Military

If you are a fan (like me) of the hit series Downton Abbey, you will be aware that during the First World War, some big country houses transformed their homes into military hospitals or convalescent homes. When it was realised that the number of war casualties was vastly underestimated, the country scrambled for more hospital accommodation. Therefore, some owners of country houses, as well as some universities and asylums, volunteered their homes to be transformed into these medical facilities. Bowood House on the Bowood estate that is adjacent to village of Derry Hill in Wiltshire, was one of these homes, and turned itself into a Red Cross military hospital. It was opened in 1914 by Maud Evelyn Petty-Fitzmaurice, the Marchioness of Lansdowne, wife to the 5th Marquess of Lansdowne.

Lady Lansdowne was a charitable woman, who had already financially assisted war widows whose husbands had been killed fighting the Boer War. She was also a member of the Council of the British Red Cross Society and a member of the Joint War Committee! When war was announced in 1914, she rolled up her sleeves and appointed herself as Commandant of Bowood Hospital. It was decided that the ‘orangery’ room in Bowood house (the bright and airy orange walled room, that is today full of marble busts and is accessible from the upper terrace) would be the perfect space to use for the wounded to heal. Interestingly, the room was previously used by the 1st Marquess as a conservatory for orange and lemon trees, quite a contrast from its new purpose! To begin with, Bowood merely received injured soldiers from the yeomanry, but as the war progressed, the hospital received soldiers from every rank.