Rusholme & Victoria Park Archive

Strange friend’ I said, ‘here is no cause to mourn’
‘None’ said the other, ‘save the undone years, the hopelessness’
Words from ‘Strange Meeting’ by Wilfred Owen.

When WW1 started in 1914 the 2nd Western General Hospital was established in Manchester where its HQ was Central High School for Boys, Whitworth Street. Initially 520 beds were provided at this site but during the duration of the war a total of 25,000 beds came under the one command. This huge number of hospital beds were scattered throughout Manchester and surrounding towns, becoming the largest military hospital in the UK.
It is hard to imagine in the absence of a National Health Service how so many injured service-men could be effectively managed.
Prior to the 1st World War the greatest number of casualties returned to Britain, 21,157 were from fighting in South Africa during 1899-1902. In 1916 523,153 casualties had been returned to Great Britain from the slaughter on the Somme.
There had been a review of the Army Medical services in 1907 and from that a voluntary service, the British Red Cross and St Johns Ambulance constituted a Home Hospital Reserve, whilst the members of the Royal Army Medical Corps went overseas to work in the front line.
In Manchester the Government had requisitioned a number of public buildings, generally schools, to be used as emergency hospitals. In Rusholme, Heald Place School was so new that only having just been constructed it was taken over as a hospital before pupils had even been admitted; in Victoria Park the Rusholme Red Cross opened Neuberg, one of the large houses on Daisy Bank Road. This was classified as one of the auxiliary hospitals initially providing some 40 beds. Later in 1916 the Red Cross purchased Grangethorpe, the large mansion on the southern edge of Platt Fields where six wards, an operating block, gymnasium, nurse’s accommodation and rehabilitation workshops were built in the gardens.
In the area immediately around Rusholme, the government requisitioned Ducie Avenue School on the north side of Whitworth Park, the Elizabeth Gaskell School of Domestic Economy on High Street,(Hathersage Rd) and the Moseley Road school in Fallowfield. Nearby over 1200 beds were under canvas in the grounds of The Firs, the mansion built by Sir Joseph Whitworth off of Oak Drive, Fallowfield. Fairview, another large house on Wilbraham Road in Fallowfield was acquired by the Red Cross and used as a hospital with initially 20 beds although eventually 36 beds were provided.

Below photograph dated 1917 of the Moseley Road School in use as a Military Hospital for 'Other Ranks', i.e. not officers. There were 155 beds provided here.

Below is a small piece of woven tape - to be worn on a lapel?

A letter to the Guardian in November 1914 illustrates the voluntary nature of these Red Cross auxiliary hospitals. Lady Donner of Oak Drive in Fallowfield was the chair of the Fallowfield Red Cross branch and her letter appealed for any suitable materials for the Fairview hospital, viz;
'As we earnestly desire the hospital to be suitably equipped and adequately maintained, we appeal to the charitable public for donations of money, and especially the following articles:—
1. Surgical dressings, including lint, cotton wool, gauze, jaeconet, and bandages.
2. Enamelled ware - suitable for dressing and nursing- purposes.
3. Bed-rests, rubber water-bottles, wheel chairs. Bath-chair.
4. An operating-table.
5. Hospital suits, bedroom slippers, and pocket-handkerchiefs.
6. Brushes and combs, sponges, nail brushes tooth brushes, tooth paste or powder, and soap.
7. Tobacco, pipes, cigarettes, newspapers, illustrated magazines, chocolate, fruit, etc.
8. All foodstuffs.
Cheques and money will be gratefully acknowledged by the hon. treasurer, Fern Lea Wilmslow Road. Fallowfield, and any of the above articles will be received by Quartermaster Renshaw at the hospital.’

With the arrival of the 1914 - 1918 First World War the postcard industry turned its attention to patriotic illustration. Postcard publishers and artists did their utmost to support their country's war effort.

