RICHARD JUDD runs the Hospital Memories UK Facebook page, where the items posted by people with an interest in medical history have recently included this medal which was presented at the end of the First World War to Jessica Octavia Stobart for her work as commandant of the Etherley Voluntary Aid Detachment hospital during the First World War.
The anonymous poster writes: “My grandfather, John Howland, came from Piddington in Buckinghamshire, and was in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps. He was convalescing at the hospital during the war, and we can only assume that she gave it to him, although why we do not know. It would be nice for a living relative of the Stobarts to have it back in their family.”
The 17th VAD hospital in County Durham was in The Red House in Etherley, near Bishop Auckland, which was one of the many substantial properties in the district owned by the Stobart family who owned mines and railways.
Jessica was the wife of William Ryder Stobart, chairman of the H Stobart Coal Company, and she ran the hospital throughout its life from March 18, 1915, to April 15, 1919.
READ MORE FROM THE FIRST WORLD WAR:
THE TERROR OF THE BELGIAN REFUGEES WHO SOUGHT SANCTUARY IN SOUTH DURHAM
THE HEARTBREAKING STORY OF THE DURHAM REFUGEE CLEMENTINE AND HER UNBEARABLE TRAGEDY
RESTORING THE HEADSTONE OF THE PRIEST WHO WAS THE BELGIAN REFUGEES FIGUREHEAD IN WITTON PARK
It was a massive job. During the war, she had 41 full time nurses and could call on 157 part-time Red Cross nurses in the district.
These full time nurses were with her throughout the war: Miss Mary Hopwood, from Etherley; Miss Dora Prest, from Heighington; Effie Robinson, from Stockton; Miss Joan Stephens, from Croft; Mrs Eileen Walker (nee Stobart), from Etherley; Miss Gertrude Young, from Roddymoor, and Mrs Alma Grant, from Low Etherley.
Five doctors had volunteered their services: Dr George Caldwell, from Crook, Dr Arthur and Dr Thomas McCullagh, from Bishop Auckland, Dr J Meikle, from Heighington and Dr William Patulla, from Spennymoor. The chemist was Joseph Clemitson, from Crook.
And then Jessica had to organise the non-medical staff, the cooks, laundry maids, stores and pantry maids and general service maids – she had 37 full-time staff helping run the hospital, plus a quartermaster, treasurer, accountant and secretary.
Plus, to make matters more complicated, Etherley was in the middle of nowhere, with no buses running in wartime, and the nearest station – named Etherely – two miles away in Witton Park. So Jessica had three chauffeuse, who were presumably driving the Stobart family vehicle to and fro to collected injured patients.
No one knows how many soldiers were convalescing at Etherley at any one time, but a photograph shows 54 of them. Therefore, hundreds of men must have passed through the hands of Jessica and her hospital.
Like many VAD organisers, Jessica was awarded an OBE in the King’s Birthday Honours of June 1918.
In peacetime, the Stobarts regained use of The Red House, but when the Second World War broke out, they handed back to the military and it was used as a troop billet. It was demolished soon after the end of the war and now a small estate of houses – called Red Houses – stands on its site.
Can you tell us anymore about The Red House and especially what happened to the Stobarts? Or do you have a VAD story, or a Durham VAD medal, in your family? Please email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk
READ MORE: THE NEW, NOSTALGIC EXHIBITION OF PLACES PAINTED IN TIME OPENING IN DARLINGTON
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