Cherry Hinton WWI hospital

Cherry Hinton military hospital, Cherry Hinton Road, Cambridge

Cherry Hinton WWI hospital

The Cambridge Evening News ran a story in December 2014 about this site and told of how at the outbreak of war in 1914 Cambridge filled with troops along with tents and horses. Soldiers were billeted in homes, schools and other public buildings.

In October 1914 it was announced that a barracks was to be built in Cherry Hinton on a field known as ‘Matthews Field’ because it was hire by Lionel Matthews, owner of the Rock Estate Dairy, for grazing his cows. The field was also used for football and polo. The CWN ‘Down Your Street’ series in 1986 quoted the recollections of Alice Mann of Cavendish Avenue who used to live in Cherry Hinton Road. She recalled that one of the regular players was Prince Harry  [third son of George V] who was a student at Cambridge University at the time [1919]. She remembered that he always used to park his car in the same place – outside her home at the bottom of Cowper Road where there was a field gate.

The field had recently become famous because of its use as a landing place for the pilot Gustav Hamel who had earlier that year mysteriously disappeared over the Channel. When Gustav Hamel came to Cambridge to perform aerial stunts such as looping the loop in his monoplane on 19th May 1914, canvas screens were erected along Cherry Hinton Road to obscure the view into ‘Rock Meadows’ (letter of H C Wilkin CWN 28.1.1988).

The field was also used by a pilot of the Royal Flying Corps after the outbreak of war who was a nephew of Mr Neal of Cherry Hinton Hall. The pilot would park his plane on the field when visiting his uncle.

The builders, William Sindall, were given six weeks to complete the task; 400 men were needed to work day and night. By November there was a miniature town on the site next to Cowper Road with accommodation for 1,00 men, 30 to a hut.

Initially it was home to the locally recruited 11th (Service) Battalion (Cambs) Suffolk Regiment who moved out of their Melbourne Place School for a brief stay in Cherry Hinton.

After this it was decided that the camp should be turned into a hospital for the  the treatment and isolation of soldiers suffering from venereal diseases. (There was another hospital for this purpose off the Newmarket Road where Ditton Fields is.) Those soldiers being treated were heavily guarded and not allowed to leave the camp; however there were cases of escapes. Some local residents were very unhappy about the presence of such a camp especially when there were still 800 inmates at the end of the war. Such was the moral stigma attached to the buildings that it proved impossible to find any other use for them after the war.

The two photos show the field on which the hospital was set up. In one photo Cowper Road can be seen in the distance. At the time there were no other roads between Cowper Road and Cherry Hinton Hall.

The 1920 map of Cambridge shows in detail the buildings of the Military Hospital. They actually stretched east of the later line of Mowbray Road as far as the stream which ran to the east parallel to the later line of the road. The south west corner of the hospital site was immediately opposite the junction of Hinton Avenue and Mowbray Road.

Sources: Cambridge News (Cambridgeshire Collection)

---

Cherry Hinton Military Hospital
1914 11 06
The new hut barracks on Cherry Hinton Meadows are making remarkable progress: all the frames and roofs have been erected and it presents the appearance of a miniature town. The guard house is a long oblong building with offices for the Commanding Officer and clerks, a large detention room, guard-room and a number of cells lined with sheet steel. The regimental institute contains a games and reading room, supper room and canteen, nearby is a coal yard and shower baths. A parade ground and miniature rifle range are to follow.
Credit: Mike Petty, Cambridge Cherryhinton Road Area Scrapbook 1897–1990.

---

1915 – 1919

The military records of Albert Edward Bannister show that he was enlisted into the RAMC 22 May 1915. He was at The Crescent War Hospital in Croydon in 1916 but at the time of his discharge in May 1919 was based at the Cherry Hinton Military Hospital.

1915 02 28
Cherry Hinton military hospital – suicide of soldier, gassed – 17 02 28b
Credit: Mike Petty, Cambridge Cherryhinton Road Area Scrapbook 1897–1990.

---

1917 07 11
Cherry Hinton military hospital concert – 17 07 11b
Credit: Mike Petty, Cambridge Cherryhinton Road Area Scrapbook 1897–1990.

---

1918

Pte H C Flack aged 31 was reported to have died on 8.11.1918 at the hospital, possibly from influenza.

---

1919 11 07
Isle War Pensions Committee – discuss buildings adaptable for training purposes. Most promising two hospitals at Cambridge. One Barnwell erected for 780 patients, other Cherry Hinton for 800, each complete accommodation residential staff – Barnwell 1,000, Cherry Hinton 1,110. Buildings commodious, well planned & well provided with first class roads, drainage done. Both used for venereal cases but practically vacated & notices could be put up re new use; men would not go to buildings associated with VD. Barnwell temporarily occupied by 80 general cases from 1st Eastern General Hospital while few VD cases being treated – ES 19 11 07 p6
Credit: Mike Petty, Cambridge Cherryhinton Road Area Scrapbook 1897–1990.

---

1920 02 04
Drunk. “Guilty, your Worships,” said Pte. James Connolly in an unmistakable Irish brogue at Cambridge Police Court on Friday, when charged with being drunk and incapable at Hills Road on the previous evening. P.c. Ward said that Connolly belonged to the King’s Liverpools, and was a patient at Cherry Hinton Hospital. He was staggering along .the footpath and knocking into people causing them to get off the pavement. The offence occurred at 7.40 a.m. As Connolly was alone, the witness could not ascertain where he got the drink from. — A fine of 5s. was imposed and the prisoner expressed a desire to go to goal in default of payment. The Chief Constable (Mr, R. J. Pearson): The military will pay the fine, your Worships
Credit: Mike Petty, Cambridge Cherryhinton Road Area Scrapbook 1897–1990.

---

1920 02 11
Bacon theft. At Cambridge Police Court, yesterday (Tuesday), a private soldier of the R.A.M.C. Cherry Hinton Military Hospital, was charged on remand with stealing 14lbs 12ozs of bacon, valued at £1 19s 6d, the property of the War Office, on January 31. He pleaded guilty — Sergt. Lawrence Cross, of the County Constabulary, said he noticed that the prisoner’s overcoat was very bulky. He stopped the man, took possession of the bacon, and arrested prisoner. Miller said he had been drunk all the weekend, and he went out on Saturday morning to try and “cure himself”. If the constable had had the “ingredients of a gentleman” he would have sent him back to camp, having regard to his state. The Bench imposed a fine of £5. and Sergt. Cross was highly commended on the action which he took in the case.
Credit: Mike Petty, Cambridge Cherryhinton Road Area Scrapbook 1897–1990.

1920 02 24
Cherry Hinton hospital – Churchill asked about escapes, vegetables stolen allotments
Credit: Mike Petty, Cambridge Cherryhinton Road Area Scrapbook 1897–1990.

1920 03 10
Cherry Hinton Military Hospital patients get out of institution – questions to military – 20 03 10b
Credit: Mike Petty, Cambridge Cherryhinton Road Area Scrapbook 1897–1990.