Gulson Road Hospital

Hello I have been conducting some research into the Gulson Hospital in the run up to WWII and during the blitz itself. Given that C&WH was significantly bombed and casualties were redirected to GH, particularly once Broadgate and Jordan Well become an inferno, there does seem to be a lack of information on what happened that night (some BBC & CT sources). Whilst a number of incendiaries were extinguished, only one explosive bomb landed (on the tennis court) there did not seem to be too much damage. There is some contradictory information on the number of doctors and operating theatres available - one source indicated that there was only one operating table available and four doctors, which does seem a little lite. Is anyone aware of some useful sources that I may have missed please?

My Dad was in the St John's Ambulance during WW2, based at Gulson Hospital. He never talked about this much, I expect he witnessed things one would want to forget, but there is a writeup of someone's experiences mentioning GH at https://www.bbc.com/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/31/a679673.....

Hi William, I looked in the Cov Archive and couldn't find much about Gulson Rd Hospital. I found loads about Cov & War Hospital which I put in this post (see link). Gulson Road Hospital is briefly mentioned in 'The Blitz on Coventry's Health: The Health effects of the building of Coventry in the second world war' by Sharon Twigger. It refers to Gulson Road Hospital as holding a medium sized first aid post (with Cov & War having the largest). The text briefly mentions Gulson Road Hospital during the blitz on page 41 but it's just one witness quote (not exactly worth a trip to just find it but if you're passing). Hope someone is able to help

Something Garlands posted reminded me of the Board of Health reports. This might add some insight on page 6. It seems that the Gulson Road hospital wasn't considered safe because of its location so was mostly used as a clearing station. There might be more info in one of the other years but this is a good starter.

The Board of Health report states that patients were 'decanted daily' from the casualty clearing station at Gulson Road Hospital to affiliated local hospitals to reduce the chance of patients being killed or injured in future bombing raids. The nearest place to decant patients was Keresley Hospital which was expanded during the war I believe. My own research into blitz deaths showed that the following hospitals were also used: The Warneford Hospital in Leamington Spa; Warwick Hospital; St. Cross Hospital, Rugby; and the emergency hospitals in Nuneaton, Stratford on Avon, and Rugby (although this may be St. Cross).

Thanks Helen - interesting Board of Helath report and I will explore others. Also came across this document - The City of Coventry: Local government and public services, Public services

This last document is very interesting. It mentions two local hospitals which were used to disperse patients in addition to Keresley Hospital. They were described as 'Allesley and Exhall', they would have been the Paybody Hospital at Allesley and the High View Hospital in Exhall. I don't know where the two dispersal hospitals were in Kenilworth though.

That document was a very interesting read.

One of the Board of Health reports (Helen's 1941 link or 1935 equivalent) refers to City hospital, which I am assuming was the Coventry and Warks building on Hales street. What is surprising is that Whitley Infection Hospital is not mentioned despite a clear section on infections (from a quick first pass), although does mention a misdiagnosed Smallpox case at Pinley in one of them.

Here are the links to the wartime reports of the Coventry MOH available at the welcomecollection.org: 1945; 1944; 1943; 1942; 1941; 1940; 1939. I think Whitley Hospital is referred to as "The City Isolation Hospital". Gulson Municipal Hospital gets a mention in each report. The first report is in the 1890's I think and continues until 1981.

Thanks Choirboy - and I did wonder whether 'City Hospital' could refer to Whitley Isolation - although C&W seemed more likely.