Cambridge Military Hospital - Sept 19

[BikinGlynn]

Been done a lot I know but heres my take on the old girl

The history in brief

The Cambridge Military Hospital (CMH) was the fifth military hospital built in Aldershot. The other four are described at the end of this article.

The CMH was built by Messrs Martin Wells and Co. of Aldershot. The building costs were approximately £45,758.

The first patients admitted to the CMH were on Friday 18 July 1879. They either walked or were taken by cart ambulance from the Connaught Hospital.

The title had nothing to do with the Cambridge area but came from His Royal Highness The Duke of Cambridge who was the Commander-in-Chief of the Army at the time. The Duke of Cambridge opened the CMH Aldershot in July 1879.

The hospital was built on a hill because current clinical thinking at the time thought that the wind would sweep away any infection and clean the air.

The hospital soon became a fully functioning hospital and was the first in the UK to receive battle casualties directly from the front of World War One.

The wards of the main building were designed on the Florance Nightingale design to have large windows on all sides letting in as much natural light as possible to help aid recovery

These were all connected by an alleged mile long corridor!

The aforementioned corridor is now plastered with pir's which we inevitably set off but were in early enough to see most of the main block before security turned up.

After an internal search & coming within feet of us they left us to make good an escape from the main building


Pioneering plastic surgery took place at CMH, the history of some of this is here

https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/birth-plastic-surgery

Childrens Ward

Next we moved across to the maternity block, this block seemed much easier to access & was actually far more photogenic.

The infamous green doors! didnt do much for me tbh.

The rest of this block was pretty nice though

By far the coolest thing in my opinion was the wards on the first floor in this block, so apologies there is a lot of pics from here ;-)

Thanks For Looking

 

[Sam Haltin]

A nice take on this. Always have a thing about military hospitals, been in a few in my younger days.

 

[KPUrban_]

Nice one, didn't manage to find that room in the 3rd shot. I assume the clock tower was inaccessible?

 

[BikinGlynn]

Nice one, didn't manage to find that room in the 3rd shot. I assume the clock tower was inaccessible?

Yeah that was central of the main block just behind the clock tower.
No unfortunately didnt get into the tower, I believe the whole main block is now finally under redevelopment now/

 

[KPUrban_]

Yeah that was central of the main block just behind the clock tower.
No unfortunately didnt get into the tower, I believe the whole main block is now finally under redevelopment now/

We only got as far as there then the alarm went off and the others ran off leaving me.

 

[BikinGlynn]

We only got as far as there then the alarm went off and the others ran off leaving me.

We set em all off but were there early doors. Secca turned up about half 7 & must of known alarms had been activated cos they searched the building... not very well though they got within 2 ft of us but didnt see us lol.
We escaped through a window & laid low for a while then re entered the maternity block ;-)

 

[HughieD]

Great pix mate. Some really nice decay here.

 

[BikinGlynn]

Great pix mate. Some really nice decay here.

Thanks mate, glad to of ticked this one off it is a gem

 

[GroppingRhyme]

Really nice pictures! Amazing decay.

 

[BikinGlynn]

Really nice pictures! Amazing decay.

Its a cool old place. I believe the maternity block has now been demoed & the main block is (as it always has been) a bit of a git to get in & even harder not to get caught!

 

[Janey]

Awesome! In Guildford may take a peek

 

[pyromad]

Love the photos, makes me feel old now knowing this is the hospital I was born in!

 

[Hayman]

Is it not strange how the past comes back to bite us? Perhaps I am the only person posting here who was a patient at the CMH.

From 1959 to 1962 I was stationed at Longmoor Camp, some twenty miles south of Aldershot. I was a regular soldier in the Royal Engineers, having joined from leaving school when I was seventeen and three-quarters.

Ever since I had been a young teenager I’d had bad acne. While at Longmoor, I visited the CMH, receiving various treatments; none of which worked.

As an outpatient I was given ultra-violet light treatment – to no effect. Then I was admitted as an inpatient. One of the attempts to cure the acne was the spreading on my chest and back of a thick paste called Resorcin. It is still used in various forms today.

