Haslar, as it is known to all, despite its change of title to ROYAL HOSPITAL HASLAR in 1996, was a tri-service bastion and memorial to earlier times and the last military hospital in Britain. As this book was due to be published, has been condemned to be closed in the near future.
Construction of what would become the largest brick building in Europe began after the laying down of the foundations in 1740. The project employed ten bricklayers, ten carpenters, and eight general labourers, who, to avoid interruption of their work by the naval press gangs that would drag any unwary male into the navy, were given exemption certificates. These were sometimes ignored!
According to William Tate’s 1906 book ‘A History of Haslar Hospital’ (available at Gosport Library, Naval Collection) there had been a medical facility of some sort in Gosport in 1713, called the ‘Fortune Hospital’, where treatment was obtained for sick or wounded sailors and Marines.
This proved to be an unsavoury place in which to regain health and strength and the proposal to build a new hospital on the site now occupied by Haslar was made by advisers to King George II. He then issued the decree to build three such hospitals, one at each of the great naval ports.
The tip of Gosport Peninsula was thought ideal for a hospital because it was part of Portsmouth Harbour and the fleets sailed in carrying hundreds of men, both sailors and marines needing succour of one sort or another.
A document of 1270 AD shows the area to have been called Hasil Horde. In 1566 it was called both Haslar and Hase Lord Poynte, but by 1745 when it was purchased, it had become Hazelwood Farm.
Architect, Theodore Jacobson, designed Haslar in the palatial style, mainly using Greenwich Palace as his inspiration. He produced drawings of the buildings, which would accommodate 1,500 men in 48 wards. This was amended to 2,200 souls, which shows the scale of the problem faced by the army and navy of the day. At the beginning of construction an original cost of £38,000 had been agreed but as the price rose towards £100,000, a halt was called and an opening date of 1761 was given, although men had been admitted prior to this.
From the main hospital frontage two sides projected outwards to form a ‘U’ shape. Residences had also been built to house the principal officers who were Head Physician, Steward, Agent, and Surgeon. The last Hospital Commander, following tradition, lived in one of the residences. The site was also provided with main stores, a laundry. Later additions were a library and museum, and in 1902 a Zymotic Hospital (for infectious diseases) which can be seen opposite the present Haslar Detention Centre.
The southwestern area of the site, was used as a graveyard for many years, where single and multiple burials took place. The largest number of interments at one time resulted from two tragedies.
The first caused by the sinking on 28th August 1782,at Spithead of the ‘Royal George ’ (a large wooden warship) which sank whilst at anchor, Admiral Kempenfelt, and 600 of the crew, being washed ashore some days later.
The second tragedy being the aftermath of the ‘Battle of Corruna’ when Sir John Moore’s army came home riddled with typhus and other diseases, from which they died in their hundreds.
Due to the activities of grave robbers, who dug up newly buried bodies and transported them to the London Medical Schools, the present high wall was built around the graveyard in the late 1800’s and sentries were then posted.
From about 1880 Rear Admiral Sir A.H. Hoskins committee, began to look closely at the way in which naval hospitals cared for the sick and wounded, they came to several conclusions. Wives and other women, who gathered together from various backgrounds, plus naval pensioners, were the only people who undertook nursing, and then only in a most rudimentary way. This had to stop, and steps should be taken to cut the death rate. Thus the Queen Alexandra Royal Naval Nursing Service came into being. With the Queen herself taking an interest. This was done to offer women training of a set standard.
At the same time a Sick Berth Attendant’s Branch was founded for men.
People like James Lind, a Scottish physician and naval surgeon living in Gosport. Lind, later to become ‘the founder of English Naval hygiene’, were working for the future of the hospital service. He had studied shipboard conditions and thousands of men who had suffered from scurvy, typhus, dysentery and other numerous diseases. He concluded in his 1745 ‘Treatise on Scurvy’, that more men were dying from that malady during wartime, than from enemy action, which was something the Dutch had discovered almost a hundred years previously.
Lind, stated in his later treatise of 1757, - “On the Most Effectual Means of Preserving the Health of Seaman”. ‘That citrus fruits and juices should be eaten on long voyages, delousing should be carried out on board, and water should be distilled from seawater instead of being carried in barrels in stale condition.’ The Admiralty began introducing these measures in 1795 after which, in short order, scurvy was beaten.
