1st Australian Auxiliary Hospital

Harefield House AWM PO2402.005
History
Name	1st Australian Auxiliary Hospital
Where formed	Luna Park, Cairo, Egypt
Date formed	19 Jan 1915.
Capacity	1,000 patients in England
Locations	Luna Park, Cairo, Egypt Harefield Park House, Harefield, Middlesex, England

General Information

Opened 19 January 1915 at Luna Park, Cairo, Egypt. Closed 10 July 1916, and designation transferred to Harefield establishment.

In November 1914, Mr and Mrs Charles Hillyard-Leake (Australians resident in the UK) had offered the property known as "Harefield Park", Harefield, Middlesex, to be used as a home for convalescent wounded soldiers of the A.I.F. Their offer was accepted in December 1914.

At the time it was accepted, authorities estimated that the house would accommodate 50 soldiers in winter and up to 150 during spring and summer. At the height of its use the property accommodated over 1,000 beds. The patients were housed in 36 large huts dispersed throughout Harefield Park. Nearly 50 buildings were in use, including workshops, garages, stores, messes, canteens, a recreation hall (where concerts and film shows were held), a billiards rooms, writing rooms, a library, a cookhouse, a detention room and a mortuary. For entertainment, tours to London were arranged and paid for out of canteen funds, and the ladies of the district made their cars available for country trips, picnics and journeys to and from the railway station, both for patients and visitors.

The first staff for this hospital left Australia on HMAT A54 Runic in April 1915 and comprised 1 Captain Commanding Officer and his staff, along with a Matron and five nurses. Staff levels in 1916 were: Medical Staff of 1 Lieutenant Colonel, 5 Majors, 12 Captains, 2 Hon Lieutenant Dentists; Nursing Staff of 1 Matron; 20 Nursing Sisters; 36 Staff Nurses; 6 Masseuses (male or female); Administration/Support Staff of 1 Sergeant Major, 15 Sergeants/Staff Sergeants, 10 Corporals, 9 Privates, and a large number of volunteers.

The hospital was tasked with providing a rest home to allow soldiers of all ranks to recuperate after sickness or injury, and as a depot for collecting invalids for return to Australia. However, in time all hospital functions were performed, and by 1918 it was a centre for eye, ear, nose and throat diseases. Mostly they were surgical cases and it was possible for special attention to be given to amputees before their return to Australia.

The war hospital closed on 31st December 1918, but today the site is home to Harefield Hospital, one of the top cardiac hospitals in the world. Links to its Australian past remain, with pictures of the men that were treated at the hospital in the Anzac Centre, opened in 2003 and home to the Out-Patients Department, Echo-cardiology, the transplant clinic and two cardiac operating theatres. In addition the annual Anzac Day service is held at St. Mary’s church where 112 Australian servicemen from the First World War are buried.

At its peak there were more than 40 buildings in use. A small magazine titled Harefield Park Boomerang was regularly produced (a 2 volume bound collection of these are held at the Australian War Memorial Library).

Staff

• John Thomas Buckland 1 Oct to 12 Nov 1917
• Edith Marion Wilson 22 Nov 1917 to 4 Nov 1918

Soldier Patients by date admitted

Egypt
1915

• John Alexander Adamson 26 Sep - 22 Nov 1915
• Edward (Ted) Harry Darby 8 Aug - 28 Sep 1915
• Ernest Wright Holroyd 25 Aug - 5 Sep 1915
• Harold V Marshall 13 Sep - 4 Oct 1915
• Fritz Robert Jaentsch 19 Sep - 11 Oct 1915
• John McLeod Brown 15 Nov - 8 Dec 1915
• William George Tait 11 Dec 1916 - 17 Jan 1917

1916

• John Francis Grabham MM 31 Jan - 13 Mar 1916
• Frederick Selkirk 11 Feb - 18 Apr 1916
• John Harold Rupert Smith 16 - 21 Feb 1916
• Victor Thomas Emanuel Compassi 9- 19 Mar 1916
• Herbert William Coxhead 25 May 1916
• Thomas Allan Bottrell 13 Jun - 10 Jul 1916

England
1916

• William Edward Clarence Green 31 May - 24 Jun 1916
• Arthur Charles Cam 14 - 20 Jun 1916
• John Alexander Spilsbury Jun - 6 Jul 1916
• William Harrington Edward Watson 5 - 11 Jul 1916
• Albert Edward John Walls 12 Jul - 16 Aug 1916
• John James Thorpe 24 Aug - 8 Sep 1916
• James Barber 30 Aug - 8 Sep 1916
• William Mathews 31 Aug - 12 Oct 1916
• John Paterson Henderson 6 Sep - 12 Nov 1916
• Edgar Leslie Livermore 13 Sep - 25 Oct 1916
• Edward Patrick Barker 21 - 25 Sep 1916
• Alfred Warburton Chapman (Snr) 5 Oct - 6 Dec 1916
• Percy Goodall 10 - 23 Oct 1916
• William Edward Butcher MM RMG MID 10 Oct - 19 Dec 1916
• Francis Crowe 3 - 23 Nov 1916
• John Hall 16 Nov - 7 Dec 1917
• Lionel William Gibbs 23 - 27 Nov 1916
• Reginald Peter Lewis 27 Nov 1916 - 8 Jan 1917
• Patrick Wilford Kelly 8 - 20 Dec 1916

