Place Name
Mary Eleanor Gwynne-Holford (1865 – December 18, 1947), was known for her philanthropic efforts and played a pivotal role in founding Queen Mary’s Hospital in Roehampton during World War I. Born into the wealthy Gordon-Canning family, she married James Price William Gwynne-Holford, MP in 1891. She was inspired to support those affected by the war after visiting the Millbank Military Hospital, in January 1915. There she met Private F W Chapman, a wounded soldier who had lost both arms; an encounter that moved her to vow: “I will work for one object, and that is to start a hospital whereby all those who had the misfortune to lose a limb in this terrible war, could be fitted with the most perfect artificial limbs human science could devise.” With Queen Mary as a patron, and only five months after the idea was first proposed, the Queen Mary’s Convalescent Auxiliary Hospital was opened on June 28, 1915, with 200 beds on the site of former stately home Roehampton House. She was joined in her efforts by Lady Falmouth among others. The Mary Evans blog explained: “Such was the demand as military casualties mounted, that the hospital’s capacity was extended, and by 1917 some 11,000 patients had been treated there. The hospital became known as “the human repair factory”, and its work and the public interest in this is testified to by photographic features in several illustrated magazines in our archive. These show men with prosthetic limbs not only being taught to walk, but prepared for other aspects of civilian life, learning carpentry skills and even play billiards, using their prosthetic devices. By the end of World War One, the hospital had 900 beds, and a waiting list of over 4,000 patients. Of the over 1.65 million men in the British Army that were wounded during the First World War, it is estimated that around 240,000 of these suffered total or partial leg or arm amputations as a result of war wounds. The vision of one woman, moved by a personal encounter to create a place of practical support for military amputees, grew to become a pioneering centre for rehabilitation for all who suffered limb loss. Her January 1915 epiphany, borne out of bleak wartime necessity as maimed men returned from the front, left a legacy of hope that was to outlive a second world war, and would still be going strong nearly a century after its foundation. She would later be awarded the CBE for her war work.” The hospital’s reputation for its pioneering work in prosthetics and rehabilitation, gave hope and dignity to those who had suffered life-changing injuries – including flying ace Douglas Bader. Holford Way was laid out between 2010 and 2013 on land formerly occupied by the hospital. Roehampton House is now luxury apartments.
