How would I find records of my great grandmother, Christina Cooper (born Glasgow 1871) who is consistently listed as a ‘private nurse’ or ‘lady’s nurse’ in glasgow, scotland between 1890-1911. Apparently she entered ww1, working in the French trenches but can find nothing on her.
thanks
Hi Tina, have you been in touch with Glasgow University Archives? They have records of the Glasgow College of Nursing and Midwifery – it may be that your great grandmother trained there. The Red Cross archives may be able to shed light on her work during the First World War, and local newspapers are always worth searching. You may already have tried The Mitchell Library and the Imperial War Museum, but if not then I would add them to the list. The archivists are always the best people to ask for help. They can often suggest new places to search that you may not have thought of.
Good luck with you research,
best wishes
from Harriet
Harriet, there’s a website called the Last no Long Trail. It has a concise list of War Hospitals in the UK. Jeanette
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The Long Lost Trail
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Dear Harriet
You may remember that some years ago you generously sent me a copy of your hospitals survey which was of considerable benefit to the survey of Highland hospitals which I was then undertaking along with my son. I remain eternally grateful. Just to let you know that we continue our work and have now published 3 booklets – on Skye, Nairn and Lochaber. One on Inverness is due out soon. Details of the History of Highland Hospitals Project can be found at http://www.historyofhighlandhospitals.com
Dear Jim,
Yes I do indeed remember you, thank you for getting in touch and so glad you like the blog. I will be ordering copies of your booklets, and look forward to reading them. I will be able to fill in some gaps, and no doubt correct mistakes I’ve made. Your website looks really useful too, I will have a proper look later and put a link on this website.
thanks again,
best wishes from Harriet
Dear Harriet
Just to let you know that the slide show which you have on Nairn from A Gurn fron Nurn is actually my material which is unacknowledged by them and which you will note has my email address on the final slide. I created it for a talk I gave at the opening of the new hospital and left a copy with Nairn Hospital so that they could run it on their plasma screens in the waiting room. I’m really sorry that it was passed on to you without any reference to myself and I’m taking it up with those involved in Nairn. All of the information is of course in my book – The Hospitals of Nairn.
Enjoyed your post on the Belvedere!
Best wishes
Jim Leslie
Dear Jim, apologies for not spotting that the material on Nairn was your copyright, I will remove the last paragraph and put in a reference to your publication in its place. Glad you enjoyed the Belvidere piece – as usual I was sad to see all the old blocks have been demolished, but I guess folks don’t much want to live in an old smallpox hospital.
Best wishes,
from Harriet
The problem for me was that the resource had been uploaded to the Nairn site without any reference or acknowledgement to myself. I’ve taken this up with them. If there is any problem I can always upload a version to my own site and will be pleased to link this with you.
Best wishes
Jim
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I live in what was Newhills Sanatorium. The entry in the Aberdeen list says “see Aberdeenshire”, but I cannot find an Aberdeenshire page. Am I missing something?
Dear David,
Thank you for getting in touch, I had put the entry for the Sanatorium under the heading Newhills Home – its original name. I have amended the entry to read ‘Newhills Sanatorium, Bucksburn (Newhills Home) – so hopefully you will be able to find it now – it is under Aberdeenshire. If you had any photos of the building as it is now, that you would be willing to add to the page, I would be very grateful.
Hello I am trying to find my Great Grandmother Mary Violetta Vaughan it seems she was here in 1910-1911 but not sure if before or not
She was born 1862 and died in 1912 in Seaford
Thanks so much
Hi Harriet
Brislington House now know as Long Fox Manor She was there and then shows living at 77 Beaconsfield Villas, Brighton Thanks Lorna
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Hello Harriet,
I have been trying to find details of the Red Cross Hospital used in WWI, The Bellahouston or Cardonald. I cannot find anything on the internet. Any ideas please?
Regards, Mary
Hi Mary, my grandfather died in the Bellahouston Red Cross Military Hospital 2/11/1922. He attended there from around 1918 -1922 with a gunshot wound to his neck which he recited either Arras or Ypres Oct 1917. He wasn’t always an in patient as he travelled back and forth from Neilston. Previously he was in the Southern General Hospital, leith Edinburgh, a firmer ‘poor house’ used as a Military Hospital. Bellahouston was still opened a few years after the Great War ended. I have his medical records. Apparently it stood where the Bellahouston sports centre is now in Bellahouston Park. I’ve heard there was an airfield there as well. I hope this is of some use . I would appreciate if anyone has any photographs of the hospital. Regards Jeanette Molloy
Thank you Frank, I did send some information to Wartime Memories Project but don’t think they used it. I sent his info to Royal Dublin Fusileirs FB and the Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association and I am going to meet in town for his other regiment The Royal Scots Fusiliers. He served in 2 regiments. The first when he came to Ireland from Atlantic City New Jersey where he was born, at least 3rd generation American and the other when me met and married my gran and then lived and died in Scotland. He died when mum was 6 and her mum died when she was 12. Ive only found all this out through websites like this. It was a great measure to find a painting if the hospital he died in yesterday regards Jeanette .
