Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

sejintenej wrote:

stage crew wrote: I was wondering about the building I found on this 6 inch to 1 mile map from 1909. Both an Infirmary and a separate Sanatorium are featured, although the contemporary map overlay shows that site of the latter was repurposed (and before my time 75-82). http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=18 ... layers=168

In 1960 there was a nurses' accommodation house just beside / behing the sicker. Went there once but it was late in the evening so I don't remember the exact layout

Would you care to expand on your late visit, David ??

J.R. wrote:

sejintenej wrote:

stage crew wrote: I was wondering about the building I found on this 6 inch to 1 mile map from 1909. Both an Infirmary and a separate Sanatorium are featured, although the contemporary map overlay shows that site of the latter was repurposed (and before my time 75-82). http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=18 ... layers=168

In 1960 there was a nurses' accommodation house just beside / behing the sicker. Went there once but it was late in the evening so I don't remember the exact layout

Would you care to expand on your late visit, David ??

I was in the company of a certain young lady who lived there

sejintenej wrote:

J.R. wrote:

sejintenej wrote:
In 1960 there was a nurses' accommodation house just beside / behing the sicker. Went there once but it was late in the evening so I don't remember the exact layout

Would you care to expand on your late visit, David ??

I was in the company of a certain young lady who lived there

'nuff said, me-thinks !

J.R. wrote:

sejintenej wrote:

J.R. wrote:

Would you care to expand on your late visit, David ??

I was in the company of a certain young lady who lived there

'nuff said, me-thinks !

How else do you think I lost the warts on my hands?

I think that the sanatorium was bombed and destroyed in the war.

DavidRawlins wrote:I think that the sanatorium was bombed and destroyed in the war.

That's what she said!

It was the Masters' Garage (s) that were destroyed by the flying Bomb in 1944. A considerable number of windows were broken in the surrounding area
one of the worst hit places was Maine B . Miraculously there were scarcely, if any, casualties, I seem to remember that we were not evacuated to the Tube that night as there had been no air raid warning siren.

Kit Bartlett wrote:It was the Masters' Garage (s) that were destroyed by the flying Bomb in 1944. A considerable number of windows were broken in the surrounding area
one of the worst hit places was Maine B . Miraculously there were scarcely, if any, casualties, I seem to remember that we were not evacuated to the Tube that night as there had been no air raid warning siren.

By 1944, there were no air raids, and warnings about V1s would have been pointless, as no one knew where they were going to fall (although, unlike V2s, they could be detected).

My early life was marked by a V1. The things started falling two days after I was born, and people soon realized they only fell when their engine (which made a distinctive noise) stopped. When I was about 2 weeks old, my father (then stationed in Scotland, for some reason) came to visit me and my mother in London. While he was there, one flew over, and my mother explained: 'As long as it's buzzing, it'll fall somewhere else.' Whereupon it stopped buzzing, and I was pushed rapidly into a windowless corridor. The thing exploded about half a mile away. Now, my father had spent most of the war in Sierra Leone, living the life of a beach boy. My mother, by contrast, had been in London during the Blitz. So when my father, horrified, said: 'You can't stay here!', my mother just said it had been much worse in 1941. But anyway, dad arranged for us to stay with his sister-in-law in Birmingham, which by 1944 was safe.

I remember being in the sicker one Easter term in the 70s during an epidemic of chicken pox. There were about 40 of us down with it but I was the last in so was also the last out, having spent the last four or five days on my own. The doctor (Hoskins was it?) let me convalesce upstairs in the dayroom and I was only young at the time but distinctly remember to this day being amazed by the size of the snooker table. We only had those quarter size ones in the houses which were excellent for subbuteo by the way. I vaguely do seem to remember some sort of frieze with haystacks and agricultural scenes but my memory might be playing tricks. Upstairs in the sicker was a rather spooky place, maybe we'd been told about the ghost.

michael scuffil wrote:
By 1944, there were no air raids, and warnings about V1s would have been pointless, as no one knew where they were going to fall (although, unlike V2s, they could be detected)..

I was living in the Great Park at Windsor at the time. My only memory of the war is being taken outside to see and hear a VI going over. Given my age that must have been 1945 for me to remember it

Wikipedia says the last V1 fell in Britain in October 1944. After that, the launch sites within range of Britain had been overrun, and only those in Germany were operational. They continued launching V1s mainly at Allied-occupied Antwerp (an important supply port) until March 1945, when the last launch site was taken.

michael scuffil wrote:Wikipedia says the last V1 fell in Britain in October 1944. After that, the launch sites within range of Britain had been overrun, and only those in Germany were operational. They continued launching V1s mainly at Allied-occupied Antwerp (an important supply port) until March 1945, when the last launch site was taken.

The last enemy action of any kind on British soil occurred on 29 March 1945, when a V-1 struck Datchworth

(Wikipedia).
In fact the various parts of Wikipedia give different stories. On one entry the land based launchpads were overrun in Oct 1944 but air launched attacks were carried out at Christmas 1944 though they were not very successful overall. The above is copied and pasted from the Wikipedia entry on the V1 alone.
I have various memories of that part of my life - several being the stuff of nightmares. I was certainly already walking when I was shown that V1 in flight travelling north but east of where we were living.

I believe you, David. In fact, the one that fell at Datchworth may have been the one you saw. Other 'late arrivals' reported in various places were in Swanscombe and Orfordness. It would be interesting to know where they were launched from, as their range was not very great.

There seems however to be agreement that the last V2 to arrive fell at Orpington on 27 March.

Concerning V1s.
The last wave of V1 attacks against the UK lasted from 3 March 1945 to 28 March 1945 from three sites in the Netherlands. A total of 275 were launched, of which only 125 reached English airspace. Of the latter no less than 87 were shot down by AA guns, a truly remarkable 70 percent, fighters shooting down only four.
I should get out mo re,
David

I appreciate we are wandering off topic, however......

Another trick/stunt tried by daring pilots of the faster mach fighters, was to draw up alongside a V,1 and try to wing tip under the short fins on the rocket, and tip it violently off course, thereby completely upsetting the missiles gyro system.