Wateringbury doctor tends war wounded (1914)

Post date: Apr 26, 2014 2:44:0 PM

Extract from Kent Messenger 3rd October 1914.

The Wounded in Hospital

Everyone is doing—or ought to be doing— his or her best at the present time for our brave men at the front the men who are standing in our places, the men who are in thousands of cases sacrificing their very lives for us. But it is not given to everyone to be able to provide a well-equipped hospital, for those who, although they may come through the hottest of the strife with their lives, are nevertheless wounded and in many cases maimed. A number of ladies and gentlemen in this county, however, are doing their duty nobly in this respect. Among them Colonel Warde, M.P., and Mrs. Warde, Sir Marcus Samuel and Lady Samuel, Mr. George Marsham and his band of willing helpers, Earl and Countess Darnley, Viscount and Viscountess Falmouth, Mr. H. J. Wood (Speldhurst), the Hon. Mrs. Alan Gardner, and many others.

Colonel and Mrs. Warde, at their beautifully situated residence, Barham Court, have pro­vided a hospital of 32 beds, 16 of which are already filled with wounded heroes from the battle-fields of the Aisne, the Marne, and elsewhere. When the wounded arrive at Chatham the Colonel’s motor car is there to meet them; on reaching Barham Court they are tenderly placed in the new lift, and in a moment or two find themselves in a perfectly furnished hospital, divided into a number of pleasantly situated wards, where every possible arrangement is found for their comfort, and every provision made for coaxing them back to health. Nurses are in attendance, a dispensary is not forgotten, and even electric fittings, so that by a turn of a switch, hot nourishment may be obtained at any hour of the day or night, have been installed.

“What is the matter With you?” said the Editor of the “Kent Messenger” to one. “Oh,” was the reply, “I was only shot through the hand. I was carrying dispatches and didn’t even know I was shot until my hand pained me a bit. Then I jumped off my bicycle and found a bullet, had gone clean through my hand and damaged the handle of the bicycle I was riding, but I’m nearly well now.”

“ And you?” enquired the Editor of this journal.

“ Oh,” was the reply, “I was lucky. All my company was cut up, and only three of us escaped. I was one of ’em. And I want to get back again. The man who wounded me, though, is dead. He shot my captain, who was standing beside me. So I just waited till his head bobbed up again from the trenches opposite, and then I got my shot in. I don’t quite know which side of the nose I hit him, but it was right by the nose.”

Another man was injured in the eye. His sight, fortunately, is not, lost; but a comrade who stood beside him said that a lad in his regiment, 19 years of age, had lost both eyes. One man was injured in the hip, another had his foot bandaged, hurt by a splinter from a shrapnel, and yet another had lost his little finger. He had his hand on an opening in a trench where some of them were taking cover, and a German musket found it out.

But, thanks to the comforts of Barham Court and the medical attendance of Dr. Hal­lowes and Dr. Southwell Sander, almost all seem to be progressing towards recovery, and are anxious to get back to the firing line. And when they go and ever after they will look back with gratitude to Colonel and Mrs. Warde and remember the home provided for them at Barham Court.

In the KM of February 1918 Colonel Warde credits Dr. Southwell Sander with giving his services gratuitously:

I know that you use your house as a private military hospital?

"That is the case. I offered my house to the Government on the outbreak of war and received my first contingent of wounded on the 23rd September, 1914, and my hospital has been open ever since, with the exception of six weeks in 1915. During this time nearly five hundred wounded have passed through it, and my 35 beds are kept pretty full, because as all my nurses are fully certificated surgical nurses, I am generally supplied with what surgeons call interesting cases. I am most fortunate too in having secured the gratuitous and valuable services of Dr. Southwell Sander and Mr. Travers."

This must have meant considerable expense to you?

“Well, my wife, as well as myself, has been only too thankful to have the opportunity of thus doing our bit.”