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Hi Jeanette, It is really good that you have all that info on your gf. It wasn’t a relative of mine in there, I had found it out for a friend.
I don’t understand why they didn’t use the info you sent, they seem keen for folk to send stuff like that. Regards, Mary.
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Sorry Harriet, I omitted the fact that it was in Glasgow.
Mary
I’ve found out more information about the Bellahouston Red Cross Military Hospital. It is called the Scottish National Red Cross Military Hospital Bellahouston Glasgow and I have found a wonderful painting of the hospital.
Dear Sir/Maám,
We at Allied Academies are happy to announce International Conference on Pathology and Surgical Pathology scheduled for three days in the month of September from 06 to 08, 2018.
In this regard, We are connecting with your esteemed organizantion to know if you would like to collaborate with us to bring out budding researchers and scientists to the lime light.
Please do write back to us in case you are interested to partner with us.
Looking forward to have you on board with us.
For more details: https://goo.gl/F5YC86
Regards,
Scarlett Xavier,
Program Manager.
I was wonder if you could help. I am looking for information on my great grandmother.
Her name was Ann Stirred she was in Roadmeetings hospital and died in 1936.
My gran doesn’t know anymore information as she was only 18months old when she died.
Dear Fiona,
I think your best bet would be to contact Lanark Library. As the hospital was at that time run by the local authority, records should be with the county archives. The contact details are: Lanark Library, Reference Department, tel:01555 661144
e-mail: lanark.ref@library.s-lanark.org.uk
with best wishes
from Harriet
Helston and District Hospital (Helston and District War Memorial Cottage Hospital)
SW 665 264 100303
Hi, I am research family history and discovered family members who were inmates at the hospital during the 1920’s and 30’s. They were Annie Bowden born 1906 and her young baby son Raymond Maurice Bowden Born 1931. I understand from family members that Annie was at the institution when it was the poor house. Do you have any records or documents ? I have tried the County Records who are unable to help.
Dear Amanda,
Cornwall Record Office should have the archives that you require, but they are closed at the moment and not due to reopen until some time next year. There may be confusion over the location. If your family members were in the poor house, this was the former Meneage Hospital in Helston rather than the cottage hospital. Historic England Archives has a file on Helston and District Hospital (BF100303), which has an account of the history of the hospital and photographs. They may be able to send you a copy of this if you got in touch. Your local library may well also be able to advise you, and provide access to historic newspapers that might have notices of births etc. I don’t have any records myself.
best wishes,
from Harriet
Have sent them the information Harriet but don’t know if it was printed or not. Thank you. My gf was American who came to Ireland 1901 he joined the Royal Dublin Fusiliers , Boer War and Khartoum. He was in the camel Corp and rode a camel. Married my gran 1910. Lived in scotland. Was a reserve. Called up for WW1 Royal Scots Fusiliers , shot in neck, broke collar bone, either Ypres or Arras 1917 brought home through France, Middlesex, Craigleith hospital Edinburgh, a firmer porhouse, I also got a watercolour by the same artist yesterday as well, then Sothern General Red Cross Hospital Bellahouston Glasgow. If it wasn’t for these websites I wouldn’t know anything about my gf as he died when mum was 6 and her mother 12 Regards Jeanette
It’s just the next district to Bellahouston, going south. The Imperial War museum has posters for a fundraising day by an athletics group. Rangers football club Ibrox, another close district gave support as well. The hospital closed 1930. I hope you got the painting It’s wonderful . By Spradbury, Walter Ernest. I live here and it’s now a Sports centre. The hospital s virtually forgotten about. There’s been a few articles in newspapers reviving interest. Regards Jeanette
Hi Jeanette,
The painting I have shows rows of white & black buildings. Chimney with Red Cross emblem. & a bench bottom right. Is this the one?
Regards, Mary
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Yes Mary thats the one. There buildings to the far right. Tenements red sandstone and the far back of the painting. It’s a wonderful painting. I suspect he had gone the same recovery route as my grandfather as he has a watercolour of Craigleith in Edinburgh as well. Jeanette
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You will get the painting on this link The right side. The houses are on Paisley Road West. A major road in Glasgow. The tenements are still there. Looking straight ahead in the painting is Bellahouston drive , there’s other tenements and they’re still there. The entrance to the sports centre is on this road. But where the main building is there has been a grander entrance there into the grounds. The main building area is now a play park. May your relative and mine knew each other. My gf was American but fought fir Britain. Regards Jeanette
Hi Jeanette,
I didn’t think it was going to look like a holiday camp set-up! I had imagined the usual neo-gothic huge solitary building.