In 1886 the 120 foot water tower, which dominates the present main entrance to the hospital, was built to carry two cisterns, which hold 125 tons of water fed to them via a well, before being supplied by the Gosport Water System.
Construction of what would become the largest brick building in Europe began after the laying down of the foundations in 1740. The project employed ten bricklayers, ten carpenters, and eight general labourers, who, to avoid interruption of their work by the naval press gangs that would drag any unwary male into the navy, were given exemption certificates. These were sometimes ignored!
According to William Tate’s 1906 book ‘A History of Haslar Hospital’ (available at Gosport Library, Naval Collection) there had been a medical facility of some sort in Gosport in 1713, called the ‘Fortune Hospital’, where treatment was obtained for sick or wounded sailors and Marines.
This proved to be an unsavoury place in which to regain health and strength and the proposal to build a new hospital on the site now occupied by Haslar was made by advisers to King George II. He then issued the decree to build three such hospitals, one at each of the great naval ports.
The tip of Gosport Peninsula was thought ideal for a hospital because it was part of Portsmouth Harbour and the fleets sailed in carrying hundreds of men, both sailors and marines needing succour of one sort or another.
A document of 1270 AD shows the area to have been called Hasil Horde. In 1566 it was called both Haslar and Hase Lord Poynte, but by 1745 when it was purchased, it had become Hazelwood Farm.
Architect, Theodore Jacobson, designed Haslar in the palatial style, mainly using Greenwich Palace as his inspiration. He produced drawings of the buildings, which would accommodate 1,500 men in 48 wards. This was amended to 2,200 souls, which shows the scale of the problem faced by the army and navy of the day. At the beginning of construction an original cost of £38,000 had been agreed but as the price rose towards £100,000, a halt was called and an opening date of 1761 was given, although men had been admitted prior to this.
From the main hospital frontage two sides projected outwards to form a ‘U’ shape. Residences had also been built to house the principal officers who were Head Physician, Steward, Agent, and Surgeon. The last Hospital Commander, following tradition, lived in one of the residences. The site was also provided with main stores, a laundry. Later additions were a library and museum, and in 1902 a Zymotic Hospital (for infectious diseases) which can be seen opposite the present Haslar Detention Centre.
The southwestern area of the site, was used as a graveyard for many years, where single and multiple burials took place. The largest number of interments at one time resulted from two tragedies.
The first caused by the sinking on 28th August 1782,at Spithead of the ‘Royal George ’ (a large wooden warship) which sank whilst at anchor, Admiral Kempenfelt, and 600 of the crew, being washed ashore some days later.
The second tragedy being the aftermath of the ‘Battle of Corruna’ when Sir John Moore’s army came home riddled with typhus and other diseases, from which they died in their hundreds.
Due to the activities of grave robbers, who dug up newly buried bodies and transported them to the London Medical Schools, the present high wall was built around the graveyard in the late 1800’s and sentries were then posted.
From about 1880 Rear Admiral Sir A.H. Hoskins committee, began to look closely at the way in which naval hospitals cared for the sick and wounded, they came to several conclusions. Wives and other women, who gathered together from various backgrounds, plus naval pensioners, were the only people who undertook nursing, and then only in a most rudimentary way. This had to stop, and steps should be taken to cut the death rate. Thus the Queen Alexandra Royal Naval Nursing Service came into being. With the Queen herself taking an interest. This was done to offer women training of a set standard.
At the same time a Sick Berth Attendant’s Branch was founded for men.
People like James Lind, a Scottish physician and naval surgeon living in Gosport. Lind, later to become ‘the founder of English Naval hygiene’, were working for the future of the hospital service. He had studied shipboard conditions and thousands of men who had suffered from scurvy, typhus, dysentery and other numerous diseases. He concluded in his 1745 ‘Treatise on Scurvy’, that more men were dying from that malady during wartime, than from enemy action, which was something the Dutch had discovered almost a hundred years previously.