WW1 Postcard above by Donald McGill, famous for his 'saucy' sea-side postcards he created an enormous output of cards during the war - the following is a note from Wikipeadia:
'During the First World War he produced anti German propaganda in the form of humorous post cards. His cards from this time period reflected on the war both from the opinion, as he saw it, of the men serving, as well as the realities facing the families remaining home. Cards dealing with the so-called "home front" covered issues such as war-time rationing, home service, war profiteers, spy scares, interned aliens, among other issues. Recruitment and "slackers" were other topics covered. Many cards were designed to appeal to the soldier who wished to send a card home to his sweetheart and these cards showed couples. Cards showed soldiers in training, and there were many lighthearted jokes about the Scottish soldier and his kilt. A few cards showed images of Nursing Sisters, and at least one showed three female Munition workers. Of all these cards, there were relatively few depicting a soldier in action. A number of the cards depicted men in the Navy. Of all the military themed post cards, only a few of these were serious – such as one showing a British Red Cross Medic caring for a wounded German soldier.'

Below is a photograph of the exterior (and underneath a close-up) of the Ducie Avenue boys school.

Interior view of a ward, below.

At the Ducie Avenue hospital an orthopaedic section was established with a young RAMC Captain Harry Platt in charge assisted by Professor Stopford. When the Grangethorpe Hospital was opened in 1917 all of the orthopaedic work was transferred here and it became a very important centre for the reconstruction of soldiers damaged limbs. Eventually after the war was over the Ministry of Pensions took over the running of Grangethorpe where its reputation continued to grow, Captain Harry Platt became Professor Sir Harry Platt FRCS and Senior Surgeon of the Ministry of Pension hospitals

2 photographs below of Grangethorpe.
In the aerial photograph the lake in Platt Fields is clearly seen in the top left, the bandstand is away to the right and in the foreground the large mansions are facing onto Wilmslow Road. The wards and other accommodation can be seen in the grounds of Grangethorpe which is the gabled building centre left.

Further work about Grangethorpe is still being prepared

In the photograph below, facing onto High Street, (Hathersage Road) is the Elizabeth Gaskell School of Domestic Economy, undated so I am not able to identify whether or not it was occupied at this time by the 2nd Western Hospital. I understand that this hospital provided a 170 beds exclusively for Officers.

Neuberg, (later known as Newbury) on Daisy Bank Road in the 3 photographs below;

In March 1911 the Rusholme division of the Red Cross was formed after a public meeting that was held at the Manchester Royal Infirmary. The Rusholme Division also included the areas of Victoria Park, Chorlton-on-Medlock and Greenheys.
It is worth remembering that at this time the struggle for women’s suffrage was considered by many to be both violent and controversial. Amongst those present at the meeting called to encourage volunteers for the Rusholme Red Cross was Sir William Grantham, a former Tory politician and controversial judge. He made the following comments to the assembly;
"That in commending the scheme, women should try to do something for the State as well as their brothers. Until they reached women suffrage and women joined the ranks of the army — he did not know if that was what they intended to do when they got the suffrage — they would have to depend upon men to fight the battles; but the women might do something to relieve them, and to help them when they were suffering from sickness or wounds. The women of England should be the first to come forward. A good many people, if they were asked what they were doing for their country, would have to say that they were not doing much. There was no better way of doing something than to help such a movement. Anything that assisted the soldiers more than doubled the ranks of the army. It was not only the men who were killed in war who were lost to an army. More than twice that number were lost to sickness”

Text below is from the back of the above postcard.

Red Cross nurses made a name for themselves by helping the wounded during the First World War.
After the outbreak of the First World War, the British Red Cross and the Order of St John of Jerusalem combined to form the Joint War Committee to pool resources under the protection of the red cross emblem. Because the British Red Cross had secured buildings, equipment and staff, the organisation was able to set up temporary hospitals as soon as wounded men began to arrive from abroad.
The buildings varied widely, ranging from town halls and schools to large and small private houses, both in the country and in cities. The most suitable ones were established as auxiliary hospitals.
Auxiliary hospitals were attached to central military hospitals, which looked after patients who remained under military control. In all, there were over 3,000 auxiliary hospitals administered by Red Cross county directors.
They were usually staffed by;
A Commandant, who was in charge of the hospital (except for medical and nursing services)
A Quartermaster, who was responsible for the receipt, custody and issue of articles in the provision store
A Matron, who directed the work of the nursing staff & members of the local voluntary aid detachment, who were trained in first aid and home nursing.
In many cases, women in the neighbourhood volunteered on a part-time basis, although they often needed to supplement voluntary work with paid labour, such as in the case of cooks. Medical attendance was provided locally and voluntarily, despite the extra strain that the medical profession was already under at that time.
The patients at these hospitals were generally less seriously wounded than at other hospitals and needed convalescence. The servicemen preferred the auxiliary hospitals to military hospitals because they were not so strict. Also, auxiliary hospitals were less crowded and the surroundings more homely.

