War wounds to the chest with drainage tubes, Hill End Hospital, Hill End Lane, Colney Heath, Hertfordshire
Drainage tube often hand to be inserted to clear fluid from a patient's chest. This shows how they were kept in position. They were held in place with a safety pin, and the pin was then held in position by two strips of half-inch strapping. Hill End Hospital was opened as the Hertfordshire County Asylum in 1899, and operated as a psychiatric hospital until its closure in 1995. At the beginning of World War Two, London was divided into 10 sections to form the basis of the Emergency Medical Service. As a base hospital, some of the patients at St Bartholomew’s Hospital were evacuated to Hill End Hospital, which was then run as a military hospital. It mainly treated civilian casualties, particularly during the London Blitz. During the Dunkirk evacuation, 120 patients were admitted to Hill End Hospital on 1st June 1940 and, reportedly, 600 wounded soldiers were received by the hospital in one week.