Lind, stated in his later treatise of 1757, - “On the Most Effectual Means of Preserving the Health of Seaman”. ‘That citrus fruits and juices should be eaten on long voyages, delousing should be carried out on board, and water should be distilled from seawater instead of being carried in barrels in stale condition.’ The Admiralty began introducing these measures in 1795 after which, in short order, scurvy was beaten.
In 1886 the 120 foot water tower, which dominates the present main entrance to the hospital, was built to carry two cisterns, which hold 125 tons of water fed to them via a well, before being supplied by the Gosport Water System.
Food was also an obvious necessity for patients. A daily shopping list would average:
Beef 350 lbs., milk 1,100 pints, Fowl 50, Bread 600 lbs., Fish 30 lbs. Eggs 1,300, Greens 200 lbs., Potatoes 300 lbs., Coca 5lbs. Oranges 100, Lemons 24, Lemonade 150 syphons, water 51,000 gallons.
Weekly there was the expenditure on:
Port 7-10 gallons, brandy - 2 gallons, whisky - 1 gallon, stout - 550 gallons. Food on the hoof, came in the form of cattle, sheep and goats, grazed on part of the area.
As well as the hospital wall being built. At one stage, iron gates and railings, were put up across the area in front of the church. Local militia guards were also put on duty, all this, to keep the inmates from escaping. Which those able to, often attempted, some succeeding via the sewers, either into Haslar Lake or those alongside Fort Monkton.
Those were the days before anaesthetics and the prospect of the surgeon’s saw (similar to those on display board H.M.S.Victory) was not one to be relished.
Beef 350 lbs., milk 1,100 pints, Fowl 50, Bread 600 lbs., Fish 30 lbs. Eggs 1,300, Greens 200 lbs., Potatoes 300 lbs., Coca 5lbs. Oranges 100, Lemons 24, Lemonade 150 syphons, water 51,000 gallons.
Weekly there was the expenditure on:
Port 7-10 gallons, brandy - 2 gallons, whisky - 1 gallon, stout - 550 gallons. Food on the hoof, came in the form of cattle, sheep and goats, grazed on part of the area.
As well as the hospital wall being built. At one stage, iron gates and railings, were put up across the area in front of the church. Local militia guards were also put on duty, all this, to keep the inmates from escaping. Which those able to, often attempted, some succeeding via the sewers, either into Haslar Lake or those alongside Fort Monkton.
Those were the days before anaesthetics and the prospect of the surgeon’s saw (similar to those on display board H.M.S.Victory) was not one to be relished.
The other major reason for getting away from Haslar was that pressed men (unwilling volunteers) saw no reason to stay, since they had not asked to be in the navy, and sail again especially if there was a family to support.
At the turn of the 20th Century, things began to improve, as training kept abreast of knowledge. As conditions slowly improved and pain became less of an issue during operations the prison like surroundings were dispensed with and the ironwork was taken down in 1905.
The main frontage of the hospital building, which boasts colonnades and entrances to wards and the museum, led into the main part of the hospital gardens. At the front, facing Portsmouth harbour, the ornate iron gates in the ‘Wall were only opened for those who could afford carriages. The ‘tradesmen's entrance, the Porters Lodge facing Spithead, was where patients and staff passed through. Above the front colonnade the carved frieze still exists bearing the Arms of King George 11 and displaying a general nautical flavour of figures, shells, ship parts, food, stars, and a bird holding the serpent Aescupalius and a sailor in distress.
At the turn of the 20th Century, things began to improve, as training kept abreast of knowledge. As conditions slowly improved and pain became less of an issue during operations the prison like surroundings were dispensed with and the ironwork was taken down in 1905.
The main frontage of the hospital building, which boasts colonnades and entrances to wards and the museum, led into the main part of the hospital gardens. At the front, facing Portsmouth harbour, the ornate iron gates in the ‘Wall were only opened for those who could afford carriages. The ‘tradesmen's entrance, the Porters Lodge facing Spithead, was where patients and staff passed through. Above the front colonnade the carved frieze still exists bearing the Arms of King George 11 and displaying a general nautical flavour of figures, shells, ship parts, food, stars, and a bird holding the serpent Aescupalius and a sailor in distress.
