Society Aims and Objectives
Alton Barnes Albermarle Crash Site Memorial
Prince Maurice Barracks, Devizes
Beech Knoll, Zeals
Alton Barnes Airfield Marker Stone 18 Sep 1999
Non-Memorial Projects
Aircraft Types
Thomas Gray VC
Joint Project
Library
Sgt J Tompkins - Provision of headstone
Townsend
RAF Yatesbury
Wroughton - RAF Hospital
Burlington
Wroughton Airfield Memorial
Links for Wiltshire Historical Military Society
Guestbook
Mail Form
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RAF Hospital Wroughton
 | Wroughton Hospital - photo courtesy Wroughton History Group
Work commenced on the foundations in June 1939. The two-storey H shaped building was to provide 260 beds and house modern departments The RAF General Hospital as it was known then opened on 14 June 1941 under the command of Gp.Capt. EC Foreman. By October 1943 eight additional wards had been constructed. At the end of March 1944 the bed capacity was raised to 1000 – SECO hutting with inter-connecting corridors added a further 350 beds. Wroughton’s busiest period followed the allied landings in Normandy on D-Day. The first casualties arrived on 13 June, landing at RAF Lyneham and being ferried by a fleet of ambulances to Wroughton.
A team of 8 medical officers met the casualties and assessed the treatment required before the men were taken to the wards by Italian PoW porters. In the 6-months following D-Day 4,811 casualties passed through Wroughton. |
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General Hospital
 Wroughton continued as a General Hospital treating military patients, and from 1958 took NHS cases as well to relieve backlogs in the Swindon area.
It was the reception centre for aeromedical evacuation flights which landed at Brize Norton and provided trained aeromed escort teams for missions anywhere in the world.
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Princess Alexandra's
Following a visit to the hospital by Princess Alexandra on 4 July 1967, the Queen conferred the prefix “Princess Alexandra’s” on the hospital on 4 October 1967.
When the hostages from Beirut were released in August 1991, Wg Cdr Gordon Turnbull a psychiatrist based at Wroughton, with his team, debriefed John McCarthy, Terry Waite and Jackie Mann and provided the counselling necessary to ease them back into freedom.
The hospital closed on 31 March 1996 a victim of defence cuts by the government.
The RAF and local community in and around Swindon lost a wonderful resource.
Wg Cdr Baker and Rod Priddle WHMS
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Alexandra Park
The site now called Alexandra Park, contains new housing by David Wilson Homes, and a new Hayley Conference Centre. A commemorative plaque marking the hospital site was unveiled on Saturday 29 July 2006, a joint venture between WHMS, Wroughton Parish Council and Wroughton History Group. The unveiling was carried out by Wg Cdr Bev Baker, Senior Medical Officer at RAF Lyneham.
A flypast from a Lyneham based Hercules C130-J rounded off the ceremony.
The history of PA RAF Hospital Wroughton was taken from Rod Priddle's book - Wings Over Wiltshire
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