King's College Archives
Record types
- Administrative
- 1939 - 1946
- Admission
- 1939 - 1946
Finding aids
- Finding aids
- Brief guide (BG)
- Location
- At Repository (AR), Other
- Details
- AIM25
Hospital
Last updated .
4412 National Emergency Hospital, Royal Blind School, Leatherhead: Minute Books 1939 - 1946 Presented by the Department of Health, Nelson, Lancashire, in October 1995 and January 1996. The Royal Blind School, Leatherhead, was requsitioned by King's College Hosptal as a national emergency hospital during the second world war. Thereafter it was used to house Chelsea Pensioners until the 1950s when the school reopened. For an account of the school, originally founded in St George's Fields, Southwark, in 1799, but moved to Leatherhead in 1902, See An Account of the School for the Indigent Blind (Epsom, 1978). See also History of Leatherhead, ed E Vardey (Leatherhead, 1989). 4412/1 Signed minute book of the Royal Blind School Emergency Hospital Committee 9 Sep 1939 - 29 Jul 1941 Minutes of 9 Sep 1939 give details relating to the evacuation of the blind and measures to protect the building. In 1940 part of the buildings were damaged by bombs. A report for 1940 gives numbers of air raid casualties and evacuated children. Insert: unsigned minutes for 29 Jul 1941 2 As Above. Indexed 7 Aug 1941 - 18 Oct 1946 The minutes in the book, 7 Aug 1941, state that the medical staff suggested the hospital should be known as Leatherhead Emergency Hospital. The second minutes, 15 Aug 1941, state that the Ministry of Health wanted the words Blind School to form part of the title and it was resolved that the hospital should be known as Leatherhead Emergency Hospital (Royal Blind School) Insert: Copy paper relating to works being undertaken in the hospital.