Two similar aerial views of Haslar Hospital showing the ‘Porters Lodge’ entrance - original Main Gate with Water Tower is on the right. These two images strikingly illustrate the amount of ancillary buildings now required and built on the Hospital’s Garden area.
Conscription from 1916 onwards, during the Great War, helped alleviate a shortage of nursing staff at Haslar as the army and navy casualty list grew. It was then that emergency medical teams began to be used, including some from the former Military Hospital at Cosham, which is now called Queen Alexandra’s. This type of team continued to be deployed successfully during WW2, the Korean conflict and even in such danger zones as Kosovo during 1999 where the navy could be found offering medical help after that country suffered genocide. Evacuees from Dunkirk in 1940 were the first patients to be dealt with en masse by Haslar in more modem times.
Haslar during WW2.
The water tower, became an ideal place from which to spot and identify enemy aircraft, but the Germans also used it. According to a report in the Luftwaffe archive, which states in translation, “it was a most suitable marker for the aircraft bombing Portsmouth Harbour” which is probably why it bore such a charmed life.
Damage to the bombed hospital’s equipment stores in 1940 however, re-occurred in April 1941, and four large replacement huts were razed to the ground. The heavy loss of equipment and stores were a great blow to the medical organisation, but the buildings were rebuilt very quickly, and in short time the hospital had been re-supplied.
Remarkably some 500 warships, hundreds of small craft, 36 smaller hospitals, camps and other facilities were supported by Haslar by December 1941.
A direct hit had also destroyed the medical library and museum, which was later re-built. The large instrument store, flattened by bombs in 1941, had a basement and an emergency drinking water dam was constructed within it holding 25,000 gallons. The evacuation of patients into shelters was well practised. The other cellars so used also had been stoutly built, so that no one was injured and operations continued through the dangerous times. Patients were regularly taken to the cellars nightly from 20.30 hrs to 0630 hrs during the worst periods of bombing.
Damage to the bombed hospital’s equipment stores in 1940 however, re-occurred in April 1941, and four large replacement huts were razed to the ground. The heavy loss of equipment and stores were a great blow to the medical organisation, but the buildings were rebuilt very quickly, and in short time the hospital had been re-supplied.
Remarkably some 500 warships, hundreds of small craft, 36 smaller hospitals, camps and other facilities were supported by Haslar by December 1941.
A direct hit had also destroyed the medical library and museum, which was later re-built. The large instrument store, flattened by bombs in 1941, had a basement and an emergency drinking water dam was constructed within it holding 25,000 gallons. The evacuation of patients into shelters was well practised. The other cellars so used also had been stoutly built, so that no one was injured and operations continued through the dangerous times. Patients were regularly taken to the cellars nightly from 20.30 hrs to 0630 hrs during the worst periods of bombing.
Jay Watson was a 17 year old V.A.D. (Voluntary Aid Detachment) Nurse who volunteered for duty with the navy in 1942:
“I was called up after volunteering, having recently undertaking night time work as a volunteer first-aider on a Red Cross Ambulance Squad. My mother had refused to let me train as a State Registered Nurse (and in those days one obeyed ones parents); her sister had died from the tuberculosis -TB- she had caught as a nurse.
I, with three other VAD’s, was sent to Haslar Hospital. Taking with me my uniform, which consisted of, 12 aprons, 4 squares of cloth (for making into butterfly back indoor head-dresses); 4 dresses; shoes; black stockings; navy coloured Petersham belt, for wearing over white aprons; waist aprons with a red cross on them; a gabardine navy coat; a storm cap, and a two piece walking out suit. There was no naval history in mine or my friends background, we were complete ‘rookies’ in fact, unlike one of our male Red Cross friends who had earlier joined the navy as a Sick Berth Attendant (S.B.A.).
Haslar had its own boat and jetty to carry hospital staff back and forth to Portsmouth for shore leave and also to bring wounded and sick men in. We girls should never have been sent to Haslar but, instead, to the Royal Naval Hospital at Sherbourne, where the nurses quarters had not yet been completed and while we had to wait, we were sent to where we could gain some experience. I had originally been called up as a Dental Chair Attendant but I had rung headquarters and said, “No, I volunteered for general nursing” and that is what I wanted (and what I got). Those few weeks at Haslar were an education. The sister tutor was called, I think, Miss Topes and she was a very impressive woman.