1917

• Thomas Bird 24 Jan - 20 Feb 1917
• George Harris 13 Mar 1917
• William Heath 11 Apr 1917 - 26 Apr 1917
• Charles Frederick McKay 2 May 1917
• John Henry Holroyd 15 - 22 May 1917
• George Henry Aspinall 25 Jun 1917 - 3 Jul 1917
• John Henry Whitfield 3 - 19 Jul 1917
• Donald Gordon Melville Huggins 17 - 24 Jul 1917
• Thomas Ramsell 9 - 12 Aug 1917
• John Thomas Buckland 21 Aug - 16 Sep 1917
• Gordon Devereux MM 24 Aug - 3 Sep 1917
• Albert Victor Berry 27 Aug - 3 Sep 1917
• Arthur Candish 28 Aug - 4 Sep 1917
• Archibald Shepherd 29 - 31 Aug 1917
• Leonard George Morgan 8 - 11 Sep 1917
• Arnold Thorp 15 - 22 Sep 1917
• Alexander Robinson 17 - 20 Sep 1917
• Matthew Harwood 20 Sep - 2 Oct 1917
• Henry John Robert Saint 28 Sep - 15 Oct 1917
• John Hall 3 Oct - 27 Nov 1917
• John Grant Watt MM & Bar 113 - 16 Oct 1917
• William Edward McKenna 15 - 21 Oct 1917
• John Humphrey Coyle 19 - 23 Oct 1917
• Robert Frank Bickford 31 Oct - 11 Nov 1917
• Samuel Vivian Mortimer 2 - 7 Nov 1917
• Albert Edgar Bishop 27 Nov - Dec 1917
• Leslie Jeffery Harvey 18 Dec 1917 - 5 Jan 1918
• John Thomas Buckland 27 - 31 Dec 1917
• Josiah James Skinner 31 Dec 1917 - 7 Jan 1918

1918

• Stanley Victor Coney 4 - 25 Jan 1918
• Albert George Bullock 9 Jan - 9 Mar 1918
• John Henry Ward 14 - 17 Jan 1918
• Thomas Allan O'Dea 17 - 22 Jan 1918
• Nicholas Joseph Rosekelly 25 Jan - 3 Feb 1918
• Samuel Thomas Lowth 1 - 6 Feb 1918
• Albert George Bullock 10 Mar - 10 Apr 1918
• Alfred Arthur Martin 20 - 22 Mar 1918
• Daniel Adkins Lewis 25 - 29 Mar 1918
• Arthur Leworthy Bettenay 22 - 30 May 1918
• William Francis Clements 22 May - 1 Jun 1918
• Ernest Henry Chisholm 23 Feb - 8 Mar 1918
• Cecil James Clark 24 Apr - 18 Jun 1918]]
• John Humphrey Coyle 3 - 13 May 1918
• George Edward Binns 4 - 8 May 1918
• Cecil Arthur Hill MM 10 - 30 May 1918
• Edward Dudley Mann 17 May - 22 Apr 1918
• Ernest Camp 30 May - 1 Jun 1918
• Norman Leslie Skewes 1 - 4 Jun 1918
• Mervyn Alexander Stalker 22 Jun 1918 - ??
• William Thomson 24 - 25 Jun 1918
• Thomas Edward Raine 24 - 29 Jun 1918
• Robert Frank Bickford 12 - 15 Jul 1918
• Alfred Tennyson Needham 28 Aug - 16 Sep 1918
• John Edward Thomson 31 Aug - 9 Sep 1918
• Leith John Newton Angelo 7 - 13 Sep 1918
• George Emanuel Nettleton 13 - 17 Sep 1918
• Henry Melville Hardinge 16 - 21 Sep 1918
• David Forbes Abernethy 17 Sep 1918
• John Kiely 20 Sep 1918 - 2 Jan 1919
• Alexander Robinson 21 Oct - 9 Nov 1918
• Gordon Walter Bone 22 - 28 Oct 1918 - Died 28 Oct 1918 of illness
• William Grenfell 3 - 20 Nov 1918
• Ernest William George Reed 20- 23 Nov 1918
• Joseph Clough 10 Dec 1918 - 14 Jan 1919
  

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  view of 1 AAH Harefield
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  View of hospital huts from gardens
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  View of a ward AWM H 03583
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  View of hospital