From Battlefield to Blighty
Frodsham Auxiliary Military Hospital 1915-1919
A Short History - containing a remarkable collection of previously-unpublished photographs
by Arthur R Smith
The horrors of the first ‘Great War’ are well known, but the stories of those sent back from the 'Battlefield to Blighty' tend to be overlooked. This is the little known account of one of the largest auxiliary military hospitals in the country that was established at Frodsham in Cheshire during the First World War.
The men who fought in the trenches suffered horrendous casualty rates and for many of them the hospital at Frodsham provided treatment as well as a haven, however temporary, from the carnage.
Not for these men the modern diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or counselling after their ordeal… simply the green fields and fresh air of Cheshire and lots of TLC.
The injured and the 'bomb happy' were all welcomed with open arms by the predominantly volunteer staff, while the institution itself received a significant amount of its running costs from the donations of local people and businessmen.
Over the period of the hostilities more than 3,000 patients were cared for at Frodsham Auxiliary Military Hospital and using a recently discovered set of contemporary photographs, ‘From Battlefield to Blighty’ tells the stories of the doctors, the nurses, the patients and the local people who were involved in the Auxiliary Military Hospital at Frodsham.