Mary.
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Not holiday set up. It’s a barracks type set up. If you think how serious the injuries were. The hospital that took over from 1930 Erskine Hospital homes the most serious war injured veterans in the world With 4 x limb loss. My grandfather had a GSW in the neck which broke his collar bone. It abscessed and they drained it 5 years later. The collar bone crumbled and draining exposed the deep blood vessels. He died from massive haemorrhage. Perhaps you will rethink your holiday camp image. TBH I’m a bit offended at your comment.
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Sorry Jeanette, I did not mean to offend. I didn’t think of the word barracks as the buildings looked so nice & cheerful, nothing like the hospital building I had imagined. I too had relatives killed & injured in both WW’s, my mother told me of her cousin being “blown to bits” when she was a girl. So I do take it seriously. The layout just put me in mind of a similar place in Essex. I can’t remember what it was built for, but it was used much later as the film set for Hi-Di-Hi & was completely demolished after that. Regards, Mary.
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Thank you Mary. It’s probably what they called Pre Fab buildings and built as an emergency. The Long Long Trail has loads of information . Glasgow had 15 Red Cross military hospitals and I never realised I was born in one. It was a red brick hospital. Jeanette
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We had pre-fab houses, a girl in my class at secondary school lived in one. I don’t recall anyone mentioning an address, folk just said they lived in’t pre-fabs. They were demolished some years ago.
Mary
I live near there and it’s not like that now. There’s no golf course. A sports centre near the front gate where the hospital was. There a ski slope at the far end, also House for an Art Lover. There’s no sign of any hospital.
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Evening Harriet im looking to find info on my great aunt Madge Barker who was in Bangour Village Hosp in the 70’s died there 1978 …. how long was she there and why? thank you.
Hi Lorna, apologies for not replying sooner. It can be very difficult to find out information about patients, especially within the last 70 years or so. You would need to contact Lothian Health Services Archives for advice on access to patient records for Bangour at that time.
Hi, I’m trying to find where I was born. I thought it was at the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital but the information on the site doesn’t fit with the address on my birth certificate. (12 Claremont Terrace, Glasgow.) Do you by any chance know what hospital/maternity unit was located there in the 1950s? I was born in 1954. I’d be grateful for any help you can give. Thanks.
Dear Judy, I think that the Park Nursing Home was probably still at 12 Claremont Terrace in the 1950s. It appears in the 1940 Post Office Directory. Nursing homes at that date were essentially private hospitals, rather than hospices or homes for the elderly as we tend to think of them today. You may find more information at the Mitchell Library, or from local newspapers.
Hi, I was looking on your site to look into the history of a building I work in. It’s called Saughton House and is a shared Government office in Edinburgh on Broomhouse Drive.
The story that is usually told to newbies (like myself) is that it was originally made as an emergency hospital for WW2 however by the time the building was completed, the war was over, beds weren`t needed and it was repurposed.
I can`t find anything about the building on NLS or Registers of Scotland except if you look at/visit the site it feels like it wasn’t originally built as offices and does feel like it has wards and wide corridors – its looks a bit like Bridge of Earn Hospital that I found on your site.
I was wondering if you had heard mention of the site as I`m a bit stuck at the moment.
I don’t know for certain, but I do not think Saughton House was built as a hospital. It does follow a similar spider plan layout to the Emergency Medical Scheme hospitals, but offices were built to much the same plan during the Second World War. The Board of Trade occupied similar hutted blocks at Eastcote in the 1950s, and there was an office complex used by the Civil Service (if I remember rightly) at Acton. Saughton House is marked as Government Offices on the 1950s OS map. Happy to be proved wrong, if you come across any evidence to the contrary! Thank you for getting in touch.
all the best from Harriet
Hi Harriet, that’s great thank you for the help. Ill have a look into the other office buildings you've mentioned. I have a friend who works at RCAHMS who suggested a few places to try and find more information and it was him that mentioned your very thorough website. If I do find anything that does suggest otherwise about Saughton House Ill pass it on but I suspect they’re just a slightly odd office design that have led to a bit of a fun/macabre myth about the place from the working staff. Thanks again for the help. Dave
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Within Glasgow Eye Infirmary there was a plaque, Lipton Orthoptic Institute. This was a training school for orthoptists and I trained there graduating in 1985.
