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Alexandrina Garnett-Botfield album of the Aston Hall Auxiliary Military Hospital
Title
Alexandrina Garnett-Botfield album of the Aston Hall Auxiliary Military Hospital.
Production
Aston-on-Trent, Derbyshire, 1918.
Physical Description
1 volume : 70 photographs ; 23 cm
Language
English
Biographical / Historical Note
During the First World War, Aston Hall (in Aston-on-Trent, Derbyshire) served as a "class A" military hospital of 33 beds, treating less serious injuries. It was attached to the 3rd Northern Military Hospital at Sheffield. Dr. S.B. Gay of Shardlow attended to the medical requirements of the soldiers, assisted by the village nurse and local members of the Red Cross Society. Professional nurses were also in attendance, primarily from the Voluntary Aid Detachment. The first convalescent hospital for wounded soldiers and Belgian refugees was made available in Aston Lodge in January 1915 by its occupant Mr. Reginald Boden J.P. Shortly afterwards, Col. William Dickson Winterbottom and his wife opened an Auxiliary Hospital in the west wing of Aston Hall. The first matron was Annie Buxton. By 1918 the stewardship had passed to Alexandrina Garnett-Botfield (1887-1962), who ran the hospital until 1919. The hospital was returned to civilian use after the war and sold, in 1930, to the Derbyshire County Council, who operated the premises as a psychiatric hospital until 1974. Alexandrina Garnett-Botfield married Frederick Fielden Corbett in early 1919, with whom she had one daughter.
Summary
Album of photographs, manuscript notes and verse, and printed ephemera concerning Aston Hall Auxiliary Military Hospital, at Aston-on-Trent, under the stewardship of Alexandrina Garnett-Botfield, in 1918. There are 70 photographs of varying sizes, some trimmed. The photographs include numerous depictions of soldiers in convalescent uniform with nursing staff (in groups from two to twenty); images of men playing bowls; views of Aston hall; depictions of soldiers in contemporary automobiles, or a horse-drawn carriage; an image of one of the wards; a photo of Garnett-Botfield with a poem of thanks for help with recuperation from private W. Baines, who had come from the front of Siossons and Rheims; and a photograph of military ambulance.
The manuscript material and printed ephemera is diverse in format. It includes: whist scorecards; an illustration in graphite of Aston Hall by Private W. Baines; an official typed communiqué to the commandant, Sept. 28, 1918, informing that Lieut Colonel Rundle had handed command of Berrington war hospital to Lieut. Colonel Whitestone; a typed letter to the commandant enclosing a priority certificate for installation of a cistern & cylinder at the hospital, Sept. 30, 1918; a poem by Private C. Hammett 5th Cheshire, with marginal drawings and decorations (all in graphite), May 30, 1918; numerous notes of best wishes to Garnett-Botfield and hospital staff; telegrams, including one announcing German acceptance of the armistice; an ink drawing of a solider grasping a nurse, inscribed to Garnett-Botfield "There's many a girl deserves a medal who only gets a clasp"; two "O.H.M.S. Wounded Man's Kit" luggage labels completed in manuscript; staff notes on the hospital, including the commandant, sister, Kirkham and others; graphite drawings of cap badges; ink drawings of young children in the style of Mabel Lucie Attwell; a note of congratulations from Lieut Col. Rundle to Garnett-Botfield on raising money for a surgery for the hospital; a handbill for a fete in aid of the hospital; a clipped letterhead of the hospital; and two postcards of nearby Stokesby Hall.
Format
Archives or Manuscripts
Added to Catalog
May 03, 2019
Subjects
Genre/Form
Photographs.
Photograph albums.
Gelatin silver prints.
Ephemera.
Commonplace books.
Scrapbooks.
Drawings (visual works)
Correspondence.
Bookmark As
Citation
