HOSPITAL BOMBED

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 March 1941, Page 4

HOSPITAL BOMBED

BATTLE-SCARRED “LONDON”

In the board-room of the London Hospital there is a large map of the nine and a-half acres covered by the hospital buildings, on which at various points are coloured circles enclosing a date. These circles indicate the bombs which have fallen on the hospital (states the ‘British Medical Journal’ of November 16). Since the bombardment of London began 21 bombs have been straddled across the hospital, including incendiary, high explosive, and small calibre bombs. Ten thousand panes of glass have been broken. Notwithstanding this, 300 beds are in use, and nearly 440 blind men from a blind school are being cared for in the hospital. A large first-aid post is also accommodated here. The wards and administrative offices are all stored up, and the hospital activities are concentrated on the first, the ground, and the lower ground floors.

The hospital has its own squad of fire fighters, and for this reason the damage, which might have been much more serious, has been limited. Part of the Medical College has been badly damaged, and the top floor of the nurses’ home has been struck by an incendiary bomb, but the rest of the building was saved because of the stone floor at the top.

There are 200 casualty beds and 100 beds for civilian sick, but the population of the hospital is kept on the move, and as soon as patients can safely be transported they are sent to a sector hospital. This means that ther6. are always beds waiting for those who need them.

Captain Davies, of St. Paul’s Cathedral fame, also saved the London Hospital. Digging took place for 18ft. and ropes were tied round the bomb, but it could not be got out. Captain Davies then found the fuse, built 500 sandbags around the bomb, and exploded it, the only casualty being one pane of glass!