Shropshire Routes to Roots

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Visionary

4.World War I

How did the First World War impact on the provision of care at The Home?

At the outbreak of the First World War, Florence House was put at the disposal of the Home Office. It was designated a rest centre for the wounded.

A photograph of soldiers in open air wards at Baschurch [Opens in a new window: 30kb]

Soldiers in open air wards at Baschurch
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[Reproduced with kind permission of "Healing and Hope" c/o Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital]

By 1916 there was an open air ward and two tents full of soldiers. The nurses dressed septic wounds and fractures, most the result of gunshot injury. Children were still treated at Florence House but for the duration of the war only children under the age of fourteen were admitted.

A photograph of an Aftercare Service Sister [Opens in a new window: 30kb]

Aftercare Service Sister
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[Reproduced with kind permission of "Healing and Hope" c/o Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital]

Many of the children were eventually discharged to make way for more serious cases. Agnes Hunt was concerned that some after care was needed so that the children's progress should continue once they were sent home. She therefore set up an after care service. By the end of 1918 thirteen centres were scattered throughout Shropshire. The image shows one of the early aftercare sisters who made her visits not only to the treatment centres but also to homes.

The development of the Orthopaedic Hospital was assured when in 1919 the Red Cross provided funding. The now obsolete Military Hospital at Park Hall was bought and adapted into an open air hospital.

In 1918 Agnes Hunt was awarded the insignia of the Royal Red Cross at Buckingham Palace in recognition of her work during the First World War.

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Page created June 2004 and last updated 13 July 2007

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