Nursing Home & Dr Graham

Graham, a former Bagshot baby has written from Canada:

I was born in Bagshot on July 21,1940.  My mother gave birth to triplets. I am one of them. We were born in a nursing home on the Camberley side of Bagshot.  I would like to know if the old house is still there. My mum was visited by the Duke of Connaught and he presented her with three guineas. The King also sent my mum the same amount. I would like to know if anyone would have known Dr. Graham or if this home was just used during the war.  I spent a happy childhood around Camberley and the Bagshot area. 

I assumed the maternity home the writer was referring to was "The Cedars", an 18th century building at the end of the High Street.  It used to be home of some "important person" (possibly Lady Fuller) and is now used as offices.  I thought that between these two uses it had been uses both as a maternity home and social housing, but it would seem that I was mistaken.

I have not heard before of the Duke visiting mothers, or of such gifts from the Duke, and especially the King.  The Duke would have been aged 90 at the time.

However, in further correspondence Graham tells us:

Multiple births were quite rare so the Crown used to pay a bounty. This practice stopped either in the late fifties or early sixties. I have a copy of the letter from Windsor Castle that accompanied the cheque. The doctor gave my Mum the three guineas and kept the cheque as a memento of the births.

The nursing home I was enquiring about was called Duchess of Connaught Memorial Nursing Home. The nursing home was a bit further along from where you indicated but still on the left hand side. My Mum used to always point the old house out to us whenever we came through Bagshot. It was nice of the Duke to visit my Mum even though he was only allowed to speak to her through a glass panel. I hope this has added a little to Bagshot's history. I hope someone can find out about the old nursing home.

Wendy wrote with a location and a very close date for its closure:

The Nursing Home was on the corner of what is now Lambourne Road and the A30. It was closed sometime between March and July 1952  - I was due to have been born there but it was closed by August.  Our local Doctor lived on the corner of School Lane and his name was something like Dr. Issbister..

Dave writes from Sussex

I was born in the nursing home Wendy mentions. Dr Issbister was his name and he treated my finger when it had the top knocked off in the school gates!

And from a book by the late John Jillings I learn that

'Hunmanby House' was purchased by the Duke of Connaught and given to the village as a nursing home in 1921 in memory of his wife and his daughter Margaret (Crown Princess of Sweden ). It had three wards and an operating theatre. Following the National Health Service Act of 1946 it was transferred to the Ministry of Health and was closed in 1952. In 1955 the building was sold to the council and converted into five flats and a cottage.  It is now known as Gloucester Court.

The building described by John Jillings is where Chapel Lane meets the A30 - a little nearer to Camberley than Wendy describes. 

When she saw this picture, Wendy wrote back that she really did not think this was the building or the location, recollecting a grey building, no longer there, nearer the village.  Two of Bagshot's older resident have confirmed  to me that the pictured building was the nursing home.

June recounts:

My older brother James and myself were born in the Nursing Home in 1933 & 1935. On our Birth Certificates it states: "The Duchess of Connaught's Memorial Nursing Home, Bagshot R.D."

My Mother used to say: "This was where you were born" when we passed by along the A30. Left hand side of the main London Road. Also she said the Duke of Connaught gave this building to be used as a Nursing Home to commemorate the death of his daughter in childbirth. The photograph is as my Mother told me. My Mother is no longer alive...always too late to ask more questions!!

Michael writes from the USA

I was born in Woking in 1944. We lived in Bagshot until 1951. We moved to New York City in December of 1951. Do you remember the Bagshot cinema?, a grand old place. I spent many a Saturday watching Treasure Island and the adventures of PC49 there. It's too bad it's no longer in operation. Incidentally, I too was delivered by Dr.Graham. My mother named me after him, Michael Graham. My wife and I vacationed in England in 2000. We visited Bagshot; my how the place had changed.

I do not know when the cinema was demolished, but by the time I came to Bagshot it had been replaced by an office block.

Alan Gosden writes:

I lived in College Ride and born in the old Nursing Home. I remember Dr Issbister vividly, plus other old Bagshot characters. I played in Bagshot Band in 60s. Would like old friends to contact me.

