Oxford Inscriptions: Churchill Hospital
THE
CHURCHILL HOSPITAL
OPERATED BY
THE AMERICAN HOSPITAL IN BRITAIN
COMMANDING OFFICERS
DR. PHILIP D. WILSON
DR. WALLACE COLE
DR. CHARLES BRADFORD
DR. HARLAN WILSON
JANUARY 1942 – JULY 1942
2ND GENERAL HOSPITAL
(PRESBYTARIAN [sic] HOSPITAL
OF NEW YORK UNIT)
COMMANDING OFFICER
COL. PAUL C. CRAWFORD, M.C., U.S. ARMY
JULY 1942 – APRIL 1944
91ST GENERAL HOSPITAL
COL. LESTER M. DYKE, M.C., U.S. ARMY
APRIL 1944 – JULY 1945
ERECTED 15 JULY 1945
PLATE FURNISHED BY OFFICERS’ AND NURSES’ CLUB 91ST GENERAL HOSPITAL
–––––––
SURGEON GENERAL U.S. ARMY
MAJ. GEN. NORMAN T. KIRK, U.S. ARMY
CHIEF SURGEON ETOUSA
MAJ. GEN. PAUL R. HAWLEY, U.S. ARMY
SURGEON U.K. BASE
BRIG. GEN. CHARLES S. SPRUIT, U.S. ARMY
This plaque was erected on 15 July 1945 just two months after the war in Europe came to an end. It is now situated on the wall of the replacement American Garden at the west end of the hospital site, opposite the main entrance of the new Churchill Hospital building.
The present Churchill Hospital was originally built in 1939/40 by the UK Ministry of Health as an Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Hospital for air-raid casualties. This proved unnecessary and it was taken over by the United States Medical Services, who transferred their services here from Park Prewett Hospital in Basingstoke on 3 January 1942. It then became the 2nd General Hospital, and from April 1944 it was the 91st General Hospital. It comprised 41 permanent brick buildings and 107 Nissen huts, with a bed capacity of 1,070 supplemented by 570 tented expansion beds making a total of 1,640 beds. The permanent buildings were only completed in May 1942, the temporary buildings in December 1942, and the tented expansion in April 1944. The final bed capacity rose to 1,800 on 23 December 1944.
The American Garden at the Churchill Hospital
The plaque relating to the American Garden (right) dates from 1992, but in 2006 it was moved to the wall of the replacement American garden, next to the older plaque above.
The original American Garden was created in 1992 (on the fiftieth anniversary of the hospital) as a gift to the American people to celebrate those Americans who served there during the Second World War. (In 2006, however, the garden and this plaque had to be moved from their original site to make way for the new Cancer Hospital.)
The
American
Garden
This garden was presented by
Dr Peter Iredale
Chairman of the Oxfordshire Health Authority
to
Dr Norbert J Krieg
Consul General of the United States of America
on behalf of the American people
on
29 June 1992
in
the hospital’s 50th Anniversary year
in grateful recognition of those who served here
1942 – 1945
A plaque inside the original Churchill Hospital building on Churchill Drive
This plaque is included here despite being indoors because it gives more information about the Churchill's early history as an American hospital:
CHURCHILL HOSPITAL WAS FORMALLY OPENED ON JANUARY 27, 1942 BY
H.R.H. THE DUCHESS OF KENT. FROM THAT TIME UNTIL JULY 15, 1942
THE HOSPITAL WAS STAFFED BY THE AMERICAN HOSPITAL IN BRITAIN, A
RECONSTRUCTION UNIT OF SURGEONS, PHYSICIANS, NURSES, AND
TECHNICIANS WHO CAME FROM AMERICA IN SEPTEMBER 1940 TO GIVE
HELP TO BRITAIN IN HER HOUR OF NEED. THE UNIT, PREVIOUS TO ITS
TRANSFERENCE HERE, HAD BEEN LOCATED AT PARK PREWETT HOSPITAL,
BASINGSTOKE.DURING ITS STAY IN THIS COUNTRY THE UNIT WAS UNDER THE SUCCESSIVE
DIRECTION OF DR. PHILIP D. WILSON, DR. WALLACE COLE, DR. CHARLES BRADFORD
AND DR. HARLAN WILSON OF THE U.S.A. THE COST OF MAINTAINING THE UNIT
IN BRITAIN AND OF SUPPLYING VALUABLE EQUIPMENT WAS GENEROUSLY
PROVIDED BY FRIENDS IN AMERICA, THROUGH THE BRITISH WAR RELIEF
SOCIETY INCORPORATED OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.boswell & co. ltd., oxford