Mr Winston Churchill Visits Tidworth

Image by World of Oddy via FlickrAnother Pathe News clip. This time from 1927, judging by the fact that there is no sound attached, the facility may not have been available then. Although it isn't a visit to the hospital, we do take pride on this site to include the history of our military colleagues who also served in Tidworth.

Hope you enjoy this look back at the Tank Tracks, when I served there the tank tracks were a popular walking area for yound soldiers and their girlfriends-something to with the seclusion I am led to believe!!
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=15598#.Tp2qdb8fy-k.email

Thank You All

Writing a Blog sitting in a room in South East London can feel very lonely. (A big, Oh Bless Him! please)

What makes it all worth it is when you are able to see that the site has visitors, and from where they are viewing it. I must say a very sincere thank you to all of you who have visited, and also to those who have visited more than once. Below is a list of countries from wher visits have been registered. If I miss your, please forgive me, and let me know via the Comment button below.

Australia, Bulgaria, Brazil, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, India, Nigeria, New Zealand, Portugal, Pakistan, Romania, Russia, Spain, Singapore, Trinidad, United Kingdom and the USA.

Again, many thanks to you all.

If at any time you like something you see on the site, would you be kind enough to click on the +1 icon below. Many thanks,

Peter

Former Colonel-In-Chief Visits Tidworth

As the site says, it is aimed at not just those of us lucky enough to have served in Tidworth Military Hospital. Below, I have added a link to a piece of film that was never formally released, of Our former Colonel-In-Chief, Her Majesty, The Queen Mother, visting Tidworth. On this occasion, Her Majesty was presenting New Colours to the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment.

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=63497#.Tp2pekfVLVM.email

The Tidworth Tales

Canterbury had its' Chaucer when it came to the relating of tales. Tidworth, on the other hand, has its' Silkstone. The Silkstone in question is John Silkstone. As well as being a retired Medic and former Royal Artillery member, John is a published author with many memories of his days in Tidworth, which may coincide with your days there, as they do with mine.

Here then, are two recollections of days by gone by, at Tidworth Military Hospital, from the pen of John Silkman.

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UNOFFICIAL WORLD RECORD

Towards the end of 1962, I was asked to perform the ‘Last Offices’ on a patient that had passed away. I asked male nurse Tony Fry to give me a hand; I don’t think he’d seen a cadaver before, and was a little reluctant to assist.
After screening the bed, I showed Tony how we washed, shaved and prepare a body for burial. After washing the front, I ask Tony to give me a hand to turn the body over. Tony was still reluctant, but assisted in turning the body and as we did so, the body expelled some air from the lungs, thus making a groaning sound.
The great feat of Roger Bannister breaking the four minute mile in 1954 was nothing compared to the speed that Tony recorded that day.
On the 4th of December 1962, Tony and Jan Lord both sail on HMS Oxfordshire on its last troop sailing. Jan and some other QARANC nurses were on their way to BHM Gibraltar, while Tony was one of the medics on the round trip and returned to the Tidworth hospital after the voyage.

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AMBULANCE! WHAT AMBULANCE?

The winter of 1962/63 was very bad, with deep snow which was blown into high sided drifts by gale force winds.
One evening we received a call for an ambulance to collect a patient from Bulford Camp which was nine miles away. The ambulance was an old Military type known as a K9; it comprised of a three-ton chassis with a box top, and was about twelve feet in height and painted green with the usual Red Cross signs on the side.
There was a snowstorm blowing across the open country side between Tidworth and Bulford which caused snowdrifts of fifteen feet or more. About three miles outside of Tidworth, the civilian driver skidded off the road and into one of the drifts.
The driver and I decided that it was not safe for one of us to walk back alone for help, and so we tied ourselves together with bandages and wrapping ourselves in blankets we set off to walk back to the hospital.
The blankets helped to keep some of the cold out but soon became damp and heave with a collection of snow. My feet were cold but dry as I had my army boots on and the amount of polish that was brushed into the leather helped to keep them waterproof. The driver however, only had his shoes on and soon his feet were cold and wet. We struggled through the snow for nearly two hours just to walk the three miles back to the hospital. We have covered about three quarters of the distance and by this time the driver was in a bad state and could hardly walk. I discarded my blankets and carried him piggyback fashion with his blankets encasing us both.
Once back at the hospital, I had a hot bath and changed into dry clothes while the drive was admitted as a patient for overnight observations. When I returned to reception the REME were waiting for me to show them where the ambulance was.
We set off in their large Scammel recovery vehicle which was nice and warm within the cab. We travelled all the way to Bulford without see the ambulance. We turned around and slowly made our way back again. It was no good; the snow had buried this twelve foot green vehicle within a very short period of time. It was found three weeks later, and written off as being beyond repair.

Childs Play In Tidworth!!

I was idling away a few minutes earlier today, wondering what to do next in my otherwise extremely busy day which is normally spent just wondering what to do next!!

