Greenwich burial

[Top-of-the-hill]

  I have found a burial record at Greenwich Hospital, see attached snip. Can I assume this is the naval hospital? The TNA reference was not recognised when I tried it.

[Daisypetal]

Hi,

I found it by putting the reference in quotation marks, without the TNA at the beginning,  "rg/4/1674",

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C2491278

There are images available at Ancetry and FindMyPast but they only say Greenwich Hospital. I think it is the Naval Hospital.


Regards,
Daisy

[Top-of-the-hill]

  Thanks Daisy, I have now found some records, via the National Archive, showing him as a Greenwich pensioner, so I can safely say he was in the R.N.

[torre]

The seamans hospital at Greenwich was always known as the Dreadnought Seamans Hospital. It was in King William Walk, near to the Maritime Museum and Cutty Sark.

'Greenwich Hospital' was St Alphege's Hospital. Later Greenwich District Hospital and now closed. It was in Vanburgh Hill.

I was born in St Alphage's hospital a very long time ago.

[torre]

Sorry, I'm not very good at copying to different sites. I hope this is of interest.


LOST HOSPITALS OF LONDON
   
Dreadnought Seamen's Hospital
King William Walk, SE10 9LS
   
   
   
Medical dates:

Medical character:
   1870 - 1986

For merchant seamen
   
   
The Seamen's Hospital Society was founded in 1821 to provide medical care to merchant seamen and their dependents.  The Admiralty allocated a de-masted former naval ship (a 'hulk') to the Society - the 50-gun HMS Grampus, moored at Deptford - for use as a hospital ship.

The accommodation eventually became inadequate and in 1831 the patients were transferred to a larger hulk, the three-decker, 104-gun HMS Dreadnought.  In 1857 they were moved again to the 120-gun HMS Caledonia, which was renamed HMS Dreadnought.

When the infirmary block of the Greenwich Hospital became vacant in 1869, the Admiralty, after much debate, reluctantly agreed to lease the building to the Seamen's Hospital Society for the treatment of merchant seamen.

In 1870 the patients were transferred ashore to the infirmary. which was renamed the Dreadnought Seamen's Hospital.  HMS Dreadnought herself remained in use as an isolation hospital until she was broken up in 1872.

The Dreadnought Seamen's Hospital consisted of 64 small 4-bedded wards with their own fireplaces.  There were 250 patients.

By the end of the 19th century urgent medical cases from Greenwich, Blackheath and Deptford began to be treated at the Hospital.  Injured labourers working on the construction of the Blackwall Tunnel also received emergency care, and the building company, Pearson, later helped to raise funds for the Hospital in acknowledgement of this.

Over the years the building was altered.  Internal walls were removed to create larger wards.  An operating theatre was added in the early 20th century.

In 1929 the Devonport Nurses' Home was erected  across the road from the Hospital building.

During WW2 the Hospital for Tropical Diseases was evacuated to the Hospital, where it had been allocated ten beds.  The building suffered bomb damage in 1940 and 1941 (which was only repaired in the late 1950s).

In 1947 the Hospital for Tropical Diseases moved back to central London.  In 1948 the Dreadnought Seamen's Hospital joined the NHS.  The Ministry of Health wanted the various properties of the Seamen's Hospital Society to be allocated to their appropriate region but, in the event, a Seamen's Hospital Group was set up within the NHS for the treatment of sailors.

The decline in the amount of shipping using the Thames during the latter half of the 20th century meant that fewer seamen used the Hospital.  It closed in 1986 and fell into disrepair.


Present status (January 2008)

The building is now the Dreadnought Library of the University of Greenwich, converted in 1998-1999.  The building needed substantial repair as wet and dry rot had damaged the timber and plasterwork.

Many of the original features of the Hospital have been retained - the ward layout, the staircases in the centre of each wing and the arcaded colonnade linking the main wings.  Attractive ceramic plaques from the former ward walls are displayed in the ground floor corridor; each plaque commemorates an individual or society who contributed £1000 or more to endow a bed or a ward (Annie Zunz has a commemorative plaque here - her husband gifted 34 hospital wards in memory of her name).  The adjacent Stephen Lawrence Building next door also contains some of the plaques.
   
   front elevation
The main entrance of the Dreadnought Library of the University of Greenwich

east side
The southeast corner from Romney Road

ship's bell

wall plaques

wall plaque    west side
The view of the building from King William Walk


west elevation
The northeast corner from the gardens at the rear












The bell from HMS Dreadnought itself can be found in the  nearby National Maritime Museum




The commemorative bed and ward wall plaques can be seen at the Library and in the foyer of the  adjacent  Stephen  Lawrence Building


wall plaque
   
   The 'Dreadnought Unit' - two 28-bedded wards - was established at St Thomas's Hospital in 1986.  The Unit is funded separately by central government and provides special services for seamen and their families.    
   References
www.gresham.ac.uk
www.nmm.ac.uk
www.portcities.org.uk

[Top-of-the-hill]

  Thanks, lots of information there. That appears to be a Merchant Navy establishment and I am pretty sure this man was R.N. Also he was there in the 1830s.

[Bookbox]

That appears to be a Merchant Navy establishment and I am pretty sure this man was R.N. Also he was there in the 1830s.

The relevant register RG 4/1674 is indeed from the Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich, as suggested by Daisypetal above. This was the home of the Greenwich Pensioners.

[Daisypetal]

Hi,

You might have seen these already, but just in case

If it helps FindMyPast has "British Royal Navy Personnel 1831" and quite a few other Navy records.

Anc. has "Royal Navy Medical Journals, 1817-1856 results for Navy"


You could also look here, I found "Notes on executor's application for money owed by the Royal Navy." for my GGGGF  that showed his wife's name and address and what she was owed when he died.

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/browse/r/h/C1754

I did it by finding the ref number eg; ADM 45/1 and putting that and his surame into the search box and there he was

Daisy


P.S.
That was a while ago, it looks like they've changed their search function, now I can find it by just putting navy and his name! but now I've typed it I'll leave it here.

[Top-of-the-hill]

  Thank you both for your input. I probably won't take it any further, as this is local history that took me down a rabbit-hole. It started with a press cutting where the parish overseers were announcing that this man's father had run away and left his wife and family chargeable to the parish. All downhill from there, sadly. I shall write up what I have found for the records.