Who could forget Dr Isbister ? He would do a home visit and warm his bottom against the open fire while doing the examination.

Graham sent me this extract from the Camberley News of July 1940

Nursing Home Record For the first time in its record the Duchess of Connaught Memorial Nursing Home, Bagshot, has been the scene of the birth of triplets. The triplets, two boys and a girl, were born on Sunday to Mrs Kathleen Simpson whose home is at 22, Barrosa Road, Camberley. The father is a soldier who was in the B.E.F in France, and is in the hospital as the result of wounds received at Dunkirk. They have three other children. Mother and children are doing well. The weight of the children at birth were 5lbs. 5lbs. and 3lbs. H.R.H The Duke of Connaught was at once informed and has taken the keenest interest in the progress of Mrs Simpson and her family.

Graham wrote again ion August 2005 to say that he had heard from a relative that the Nursing Home had been demolished and wondered what was going to happen to the site. The former Nursing Home has not been demolished, but some houses on the other side of Chapel Lane and what had been a commercial vehicle repairer's workshop have been demolished and residential apartments are being built in their place.

Early in 2006 Sam, a former resident of the house, wrote confirming the location at the junction of Chapel Lane and the A30 and providing this update and information:

The house has been converted again in to 8 single rooms for temporary accommodation and is now called Connaught Court. The cottage has also been converted into two single flats. ref 626.0206

I have been inquiring about the building and its history astounds me. There is a plaque inside the building that records the gift to Bagshot.

There is also a second, very much smaller, plaque that tells how it was left to Bagshot in 1921 when it was turned into a hospital for the people of Bagshot. Following the formation of the NHS was no longer required and passed to the council for social housing. ref 626.030

It is possible that the rear of the building (not seen in the photo) was at one stage grey. It is now covered by white render but no-one I've contacted can remember . Two elderly people who came to the property remembered how the two buildings at the court were once linked .

The issue of a grey or white building nursing home arose again when Gloria wrote from America : I was born in Bagshot Nursing Home in January 1946, we lived in Staines and Mum had to travel to Bagshot to have me. Dad was in the army away in the war and Mum lived with her Dad.  I remember Mum saying once when we drove through Bagshot that was where you were born, and I seem to remember a white or grey building there but couldn't say exactly where it was. Funnily enough back in '67 and '69 I had two of my children in Windlesham nursing home, again all the way from Staines. I would live to see a photo of the nursing home, I'm sure it wasn't red brick though. ref653.0306

"How delighted I was to have found the photograph of Bagshot Nursing Home. It is exactly as I remember it from the early 1950's. I too was born in the nursing home, on 24th July 1930. At that time my parents were 'in service' in the employ of Edgar Vandespar at Mulroy House where they occupied the gate lodge"  Mike Green 554.505

We have a significant majority of people saying that the red brick building pictured above is the former nursing home, and the evidence of the plaque inside the building. But it intrigues me that I have a few correspondents who, quite independently, recall a grey or white building. I have a vague recollection of a grey building that fits the description and location Wendy gave (on the A30 on the Camberley side of the junction with what is now Lambourne Drive). I think it was demolished in the 1970's to be replaced by flats (I assume social housing). An old map indicates that the building was called Belleview House.  Do you recall this building, and do you know what it was used for?

From Ron Frost: Dr Graham's house and surgery was a large white building in about an acre of ground on Guildford Road, about half way between Lightwater and Bagshot. It was demolished to build the M3 motorway. Dr Graham was a very good GP, he worked alone all through the war years and would turn out to patients at any time day or night. One paid him cash in hand, 3 shillings and sixpence (£0.175) if you went to his surgery, 5 shilling (£0.25) for a day time visit or 7 shillings and sixpence (£0.375) for a night time visit. Most poorer Mothers had their babies at home, assisted by a Mrs Pullen, a local woman who usually got 10 shillings (£0.50) for a delivery. Fathers were never at home during the birth in those days. ref 612.0206

Can you can add anything about the nursing home, or about Dr Graham or Dr Issbister?

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