Now I know I will find answers to the mysteries behind this picture post card, but not just yet.
It was sent in the June of 1916 to Miss E. Hibberd who was a nurse at Lewisham Military Hospital.
And by the time it was sent it was already a historical anachronism, because some of the faces of those “Commanders of the Allied Armies, 1914" will have changed by the time it was posted.
Finding their identity will be easy, less easy has been the search for Miss E. Hibbert who has proved illusory in the census record.
Equally the Charity I. S. & S. H. S., at 122 Brompton Road, still sits in the shadows, but it’s success in helping over 200,000 deserving cases as witnessed by its record posted on the reverse of the card should make it easy to track down.
The one certainty is the Lewisham Military Hospital which provided 24 beds for officers and 838 for service men including 190 for prisoners of war. Before the war this had been the Lewisham Union Workhouse and was situated at 390 High Street in Lewisham.
In 1929 the building became the Lewisham Hospital. The hospital has been largely rebuilt, though some original buildings are still in use”. *
And despite living my entire childhood close to Lewisham, I never knew of its existence. But given that Peckham where I spent the early years, and Well Hall where we moved to, were both served by excellent hospitals, there is no reason why I should.
Added to which the hospital is not in that bit of Lewisham I would pass through on the bus from Eltham.
Its existence as a war time hospital is a reminder of just how many official buildings along with church halls and private residences were handed over to the war effort.
The card was been acquired by my old friend David Harrop who has managed to source a wartime picture of the hospital, which will be a nice contrast to its appearance today, leaving me just to appeal for any contemporary copyright free image of the building today, along with any photographs of a memorial to its time caring for the servicemen of the Great War.
Location; Lewisham
Picture; postcard, 1916, from the collection of David Harrop
*Wartime Memories Project, Lewisham Military
Hospital, https://wartimememoriesproject.com/greatwar/hospitals/hospital.php?pid=13732
And by the time it was sent it was already a historical anachronism, because some of the faces of those “Commanders of the Allied Armies, 1914" will have changed by the time it was posted.
Finding their identity will be easy, less easy has been the search for Miss E. Hibbert who has proved illusory in the census record.
The one certainty is the Lewisham Military Hospital which provided 24 beds for officers and 838 for service men including 190 for prisoners of war. Before the war this had been the Lewisham Union Workhouse and was situated at 390 High Street in Lewisham.
In 1929 the building became the Lewisham Hospital. The hospital has been largely rebuilt, though some original buildings are still in use”. *
Added to which the hospital is not in that bit of Lewisham I would pass through on the bus from Eltham.
Its existence as a war time hospital is a reminder of just how many official buildings along with church halls and private residences were handed over to the war effort.
The card was been acquired by my old friend David Harrop who has managed to source a wartime picture of the hospital, which will be a nice contrast to its appearance today, leaving me just to appeal for any contemporary copyright free image of the building today, along with any photographs of a memorial to its time caring for the servicemen of the Great War.
Location; Lewisham
Picture; postcard, 1916, from the collection of David Harrop
*Wartime Memories Project, Lewisham Military
Hospital, https://wartimememoriesproject.com/greatwar/hospitals/hospital.php?pid=13732
This story resonates with me because my grandparents met at one of these Wartime hospitals. Canadian Convalescent Hospital, Bear Wood, Wokingham, Berkshire it only existed between 1915-1918. Grandma was a 'Nurse' .. who probably had 2 days training.
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