Often wondered why it was called this and why the Lipton connection.
Hope you can enlighten me
Kind regards
Ailison
Hi Harriet
I find your website fascinating and because of your helpful links I have been able to find out quite a bit about life in the lunatic asylum, St Andrew’s Hospital, Northampton. I am interested to know if I can obtain medical records of an ancestor who was a patient there from 1852 to 1869 or at least find out general information about her during her stay. Would you know where these records might be available please?
Thank you
Alyson
Thank you for your help Harriet. Sorry for delay in acknowledging. I will email them.
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Glasgow Royal Asylum built in 1810 “remained in use as the city poorhouse until it was demolished at the turn of the 20th century.” Is this poorhoiuse the same as the Old Man’s Asylum on Rottenrow in Glasgow’s Blackfriars district?
As a garden historian and one time Conservation Officer with the Garden History Society in Scotland I spent some time in the 1990s and early 2000s defending hospital and asylum landscapes from unwelcome development. Consequently, I am a great admirer of your work on Scottish Hospitals, and am now an occasional user of your impressive Historic Hospitals website. In my current capacity as Vice Chairman and Honorary Research Adviser with Scotland’s Garden and Landscape Heritage I deal with a variety of enquiries, so am currently responding to one concerning therapeutic landscapes, a subject on which I have lectured from time to time in the past. This e-mail is prompted by my using your website to help answer this enquiry. On trying to search hospitals on my own patch here in Perthshire, and clicking on ‘Perth and Kinross’, this brings up ‘Orkney and Shetland’ suggesting that there is a link on the website which needs to be fixed.
Incidentally, I note that there is a contact e-mail address included on the Historic Hospitals website as < Harriet.Richardson@ucl.ac.uk > (UCL being my alma mater !), although I understand that you are now based at the University of Edinburgh. Is this still correct ? I should be interested to establish a line of communication if you are willing, as I have a long standing and continuing interest in hospital and asylum landscapes, and shall be happy to share information. My own e-mail address is < dingwall@guidelines.scot >.
I shall cut and paste this message to send to the UCL e-mail address.
Hello Harriet
I live in Australia but was born in Ongar War Memorial Hospital Chipping Ongar in 1943. I know the the hospital has been demolished and they now have a medical centre there. I was wondering if you could please help me. I would love a photo of the old hospital and wondered where I could get one. Would be much appreciated.
Thank you
Chris
Do you know when the first Mental Health/Lunacy legislation was passed in Scotland or was Scotland subject to the Madhouse Act 1774?
I’m doing a study of the way society has treated those who don’t quite fit in like, single mothers and strong independent women who seem to of threatened the publics health and morals throughout the ages. (Never any talk of the men who made these single women pregnant).
I am trying to locate a former student at your facility. Her name is Maureen Doyle. She studied Occupational Therapy. She and I were pen pals for many many years but have lost touch. If you have any location for her it would be greatly appreciated. When we were pen pals I lived in Jacksonville, Florida USA.
Thank you SO VERY MUCH for any assistance you can give to get us back in touch.
Hi Betty, could you say where Maureen was a student? For privacy reasons I have not published your email address, but will be happy to pass on details through my own email address if anyone gets in touch.
The return address on her letter is:
Room 35
Staff Home
Inverurie Cottage Hospital
Inverurie
Aberdeenshire
The postmark on that envelope is October 1983 if that helps.
She said “I am living in a Nurses Hime in Inverurie outside Aberdeen …..
Thank you soooo much for any help you can give me!!
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Hi Harriet have I mentioned that I’ve aquired the original Albany Wiseman painting of the Royal Infirmary Edinburgh… as well as the limited edition lithograph that was produced at the Curwen Print Studio???
How would I find records of my great grandmother, Christina Cooper (born Glasgow 1871) who is consistently listed as a ‘private nurse’ or ‘lady’s nurse’ in glasgow, scotland between 1890-1911. Apparently she entered ww1, working in the French trenches but can find nothing on her.
thanks
Hi Tina, have you been in touch with Glasgow University Archives? They have records of the Glasgow College of Nursing and Midwifery – it may be that your great grandmother trained there. The Red Cross archives may be able to shed light on her work during the First World War, and local newspapers are always worth searching. You may already have tried The Mitchell Library and the Imperial War Museum, but if not then I would add them to the list. The archivists are always the best people to ask for help. They can often suggest new places to search that you may not have thought of.