We VAD’s were picked for emergency duties like everyone else, awaiting the alarm, which would ring to signal, wounded arriving. It rang a number of times while I was there, but only for practice. My job was to use cotton wool to rub fuel oil from the casualties’ bodies, from being in the water after a ship had been sunk, and to give them cigarettes.
The first war duty for us was, E.N.T. (Ear, Nose & Throat) where we were allocated certain patients to look after. One I had in particular was John Fryer, a New Zealand Navy sailor, who was most helpful in explaining to a very nervous young nurse, all about his treatment. I met him again when I was eventually posted to my original destination of Kingston House, Sherbourne, Dorset. (and soon after that he was to gain his first gold ring on his sleeve).
Kingston house always provided three nurses to R.N.A.S. Yeovilton. Which was a lovely place to work, but you did have to be a bit ‘nippy’ when the crash bell sounded, because the ambulance-crew were no slouches with regard to speed. I had to have sterile water and swabs at the ready, to minister to casualties”....
I, with three other VAD’s, was sent to Haslar Hospital. Taking with me my uniform, which consisted of, 12 aprons, 4 squares of cloth (for making into butterfly back indoor head-dresses); 4 dresses; shoes; black stockings; navy coloured Petersham belt, for wearing over white aprons; waist aprons with a red cross on them; a gabardine navy coat; a storm cap, and a two piece walking out suit. There was no naval history in mine or my friends background, we were complete ‘rookies’ in fact, unlike one of our male Red Cross friends who had earlier joined the navy as a Sick Berth Attendant (S.B.A.).
Haslar had its own boat and jetty to carry hospital staff back and forth to Portsmouth for shore leave and also to bring wounded and sick men in. We girls should never have been sent to Haslar but, instead, to the Royal Naval Hospital at Sherbourne, where the nurses quarters had not yet been completed and while we had to wait, we were sent to where we could gain some experience. I had originally been called up as a Dental Chair Attendant but I had rung headquarters and said, “No, I volunteered for general nursing” and that is what I wanted (and what I got). Those few weeks at Haslar were an education. The sister tutor was called, I think, Miss Topes and she was a very impressive woman.
We VAD’s were picked for emergency duties like everyone else, awaiting the alarm, which would ring to signal, wounded arriving. It rang a number of times while I was there, but only for practice. My job was to use cotton wool to rub fuel oil from the casualties’ bodies, from being in the water after a ship had been sunk, and to give them cigarettes.
The first war duty for us was, E.N.T. (Ear, Nose & Throat) where we were allocated certain patients to look after. One I had in particular was John Fryer, a New Zealand Navy sailor, who was most helpful in explaining to a very nervous young nurse, all about his treatment. I met him again when I was eventually posted to my original destination of Kingston House, Sherbourne, Dorset. (and soon after that he was to gain his first gold ring on his sleeve).
Kingston house always provided three nurses to R.N.A.S. Yeovilton. Which was a lovely place to work, but you did have to be a bit ‘nippy’ when the crash bell sounded, because the ambulance-crew were no slouches with regard to speed. I had to have sterile water and swabs at the ready, to minister to casualties”....
An ‘Austin’ K2 Type Ambulance; clearly marked as ‘RN’ but the ‘open’ bodywork would suggest that this model was for a warmer climate than that of the UK. It never the less shows the white paintwork trimming used during U.K’s ‘black out’ - (or could that be Malta?)
A peak of 110 nursing sisters serving at the hospital was reached by November 1944. The number of V.A.D.’s in total from a start of 27 was 700. Also a trainee nurse at Haslar in 1944, was Sheila Scott (nee Hopkins) who became a celebrity aeroplane pilot after the war, renowned for her record breaking flights and writing.
As well as casualties of war, there were the usual naval patient’s problems to be dealt with:
As well as casualties of war, there were the usual naval patient’s problems to be dealt with:
Douglas Bradbrook, had transferred from being an ‘Asdic’ Operator on destroyers, having been shipwrecked when H.M.S. Ark Royal was sunk, and wounded during the ‘Pedestal’ convoy to Malta, to becoming a Sick Berth Attendant. He cannot forget the Syphilis Ward patients:
“Some had their faces ravaged by the disease, eaten away, worse than the aids plague of today, so that it was a strain to dress the flesh and bone and watch them die.”
