One of Canada's largest (and it was intended at one point to make it CANADA'S largest) military hospitals from World War I is now GONE>

In the summer of 2005 it was torn down by a housing developer in Whitby Ontario. This hospital was intended to house 1,500 or more veterans and invalids upon return to Canada. It was originally designed and built by the Ontario government as a major psychiatric facility in the English cottage type style of hospital which the British had promoted from the 19th century onwards. It had working farm as well.
John

I live very close to the site and went by it a few times when it was being torn down.

Another facility used by Canadian medics (in WW2) within the curtilage of the current Friarage Hospital, Northallerton, North Yorkshire has also just been torn down (or is soon to be destroyed).

Chris

Eric, where do you live..I live on Brock Street south of the 401.

There are still a couple of buildings left there..I went through the site before it was torn donw...those buildings were in bad shape and the sidewarks had collapesed where the heating tunnels went under them.

Dean

I was recently down there and a couple of the old cottages were still standing.

I had no idea about its connection to WW1.

The Duchess of Connaught's Canadian Red Cross Hospital, part of the Astor's Cliveden estate at Taplow, has also disappeared. It was constructed in WW1 around the indoor tennis court. I believe it was dismantled after the war but a new hospital was built there in WW2. My aunt- and grandfather-in-law were both hospitalized there in the 60s and 70s, but it has recently been torn down. See http://www.crcmh.com/abandonment.htm for more info.

Apparently there is a small cemetery (about 40-something if memory serves) of WW1 Canadian casualties in the grounds there.

Orpington (Kent) was also a Canadian hospital and a lot of the site has now been redeveloped. Many of the old huts have gone.

Gunner Bailey

Not as much as the Health Authority would have liked tho There is also a sizable part of All Saints Churchyard in Orpington, called Canadian Corner, given over to those Hospital Patients who 'didn't make it'.

The first pair I ever owned (wish I still had it ) was to 348728 Gnr. B. McDonald who is buried there A. 11. Jan. 28, 1918.

I hope someone can really update this Whitby (old hospital) site. My understanding is that the developer was given the go ahead to tear down everything except about 2 or so buildings. One was the former CO's residence and 1 cottage perhaps as an example of the architecture (not sure which at the time). The CO's residence I believe was to be turned into an interpretation center. Any actual updates as of December 2007 what is going on (or has gone on)?
John

Hi John
Bit off topic but Whitby involved, sort of. I grew up hearing of GW casualties who, having been exposed to massive amounts of mustard gas, were never able to leave the hospitals. Their skin was badly damaged and they required special care (oil baths, etc). Whitby was allegedly one of those hospitals. Would you happen to know if it was true, or was it one of those ghoulish urban myths adolescences delight in. Cheers.
Colin

Thanks for the query. Whitby military hospital was closed in the mid-summer (July I think) of 1919 and many of its patients dispersed to Toronto area military hospitals including the still incomplete St. Andrew's Military Hospital in Rosedale and the newly opened Christie Street Military Orthopeadic Hospital. Both of these hospitals were demolished decades ago. The province took over Whitby and used it right up until the late 1970's as a mental hospital for civilians. A new Whitby Mental Health Center was built in the 1990s and still functions "next door" to what used to be the old Whitby "Ontario Hospital."
John

Canadian members should also be aware that part of Sydenham Hospital, Kingston, is now owned by Queen's University and is about to be developed - how, we do not yet know. They own the Stella Buck building, 390 King West. The City still owns the other part of the Hospital, the Tett Centre, 370 King West. The site was a Military Hospital from about 1918-1960. Peter