Photographs and postcards of staff and hospital wards.
The building served as a military hospital for the Territoral Force (TF) medical unit during the First World War. The site was later to become part of the University of Leicester campus: the Fielding Johnson Building.
The University’s main administration building, now known as the Fielding Johnson Building, had been constructed in 1837 as the Leicestershire Lunatic Asylum but became empty in 1908 after patients and staff transferred to a new asylum in Narborough which had opened the previous year. In 1911 the empty County Asylum building was identified by Medical Officers from the Territorial Force or TF (predecessor to the TA) as a suitable location for a military hospital, should the need arise.
Three years later that need did arise and the building was designated as the base for a TF medical unit, the 5th Northern General Hospital. Outbuildings were demolished and replaced with four long, flat-roofed brick huts to house officers while nurses and medical staff had rooms in the main building.
During the course of the war, the 5th Northern General expanded from this base hospital building to become a local network of more than 60 locations including North Evington War Hospital, Knighton House Hospital, Gilcross Hospital and the Leicester Royal Infirmary.
In total there were beds in Leicestershire for 111 officers and 2,487 other ranks, through which passed more than 95,000 casualties. Of these men, 514 deaths were recorded, 286 of whom are buried across from the University in Welford Road Cemetery. The Commanding Officer of the hospital in 1917 was Lt. Col. Louis N Harrison.
Text taken from: https://www2.le.ac.uk/institution/ww1/hospital
Available for general access
Uncatalogued collection.