The only effect was to remove much of the surface layer of my skin – as if I had severe sunburn. Then the medics gave up on me.

However, Fate took over. The Army classified personnel medically as to where they were allowed/supposed to serve. The classification had two parts: tactical zones and climatic regions. The widest tactical zone was Forward – including battle areas. Before that came Line of Communication – the supply and evacuation route between a base and where the fighting was happening. And most restricted was Base – where the main stores and admin offices were.

The climatic regions included Everywhere – anywhere in the world – and Temperate – areas such as Europe.

Because of my acne, I was classified Forward Temperate – FT; the assumption being that anywhere semi-tropical or tropical would only exacerbate my spottiness. This ignored the climatic differences between, say, Burma and, say, Aden.

I will never know, but perhaps someone at RE Records, Ditchling Road, Brighton saw my medical records and thought barren Aden was just the posting I needed; FT or no FT. I too was a clerk, and part of my Clerk RE BIII trade training had comprised a week’s documentation course at Brighton.

And that person was right. I arrived in Aden on 5th November 1962, a spotty herbert walking down the steps from a Britannia 312 into the blazing dry heat of RAF Khormksar. Within weeks my skin was clearing up, helped by often working in just shorts and by sunbathing in off duty hours.

So, where the CMH failed, RE Postings succeeded.

On demob in 1964, and back in temperate UK, I discovered Fairy Liquid – advertised as making greasy pans “squeaky clean”. I reasoned it would also get rid of the grease from my – again – very greasy and oily skin. I still use washing-up detergent to wash my body with some 56 years later!

And those are memories of the CMH.

 

[BikinGlynn]

Is it not strange how the past comes back to bite us? Perhaps I am the only person posting here who was a patient at the CMH.

From 1959 to 1962 I was stationed at Longmoor Camp, some twenty miles south of Aldershot. I was a regular soldier in the Royal Engineers, having joined from leaving school when I was seventeen and three-quarters.

Ever since I had been a young teenager I’d had bad acne. While at Longmoor, I visited the CMH, receiving various treatments; none of which worked.

As an outpatient I was given ultra-violet light treatment – to no effect. Then I was admitted as an inpatient. One of the attempts to cure the acne was the spreading on my chest and back of a thick paste called Resorcin. It is still used in various forms today.

The only effect was to remove much of the surface layer of my skin – as if I had severe sunburn. Then the medics gave up on me.

However, Fate took over. The Army classified personnel medically as to where they were allowed/supposed to serve. The classification had two parts: tactical zones and climatic regions. The widest tactical zone was Forward – including battle areas. Before that came Line of Communication – the supply and evacuation route between a base and where the fighting was happening. And most restricted was Base – where the main stores and admin offices were.

The climatic regions included Everywhere – anywhere in the world – and Temperate – areas such as Europe.

Because of my acne, I was classified Forward Temperate – FT; the assumption being that anywhere semi-tropical or tropical would only exacerbate my spottiness. This ignored the climatic differences between, say, Burma and, say, Aden.

I will never know, but perhaps someone at RE Records, Ditchling Road, Brighton saw my medical records and thought barren Aden was just the posting I needed; FT or no FT. I too was a clerk, and part of my Clerk RE BIII trade training had comprised a week’s documentation course at Brighton.

And that person was right. I arrived in Aden on 5th November 1962, a spotty herbert walking down the steps from a Britannia 312 into the blazing dry heat of RAF Khormksar. Within weeks my skin was clearing up, helped by often working in just shorts and by sunbathing in off duty hours.

So, where the CMH failed, RE Postings succeeded.

On demob in 1964, and back in temperate UK, I discovered Fairy Liquid – advertised as making greasy pans “squeaky clean”. I reasoned it would also get rid of the grease from my – again – very greasy and oily skin. I still use washing-up detergent to wash my body with some 56 years later!

And those are memories of the CMH.

Thats excellent to hear from someone who remembers the place, thanks for the memories