The commandant of the Rusholme Red Cross was a Physician from the Manchester Royal Infirmary, Dr Ernest Bosdin Leech. He was the third son of Sir Bosdin Thomas Leech, one of the most influential figures in Manchester's economic and political scene, who served as Lord Mayor in 1891-2 and was knighted for his work on behalf of the Manchester Ship Canal.
Dr Ernest Bosdin Leech, like his father, was a remarkable diarist noting down every event from day to day. An eminent physician and lecturer he assembled a large and significant medical library relating to the history of medicine in Manchester. As well as early childhood diaries he kept a journal of his trip to Europe in 1909 and a daily record of his experiences as a medical officer in the First World War. He was an enthusiastic local and family historian who kept numerous books and folders of closely written notes, as well as retaining cashbooks, accounts and cheque stubs relating to their house on Daisy Bank Road, Victoria Park.
I would like to thank the Librarian of Chethams, Michael Powell who helped me find this information about Thomas Bosdin Leech and giving permission to reproduce extracts from the diary below. There is an extensive collection of material about the Leech family at Chethams Library and you can view it online by following the link below.

Dr Ernest Bosdin Leech account of the early days of the Rusholme Red Cross at Neuberg,(later Newbury) is also accompanied by some photographs below.
‘For some years before the Great War Dr William Coates had, as Director, been organising the East Lancashire Branch of the British Red Cross Society. For a short period I, together with Dr Hart of Streford, acted as Deputy County Director and for a much longer period, several years, I had acted as Commandant of the Rusholme Division.
This Division obtained as Headquarters, No. 5 Park Crescent, Victoria Park, Dr Mellands former house, and, when this was required for other purposes, it rented Neuberg in Daisy Bank Road, also in the Park.
This house was in June 1914 fitted up as a hospital for practice and demonstration purposes, and, at the same time an Inspection of the Rusholme Division took place. Beds and other materials were borrowed from members and others for the occasion, with the promise that they could be commandeered again if, what then seemed quite unlikely, a war did break out. Owing to this rehearsal and to the preparations it was possible to fit up the hospital within a short period of the commencement of war, and this hospital, with its name changed to Newbury, became one of the very first Red Cross Hospitals in England. It functioned thus throughout the whole of the war’.

Close-up of the photograph below is Dr Bosdin Leech, back to camera.

Photograph below is presumably of domestic staff at the Hospital

After the hospital was opened in Sept 1914 Dr Ernest Bosdin Leech left Neuberg and went to work at a large Red Cross hospital at Worsley, (pictured bottom rt below with the Worsley nursing staff) but left early in the beginning of 1915 having enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps.

His habit of meticulously preserving all of his bills & correspondence has proved to be a mine of information in considering the life-style of a middle-class Edwardian family. Below is the receipt for his wartime uniform from the Manchester tailors who kitted him out for service.

During the war in 1916 he married a widow, Mary Barker and in 1918 after the war was over he left the RAMC. With Mary they established a home in Daisy Bank Road just across the road from Newbury. He lived at ‘Chadlington’ in Victoria Park with his wife and two daughters until his death in 1950.He served both the medical community and particularly the Victoria Park Trust, writing a history of Victoria Park in 1937 when the Park Trust celebrated its 100 anniversary.