Good luck with you research,
best wishes
from Harriet
Harriet, there’s a website called the Last no Long Trail. It has a concise list of War Hospitals in the UK. Jeanette
The Long Lost Trail
Dear Harriet
You may remember that some years ago you generously sent me a copy of your hospitals survey which was of considerable benefit to the survey of Highland hospitals which I was then undertaking along with my son. I remain eternally grateful. Just to let you know that we continue our work and have now published 3 booklets – on Skye, Nairn and Lochaber. One on Inverness is due out soon. Details of the History of Highland Hospitals Project can be found at http://www.historyofhighlandhospitals.com
Very best wishes Love your blog!
Jim Leslie
Dear Jim,
Yes I do indeed remember you, thank you for getting in touch and so glad you like the blog. I will be ordering copies of your booklets, and look forward to reading them. I will be able to fill in some gaps, and no doubt correct mistakes I’ve made. Your website looks really useful too, I will have a proper look later and put a link on this website.
thanks again,
best wishes from Harriet
Dear Harriet
Just to let you know that the slide show which you have on Nairn from A Gurn fron Nurn is actually my material which is unacknowledged by them and which you will note has my email address on the final slide. I created it for a talk I gave at the opening of the new hospital and left a copy with Nairn Hospital so that they could run it on their plasma screens in the waiting room. I’m really sorry that it was passed on to you without any reference to myself and I’m taking it up with those involved in Nairn. All of the information is of course in my book – The Hospitals of Nairn.
Enjoyed your post on the Belvedere!
Best wishes
Jim Leslie
Dear Jim, apologies for not spotting that the material on Nairn was your copyright, I will remove the last paragraph and put in a reference to your publication in its place. Glad you enjoyed the Belvidere piece – as usual I was sad to see all the old blocks have been demolished, but I guess folks don’t much want to live in an old smallpox hospital.
Best wishes,
from Harriet
Many thanks Harriet
The problem for me was that the resource had been uploaded to the Nairn site without any reference or acknowledgement to myself. I’ve taken this up with them. If there is any problem I can always upload a version to my own site and will be pleased to link this with you.
Best wishes
Jim
I live in what was Newhills Sanatorium. The entry in the Aberdeen list says “see Aberdeenshire”, but I cannot find an Aberdeenshire page. Am I missing something?
Dear David,
Thank you for getting in touch, I had put the entry for the Sanatorium under the heading Newhills Home – its original name. I have amended the entry to read ‘Newhills Sanatorium, Bucksburn (Newhills Home) – so hopefully you will be able to find it now – it is under Aberdeenshire. If you had any photos of the building as it is now, that you would be willing to add to the page, I would be very grateful.
Hello I am trying to find my Great Grandmother Mary Violetta Vaughan it seems she was here in 1910-1911 but not sure if before or not
She was born 1862 and died in 1912 in Seaford
Thanks so much
Dear Lorna,
Where exactly was your Great Grandmother in 1910-11?
best wishes,
from Harriet
Hi Harriet
Brislington House now know as Long Fox Manor She was there and then shows living at 77 Beaconsfield Villas, Brighton Thanks Lorna
Hello Harriet,
I have been trying to find details of the Red Cross Hospital used in WWI, The Bellahouston or Cardonald. I cannot find anything on the internet. Any ideas please?
Regards, Mary
Hi Mary, my grandfather died in the Bellahouston Red Cross Military Hospital 2/11/1922. He attended there from around 1918 -1922 with a gunshot wound to his neck which he recited either Arras or Ypres Oct 1917. He wasn’t always an in patient as he travelled back and forth from Neilston. Previously he was in the Southern General Hospital, leith Edinburgh, a firmer ‘poor house’ used as a Military Hospital. Bellahouston was still opened a few years after the Great War ended. I have his medical records. Apparently it stood where the Bellahouston sports centre is now in Bellahouston Park. I’ve heard there was an airfield there as well. I hope this is of some use . I would appreciate if anyone has any photographs of the hospital. Regards Jeanette Molloy
Sorry can’t edit. That should be received
Hi Jeanette,
Thank you for taking the time to reply, why not add your grandfather to this site:- https://wartimememoriesproject.com/greatwar/hospitals/hospital.php?pid=13118
Regards,
Mary.
Thank you Frank, I did send some information to Wartime Memories Project but don’t think they used it. I sent his info to Royal Dublin Fusileirs FB and the Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association and I am going to meet in town for his other regiment The Royal Scots Fusiliers. He served in 2 regiments. The first when he came to Ireland from Atlantic City New Jersey where he was born, at least 3rd generation American and the other when me met and married my gran and then lived and died in Scotland. He died when mum was 6 and her mum died when she was 12. Ive only found all this out through websites like this. It was a great measure to find a painting if the hospital he died in yesterday regards Jeanette .
Hi Jeanette, It is really good that you have all that info on your gf. It wasn’t a relative of mine in there, I had found it out for a friend.
