Bourne Military Hospital

ONE OF THE MOST impressive patriotic gestures ever made in Bourne was the establishment and running of a military hospital to treat and care for soldiers wounded or gassed in the trenches of Flanders and France during the Great War of 1914-18.

The government asked the town for its help in a time of national crisis and the people responded in no small measure, making a major contribution to the war effort without seeking to ask the reason why. Selfless work to ensure that the project succeeded was carried out by people who came from all walks of life who were prepared to help when the call came and by the time the war had ended, almost 950 wounded soldiers had received comfort in this town.

On Saturday 31st October 1914, the War Office notified Major Cecil Bell, a local solicitor with extensive military experience as the former commander of H Company, the 2nd Volunteer Battalion, the Lincolnshire Regiment, that the first detachment of wounded soldiers were being sent to Bourne within the next few days and asking the local branch of the Red Cross to make all the necessary arrangements for their reception and comfort. This immediately sparked a flurry of activity in the town and male members of the branch were summoned at once for an ambulance practice that took place in the goods shed at the railway station adjoining the Red Hall. A meeting was held that evening attended by all doctors in the town, the matron of the Butterfield Hospital, Miss Marion Pile, and on Sunday afternoon, the Red Cross committee met with Mr Arthur Wall, chairman of Bourne Urban District Council, presiding.

It was decided that the old Drill Hall in North Street, originally built as a Calvinist chapel in 1868 and then used as the church Vestry Hall, be converted into a military hospital with additional accommodation in the National School next door [now used as the Conservative Party headquarters] which had an inside communicating door. Technical instruction classes organised by Kesteven Educational Authority were usually held at the school during the week but these were transferred to the Council School in Abbey Road while other venues were also found for the various meetings, including the regular Sunday School, which were then held in the Vestry Hall.

A long list of requisites needed to equip the hospital was read out at the meeting and sufficient promises were made to provide them the following day when horses and wagons to collect them were loaned by several businesses including T W Mays and Sons Ltd, the local firm of fellmongers. By noon on the Monday, all of the necessary items had been delivered to the Vestry Hall where beds were erected around the room. The school was equipped for cooking the food and general scullery purposes while one of the classrooms was converted into a sitting room for the soldiers. The lady members of the Red Cross, under the supervision of Miss Pile, made up the beds, 20 in all, although this number was to increase in the coming months, and in the evening, the male members polished the wood block floor and by Tuesday morning, everything was ready for the reception of the wounded.

No definite information as to numbers or arrival date had been received although preparations were made in anticipation of receiving 20 men on the Wednesday and prior to their arrival, the new temporary military hospital that had been prepared within a matter of days, was opened to the public for inspection and several hundred people turned up to take a look.

In the event, the hospital did not accept its first patients for another two weeks. Seventeen soldiers arrived in Bourne by train from Lincoln General Hospital on Tuesday 15th December 1914, and were met by a party from the Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment. Two of the town's family doctors, John Galletly and John Gilpin, were also in attendance and Dr Gilpin was eventually appointed commandant of the hospital. The men were all convalescent and only one required assistance in walking because of a leg injury, and they were ferried to hospital in cars provided by the Earl of Ancaster, Dr Galletly and other owners. On arrival, the soldiers were allocated their various beds by the two doctors.

So began the regular arrivals of wounded soldiers from the front that continued for the rest of the war. A report from September 1915, during a week in which there were 16 fresh admissions, said that the patients came from a variety of regiments fighting in France, some who lived locally, and most of them were suffering from gunshot wounds. Once they were able to walk, the town offered them the use of its facilities. The Bourne Institute in West Street [now the Pyramid Club] made them honorary members during their stay, allowing them to borrow books and play billiards without charge, while the Bourne Angling Society granted free fishing permits to all members of His Majesty's Forces and all wounded soldiers and the Bourne Tennis Club allowed them free use of their courts which were then situated in Burghley Street.

Gifts from local people poured into the hospital for their welfare including grouse and rabbits, cigarettes, eggs, soap, apples, marrows, plums, beans, chocolate, butter, aerated waters, cabbages, onions, pears, celery and lettuce, and among the donors were the Countess of Ancaster of Grimsthorpe Castle and Mrs Sarah Gardner, wife of Robert Gardner, the Bourne bank manager and artist who lived at Cawthorpe Hall.

As the number of casualties at the front increased, more beds were needed to care for the wounded at home and 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 a further 15 patients, bringing the total capacity up to 40. The work was carried out by a local builder, Mr John Henry Roberts, of North Street, and completed in April of that year.

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 last wounded soldiers, all recovering well, 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 while he himself was awarded the MBE for his dedicated and efficient work as commandant.

The hall has had a chequered history since, as an overflow school classroom, a meeting place for various organisations and as a youth club but is now privately owned and stands empty and disused and its future is uncertain. A plaque inside the building remembers those times with the inscription:

The South Lincolnshire branch of the Red Cross Society gratefully acknowledges the loan of this building as a military hospital from November 1914 to December 31st 1918. 40 beds 945 patients treated. Staffed by V A D's Lincoln 46 & 17.

NOTE: This article was published by The Local newspaper on Friday 20th January 2006.