Amongst the first patients to arrive at Newbury in October 1914 were some Belgian soldiers who were conveyed to the hospital from the railway station by more volunteers, Mr George Gill and Mr Percy Smith.
They reported their journey to the local press in a letter saying,
“It was our privilege to convey the Belgian soldiers to their new temporary home at Neuberg in Victoria Park. Here they were received by Mrs Thorburn, (Vice-chairman of the Rusholme Red Cross) and a staff of nurses of whose kindness it is impossible to speak too highly. We would point out that all Red Cross work is honorary and that much of the expense of this hospital will have to be borne locally and we appeal to the residents of Rusholme for help in this worthy cause. We are informed that these new patients will need a diet in which fresh fruit and vegetables will play a prominent part as for the last two months they have subsisted on tinned meat-stuffs and Service biscuits.
Mrs Thorburn would therefore welcome gifts of fruit and vegetables, also tea, sugar and general groceries. We feel that the citizens of Manchester have only to be appealed to so as to respond most generously. Donations should be forwarded to Mrs Thorburn, Neuburg, Victoria Park”.

When the Red Cross first opened Newbury in 1914 40 beds were provided. The following year in 1915 a further 30 beds were provided, these were in the open air in the garden!
The open air ward was described as follows;
The open-air ward is a wooden pavilion under the shade of the trees. One side of the pavilion is open and has only blinds, like shop blinds, to keep off the rain that will drip from the trees in wet weather. The ward is, indeed, an experiment, for which Professor Thorburn is responsible, in the open­ air treatment of the wounded, and it has been built to the designs of the Manchester Corporation architect, Mr Henry Price,
Professor Thorburn made a statement regarding the advantages of open-air treatment.
“In previous wars when the hospitals were overcrowded and they had to treat to wounded men in the open air, they were surprised to find that many whom they thought were dying recovered in a wonderful way. In certain diseases due to germs, such as consumption, treatment in the open air is infinitely the best method.
For the treatment of the infection of a wound the most valuable thing is what Charles Kingsley called "God's oxygen."' From shock to the nervous system, resulting from wounds or the awful strain of battle, the most valuable thing is the sight of the open country, not the sight of closed walls.”
Professor William Thorburn was a leading surgeon at the Manchester Royal Infirmary and lived at Oxford Lodge Oxford Place Victoria Park with a family of 3 boys & 3 girls. They had a staff of four. The following biographical note is from Wikipeadia.
Sir William Thorburn K.B.E., C.B., C.M.G., F.R.C.S (7 April 1861 – 18 March 1923) was an English surgeon and pioneer in modern spinal surgery. At the time of his death he was Emeritus Professor of Clinical Surgery at the University of Manchester. In Manchester, Thorburn filled most of the positions of honour in scientific medicine, and he was appointed Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Lancaster. The outbreak of the First World War found him already holding the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Royal Army Medical Corps, Territorial Force, and he was placed in command of the 2nd Western General Hospital. The war having taken from him his three sons, he was appointed consulting surgeon with the temporary rank of Colonel A.M.S., at Malta, Gallipoli, and Salonika, and in 1917 he filled a similar position in France. For his services he was awarded a C.B. in 1916, and a C.M.G. and a military K.B.E. in 1919, while during his stay at Malta he was given the honorary degree of M.D. by the University of Malta.[

Patients at this and all other military hospitals wore a particular uniform, 'hospital blue’ with a white shirt and red tie. The men in this distinctive uniform were a well-known sight in Rusholme, where the various places of entertainment, i.e. Leslies Pavilion, the Trocadero cinema generally offered them free seats. In the postcard below, undated but from the WW1 there is an interesting poem on the reverse which is also displayed below.

The notice below is from a programme for the Trocadero cinema, dated 1915.

The photograph above and most below were taken by a photographer, E Ward of 249 Oxford Road, Manchester, some are marked on the back with a pencil, ‘Rusholme Military Hospital’, others are marked ‘sample’. I acquired them as a set so presume they were taken in the wards at one or more of the locations referred to above.

Of all of the photographs in this collection I find this one above the most poignant and moving – were these young men, smiling for the camera, and recovering from their wounds to be sent back to the front-line? Perhaps they were to be amongst the millions yet to die in action?

More photographs of ward interiors below.