I don’t understand why they didn’t use the info you sent, they seem keen for folk to send stuff like that. Regards, Mary.
Sorry Harriet, I omitted the fact that it was in Glasgow.
Mary
I’ve found out more information about the Bellahouston Red Cross Military Hospital. It is called the Scottish National Red Cross Military Hospital Bellahouston Glasgow and I have found a wonderful painting of the hospital.
Dear Sir/Maám,
We at Allied Academies are happy to announce International Conference on Pathology and Surgical Pathology scheduled for three days in the month of September from 06 to 08, 2018.
In this regard, We are connecting with your esteemed organizantion to know if you would like to collaborate with us to bring out budding researchers and scientists to the lime light.
Please do write back to us in case you are interested to partner with us.
Looking forward to have you on board with us.
For more details: https://goo.gl/F5YC86
Regards,
Scarlett Xavier,
Program Manager.
Opportunity to attend /speak on Pediatrics 2018 on 26-27 JULY at Amsterdam ,Netherlands
http://pediatrics.euroscicon.com/
Dear Harriet
I was wonder if you could help. I am looking for information on my great grandmother.
Her name was Ann Stirred she was in Roadmeetings hospital and died in 1936.
My gran doesn’t know anymore information as she was only 18months old when she died.
Kind Regards
Fiona
Dear Fiona,
I think your best bet would be to contact Lanark Library. As the hospital was at that time run by the local authority, records should be with the county archives. The contact details are: Lanark Library, Reference Department, tel:01555 661144
e-mail: lanark.ref@library.s-lanark.org.uk
with best wishes
from Harriet
Helston and District Hospital (Helston and District War Memorial Cottage Hospital)
SW 665 264 100303
Hi, I am research family history and discovered family members who were inmates at the hospital during the 1920’s and 30’s. They were Annie Bowden born 1906 and her young baby son Raymond Maurice Bowden Born 1931. I understand from family members that Annie was at the institution when it was the poor house. Do you have any records or documents ? I have tried the County Records who are unable to help.
Amanda
Dear Amanda,
Cornwall Record Office should have the archives that you require, but they are closed at the moment and not due to reopen until some time next year. There may be confusion over the location. If your family members were in the poor house, this was the former Meneage Hospital in Helston rather than the cottage hospital. Historic England Archives has a file on Helston and District Hospital (BF100303), which has an account of the history of the hospital and photographs. They may be able to send you a copy of this if you got in touch. Your local library may well also be able to advise you, and provide access to historic newspapers that might have notices of births etc. I don’t have any records myself.
best wishes,
from Harriet
Have sent them the information Harriet but don’t know if it was printed or not. Thank you. My gf was American who came to Ireland 1901 he joined the Royal Dublin Fusiliers , Boer War and Khartoum. He was in the camel Corp and rode a camel. Married my gran 1910. Lived in scotland. Was a reserve. Called up for WW1 Royal Scots Fusiliers , shot in neck, broke collar bone, either Ypres or Arras 1917 brought home through France, Middlesex, Craigleith hospital Edinburgh, a firmer porhouse, I also got a watercolour by the same artist yesterday as well, then Sothern General Red Cross Hospital Bellahouston Glasgow. If it wasn’t for these websites I wouldn’t know anything about my gf as he died when mum was 6 and her mother 12 Regards Jeanette
Jeanette,
Where does the Cardonald come in?
Mary
It’s just the next district to Bellahouston, going south. The Imperial War museum has posters for a fundraising day by an athletics group. Rangers football club Ibrox, another close district gave support as well. The hospital closed 1930. I hope you got the painting It’s wonderful . By Spradbury, Walter Ernest. I live here and it’s now a Sports centre. The hospital s virtually forgotten about. There’s been a few articles in newspapers reviving interest. Regards Jeanette
Hi Jeanette,
The painting I have shows rows of white & black buildings. Chimney with Red Cross emblem. & a bench bottom right. Is this the one?
Regards, Mary
Yes Mary thats the one. There buildings to the far right. Tenements red sandstone and the far back of the painting. It’s a wonderful painting. I suspect he had gone the same recovery route as my grandfather as he has a watercolour of Craigleith in Edinburgh as well. Jeanette
You will get the painting on this link The right side. The houses are on Paisley Road West. A major road in Glasgow. The tenements are still there. Looking straight ahead in the painting is Bellahouston drive , there’s other tenements and they’re still there. The entrance to the sports centre is on this road. But where the main building is there has been a grander entrance there into the grounds. The main building area is now a play park. May your relative and mine knew each other. My gf was American but fought fir Britain. Regards Jeanette
https://wellcomecollection.org/newsletter?result=success
Hi Jeanette,
I didn’t think it was going to look like a holiday camp set-up! I had imagined the usual neo-gothic huge solitary building.
