Medical dates:

Medical character:

At the outbreak of WW1 the Kent/66 Voluntary Aid Detachment (V.A.D.) was mobilised on 13th October 1914, and immediately began to prepare its first auxiliary military hospital in Holbrook, a large mansion house lent to the British Red Cross Society by Mr Cyril Heywood.  The house was scrubbed and fitted completely as a hospital with 35 beds by 05.00 hr.

Holbrook Auxiliary Hospital opened on 14th October 1914.  Its first patients - 35 wounded Belgian soldiers - arrived at 09.00 hr, just four hours after preparations for the Hospital had been completed.

On 16th October orders arrived to prepare another hospital and, a week later, the V.A.D. opened a second hospital with 50 beds - the  Hornbrook Auxiliary Hospital.  By 26th October both Hospitals contained 93 patients.  Both were affiliated to the Ontario Military Hospital at Orpington.

Later, both Hospitals were improved and the V.A.D. opened a third hospital - Hollington House Auxiliary Hospital - with 40 beds.

The Hospital closed in July 1916 when the property was required by the owner.  The patients were transferred to The Gorse Auxiliary Hospital.


Present status (October 2014)

The mansion has been demolished and its site now contains Antokol, a 33-roomed residential care home for elderly Polish people.