Holmfirth Auxiliary Military Hospital, Bottoms
History
Initially situated in what is now 65 Woodhead Road, Bottoms, the Holmfirth Auxiliary Military Hospital was in use from November 1914 to March 1919. The nurses were known locally as the "Angels of Bottoms".
Extracts
Huddersfield in World War I (2014) edited by Brian Heywood:
Holmfirth Hospital had humble beginnings from a St John Ambulance Association course, ‘First Aid to the Injured’, delivered by local GP Dr Williams. Shortly after the outbreak of war two members of the course, Mrs AH Roberts and her sister-in-law Mrs J Roberts, initiated Holmfirth Auxiliary Hospital which opened on 12 November 1914 in a house in Landsdowne Terrace, loaned by Mssrs T and J Timber of Bottoms Mill. Its initial capacity of six beds was expanded to meet the demands of 1916 by the erection of prefabricated huts in adjacent fields. The first of these was opened by Sir Berkeley Moynihan on 16 September 1916. By 1918 the Holmfirth Auxiliary War Hospital was treating 76 patients. The war office furnished and equipped the hospital and contributed 2s per day towards running costs, supplemented by extensive local fund raising schemes.
As at Royds Hall, Holmfirth Auxiliary Hospital was run with military precision and order. Founder and Matron, Mrs AH Roberts, ‘would not tolerate slackness, indiscipline or excuses from any of her staff or the patients.’ Subsequently she won the silver medal of the Royal Red Cross Second Class which was presented to her by King George V at Buckingham Palace on Armistice Day.