Admissions to Gloucestershire Red Cross Hospitals- a new resource

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I have previously posted basic details about some of the men admitted to various Gloucestershire Red Cross Hospitals. I have now created 3 new & enhanced databases.

These are available to access for free on the Gloucestershire Archives website here:-

https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/archives/working-with-us/partnership-projects/gloucestershire-remembers-ww1/help-with-your-research-into-ww1/information-sheets-about-gloucestershire-in-ww1-compiled-by-other-researchers/

When you find the page you will see on the right hand side some downloads that are available. The 3 databases are at the bottom of the list, it is worth reading the document at the top which is my brief explanation of how the information was compiled and why there are 3 separate spreadsheets.

 

I’m currently working my way through the largest database to try and enhance a soldier’s details to include his service number & full name. This is mainly being done by searching through possible service/pension papers for references that will confirm I’ve got the right man.

Whilst working on this I’ve come across some details that I thought I would share as they will certainly apply to soldiers who were admitted to hospitals in other parts of the country. 

Images are courtesy of Ancestry & Find My Past

The meaning of annotations on Army Forms like B.178 are often a mystery.

As I know from the newspapers which hospitals these 2 men were admitted to (The Priory and Suffolk Hall) I know that I’ve found the correct men because those names appear on these forms.

I started to find references in service papers & those sick & wounded lists to men being admitted to a “Cheltenham Area VA hospital”. I eventually learnt that Cheltenham became the administrative HQ & it’s hospitals Auxiliaries to the 2^nd Southern General Hospital, Bristol

A “Cheltenham Area Hospital” includes all the Cheltenham Hospitals (9 at 11 different locations), Winchcombe (6 miles away), 2 in Gloucester (10 miles) & Abbotswood, Stow on the Wold, later Kitebrook, Moreton in Marsh (15-20 miles)

 

Note the Telegram address “Nightingale, Cheltenham”

The other hospital in Bristol, the Beaufort War Hospital had a similar set up with one of the Gloucester Hospitals (Hillfield) and Standish.

It’s worth remembering the connection between the 2 Bristol Hospitals and those in Gloucestershire when you find sheets in service papers detailing a soldiers hospital admissions.

I’ve found that it was usually the case that a man would be admitted to Bristol, quickly assessed and then transferred to one of the Auxiliary Hospitals, in the case below, New Court, Cheltenham.

 

However in many instances the transfer was not recorded, I know that the man on the sheet below came to a Cheltenham Hospital in late August 1916 and so his discharge would have been from there and not the 2^nd S.G. Hospital

 

Lastly, I know that there are many errors in the databases, mainly due to what was recorded in the newspapers and some of the errors will be mine, I’m sure. I’m still checking through the data I’ve created (A-Z by regiment), I’m half way through the Royal Engineers at the moment, so an update will be available online maybe early next year. 

Dave