TB in 1930s

[234tan]

Hi my dad was in hosptial when he was a child with TB he spent nearly 5yrs there.
I am trying to find out where this hospital is . The hospital was run by nuns my dad lived in Bidford on Avon where might he have been sent

[christanel]

Hi

I have moved your post to a thread of its own, in the Medical forum, which may help to get more viewings and some help.:smile5:

Christina

[234tan]

Thanks Christina I'm new to this site and I'm still finding my way around

[christanel]

Hi
No problem with moving it but I'm having a problem finding where your father may have been hospitalized.
From some of my readings he would not necessarily have been in a sanitarium close to home and if he was in one especially for children that may make it simpler or more complicated. :smile5:

Others will be along with help I'm sure.

Christina

[Megan Roberts]

It could have been quite a long distance away, but certainly somewhere in the countryside. I happened to at home recently in the afternoon waiting something to be delivered and watching afternoon TV and there was a programme on where a lady was retracing her father's experiences in the 1920s/30s as child with TB. He was from Manchester and was sent to a sanatorium in North Wales, even though he was only 5 or 6.

Sorry not to be any more help, but perhaps the local history society might be able to point you in the right direction.

[234tan]

I can remember my dad saying that the hospital was run by nuns that it was mainly children and there was also service men there during second war he also said that part of the hospital was nearly bombed one night . We visited the hospital and some of the nuns had retired but still lived there trouble is I was too young when we visited to remember the name or where hospital was . I remember the part of the hospital my dad was in was all on ground level and had a lovely garden but that's it i'm afraid there was a nun called sister philomena that my dad liked he use to talk about her alot

[thewideeyedowl]

I believe that TB was treated at Voluntary Hospitals before the inception of the NHS in 1948, but I cannot identify the hospital you are seeking from the scant info supplied. (Sorry.)

However, here’s some background to kick-start your research. The Ventnor Botanical Gardens and its huge car park occupy the site of the old Royal National Hospital for Chest Diseases, which closed in 1964. The hospital was the brainchild of Dr Arthur Hill Hassall, who founded the hospital in 1868. It was then called The National Cottage Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest on the Separate Principle, and it admitted people from all over England. You can read about the hospital and its methods in this extract from E F Laidlaw’s book: http://iowhospitals.org.uk/book5.php (http://iowhospitals.org.uk
/book5.php) (Mods - Hope that has broken the live link. There's some advertising, alas.)

Dr Laidlaw spent two spells as resident doctor at the RNH and has since written its history. (I have a copy of his book, bought when I was in Ventnor recently.) Incidentally, some of the records for this hospital are held at the IW County Record Office.

The Wellcome Trust is the place for hospital/medical archives research. Take a look at its Voluntary Hospital database: http://www.hospitalsdatabase.lshtm.ac.uk/

On a personal note, an elderly relative had pleurisy badly as a teenager in the early 1940s. It was thought that it might be TB, so she was sent to a sanatorium at Harefield Hospital, Middlesex, and was treated there for about six months. The treatment she received sounds very similar to that advocated at the RNH.

Swooping off.

Owl

[234tan]

Hi I will have a look at that Tomorrow thankyou

[Lesley Robertson]

A lot of the TB hospitals were in places providing copious amounts of fresh air - hills and mountains or the beach. There wasn't always one nearby....

[Chris Doran]

At that time Local Education Authorities (at least around here) managed maintenance and tuition of institutionalised children in their care (i.e. not privately educated). The records of where they were sent, costs, amount contributed by the parent(s), and maybe family circumstances affecting that amount, are recorded in our local Education Committee minutes.

If that was the case in Bidford, the EC records there are a possible source of information. But my knowledge is of how it worked in a large suburban area and it could be different in a rural one. The OP's main problem is distance as it's most unlikely the minutes are digitised let alone online, and it will be necessary to go through books at local or county archives. Maybe some very kind soul in the area can help? Hopefully they are indexed; look for subjects like "institution children", "physically defective children" (these were pre-PC days!), and "open air schools". To add to the difficulty, it was eventually realised that confidentiality was an issue, and children were identified only by case number (though occasionally a DoB gave it away) but at any rate the schools are named. This does mean that it may not be necessary to seek out the Bidford records for at least a clue; anywhere in the region, including Birmingham, may have used the same schools.

Here are a couple of examples from 1937. The first is almost certainly a TB case, the second a heart condition. The children are from Beckenham, then in Kent, now in the Greater London Borough of Bromley. West Wickham is local, but Hayling Island is in Hampshire.

https://www.british-genealogy.com/extensions/uploads/f25b3c95-88b2-4849-89e4-e8302d96a235.jpg