MOST of this ward-full of soldiers in the Keighley War Hospital below seem to be on the mend, sitting by their made-up beds.
With 13,214 military cases being treated in Keighley between 1915 and 1919, the town responded to the challenge of helping convalescents.
Some theatre companies appearing at the Hippodrome gave hospital performances, and the Cosy Corner Picture House supplied films. There were lectures, concerts and craft classes, and even an orchestra. The main Morton Banks hospital included a 250-seater chapel and a library of donated books, though not all its titles were suitable, such as Pretty Polly Pennington and The Boys’ Own Annual for 1883.
Staff and patients published War Hospital Echoes, full largely of ‘jokes’ –
Lady Visitor (to soldier): “Well, my good man, I am sorry to see you have lost a leg.”
Soldier: “Yes, madam, but I wish it had been the other one, as that is the one with the rheumatics in it.”
The photograph has been supplied by Kevin Seaton, of Bradford Road, Riddlesden.
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