Railway healthcare, pre-NHS

[RWLDproject]

On the 75th anniversary of the NHS, the Railway Work, Life & Death project has put together a blog post, looking at some of the ways the railways dealt with healthcare (particularly in relation to accidents) before the NHS. Keen to share it here - it's a starting point and quite surface-level, so always happy to have pointers on things we've missed or that could do with further investigation!

Have a read and do comment!

Pre-NHS healthcare for railway staff - Railway Work, Life & Death

On the 75th anniversary of the NHS, we look at medical & healthcare provision in the railway industry before 1948.

www.railwayaccidents.port.ac.uk

Pic is Crewe works hospital, c.1913, from the National Railway Museum's collections.

 

[Rescars]

A couple of issues which might be worth exploring or on which others may be able to add detail:

1. Various Mark 1 compartment coaches were fitted with special windows to facilitate the conveyance of stretcher cases. I have no idea how or how frequently these were used, or in what curcumstances. Were pre-nationisation coaches similarly equipped?
2. The telegraph code lists contain various codes for arranging stretchers and other medical assistance to meet trains etc and, in the case of the GWR, the pre--arranged conveyance of stretcher cases in reserved compartments with a supplementary fare. These activities must have reasonably commonplace to make it worthwhile to have specific codes.

Can anyone add more to any of this? Were arrangements the same for staff as for passengers, or rather different I wonder?

Also, do ambulance trains fall within the scope of what is being looked at here?

 

[duncanp]

When I travelled from London Waterloo to Fleet in the 1960s and 1970s to visit my grandparents, I remember the Southern Railwaymens Home for Children right next to the line at Woking.

It was founded to provide care for children who were orphaned when their fathers died as a result of working on the railways.

I can remember at Christmas time there would be a collection box at stations across the Southern Region asking for donations to the home.

Woking Railway Orphanage

The longest-running free website sharing information and memories about former children's homes orphanages and other institutions for children.

www.formerchildrenshomes.org.uk

Woking Railway Orphanage

(The Southern Railway Servants' Orphanage)
In 1885 Canon Allen Edwards, supported by the workers of the London and South Western Railway, opened an orphanage in Clapham for the children of railway workers which in 1909, moved to Woking where it could accommodate 150 children whose fathers had died during their work on the railways.

In the 1960s the site became known as the Southern Railwaymen's Home for Children and Old People. It is now part of Woking Homes which caters solely for retired railway and transport personnel and their spouses.

According to Screen Archives South East, mothers could visit their children in the orphanage but this might only be once a month and "typically, the children remained at the orphanage until the age of 14 (later 16), leaving the institution with a hand-picked outfit and a guarantee of welfare support until the age of 21".

 

[Islineclear3_1]

That hospital looks cleaner and tidier than hospitals of today !

 

[RWLDproject]

When I travelled from London Waterloo to Fleet in the 1960s and 1970s to visit my grandparents, I remember the Southern Railwaymens Home for Children right next to the line at Woking.

It was founded to provide care for children who were orphaned when their fathers died as a result of working on the railways.

I can remember at Christmas time there would be a collection box at stations across the Southern Region asking for donations to the home.

Woking Railway Orphanage

The longest-running free website sharing information and memories about former children's homes orphanages and other institutions for children.

www.formerchildrenshomes.org.uk

Absolutely - like this, from c.1914.



== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 6 Jul 2023 ==

A couple of issues which might be worth exploring or on which others may be able to add detail:

1. Various Mark 1 compartment coaches were fitted with special windows to facilitate the conveyance of stretcher cases. I have no idea how or how frequently these were used, or in what curcumstances. Were pre-nationisation coaches similarly equipped?
2. The telegraph code lists contain various codes for arranging stretchers and other medical assistance to meet trains etc and, in the case of the GWR, the pre--arranged conveyance of stretcher cases in reserved compartments with a supplementary fare. These activities must have reasonably commonplace to make it worthwhile to have specific codes.

Can anyone add more to any of this? Were arrangements the same for staff as for passengers, or rather different I wonder?

Also, do ambulance trains fall within the scope of what is being looked at here?

Thank you - didn't know about this. As you say, with codes to account for it, it sounds as though there was some 'demand'/ need being served.

Hadn't focused on ambulance trains (e.g. WW1) as they were serving a very specific and time-limited purpose/ not in regular, everyday use. They're still important, of course; the NRM's exhibit a few years back was very interesting.

 

[Gloster]

There were mentions of the Mark 1 coaches in the thread Bodies on Trains a year or two ago.

