NEWSLETTER NO. 15 - Jul 2007
WADHURST HISTORY SOCIETY
Adrian Jones recently visited our web site and sent some photographs of an old Wadhurst Codds marble bottle of Wright and Sons that he recently found in the grounds of the former Military Royal Victoria Hospital at Netley near Southampton, now a public park. The bottle was found amongst pottery sherds all dated 1914 to
A story in a bottle
1917 - or WW1.
This type of bottle was used from 1880 through to the 1920's, but probably got there during WW1. Netley Hospital was the largest Military Hospital in the UK and treated 50,000 patients during the First World War alone.
Most bottles found in the area tend to be fairly local beers or mineral waters from Southampton, Romsey or Reading including medicine and poison bottles.
But there is also a smattering of other bottles from all over the UK. It is thought this is because during WW1 towns and local manufacturers sent presents to their boys in the Hospital;
these were usually in the form of local produce - beer or mineral waters and sometimes the odd bottle even arrived with a visitor, if the patient was lucky enough to receive one. So it is possible that this bottle arrived at Netley because the Hospital treated some wounded Wadhurst soldiers - maybe even from the Battle of Aubers Ridge.
The photo of the bottle is not very clear as the bottle is suffering from ‘sickness’ where salts in the glass have leached out - this occurs after long periods, 70 years and upwards, of burial. The wording on the bottle is Wright and Sons, in the centre is a trade mark - ? a sextant - and under that is WADHURST.
SO: does anyone know of local WW1 casualties who might have been sent to Netley to recover - and what do we know of the brewery? There’s another research project for the Society some time when we have nothing else to do!
Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley
Hampshire County Council provides a brief history of the Netley Royal Victoria Hospital on the internet at www.hants.gov.uk/rvcp/history.html. When built, the Royal Victoria Hospital was Britain's largest military hospital. The main building was ¼ mile long, had 138 wards and approximately 1000 beds.
The need for such a hospital was realised during the Crimean War (1854 - 56) when the Army had no large purpose- built hospitals to treat casualties. The site at Netley was chosen because it was close to the port of Southampton where hospital ships could arrive from all over the British Empire.
The foundation stone was laid by Queen Victoria on 19 May 1856 and the hospital opened for patients in 1863.
Florence Nightingale was keen to be involved with the design of Netley Hospital. However, when she eventually saw the site plans, she felt it was out of date but because construction had already started few changes were actually made. She also helped draw up early military nursing regulations.
Many of the early military nurses who served at Netley did their civilian training at St Thomas's and other London hospitals. The first Army nurses to serve overseas left Netley in 1879, led by Mrs Deeble the Lady Superintendent (matron), to serve in the Zulu war.
Queen Victoria, before her death in 1901, visited Netley many times, either from Windsor by train or across the Solent by boat from her home, Osborne House, on the Isle of Wight. During these visits she awarded three Victoria Crosses to patients at Netley. One was received by Private Hitch (24th Regt) in recognition of his bravery at Rorke's Drift in 1879, while Piper Findlater (Gordon Highlanders) and Private Vickery (Dorset Regt) both received theirs for actions in the Tirah Campaign on the North West Frontier of India.
From 1863 to 1902 Netley was also the home of the Army Medical School which trained civilian doctors for service in the Army. As many of the hospital's casualties were suffering from tropical diseases rather than gunshot wounds, the school was also used for medical research. Sir Almoth Wright, a professor of pathology, spent ten years at Netley. Much of his time was involved in research into the prevention of these diseases. He is most famous for his discovery of a vaccine against typhoid.
One of the doctors who trained at Netley was Dr Watson, the partner of Sherlock Holmes. His connections with Netley are mentioned on the first page of 'A Study in Scarlet' the first Sherlock Holmes book.
A pier was built, in 1865, to receive hospital ships from all over the British Empire. Unfortunately, the pier was too short to accommodate most of these ships. As a result, in 1900, a railway line was built from Netley station to the hospital to allow ambulance trains to come direct from Southampton docks. The railway was built during the Boer War (1899 - 1902) when Netley was very busy.
In 1914, Netley expanded to accommodate some 2000 beds by building a large Red Cross hutted hospital in fields at the rear of the main hospital. Most of the staff at Netley were reservists or Red Cross VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nurses as the small regular force was overseas. In total some 50,000 patients were treated by the main hospital and Red Cross hospital in WW1. One of the patients was the war poet Wilfred Owen who was evacuated to Netley with shell shock and was later transferred to Craighlockhart hospital in Edinburgh.
In 1939, Red Cross/St John's Ambulance staff were again mobilised for service at Netley. The hospital treated many casualties including those from the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940. In 1944 American forces took over the hospital for D. Day and both US Army and Navy worked here. Some 68,000 casualties (including 10,000 Germans who later became prisoners of war) were treated before the Americans left in July 1945 .
Close to the hospital, along a causeway through Cemetery Wood, is Netley Military Cemetery. Opened in 1864 it contains military graves of hospital patients and staff, and their families, who worked at the hospital. There are over 700 graves from WW1 (including 69 Germans) and 37 from WW2. The Cemetery closed in 1978.
After the war the main hospital building fell into disuse and became derelict by 1955. In 1963 a large fire damaged vast sections of the building. In 1966 it was finally demolished leaving just the chapel which now contains a shop and historical displays. Apart for the main hospital, mention must also be made of D block (now Victoria House) which opened in 1870 as the Army's first purpose built military asylum. In WW1 some 15,000 patients passed through D block, mainly for short term assessment, before going elsewhere. In 1941 doctors and mental nurses from Netley treated Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy, who flew mysteriously to Scotland and became a prisoner.
From the 1950s to 1978, D & E block (later renamed Albert House) also treated Army (and, from 1960, Navy) personnel who suffered from VD, and drug and alcohol problems.
A parade through Netley village followed by a ball and firework display at the officers' mess marked the closure of the hospital in 1978.
What now remains: the Hospital Cemetery, the YMCA Building, the Netley Station Officers' Mess - now private flats, and a few remains of the Hospital Railway Line.
