Hylands House VAD Hospital
On the declaration of war , Sir Daniel Gooch, offered the use of Hylands House, Chelmsford to the Red Cross as a hospital.
Hylands House opened as a military hospital in 14 August 1914 when it was manned by the 2nd and 3rd Midland Field Ambulance Corps to treat wounded territorial troops.
On 14th October 1914 , King George, visited the hospital as part of a visit to Chelmsford.
On 20 October 1914 the Field Ambulance Corps moved their operation to Oaklands Hospital in Chelmsford and the Red Cross took over the operation of Hylands House.
During their period of operation over 500 men had been treated.
Hylands offered five wards with one hundred beds and an operating theatre and x ray machine.
On 23rd October 1914 the first patients arrived from the front line by train and then ambulance.
Staff at the opening
Commandant Lady Gooch
Secretary Mr R A D Leiber
Matron Miss Mary Winifred Rossling
Medical Officers Doctors Alford, Gimson, Martin (anesthetist) and Newton
Quartermaster H Gripper
VAD staff from No4 and 46 VAD.
The hospital continued to receive both British and Belgian wounded and in November 1914 Private George Joseph if the 1st Battalion Black Watch was the first soldier to die at the hospital of his wounds.
By early 1915 the VAD staff were deployed elsewhere and their place was taken by trainee nurses bringing the staff to 5 trained nurses, 5 probationer nurses, 2 orderlies and 2 ward maids. One of the trained nurses was Miss K Pownall.
The hospital took cases from the Middlesex War Hospital at Clacton on Sea and the General Military Hospital at Colchester.
On 7 August 1915 Lord Kitchener visited Hylands and spoke to some of the wounded men.
In February 1916 Nurse Hilda Ayre Smith, aged 37 years, who had worked at Hylands for over a year died from septicemia. It was thought that she caught the blood poisoning while dressing the seriously wounded soldiers in her duties.
Following her death the hospital was patients were moved out to other hospitals and deep cleaning took place before once again patients arrived at Hylands.
A close relationship was in place with Coptfold Hall at Margaretting who offered 8 convalescent beds for patients from Hylands House.
The last Matron of the hospital was Miss Outram when the hospital closed in April 1919.
Hylands had treated 59 Belgian and 901 British wounded with an average stay of 70 days.
160 operations were performed.
All of the expenses of operating the hospital were borne by Sir Daniel and Lady Gooch.
Thanks for their voluntary work were given to
Rev W J Pressley and Mons Watson
Mr J W Marriage of No4 Chelmsford VAD.
Miss Clift of Margaretting, Miss D Christy, Miss Mabel Usborne, Miss E Wells, Miss Craig, The Misses Meeson, Miss E Mason, Miss Gooch, Mr H Jackson ( hairdresser), Mr G Starkey and Mr Phil Edmunds.
Contributors contact details
The majority of information on this page was provided by Linda Knock of Friends of Hyland House. Linda has conducted some great research into the Hylands Estate at Chelmsford, including its spell as a military hospital and has photographs and many more details than space allows on this website.
Click here to contact Linda and find out more about Hylands House
