BOURNE’S PATRIOTIC CONTRIBUTION
DURING THE GREAT WAR |
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| PHOTO: Dr John Gilpin (centre) with some of the patients and staff outside the hospital. |
A photographic account of Bourne Military Hospital, also known as the Red Cross or VAD hospital, which was established at the Vestry Hall in North Street during the Great War, has been added to the displays at the Heritage Centre |
It has been written and compiled by local historian Rex Needle who has been researching the subject for several years |
The hospital operated from December 1914 until January 1919 during which time 945 wounded soldiers from the front line in Flanders and France were treated for their injuries. |
The Commandant, Dr John Gilpin, a local general practitioner, was subsequently awarded the MBE for his dedicated work. |
| The War Office sent a notification to Bourne on 31st October 1914 that wounded soldiers were being sent to the town and asking the local branch of the Red Cross to make the necessary arrangements for their reception and subsequent care and comfort |
| A public meeting was held immediately and a committee formed and it was decided to use the Vestry Hall as a military hospital with additional accommodation next door in the National School, now the Conservative Party headquarters. |
| A long list of requisites needed to equip the hospital was drawn up and sufficient promises made at the meeting for their provision. Horses and wagons were loaned by various local firms to deliver them and within a few days, a hospital with 20 beds was ready to receive the first patients, although the number was to increase in the coming months. |
| The first detachment of 17 wounded soldiers was sent to Bourne by train on Tuesday 15th December and met by a party from the Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment and two local doctors, John Gilpin and John Galletly, and so began the regular arrivals of casualties from the front that continued for the rest of the war. |
| The soldiers came from a variety of regiments and most of them were suffering from gunshot wounds but once they were able to walk, they were soon seen out and about in the town where they were warmly welcomed. The Bourne Institute in West Street made all of them honorary members during their stay, allowing them to borrow books and play billiards without charge while the Bourne Angling Society granted them complimentary fishing permits and the Bourne Tennis Club gave them free use of their courts in Burghley Street. |
| Gifts from local people poured into the hospital for their welfare including cigarettes, grouse and rabbits, eggs, soup, chocolate, butter, aerated waters, vegetables and fruit, and among the donors were many distinguished people including the Countess of Ancaster of Grimsthorpe Castle. |
| Extensions were carried out to the hospital in 1917 when a temporary structure was built in front of the Vestry Hall and the entrance diverted through the National School, so allowing space for more patients and by the time the war ended, the hospital had 40 beds all of which were continuously occupied. |
| The war ended with the Armistice on 11th November 1918 and the hospital officially closed on Wednesday 1st January 1919 when the remaining patients were transferred to Lincoln General Hospital. The evening before, New Year’s Eve, a dance was held for patients, nurses and orderlies. It was a tearful farewell as the patients left from Bourne station the following morning aboard the 9.20 am train and many of the townspeople turned out to see them off. The building was eventually cleared and returned to its previous role as the Church Vestry Hall which re-opened in February 1919 with a celebratory concert when its wartime role was recalled with fond affection. The many staff who had helped during its four years as a hospital were officially thanked when the peace celebrations were held on Saturday 19th July 1919 and during a ceremony at the Abbey Lawn, former Red Cross nurses received a gold bar brooch with the inscription “Bourne VAD Hospital, 1914-18” and Dr Gilpin paid a fulsome tribute to their work, speaking of the ungrudging spirit with which womankind had taken their part in the war. |
The hall has had a chequered history since, as an overflow school classroom and a youth club, but is now privately owned and stands empty and disused and its future is uncertain. |
| A detailed account of the hospital together with many more photographs can be found on the CD-ROM A Portrait of Bourne © REX NEEDLE 2006 |
