THE GROUNDS of the Keighley War Hospital at Morton Banks adjoined the Leeds and Liverpool Canal which, by the addition of a boathouse and landing stage, became the scene of morale-boosting regattas.
Rowing-boats from Whitby provided both recreation and exercise for the “flabby muscles and stiffening joints” of the convalescent wounded. As many as a dozen could be in use at any one time.
This motor launch was brought from Windermere. It was, runs a poignant memoir, “comparatively easy to carry or wheel from the various wards on to the cushioned launch those poor lads, unable to walk, could still joke about their voyage round the briny deep”.
Other ways of occupying patients’ time included woodwork and embroidery classes, a hospital library, and the inviting of soldiers into local homes and schools. When 60 were driven out to Stanbury, the school logbook recorded how “15 motor cars in the village caused quite a sensation”.
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