Saturday, 16 August 2014

A Nasty Accident

Architectural drawing of Bute Hospital frontage, c.1902 [Z1306/75/5/1]

Sunday 16th August 1914 (Luton): A Territorial transport driver, Fred Dickinson, has been brought in to the Bute Hospital unconscious with a smashed hand and a badly cut head.[1] He had been driving an ambulance wagon, and while he was unharnessing one of the horses it bolted and knocked him down. The hospital has been exceptionally busy all week with nearly twenty soldiers from the Territorials and Yeomanry admitted with pneumonia. Although it is August the poor lads have suffered badly from having to sleep on damp floors.

Source: Luton News 20th August 1914


[1]The Bute Hospital was the forerunner of the Luton and Dunstable University Hospital, built on land in Dunstable Road donated by the Marquis of Bute. In 1902 it had forty beds.

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