“Some had their faces ravaged by the disease, eaten away, worse than the aids plague of today, so that it was a strain to dress the flesh and bone and watch them die.”
The number of probationary S.B.A.’s trained by Haslar Instructional Section during the war was 3,248.
In February 1944 Flight Lieutenant John Wilkins, a pilot at Gosport airfield’s A.T.D.U. found himself shipped to Haslar by his M.O. diagnosed as having tonsillitis, a serious problem for adults in those days. The surgeon refused to allow him out of bed even four days after his operation until he was hauled from his ‘pit’ and evacuated to the safety of an air raid shelter as the sirens began their moaning. The next day was the same and, as he pointed out, the surgeon’s ploy of bed rest really was not working. The doctors relented and he was allowed to recover in an upright, rather than horizontal, position.
Other R.A.F. men from Gosport Airfield owed their lives to Haslar, like Harold Shawyer who caught cerebral meningitis.
Charles Nicholson was a career sailor. Before WW2 he had been a Chief Writer at Gosport Airfield for many years until retirement. He was ‘called-up’ as the Second World War began and sent to Whale Island. He was at home when the news came that a second son was dead, killed when H.M.S. Hood had been blown up when a shell from the German ship Bismarck had hit her magazine. (He had already lost his only daughter to TB.)
Charles’ youngest and only surviving son Roy recalls that on hearing the news his father got up and walked to the bottom of the garden and stood like a rock in his grief.
“It was 1942 when I was old enough to join up myself, although Dad tried to dissuade me for obvious reasons. I opted to become an S.B.A. After ‘square bashing’ at Hayling Island and training in North Wales, where the locals hated us, and were quick to show it. I came to Haslar where I stayed for 18 months working in the operating theatres, which I thoroughly enjoyed. There I gained many of the skills I was to need in the near future.
One of the most experienced sisters there was Honor Fortune, who looked after the young nurses. Long after the war she passed on to me her M.B.E., the only reward she had gained after long years of service to the navy.
All too soon it was D-Day 6th June 1944 and I was on board a tank landing craft at the time, along with several good mates. We were anchored off the Isle of Wight, and the Skipper said that we were getting under way for an exercise so we all got our heads down. You slept when and where you could in those days.
When I awoke I peered over the side, and saw what I presumed was the Isle of Wight again and thought, “we are back”. Of course we weren't, because this was the Normandy beach head, and we were going in with the load of Canadians we had collected from Stokes Bay a couple of days earlier.
The noise was horrendous and shells passed overhead both ways or exploded behind, to our sides, and in front of us. I was frightened, excited and then, as we landed and became appalled at the mayhem with which we were confronted I felt like crying. A Canadian Sergeant told me it was nothing to be ashamed of if I did, but the moment passed. We were ordered, amongst other things like tending the wounded, to haul bodies from the sea, which meant using boat hooks on many of them. They and the wounded were stretchered to assembly points, for dispatch to England on board landing craft. Eventually many of the dead were buried in temporary graves where they fell. German prisoners being put to work to do the digging.
I well remember that while we were on the beach, a German Me 109 aircraft strafed us several times, killing and wounding some men, until the aircraft was hit and came down, the pilot taking to his parachute. One of our lads, Les ‘Brummy’ Hunt, always carried a flick-knife in his sock and taking this out he went after the young pilot to kill him for sending so many boy’s to their death. It took several of us to stop him.”
The casualties taken to Haslar in the 3 months of the D-Day Landing period was 1,347, just part of the 17,556 received and distributed by the Portsmouth P.M.O. (Port Medical Office)
Iris Weir was at Gosport from 1937 to 1945 and she, after D-Day, as a young mother with her husband in the navy, and having already endured bombing raids, offered her services to Haslar:
Other R.A.F. men from Gosport Airfield owed their lives to Haslar, like Harold Shawyer who caught cerebral meningitis.
