TB in the 1930's/1940's

[helen57]

Hi all |wave|

Can anyone tell me how to find out where people suffering from TB were treated in the 1930's/1940's please?
Probabley in or around the Sutton, Surrey or south London areas

Thank you

Helen

[Jan1954]

Possibly the Beddington Corner Isolation Hospital in Wallington.

The National Archives (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/hospitalrecords/details.asp?id=2497&page=77) hold some details.

[Peter Goodey]

Have a look at the Hospital Records Database

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/hospitalrecords/search.asp

For example there's...

Downs Hospital for Children, Sutton

Milford Hospital, Godalming

[helen57]

Thank you Jan and Peter :)

I'm off now to do some hunting

Thanks again

Helen

[Peter Goodey]

I didn't mention one big one -

King Edward VII Hospital, Midhurst (about 7 miles from Sutton).

[benny1982]

TB was similar to the terminal illnesses of today. It often killed people slowly. Families of sufferers were advised to keep away from them for fear of infecting themselves.

Nowadays TB can be cured but in Victorian times, it was a killer. Imagine being a sufferer of the illness for a while (ie a few years) before you died as it took time to kill someone, and they were probably subject to being bedridden and such for a while before that.

Ben

[Mutley]

I am not sure but I think back then the "Royal Free Hospital" treated TB and also St. Thomas's Hospital in South London. I seem to remember, somewhere seeing a picture of the TB Department at St. Thomas.

[Davran]

How strange! My father was invalided out of the Navy in 1942 suffering from TB. He made a full recovery, but I never thought to ask where he was treated - I think I assumed it was the local hospital (the family home was in Lincolnshire). I believe he had to have a lung collapsed during the treatment and a drain put in.

Unfortunately, he died last year, so I can't ask him about it. I imagine my mother would know, though it was before they were married.

[Wilkes_ml]

My great grandfather did of TB in 1927 aged just 35 years. He died at home, so did they go to hospital, then return home when the end was near?

I have a photo of him with his two children in the garden - probably taken not long before he died. I hadn't even considered he may have been hospitalised.

[benny1982]

Hi

It is possible that they may have gone home when the end was near. As said, TB was a disease that killed people slowly and painfully. If he was sent home, this it is likely that he would be kept in a warm bedroom away from other family members for risk of catching it themselves.

Ben

[Kerrywood]

Many TB sufferers were sent away to sanatoriums in the country, or by the sea, for the perceived benefits of the fresh air. My father ran a TB sanatorium in Wales in the 1940s, and it was one of many. You often find death registrations for TB sufferers at completely the opposite end of the country from where you would expect them.

Kerrywood

[Geoffers]

Many TB sufferers were sent away to sanatoriums in the country, or by the sea, for the perceived benefits of the fresh air. My father ran a TB sanatorium in Wales in the 1940s,

TB finished off my gt-grandfather's younger brother in 1927. He was a keen photgrapher and following his admittance to a santorium in Norfolk took several photos of where he lived and slept in what can only be described as a garden shed, with two glazed doors; in the shed he had a small bed, a gas-ring for a kettle and a few books. I was told that as part of the fresh air regime, the doors were left open at night.

[benny1982]

Hi

Imagine what it was like for the families of TB sufferers, especially the husbands or wives. How stressful it would have been and depressing to see a loved on deteriorate.

Ben

[Wetherby Pond]

I run a website for the history of a TB sanatorium near Godalming, Surrey.

http://
web.mac.com/greenfieldtv/KGV/Welcome.html

This was the foremost centre for Tuberculosis research in England. The site comprised KGV King George V Sanatorium (from 1921) and an annex, St. Thomas' Hospital from 1941. Two miles away was the sister hospital Milford Chest Hospital. (this was the TB sanatorium where Galton and Simpson first met when long term TB patients).

[BeeE586]

TB was indeed a scourge and devastated many families - I lost my mother in 1938, her father in 1946 and her sister in 1949 all to consumption. I was 12 when my mother died and she had been ill for about eighteen months. She was nursed mostly at home - we lived with my grandparents - but had two spells in sanatoria; Frodsham springs to mind for the first but she died at Grange over Sands although she was buried in Blackpool where we were living at the time. Grandad died in Shardlow, was buried in Beighton but his home was in Mosborough. Quite a problem for future family historians.

My aunt and my grandfather both were at home, and both ill for about three years, although my grandfather did go to Shardlow for about ten days just before he died. The dreadful sound that I shall never forget is the cough, persistent night and day and nothing seemed to relieve it, and the sight I shall never forget is the pitiful, skelatal figure that sufferers were reduced to - my mother who was quite a tall woman weighed less than five stone when she died.

I have had two bouts of TB, the first in 1951 when I had a kidney removed and then 1956 when I had surgery on my knee - thankfully by 1951 drugs were available and I am still here. Tens of thousands of families could tell the same story, thank the good Lord for the researchers who pioneered the drugs.

Eileen

[lesleys]

Like Davran, my father came home from the war (Burma 1945) with TB. He also had a lung collapsed and recovered at home.
All this just before I was born. I wonder if this was why I tested +ve to BCG in my teens?

[sue1]

Hi all |wave|

Can anyone tell me how to find out where people suffering from TB were treated in the 1930's/1940's please?
Probabley in or around the Sutton, Surrey or south London areas

Thank you

Helen

St. Helier Hospital, Carshalton, Surrey was about a 20 minute walk from Sutton and still had a TB ward in 1974 - the hospital was, however, not built until 1939. Milford was the "rest in the country air" hospital of choice from that area but also St. Anthony's Hospital, North Cheam, Surrey had some TB beds. There was also Cheam Sanatorium in North Cheam which I imagine was for TB cases.

Sue

[suemalings]

Quite a few people with TB came from London, to Papworth Everard Hospital.

You may now know it as being famous for heart transplants.

[ClaireJ]

hi helen , how strange ive been to the surrey history center today, what o interesting place, iam trying to trace my grandmother who died of tb, ive got her death cert, it was in godalming!!!!! went to find it last week , a new bit is ther, old bit is but boareded up, found it very sad, i ive asked for records from there , but they didnt have any. did someone you no die of tb, the king george one, has been knocked down . ther is alot on it on the web. iam off again to teh surrey history center , just amazing. florence hudson is the lady iam looking for, died 1930, carnt find details of her parents as marriage cert didnt have her father on there!!!!!!!! who are you trying to find. claire

[Geoffers]

iam trying to trace my grandmother who died of tb, ive got her death cert, it was in godalming!!!!!.......ive asked for records from there , but they didnt have any.

If your grandmother died in a hospital and you are trying to locate where the records may be held, try searching the Hospital Records Database (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/hospitalrecords/default.asp).

The records are very unlikely to be available online, you will probably need to visit a records centre. The databases will tell you which one.

[helen57]

Hi claire
I hope you are able to find what you are looking for :)
I had to put my searching on hold last year but am slowly getting back to it.
You asked who am I looking for?.....I don't actually know.
But I would be searching for either a male Setterfield or Rumph

Helen