The Wartime Memories Project - The Great War - Hospitals



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World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment

The nature of the fighting during the Great War led to a huge number of injured soldiers and the existing Military medical facilities in the United Kingdom were soon overwhelmed. A solution had to be found quickly and many civilian hospitals were turned over to military use, a large number of asylums were also converted to military hospital, with the asylum patients being sent home, often to unprepared families. As demand for beds grew, large buildings such as Universities and hotels were transformed into hospitals and wooden huts sprang up in hospital grounds and at army camps to cope with the huge numbers. Additional nursing staff were needed and this was met by a mixture of qualified nurses and volunteers.

A soldier who was injured in the field would be treated firstly at a Regimental Aid Post in the trenches by the Battalion Medical Officer and his orderlies and stretcher bearers, then moved to an Advanced Dressing Station close to the front line manned by members of a Field Ambulance, RAMC. If further treatment was needed he would be moved to a Casualty Clearing Station, a tented camp behind the lines and then if required moved to one of the base hospitals usually by train, the seriously wounded were taken back to Britain by Hospital Ship and onto the relevant hospital for further treatment. With the wide range of serious injuries before faced, hospitals began to specialise in certain types of injury in order to provide the best treatment, with soldiers being sent by train to the relevant hospital. This is the reason why the majority of the wounded were send to hospitals many miles from their homes. Many large houses and hotels were used as Convalescent Hospitals or Class B hospitals, they usually accepted patients from Class A Hospitals once the man had recovered sufficiently.

Those being treated wore a blue uniform with a red tie, known as "Hospital Blues", once a solider was deemed fit enough to leave convalescence, he would return to one of the Command Depots for the rehabilitative training after which they would be allocated to a battalion, frequently a different battalion or regiment to that in which he had previously served, as his place would have been taken by another man to maintain numbers. If fitness was not fully recovered, a man may be transferred to a non front line unit, such as the Labour Corps or to a training battalion so that he could put his field experience to use in training others or a home service unit which had lower fitness requirements.

Those who did not recover sufficiently to return to active service in any formwere issued with a Silver War Badge, to wear on their lapel, this signified that they had completed their war service. The badges were individually numbered and numbers are recorded the the medal cards of those who received them. Silver War Badges were also issued to soldiers who had completed the length of service they had signed up for, mainly regular soldiers who had served before the war and whose period of service expired before the end of the conflict.

Silver War Badge

A Silver War Badge.



One positive outcome of the often honorific injuries suffered, was the advance in medical science. Innovative and often desperate solutions which would not have been considered in peace time were attempted, those which showed promise were developed further.



This section is under construction.

If you have any photos, documents or a story relating to a hospital during the Great War please get in touch.

Hospitals in England


Bedfordshire Hospitals


Berkshire Hospitals


Buckinghamshire Hospitals


Cambridgeshire Hospitals


Cheshire Hospitals


Cumberland Hospitals


Derbyshire Hospitals


Devonshire Hospitals


Dorsetshire Hospitals


Durham Hospitals


Essex Hospitals


Gloucestershire Hospitals


Hampshire Hospitals


Herefordshire Hospitals


Hertfordshire Hospitals


Huntingdonshire Hospitals


Isle of Wight Hospitals


Kent Hospitals


Lancashire Hospitals


Leicestershire Hospitals


Lincolnshire Hospitals


London & Middlesex Hospitals


Norfolk Hospitals


Northamptonshire Hospitals


Nottinghamshire Hospitals


Northumberland Hospitals


Nottinghamshire Hospitals


Oxfordshire Hospitals


Rutland Hospitals


Shropshire Hospitals


Staffordshire Hospitals


Somerset Hospitals


Suffolk Hospitals


Surrey Hospitals


Sussex Hospitals


Warwickshire Hospitals


Westmoreland Hospitals


Wiltshire Hospitals


Worcestershire & Birmingham Hospitals


Yorkshire Hospitals




Hospitals in Ireland


Hospitals in Scotland


Hospitals in Wales


Overseas Hospitals


German Hospitals



This list is incomplete, if you know of any hospitals which are not listed please let us know.








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The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them


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We are very keen to track down these often forgotten documents and obtain photographs and transcriptions of the names recorded so that they will be available for all to remember.

Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice.




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Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.







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