08 Aug 2022
Discover some of the surprising entries recently discovered in the medical records of the Dreadnought Seamen's Hospital.
by Martin Salmon, Archivist and Curator of Manuscripts
The Dreadnought Seamen’s Hospital at Greenwich was the main clinical site of the Seamen’s Hospital Society (now Seafarer’s Hospital Society), founded to bring relief to sick and injured seafarers of all nations. The HMS NHS: The Nautical Health Service project was launched in 2021 to transcribe the many thousands of entries in the hospital admission registers between 1826 and 1930. The amazing work of the HMS NHS volunteers will provide researchers with opportunities to explore more than one hundred years of medical care provided at the centre of maritime Greenwich.
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Convalescing in Cudham
From 1917, references begin to appear in the records to ‘Cudham’. A volunteer discovered this was a convalescent home, set up in Kent for the long-term recovery of seaman treated at the Dreadnought.
Managed by the Seamen's Hospital Society, the Home opened on 8 July 1918 with 30 beds. A two-storey extension was soon added to provide 42 beds. In 1948 the home joined the NHS along with the other hospitals managed by the Seamen's Hospital Society, the Albert Dock Hospital and the Tilbury Seamen's Hospital.
Following a major reorganisation of the NHS in 1974, the Home ceased to be a convalescent home for seamen. The building remains, and photos and further information can be found here.
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Swing and a miss
In 1896 the register states that a 'Golf Caddie' was admitted to the Dreadnought Seamen's Hospital with a fractured patella (part of the knee cap). You have to wonder if they stood too close to that back swing on the Greenwich golf course...
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From golf to birdies
This final story is not mentioned in the Admissions Registers, but was found by a volunteer during some newspaper research.
On 1 January 1921, the Gloucestershire Chronicle reported that:
A little girl took a canary in a cage to the Seamen's "Dreadnought" Hospital, Greenwich, S.E., on Wednesday, and asked that its broken leg should be treated. To the girl's great delight, the house surgeon set the broken leg, using a match as a splint. Before leaving, she made an appointment for her patient the next day.
We do hope the patient managed to make their follow-up appointment.
The Dreadnought Seamen's Hospital Records
Our fantastic volunteers have transcribed more than one hundred years of medical records from the Dreadnought Seamen’s Hospital, Greenwich's unique 'floating hospital'.