LOST HOSPITALS OF LONDON | |||||||||||||
Royal
Flying Corps Hospital
(later Royal Air Force Auxiliary Hospital) 82 Eaton Square, SW1W 9AP
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Medical
dates:
Medical
character:
|
1917 - 1919 Convalescent (military) |
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The third Royal Flying Corps
Hospital opened at No. 82 Eaton Square in 1917. It had 30 beds
and, like its sister hospital in Bryanston
Square, was affiliated to Queen Alexandra's
Military Hospital
in Millbank. The types of injuries sustained by airmen could be
serious and complex. Apart from gunshot wounds during aerial
combat or from ground fire, they could suffer multiple fractures or
burns on crash landing.
In November 1917 the King and Queen, who encouraged the aviation side of the war, visited the Hospital. The Royal Flying Corps Hospitals were supported by public subscription from around the Empire, with members of the Overseas Club donating generously (more than £13,000 during 1917). As the war progressed Captain Tremayne offered his house at Helinger, Cornwall, as a convalescent home. The Clubhouse at the Shirley Park Golf Course in Croydon also became an auxiliary convalescent hospital. By the end of the war the Grosvenor Hotel at Swanage was also in use as a convalescent hospital. A main military hospital for the Royal Flying Corps had also been established in 1917 at the recently vacated Military Hospital in Hampstead. However, by the end of the war, Dr Charles Atkin Swan, the founder of the original auxiliary Royal Flying Corps Hospital in Netley House, found himself the administrator of a further seven branches.
Present status (February 2012) The building became the Irish Club in 1947 with its main entrance in Lyall Street. The Club moved to new premises in 2003. The Grade II* listed building has now been converted back into a single residence, with a separate 1-bedroomed garden apartment. |
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The building on the corner of Eaton Square and Lyall Street. The frontage on Eaton Square (left) and on Lyall Street (right). |
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References (Author unstated) 1917 List of the various hospitals treating military cases in the United Kingdom. London, H.M.S.O. (Author unstated) 1917 Care of the wounded. British Journal of Nursing, 22nd September, 182. (Author unstated) 1917 Airisms from the four winds. Flight, 29th November, 1255. (Author unstated) 1917 Care of the wounded. British Journal of Nursing, 8th December, 371. (Author unstated) 1918 Medical Notes in Parliament. The air medical services. British Medical Journal 1 (2983), 267-268. www.andrewcusack.com www.archive.org (1) www.archive.org (2) www.scarletfinders.co.uk |
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