When I was with BR I used to have a small sum deducted from my pay each week that went to the Woking Home and this was arranged and supported by railway admin. I am fairly sure that it is still going as I included a donation to it when I updated my will a year or two ago. However, I dont think it acts as an orphanage any longer, but just deals with the elderly. The orphanages at Derby and Woking were, I think, the last two and they also cared for children who had lost their mothers, possibly only for a period while railwayman father sorted matters out or had a rest.

I am afraid that I have my usual cynical take on the railway’s hospital arrangements for health care. There was an element of paternalism and also of making sure that staff should be faithful as thanks for having such a benevolent and considerate employer, which - to be fair - the railway was by the standards of the age. But I am sure there was also a calculation that it was worth it to get trained staff back to work as soon as possible or get staff sufficiently recovered to do another job.

Although there were convalescent homes, I am not sure if there many actual railway hospitals. There may have been a ward in hospitals in some of the largest railway towns, but elsewhere I suspect that it was more a case of a small ‘donation’ being returned by some sort of priority for the use of beds or doctors’ services.

(All from bits of reading over the years, so not guaranteed. I think there was something in the Cumbrian Railways Association’s Journal a couple of years ago about Furness Railway convalescent homes.)

 

[Rescars]

There were mentions of the Mark 1 coaches in the thread Bodies on Trains a year or two ago.

When I was with BR I used to have a small sum deducted from my pay each week that went to the Woking Home and this was arranged and supported by railway admin. I am fairly sure that it is still going as I included a donation to it when I updated my will a year or two ago. However, I dont think it acts as an orphanage any longer, but just deals with the elderly. The orphanages at Derby and Woking were, I think, the last two and they also cared for children who had lost their mothers, possibly only for a period while railwayman father sorted matters out or had a rest.

I am afraid that I have my usual cynical take on the railway’s hospital arrangements for health care. There was an element of paternalism and also of making sure that staff should be faithful as thanks for having such a benevolent and considerate employer, which - to be fair - the railway was by the standards of the age. But I am sure there was also a calculation that it was worth it to get trained staff back to work as soon as possible or get staff sufficiently recovered to do another job.

Although there were convalescent homes, I am not sure if there many actual railway hospitals. There may have been a ward in hospitals in some of the largest railway towns, but elsewhere I suspect that it was more a case of a small ‘donation’ being returned by some sort of priority for the use of beds or doctors’ services.

(All from bits of reading over the years, so not guaranteed. I think there was something in the Cumbrian Railways Association’s Journal a couple of years ago about Furness Railway convalescent homes.)

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 6 Jul 2023 ==

You may find it interesting to look into the history of the convalescent homes and also the railway-related friendly and benefit societies, many of which were set up to fund healthcare provision pre-NHS.

 

[eldomtom2]

Although there were convalescent homes, I am not sure if there many actual railway hospitals. There may have been a ward in hospitals in some of the largest railway towns, but elsewhere I suspect that it was more a case of a small ‘donation’ being returned by some sort of priority for the use of beds or doctors’ services.

Railway hospitals (and travelling hospital cars) were common in the US where workers were often working on the frontier of settlement where no medical infrastructure existed and in far more dangerous conditions than those in the UK (at the turn of the century, American rail workers were being killed at five times the rate of their British counterparts). In the UK, where a large network of hospitals already existed, there were only a couple of "railway hospitals", and these were primarily built to serve large rail works such as Crewe and Swindon. I doubt it pencilled out elsewhere to build a dedicated hospital with all the attendant expense instead of simply paying the fee for medical attention from a preexisting hospital.

American railway hospitals died out in the first half of the 20th century as safety improved and companies looked to cut costs. They still survive in a few countries like India, for instance, though there they now also accept patients from the general public.

 

[6Gman]

I believe the "stretcher window" was the middle second class compartment on BR Mk I corridor composite coaches numbered from 15000 up to 162xx). Not sure how many were fitted. And, of course, they could only be accessed from one side.

In all my many travels in the 1960s I only remember seeing it used once, at Norwich (c.1964).

They caused significant problems of water ingress.

 

[matt_world2004]

There was a plan to use railway hospitals in the immediate aftermath of a nuclear war

 

[Rescars]

I believe the "stretcher window" was the middle second class compartment on BR Mk I corridor composite coaches numbered from 15000 up to 162xx). Not sure how many were fitted. And, of course, they could only be accessed from one side.

In all my many travels in the 1960s I only remember seeing it used once, at Norwich (c.1964).

They caused significant problems of water ingress.

There is a closed thread about stretcher windows from Feb 2022. I don't know how to link a thread though. Sorry!