UK, WWI, 5th London General Hospital, 1917

The 5th London (City of London) General Hospital, Royal Army Medical Corps (TF) officially came into being in March 1915 and operated as a Territorial Force military hospital, incorporated within St Thomas’s Hospital on the bank of the River Thames. In December 1916, the hospital published Volume 1, number 1 of “The Fifth”, an unassuming magazine comprised of 28 pages and priced at 3d “for the interest and amusement of the patients, their friends, and the workers in the hospital.”
Pages 20 to 27 listed the names of the men who had been recuperating there and was correct up to November 1916. The details include the man’s name, regiment, regimental number (in the case of other ranks) and the ward in which they were located. When some men were transferred from the 5th London General Hospital to auxiliary home hospitals, or to the Red Cross Hospital in Finsbury Square, this is also indicated.

There were 601 men recorded in that first list; men from virtually every regiment in the United Kingdom, and also men from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Newfoundland and South Africa.

In total there are 6,972 men recorded in this collection which covers the period from November 1916 to November 1917 inclusive, and some men appear more than once. Use this collection to add to the information you already have about your First World War ancestor and also check the British Army Ancestors website to see if a photo survives for him.

Transcriptions © British Army Ancestors 2023