Shropshire Routes to Roots

www.shropshireroots.org.uk

Routes | Medicine and health | WW2 at the Orthopaedic

Go to

WW2 at the Orthopaedic

1. Introduction

What role did the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital play during World War Two?

During the Second World War, thousands of soldiers were killed in battle and many more were wounded during the fighting. From Great Britain alone, it has been estimated that nearly 326,000 soldiers and military personnel were killed during the conflict.

Like many hospitals up and down the country, the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital played an important role caring for the wounded soldiers during the war. In 1939, the hospital was re-organised into a base hospital and many of the civilian orthopaedic patients were discharged.

Second World War soldiers recovering in the grounds of the hospital [Opens in new window: image size 37kb]

Male patients recovering in the sunshine in Shropshire
Larger image, in a new window [37kb]
[Reproduced with kind permission of "Healing and Hope" c/o Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital]

Injured soldiers travelled from hospitals in more vulnerable areas to the Orthopaedic by train, arriving at nearby Park Hall Halt, before being taken to the hospital itself. The logistics operation (organisation) of getting the soldiers from Europe, across the Channel, into a hospital for temporary treatment and then up the country to Shropshire must have been difficult.

Photograph of Park Hall Halt [Opens in new window: image size 28kb]

Park Hall Halt
Larger image, in a new window [28kb]
[Oswestry Library]

Why was Shropshire chosen?
Shropshire was seen by the government as a 'safe' area of the country, an area unlikely to be bombed, because of its rural nature.
In the same way that Oswestry itself was selected as a suitable location for evacuees, the nearby hospital was used as a centre for injured soldiers returning from the Front Line.

Continue

Find out about Hospital records: Next

Return to top of page

Page created June 2004 and last updated 13 July 2007

For your enquiries and comments please see the Who to contact page. Please read the general terms and conditions and accessibility information, including the use of the UK government accesskeys system.