Nora Horrocks was born in 1904 and had lived all her life in Rusholme. As a young girl during World War I, she recalls a wartime childhood.
"I used to queue for food. I'd come running out of school and say to Mother; "There's a queue outside the Maypole [at the corner of the Walmer Street continuation] - they're selling half a pound of butter." Oh it was great having half a pound of butter, great. I had lots of experiences like that during the war. The Belgian Chocolate Shop on Wilmslow Road made beautiful chocolates. You could get a quarter when they had a queue. That was a great treat that was.
Casualties of War
There were ladies on the trams at the time and people weren't allowed to run motor cars, as the petrol was rationed, but there were always lots of ambulances on Wilmslow Road. We had a shop called Minshull's Sweet Shop in Walmer Street, and they sold all sorts of things. Well, there was a boy there my age, we were very friendly. I cried for three nights every night for he got killed on Wilmslow Road, crossing the road, knocked down by an ambulance.
At the time there were hospitals for soldiers all over the area. And the ambulances, you see, they came flying down the road, taking them to Grangethorpe, taking them to Ellesmere House, Newbury, Moseley Road School, and there was Heald Place School.
That was built for a school, but never opened as a school till after the war, because that's where I went. And we went instead to a tabernacle place, because the school building was turned into a military hospital. It was lovely inside, very suitable.
Then there was Grangethorpe which is now the High School - that's where you'd see the wounded soldiers sitting on the seats around. They wore a blue uniform then. I'd be given cigs to give to the soldiers sitting in Platt Fields.
My brother was a prisoner of war, taken on 21st June 1918. We eventually received a buff card saying 'Safe and Sound'. He escaped with two others, and they were taken in by a Belgian farmer. His first cup of tea - served in an empty salmon tin - he always said was the best cup of tea he'd ever had. But when he came back from the prison camp he told us, "I've never seen human beings treated like that, and I never want to talk about it." And he never did.
Playing in Platt Fields
I used to play in Platt Fields with all the boys and a bat and a ball, or else go what we call travelling. It's a silly thing to say, but there's a brook there - it's all railed off now, but it wasn't then. When I was a child we used to go, run backwards and forwards right through the tunnel into Birchfields. That was my summer holiday excitement. Mother would have gone mad if she'd known.
The Suffragettes
Some suffragettes lived in the road I lived in, Oxney Road, and there was a suffragette lived next door to us, Mrs. Ratcliffe. And they used to come up in the middle of the night, depositing these suffragettes into this lady's house next door. Mother had a very great respect for the work of the suffragettes - they were fighting for women's rights, you know. There was a hall in Old Hall Lane - the Exhibition Hall. Well, they set it on fire. And my mother remembered my brother and sister [my brother was 12 years older, my sister 5 years older] went to watch the fire. Great excitement. The hall was burned to the ground.
After the War
When the War ended there was so much elation. I was 15 years of age about, and I can remember standing at the corner of Wilmslow Street and Walmer Street, and the people shouting "The War is Over!"
As far as jobs were concerned when the came out of the war, there was very little work for men. And I can always remember this experience - I've never forgotten this. There was a picture house called The Oxford Street Picture House, a very popular one, and my brother told they wanted a commissionaire. By 8 o'clock in the morning there was a long queue. Work was terribly hard to get, terribly hard.
Another War Looms
I thought it was dreadful, absolutely dreadful. They had a walk for the peace movement. I once followed the peace movement, because I thought it was terrible, talk of war again.
And a friend of mine said to me - she was very academic, she was an MA, years older than me, a very wise woman - she said, "Are you coming with me? I am joining this meeting." It was held at a picture house. So I joined her.
And the Peace Pledge Union, held at the Friends Meeting House -1 remember going to one or two meetings, in fact I went to quite a few during my lunch hour, because they held them for the benefit of business people. And they used to last about half an hour.
I thought it was terrible. It was a very common belief - to think they were having to fight again. So there was quite a bit of peace activity."

The WW1 memory of the late Norah Horrocks was published in 1992. It was part of the Rusholme Project started at the Birch Community centre with the intention of collecting memories of local residents. Published under the title of MEMORIES: Reminiscences of Rusholme by ID Books. I would like to thank Clive Hopwood, the Editor for being given permission to reproduce Norah's memory here on rusholmearchive.org. Copyright law requires permission to be given by the author but unfortunately this has not been possible. If any relative of Norah Horrocks has cause to be aggrieved by the publication of her memory please contact me; admin@rusholmearchive.org.