Mary.
Not holiday set up. It’s a barracks type set up. If you think how serious the injuries were. The hospital that took over from 1930 Erskine Hospital homes the most serious war injured veterans in the world With 4 x limb loss. My grandfather had a GSW in the neck which broke his collar bone. It abscessed and they drained it 5 years later. The collar bone crumbled and draining exposed the deep blood vessels. He died from massive haemorrhage. Perhaps you will rethink your holiday camp image. TBH I’m a bit offended at your comment.
Sorry Jeanette, I did not mean to offend. I didn’t think of the word barracks as the buildings looked so nice & cheerful, nothing like the hospital building I had imagined. I too had relatives killed & injured in both WW’s, my mother told me of her cousin being “blown to bits” when she was a girl. So I do take it seriously. The layout just put me in mind of a similar place in Essex. I can’t remember what it was built for, but it was used much later as the film set for Hi-Di-Hi & was completely demolished after that. Regards, Mary.
Thank you Mary. It’s probably what they called Pre Fab buildings and built as an emergency. The Long Long Trail has loads of information . Glasgow had 15 Red Cross military hospitals and I never realised I was born in one. It was a red brick hospital. Jeanette
We had pre-fab houses, a girl in my class at secondary school lived in one. I don’t recall anyone mentioning an address, folk just said they lived in’t pre-fabs. They were demolished some years ago.
Mary
For a photo of Bellahouston Park – if you go onto the website for Bellahouston Golf Corse – http://www.forgottengreens.com/forgotten-greens/glasgow-alexandra-at-alexandra-park/bellahouston/ The picture half way down the page shows the hospital. The straight road up the side of the hospital is Bellahouston Drive. Hope this helps a bit.
I live near there and it’s not like that now. There’s no golf course. A sports centre near the front gate where the hospital was. There a ski slope at the far end, also House for an Art Lover. There’s no sign of any hospital.
Evening Harriet im looking to find info on my great aunt Madge Barker who was in Bangour Village Hosp in the 70’s died there 1978 …. how long was she there and why? thank you.
Hi Lorna, apologies for not replying sooner. It can be very difficult to find out information about patients, especially within the last 70 years or so. You would need to contact Lothian Health Services Archives for advice on access to patient records for Bangour at that time.
Hi, I’m trying to find where I was born. I thought it was at the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital but the information on the site doesn’t fit with the address on my birth certificate. (12 Claremont Terrace, Glasgow.) Do you by any chance know what hospital/maternity unit was located there in the 1950s? I was born in 1954. I’d be grateful for any help you can give. Thanks.
Dear Judy, I think that the Park Nursing Home was probably still at 12 Claremont Terrace in the 1950s. It appears in the 1940 Post Office Directory. Nursing homes at that date were essentially private hospitals, rather than hospices or homes for the elderly as we tend to think of them today. You may find more information at the Mitchell Library, or from local newspapers.
Hi, I was looking on your site to look into the history of a building I work in. It’s called Saughton House and is a shared Government office in Edinburgh on Broomhouse Drive.
The story that is usually told to newbies (like myself) is that it was originally made as an emergency hospital for WW2 however by the time the building was completed, the war was over, beds weren`t needed and it was repurposed.
I can`t find anything about the building on NLS or Registers of Scotland except if you look at/visit the site it feels like it wasn’t originally built as offices and does feel like it has wards and wide corridors – its looks a bit like Bridge of Earn Hospital that I found on your site.
I was wondering if you had heard mention of the site as I`m a bit stuck at the moment.
I don’t know for certain, but I do not think Saughton House was built as a hospital. It does follow a similar spider plan layout to the Emergency Medical Scheme hospitals, but offices were built to much the same plan during the Second World War. The Board of Trade occupied similar hutted blocks at Eastcote in the 1950s, and there was an office complex used by the Civil Service (if I remember rightly) at Acton. Saughton House is marked as Government Offices on the 1950s OS map. Happy to be proved wrong, if you come across any evidence to the contrary! Thank you for getting in touch.
all the best from Harriet
Hi Harriet, that’s great thank you for the help. I
ll have a look into the other office buildings you've mentioned. I have a friend who works at RCAHMS who suggested a few places to try and find more information and it was him that mentioned your very thorough website. If I do find anything that does suggest otherwise about Saughton House Ill pass it on but I suspect they’re just a slightly odd office design that have led to a bit of a fun/macabre myth about the place from the working staff. Thanks again for the help. DaveWithin Glasgow Eye Infirmary there was a plaque, Lipton Orthoptic Institute. This was a training school for orthoptists and I trained there graduating in 1985.
