later there are entries with more poignant stories from ‘a soldier injured at Gallipoli’ and others. We’ve included a page for you to see showing the innocence of 1910, and just 6 years later from Private Kelvie of the Royal Scots Fusiliers and the horror of the trenches

Whitchurch continued as a military hospital until 1919, when it reverted to its previous use; and all of the former patients returned from their enforced stays elsewhere. Edwin remained as Medical Superintendent for another 10 years; I wonder did he keep his military rank?

During all this time, many of the nursing staff lived on site, and until the 1930s often worked 60-hour weeks. Their social and private lives were strictly governed. Does anyone have family memories of the staff at that time?

Then, just twenty years later, everything fell apart again. At the start of WW2, the hospital was once again taken over by the military, this time as the ‘Whitchurch Emergency Hospital (becoming the largest emergency services hospital in South Wales). Who would have believed that in such a short period of time, the staff would have to re-introduce their methods of dealing with ‘broken’ soldiers again. This time, not just British, Allied and American soldiers, but wounded German prisoners too

We’re told that during WW2, 20 of the original hospital beds were retained for civilian use with the remaining patients transferred again

So much upheaval!

Then in 1948, the hospital was taken over by the Ministry of Health, when the NHS was formed

A personal note to end; my own dad was injured early in WW2 with a head wound, and ended up in Whitchurch Hospital. He was later discharged, but for years after he returned for therapy. One of my most treasured possessions is a tiny woven purse made by my dad as part of his therapy whilst there

Does anyone else have stories or memories of the hospital during wartime? We’d love to hear

We’ll conclude next time with what’s happened since

 

Thanks to Janet for the autograph books and to Gwawr and the Friends of Whitchurch Hospital for so much information, and for all of their sterling work over the years

 

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