The hospital was one of twenty-five Territorial Force General Hospitals run under the control of the War Office, and all opened in previously ear-marked public buildings. No.3 London General was opened at the Royal Patriotic School in Wandsworth, an orphanage for the children of former soldiers, and they were moved out into other accommodation for the duration of the war. The buildings still survive, though converted to residential and commercial use, and can be seen quite clearly from trains leaving Clapham Junction on the South-Western Trains suburban routes.
In an effort to recruit RAMC orderlies, the Commanding Office, Colonel Bruce Porter took on many men who were members of the Chelsea Arts Club - artists, writers, sculptors - but who were either too old, unfit, or otherwise unsuitable for military service. So in addition to a male staff, he also acquired a wonderful assortment of talent, and over the course of the war the hospital produced what is certainly the finest hospital magazine - 'The Gazette of the 3rd London General Hospital, Wandsworth.' It was published monthly from early in the war, and later produced in bound, yearly compilations, still often available in bookshops and online. They contain a treasure trove of artwork, poetry and prose, serious and humorous, that give both a general flavour of the life and work of a military hospital in wartime, and also a deep insight into the individual aspects of the people and patients who spent time in the hospital during the war. The editor was Ward Muir, and he later published his 'Observations of an Orderly' which can be easily found online and downloaded.
There are no other wartime hospitals (to my knowledge
) that have left behind such an amazing wealth of information, and the means to fit so many pieces of the soldiers' story together, even in the absence of surviving service records.
Sue
