Rainhill Wartime Hospitals

Despite being a small village on the outskirts of Liverpool, Rainhill was the home of three Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) hospitals during World War I. Thousands of injured servicemen from all parts of the UK and abroad passed through Rainhill between 1915 and 1918.

The nursing of sick and wounded soldiers during the war was carried out by a number of trained and voluntary nursing staff. Trained nurses were licensed professionals who had spent years training in a hospital with a recognised school. In every large hospital there was a matron, sisters, nurses and probationers. Voluntary nurses – better known as Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs) – were people who willingly gave their time to care for wounded patients. VAD members were not entrusted with trained nurses’ work except in an emergency when there was no other option. At the start of the war, VADs were known to have ‘fluttered the dovecotes of professional nursing’ due to their enthusiastic desire to nurse wounded soldiers.

(British Red Cross)

Rainhill County Lunatic Asylum also played a part in treating soldiers with psychological trauma, although it was not designated as a war hospital. Many of the staff who worked there enrolled for military service.

Find out more about Rainhill’s four wartime hospitals by clicking below, or scroll down to find out more about the hospitals’ WWI casualties.

Casualties

Thousands of soldiers from all parts of the UK and the Commonwealth were treated at the three VAD Hospitals in Rainhill. Many of them returned to fight at The Front and sadly some did not return.

Listed below are soldiers we know about with links to whatever information we have. If you have information, pictures, stories etc about soldiers who were treated at Rainhill we would love to hear from you. Please get in touch via our Contact page.

ALLEN Richard
ARDLEY J C
ATKINSON John
BATCHELOR William H
BENNETT Joe
BEVERIDGE Thomas V
BIBBY Charles Leslie
BLADES J R
BOYD Robert
BOYLE J
BRADSHAW H
BROWN John
BROWN John Archibald
BROWNSON Thomas
BRYANT R
CARNEY J H
CLIFFE E
COLE J
COOKE A
COPLEY Edward
CORRIGHAN William
CROWTHER Frederick Ernest
DALE H
DARLING John J
DEACON William
DEAN W
DONAHOE Alex
EDIS Arthur
ENGLEFIELD Herbert
EVANS J D
EVANS W
FLETCHER H
FLETCHER Thomas
FORSHAW Thomas Richard
GALLANT Harry B
GALWAY T
GILES Arthur G
GREGORY J
HADOCK William Leslie
HARRIS Arthur
HATCH George Samuel
HARPER B
HARVARD Albert W
HAYHURST Benjamin
HEALY R W
HILL E
HITCHCOX James J
HOLMES G T
HUMPHREY G H
INGHAM J E
IRWIN Sydney Reginald
JONES H
JONES Wallace
KETTLEY Walter
LAWS W
LAYHUNT B
LEIGH J P
LEWIS J
LOCKWOOD A
McCLURE Samuel
McKENNA Henry
McSTEAN Bernard
MADDAFORD James Percy
MARSDEN Joseph
MARTEN William
MASEWELL R
MAURICE J G
MEEHEIM ?
MELLING S
NELSON H
PALLITHORPE John
PAYNE Walter
PERCIVAL A
PILKINGTON Vincent
POCKLINGTON Samuel James
PORTER John
POWELL Thomas James
PRICE Ernest
QUIGLEY A
QUIGLEY Richard J
RAMAGE Alexander
REEDMAN George H
RICHARDSON John
RIDLEY J W
ROCKETT John G
ROGERS George
RUSSELL C
SHAMBLEY John
SHANNON Thomas
SHAW John T
STEVENSON Arnold
STOCKLEY George T
STOREY W
TAYLOR P W
TIMMINS Eli
TULIP J T
VARLOW Harry
WALTERS Alfred
WOLFE Henry B
WOOLNOUGH W
WRIGHT Alfred
YOUNG ?