NEW ZEALAND HOSPITAL

Otago Witness, Issue 3215, 27 October 1915, Page 35 (Supplement)

NEW ZEALAND HOSPITAL

VISIT BY THE KING. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON.. Angn t 18. Within a fortnight of the New Zealand

—W. Reid, photo.

Hospital at Walton-on-Thames being opened the King and Queen paid it a visit. The Court Circular of August 13 says; “ Their Majesties, with the Prince of Wales, and attended by Captain B. God-frey-Faussett, R.N., visited the sick and wounded soldiers of the New Zealand Contingent at the New Zealand Auxiliary Hos pital at Walton-on-Thames this afternoon. The King and Queen were received by the Lady Islington, the Lord Plunket, the

E. W. Meers, photo,

Hun. T. Mackenzie (High Commissioner j i for the dominion of New Zealand), and : the committee.” This is a bald statement of what occurred, but it covers the ground fairly well. The visit was as nearly as possible private. During the war their Majesties tie not making functions of any of their mate ca 1 . and they made it clear that they wi-Tied to visit our hospital without

any ceremony. Consequently, nobody but one or two members of the committee knew anything of it. The executive committee held a meeting at the hospital in ; the morning, and their Majesties arrived | soon after lunch, having motored over j from W'ndsor. The Prince of Wale? was j home on short leave from the front, -where i he has been for more than six months, | and he, as well as the King, wore an i ordinary lounge suit.

They were received by the members of ' the comm.ttee, and, accompanied by Major j Bernard Myers, R.A.M.C., Mr Mackenz e, j Lord Plunket. and Lady Islington, they i walked through all the wards and spoke to aim ;st every soldier, asking them how they- g t wounded and many questions about the desperate fighting in the Dardanelles. After finishing the.r round of the wards, during which they discussed many

of the arrangements with Miss Tombe, the | matr n, they took tea with the committee 1 on the terrace overlooking the river. i An amusing incident occurred when a | photographer appeared and wished to take I a photograph. He had arranged the | group, with their Majesties in front and 1 a large party of the wounded soldiers in ■ the background, when the King looked round and laughingly exclaimed that that would not do at all. His Majesty then

stood out and arranged the group himself, and when one photograph had be<.u taken advised the photographer to take another in case of accident. The party spent more than an hour at the hospital, and before leaving his Majesty expre sed to the committee, the office;- in charge, and the matron the pleasure it had been to him to see the fine new institutions and to know that the

gallant New Zealanders were being so well j looked after in England. At a tea given to wounded soldiers by j a lady at Leather-head the other day, two parties of New Zealanders met, one from ! the New Zealand Hospital at Walton-on- | Thames and the other from St. Thomas’s - Hospital. Amongst them one New Zealander recognised a countryman who had carried him off the field when he was | wounded in Gallipoli, and there was an 1

affecting as he shook his rescuer by the hand and thanked him heartily. They had not met since the day of the occur: ence. It has practically been decided already by the committee of the New Zealand Hospital to make a considerable extension with a view to accommodating more of our wounded who are in England. The hospital at pre ent has accommodation for

100 patients, and it would be possible, by utilising another wing, to instal beds for perhaps another £O. What will probably be done, however, is to erect in the grounds one of those temporary annexes which are now much favoured for military hospitals. For a moderate expense 150 new beds cou’d be provided, and this would enable the New Zealand War Contingent Association to take in a large proportion of our own wounded.

New buildings have already been erected am'd the -mins which mark the track of the war. The building in the centre is marked “cafe

Photographic Service of the French Armies.)

(Photos by Central News,)