Recovering from wounds in a Red Cross Hospital during the Great War

Alexandra Park School Red Cross Hospital, date unknown

The story of the voluntary Red Cross Hospitals which were set up during the Great War was not one I knew much about.

Given the huge numbers of casualties I suppose I should have realised that there would be a huge demand for hospital beds to take those recovering from wounds and illnesses.

And even before the war had begun the Red Cross had planned for just such an eventuality.

McLaren Memorial Baptist Church, Edge Lane, circa 1920

What started me off was the discovery of one of these hospitals on Edge Lane in the Sunday School of the old Baptist Church.

Both buildings have long gone but the Sunday School of the Methodist Church on Manchester Road is still there and this was the second of the hospitals in Chorlton.

After that it was just a matter of research to track them down in Whalley Range, Didsbury, Flixton and pretty much everywhere.

Some were in large private homes or like those in Chorlton in public buildings volunteered for the duration of the war.

Alexandra Park School Red Cross Hospital, date unknown

They were quickly established, supported by the local community and with the end of the war closed almost as quickly.

Looking through the newspapers for 1918 and 1919 you can come across plenty of adverts for the sale of the fitments and fixtures, including beds, blankets buckets, typewriters in fact everything which allowed the hospital to function.

And with the sale of all these and the return of the buildings to other uses the presence of the hospitals quickly faded from memory.

Alexandra Park School Red Cross Hospital, date unknown

I suppose it was inevitable having performed their task they receded back from popular thought and within a few generations were pretty much forgotten.

Some of course continued as private hospitals and in time became part of the NHS but many more have been lost to history.

So with that in mind here are three photographs from the Red Cross Hospital at Alexandra Park School, Edgeley in Stockport.

The images pretty much speak for themselves but it is worth drawing attention to the hospital blues which were the uniform worn by men convalescing and the presence of the same wheel chair in all three.

The photographs come from the extensive collection of David Harrop who runs a permanent exhibition in the Remembrance Hall at Southern Cemetery.

Pictures; the Red Cross Hospital at Alexandra Park School, Edgeley in Stockport, date unknown courtesy of David Harrop and the McLaren Memorial Baptist Church, Edge Lane, from the Lloyd Collection,