Charles Nicholson was a career sailor. Before WW2 he had been a Chief Writer at Gosport Airfield for many years until retirement. He was ‘called-up’ as the Second World War began and sent to Whale Island. He was at home when the news came that a second son was dead, killed when H.M.S. Hood had been blown up when a shell from the German ship Bismarck had hit her magazine. (He had already lost his only daughter to TB.)
Charles’ youngest and only surviving son Roy recalls that on hearing the news his father got up and walked to the bottom of the garden and stood like a rock in his grief.
“It was 1942 when I was old enough to join up myself, although Dad tried to dissuade me for obvious reasons. I opted to become an S.B.A. After ‘square bashing’ at Hayling Island and training in North Wales, where the locals hated us, and were quick to show it. I came to Haslar where I stayed for 18 months working in the operating theatres, which I thoroughly enjoyed. There I gained many of the skills I was to need in the near future.
One of the most experienced sisters there was Honor Fortune, who looked after the young nurses. Long after the war she passed on to me her M.B.E., the only reward she had gained after long years of service to the navy.
All too soon it was D-Day 6th June 1944 and I was on board a tank landing craft at the time, along with several good mates. We were anchored off the Isle of Wight, and the Skipper said that we were getting under way for an exercise so we all got our heads down. You slept when and where you could in those days.
When I awoke I peered over the side, and saw what I presumed was the Isle of Wight again and thought, “we are back”. Of course we weren't, because this was the Normandy beach head, and we were going in with the load of Canadians we had collected from Stokes Bay a couple of days earlier.
The noise was horrendous and shells passed overhead both ways or exploded behind, to our sides, and in front of us. I was frightened, excited and then, as we landed and became appalled at the mayhem with which we were confronted I felt like crying. A Canadian Sergeant told me it was nothing to be ashamed of if I did, but the moment passed. We were ordered, amongst other things like tending the wounded, to haul bodies from the sea, which meant using boat hooks on many of them. They and the wounded were stretchered to assembly points, for dispatch to England on board landing craft. Eventually many of the dead were buried in temporary graves where they fell. German prisoners being put to work to do the digging.
I well remember that while we were on the beach, a German Me 109 aircraft strafed us several times, killing and wounding some men, until the aircraft was hit and came down, the pilot taking to his parachute. One of our lads, Les ‘Brummy’ Hunt, always carried a flick-knife in his sock and taking this out he went after the young pilot to kill him for sending so many boy’s to their death. It took several of us to stop him.”
The casualties taken to Haslar in the 3 months of the D-Day Landing period was 1,347, just part of the 17,556 received and distributed by the Portsmouth P.M.O. (Port Medical Office)
Iris Weir was at Gosport from 1937 to 1945 and she, after D-Day, as a young mother with her husband in the navy, and having already endured bombing raids, offered her services to Haslar:
“ I was taken on to part-time to help launder the sheets of the dead and wounded who had been brought back from France. Many of the wounded were also taken to other hospitals like Netley, at Southampton. Everyone tried to keep cheerful but it was very difficult. I was 28 years old and put next to an operating theatre, the sheets given to us still had bits of bodies stuck to them. The smell of ether was sickening, and we were certainly sobered by the reality of it all.”
The Hospital Principal Medical Officer took on the job of planning and co-ordinating the naval, army, and civil arrangements, for the arrival and treatment of the casualties from the Normandy beaches.
Advanced dressing stations were set up at Clarence Yard, Queen Alexandra Military Hospital, Cosham, the Children’s Home at Alverstoke, Fort Gomer near the airfield, and at Fort Brockhurst. The town’s population, and men and women from surrounding bases answered the call for blood donors and they were sent to a field hospital set up on the miniature golf course at Stokes Bay.
Advanced dressing stations were set up at Clarence Yard, Queen Alexandra Military Hospital, Cosham, the Children’s Home at Alverstoke, Fort Gomer near the airfield, and at Fort Brockhurst. The town’s population, and men and women from surrounding bases answered the call for blood donors and they were sent to a field hospital set up on the miniature golf course at Stokes Bay.
Haslar has treated civilians as well as military patients for a number of years and this has proved of obvious worth in the training gained by it’s doctors and nursing staff, firstly all naval and then tri-service, with N.H.S. supplementary’s.
