Headingley LitFest: Wartime Hospital at Beckett's Park

Wednesday 6 February 2013

Wartime Hospital at Beckett's Park

UPDATE - website for published book Stories from the War Hospital is at www.firstworldwarhospital.co.uk

Thanks to all those who have been in touch offering (and requesting) information. We are now realising that a separate website for our project on the 2nd Northern General Hospital at Beckett's Park during the Great War 1914 - 1918 would be a good idea, so one should appear online in the next couple of weeks, if all goes well. The URL will be put on the blog. The original press release from when we started can be found if you simply scroll down a little.

There are so many names of people who were there, particularly members of the RAMC (Royal Army Medical Corps). We are hoping that there are plenty of searchers trawling the web for information on their ancestor, who might have been a nurse, or a wounded soldier, or... so if we put plenty of names online, along with a few photos, we'll get results.

In the meantime, here are just a couple of photos which might bring results:

1) The cigarette case. An articial limb race so many years before the Paralympics! Do you know anything about either Douglas Longmate or CQMS (Company Quartermaster Sergeant) G W Browning? Below is a photo of an engraved silver cigarette case sent to us by a retired antiques dealer who wants to give it to any descendants we find:

2) The Irish Nurse. The granddaughter of a Red Cross Nurse who served at Beckett's Park between 7 August 1917 and 31 March 1919 sent us this photo from Ireland. It is of Mary (Polly) Dunne. She had two sisters, Kitty and Josephine, all of whom came from a small rural community and trained in England (St Alban's) as nurses. Do you know anything about nurses from Ireland in the Great War generally?

And thanks for the feature in the Yorkshire Post, Chris Bond -

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/features/horror-humour-and-humanity-the-untold-stories-of-a-hospital-in-wartime-1-5383600

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LITERARY HEADINGLEY

Headingley is just the place for it! Don't expect a big circus with marquees, though: we're not at that stage yet. We're all volunteers as well.

Our venues include the HEART Centre on Bennett Road, the New Headingley Club on St Michael's Road, friendly cafés, historic local cinemas, Headingley Library, people's houses and the historic Leeds Library in Commercial Street, city centre.

Headingley's Literary Links

Headingley has strong connections with many writers:

Arthur Ransome was born in Headingley, J R R Tolkien lived at 5 Holly Bank and also at 2 Darnley Road, West Park when he was reader in English Language at the University of Leeds 1920 - 25, Alan Bennett lived over a butcher's shop opposite the Three Horseshoes, now Royale Dry Cleaners.

Lucy Newlyn has published poetry about her early life in Headingley, George Orwell stayed at 21 Estcourt Avenue with his sister Marjorie and her husband Humphrey 'Humpy' Dakin (with whom he visited the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth), T S Eliot used to visit his mother-in-law in Weetwood Lane, William Fryer Harvey was brought up in Spring Bank, Trevor Griffiths lived just off Victoria Road on Winstanley Terrace, Jon Silkin's first office of STAND magazine was his flat at 144 Otley Road, Sir Geoffrey Hill lived in Shire Oak Road, Peter Redgrove lived in Headingley between 1962 and 1965 when he was Gregory Fellow of Poetry at the University of Leeds, and playwright Kay Mellor still lives near The Hollies in Far Headingley.

Wilson Barrett, the charismatic first manager of the Grand Theatre, Leeds (a prolific playwright as well), lived in Beech Grove Terrace, Woodhouse in the 1870s. His house was a meeting place for many writers, artists and visitors to Leeds - such as W. S. Gilbert, George Grossmith and Atkinson Grimshaw.

Headingley LitFest 2020 was the thirteenth. The fourteenth will take place from March 2021 and will be adapted to the rules of the Covid pandemic. We are now a proud part of the annual Leeds Lit Fest.