Often wondered why it was called this and why the Lipton connection.
Hope you can enlighten me
Kind regards
Ailison
Hi Harriet
I find your website fascinating and because of your helpful links I have been able to find out quite a bit about life in the lunatic asylum, St Andrew’s Hospital, Northampton. I am interested to know if I can obtain medical records of an ancestor who was a patient there from 1852 to 1869 or at least find out general information about her during her stay. Would you know where these records might be available please?
Thank you
Alyson
Dear Alyson, I am glad to hear that you have found the site helpful. Most of the records for the hospital seem to be at Northamptonshire Archives, but whether or not they have the patient records for the period you are interested in I don’t know. I’m sure an email to them should answer the question. See their website for details: https://www.northamptonshire.gov.uk/councilservices/archives-and-heritage/northamptonshire-archives/Pages/default.aspx
Thank you for your help Harriet. Sorry for delay in acknowledging. I will email them.
Glasgow Royal Asylum built in 1810 “remained in use as the city poorhouse until it was demolished at the turn of the 20th century.” Is this poorhoiuse the same as the Old Man’s Asylum on Rottenrow in Glasgow’s Blackfriars district?
Hello HARRIET (or Webmaster),
HISTORIC HOSPITALS – WEBSITE ALERT
As a garden historian and one time Conservation Officer with the Garden History Society in Scotland I spent some time in the 1990s and early 2000s defending hospital and asylum landscapes from unwelcome development. Consequently, I am a great admirer of your work on Scottish Hospitals, and am now an occasional user of your impressive Historic Hospitals website. In my current capacity as Vice Chairman and Honorary Research Adviser with Scotland’s Garden and Landscape Heritage I deal with a variety of enquiries, so am currently responding to one concerning therapeutic landscapes, a subject on which I have lectured from time to time in the past. This e-mail is prompted by my using your website to help answer this enquiry. On trying to search hospitals on my own patch here in Perthshire, and clicking on ‘Perth and Kinross’, this brings up ‘Orkney and Shetland’ suggesting that there is a link on the website which needs to be fixed.
Incidentally, I note that there is a contact e-mail address included on the Historic Hospitals website as < Harriet.Richardson@ucl.ac.uk > (UCL being my alma mater !), although I understand that you are now based at the University of Edinburgh. Is this still correct ? I should be interested to establish a line of communication if you are willing, as I have a long standing and continuing interest in hospital and asylum landscapes, and shall be happy to share information. My own e-mail address is < dingwall@guidelines.scot >.
I shall cut and paste this message to send to the UCL e-mail address.
With good wishes, CHRISTOPHER DINGWALL
Hello Harriet
I live in Australia but was born in Ongar War Memorial Hospital Chipping Ongar in 1943. I know the the hospital has been demolished and they now have a medical centre there. I was wondering if you could please help me. I would love a photo of the old hospital and wondered where I could get one. Would be much appreciated.
Thank you
Chris
https://ezitis.myzen.co.uk/ongar.html
Thank you for replying Jeanette – you beat me to it!
I’ve found the Welcome Foubdation useful for hospital paintings. You’re welcome Harriet
Hi
Do you know when the first Mental Health/Lunacy legislation was passed in Scotland or was Scotland subject to the Madhouse Act 1774?
I’m doing a study of the way society has treated those who don’t quite fit in like, single mothers and strong independent women who seem to of threatened the publics health and morals throughout the ages. (Never any talk of the men who made these single women pregnant).
Thanks
Billie
I am trying to locate a former student at your facility. Her name is Maureen Doyle. She studied Occupational Therapy. She and I were pen pals for many many years but have lost touch. If you have any location for her it would be greatly appreciated. When we were pen pals I lived in Jacksonville, Florida USA.
Thank you SO VERY MUCH for any assistance you can give to get us back in touch.
Hi Betty, could you say where Maureen was a student? For privacy reasons I have not published your email address, but will be happy to pass on details through my own email address if anyone gets in touch.
The return address on her letter is:
Room 35
Staff Home
Inverurie Cottage Hospital
Inverurie
Aberdeenshire
The postmark on that envelope is October 1983 if that helps.
She said “I am living in a Nurses Hime in Inverurie outside Aberdeen …..
Thank you soooo much for any help you can give me!!
Hi Harriet have I mentioned that I’ve aquired the original Albany Wiseman painting of the Royal Infirmary Edinburgh… as well as the limited edition lithograph that was produced at the Curwen Print Studio???
best regards, Bill
Welcome Foundation