The hospital is still run by the Ministry of Defence but under the local National Health Trust. A MoD Hospital Unit (MDHU) is now open at Q.A.Hospital. Cosham, inaugurated by Surgeon Rear Admiral P. Raffaelli on 8 April 2005.
During 1998-99 Haslar’s special equipment, helped in the treatment of patients from other hospital’s who were suffering from the flesh eating bacterial disease necrotising fasciitis. For this the hyperbaric chamber was used, because it was found that oxygen at high pressure was an effective treatment, along with antibiotics and surgery, in combating this awful condition which affects about 22 people a year. The chamber has also been used many times in the treatment of divers who have been suffering from the ‘bends’, a condition often brought about by too rapid ascent from deep water.
Haslar has pioneered many innovations in medicine, but in November 1999, a very special award was made to a team of 70, led by Surgeon Commander Dr. Lionel Jarvis, for outstanding work in the field of diagnostic imaging.
Scans or X-rays taken of service personnel anywhere on the globe, can be transmitted by satellite link, to the hospital Radiology Department, and advised treatments, then sent back to the doctors. Royal Hospital Haslar has become the armed services headquarters for diagnostic imaging. The Nycomed Amersham Diagnostic Imaging ‘Team of the Year Award’, is especially poignant now that the government [2009] has allowed closure of the hospital to go ahead.
With the Tri-Service Defence Medical College situated next door at Fort Blockhouse, where military doctors and other medical staff are trained, the combination of hospital and college had great potential, which is now to be lost, due to imminent closure of both. Leaving defence medicine in a perilous state, and the civilians of Gosport, Fareham and Lee-on-Solent, and even further afield, without a nearby general hospital. Many top doctors decided to leave the hospital when the NHS began to take over and some emigrated to New Zealand. Others also left the UK for Australia and Canada.
Although closure of the hospital has not yet taken place, the area’s loss has already become apparent with some specialists refusing to attend at Haslar and some operations ceasing to be carried out. However, as various programs of rebuilding and re-organising continue within the health region Haslars facilities are used as a stop gap.
The hospital is still run by the Ministry of Defence but under the local National Health Trust. A MoD Hospital Unit (MDHU) is now open at Q.A.Hospital. Cosham, inaugurated by Surgeon Rear Admiral P. Raffaelli on 8 April 2005.
During 1998-99 Haslar’s special equipment, helped in the treatment of patients from other hospital’s who were suffering from the flesh eating bacterial disease necrotising fasciitis. For this the hyperbaric chamber was used, because it was found that oxygen at high pressure was an effective treatment, along with antibiotics and surgery, in combating this awful condition which affects about 22 people a year. The chamber has also been used many times in the treatment of divers who have been suffering from the ‘bends’, a condition often brought about by too rapid ascent from deep water.
Haslar has pioneered many innovations in medicine, but in November 1999, a very special award was made to a team of 70, led by Surgeon Commander Dr. Lionel Jarvis, for outstanding work in the field of diagnostic imaging.
Scans or X-rays taken of service personnel anywhere on the globe, can be transmitted by satellite link, to the hospital Radiology Department, and advised treatments, then sent back to the doctors. Royal Hospital Haslar has become the armed services headquarters for diagnostic imaging. The Nycomed Amersham Diagnostic Imaging ‘Team of the Year Award’, is especially poignant now that the government [2009] has allowed closure of the hospital to go ahead.
With the Tri-Service Defence Medical College situated next door at Fort Blockhouse, where military doctors and other medical staff are trained, the combination of hospital and college had great potential, which is now to be lost, due to imminent closure of both. Leaving defence medicine in a perilous state, and the civilians of Gosport, Fareham and Lee-on-Solent, and even further afield, without a nearby general hospital. Many top doctors decided to leave the hospital when the NHS began to take over and some emigrated to New Zealand. Others also left the UK for Australia and Canada.
Although closure of the hospital has not yet taken place, the area’s loss has already become apparent with some specialists refusing to attend at Haslar and some operations ceasing to be carried out. However, as various programs of rebuilding and re-organising continue within the health region Haslars facilities are used as a stop gap.
[ Haslar’s fate is still unclear (2009).]
