Bryan Rhodes recounts the history of Stramongate Auxiliary Hospital at Kendal during World War one

March 11, 2015 was a special day for Stramongate Primary School, at Kendal, as it marked exactly 100 years since the school opened as a World War 1 Auxiliary hospital.

Planned to be a hospital for only three to 12 months, Stramongate remained the largest and most important British Red Cross (BRC) Auxiliary Hospital in Westmorland until its closure on May 31, 1919.

More than 2,000 casualties were treated in Stramongate Hospital. It was designated as a ‘Primary’ BRC auxiliary hospital as it took injured soldiers directly from the returning hospital ships. Ambulance trains could transfer casualties easily from Southampton to the train station in Kendal.

In addition, it played an important role in training the men who would go on to become a key part of the medical services for casualties at the Battle of the Somme.

In the early months of the war, it became clear that the type of injuries sustained by British soldiers was such that mobile hospitals (called Casualty Clearing Stations) would have to be set up close to the front lines. As the war continued these CCS Hospitals became more and more important.

According to the official BRC record, Stramongate hospital was established by 'donors' who were the ‘Trustees and Teachers of the Friends 1st Primary School, Mrs Mary Wakefield and the Vicar and Churchwardens of St Thomas School'. Documents recently discovered by Jackie Fay at Kendal Library show how local Quakers such as Mrs Wakefield planned the new hospital. Almost all the nursing staff were local Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurses – 46 from the Kendal VAD and a smaller number from adjacent detachments.

There were also a few nurses from the Westmorland County Hospital (WCH). Initially the medical staff were provided by a local unit called the West Lancs Casualty Clearing Hospital (CCH), whose commanding officer was Lieut Col W. Baron Cockill, who had served as an anaesthetist in Kendal hospitals from 1886 to 1908.

Staff-Sergeant H.Ward has described the recruitment of staff to this unit, which built in size from just four men with a series of recruiting events in Kendal, Westmorland villages and Penrith.

In early March 1915, the men of the West Lancs CCH helped with the work of converting Stramongate school into the new BRC Auxiliary hospital.

On June 4, the staff of the West Lancs CCH were moved to Kirkham to set up another hospital and, after short periods of training in Blackpool and Aldershot, sailed to France in December 1915. It was then renamed the 34th CCS.