Eureka! I thought out loud and in so doing, spilt the cup of tea I was holding all over next doors cat-by jove, she can move when she wants to!!!!

I began thinking of my days in Tidworth and some of the stories I heard from the civilans I got to know-about the Tidworth Tattoo. Without further ado, I dug in my drawers and came up with the following. I hope you enjoy it.

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=6340#.TpMpikYMejA.gmail

 

Once Upon A Time.....Part 7-Going To The Theatre!

Image via WikipediaAt the start of this series of occasional articles about my early days in the Royal Army Medical Corps.(R.A.M.C) and my first "grown-up" posting being Tidworth Military Hospital, I also told of how I wanted to become an Operating Theatre Technician (OTT) and how the R.A.M.C appeared to be trying hard to deter me. I must admit, it did make me think a little from time to time whether my choice had been the right one from the very outset.

You might remember that I had given up my previous and very promising post as Village Idiot in Twyford, Buckinghamshire, in order that I could devote my life to my Queen and Country as a non-combative Medic and OTT. Why? Why ask me?-I truly do not have a clue other than I lived near to the town of Bicester, which was a Garrison Town and from time to time I saw soldiers in small armoured car things, rushing around the countryside. I also saw a photo of someone dressed in Theatre "whites", in a recruiting booklet. I immediately decided that "rushing around the countryside," either with or without a small armoured car thing, was not the life for me. Far too much like hard work I decided. (To be honest with you, I still consider that despite my age and experiences, I have still not done a hard days work in my life when I compare it with what my modern day counerparts do in situations that I never had to face, as well as those I served with. I can only say here that I feel very humble and have massive respect for each one of them. The name Pierre Naya comes to mind. There are others of course. For those who don't know of him, I refer you to my note at the end of this.)

 Village Idiot I might have been, but work was not for me. SO, the only choice left open to me was the Operating Theatre. An OTT I would be-all in good time of course.  

I received a message one afternoon while I was working on Surgical Ward 1, or Douglas Ward as it had be re-branded, advising me to visit the office of the Orderly Seargeant the next morning, at 8.30 am. I immediately went over my recent actions and activities in an effort to remember anything I might have done wrong. Nought came to mind, except for the moment when, two days earlier I had told one of the slop jockeys in the cookhouse precisely what I thought of the corned beef hash, which as far as I could see, was corned beef free!! Following our brief but meaningful exchange, he decided to rename it Hoover Hash. "All the muck, all the s--t, Hoover will get rid of it." Words similar to those were being used to advertise the latest vacuum cleaner to hit the market. I think the intimation here was that his has hash had performed a similar feat, and vacuumed all the muck and all the s..t, with the exception of course of corned beef, that happened to be left lying around. (To be fair, the cook was pretty good at his job normally-he went on to teach at the ACC Depot (not neccessarily a recommendation I acknowledge) and eventually to working in Royal residences.  

Anyway-back to me. I turned up as summoned and was met by the Orderly Sergeant Corporal (yes-I'm still puzzling over that one!!) It was soon made clear to me that my nursing career was finished, despite my studying day and night, and attaining my nursing certificates, I was to enter THEATRE. How was I going to break the news to the Sister in charge of S1 (Douglas) Ward? The Orderly Sergeant Corporal said it had all been taken care of. He also went on to tell me of the smile that broke out on her face when he promised her he was not joking and that, yes, I was leaving after my late shift on Saturday. (Possibly a little too much information there, although the significance of what he said didn't hit me until about 5pm that day!!!) Not to worry, come Monday morning a new world was to be mine. I would soon take to the new environment-fit in with the rest of the staff, and of course, find no problems with all that would be coming my way in terms of training and cleaning-cleaning and cleaning, and of course! cleaning and cleaning.

Next time-What happened when I started my first day in Theatre and how once again I asked myself the question-What the hell am I doing Here?

(I referred earlier to my former colleague, Pierre Naya. I would heartily recommend the following book to you, which will tell you better that I can, of his acts of heroism.

Title "MEDIC."
Authors, John Nichol & Tony Rennell
Published by the Penguin Group
ISBN 978-0-670-91604-7
It can be bought or ordered from any of the reputable book sales shops as well as on-line from Amazon or other on-line stores

Articles To Come In September

As I'm away for the next couple of weeks, I've been planning articles for when I return.

So far I've got an article about 181 Airlanding Field Ambulance RAMC, which was based in Perham Down, part of Tidworth Garrison.

I have an article about the introduction of the Central Sterile Services Department as part of Tidworth Military Hospital, including a letter to The Lancet, December 1962 by the then Commanding Officer, John Mackay-Dick.

There will be Part 1 of a history of Tidworth and the divide between North and South, and finally, the next part of my memories of my time at Tidworth Military Hospital and how I managed, at last, to get into Theatres.

If any of you have anything you would like to contribute toward any of the above items, please get in touch via the Comment Button below. I'll pick up your items and prepare them for publication after September 10th.

Until then-have a great time and many thanks to you all for visiting.