DID YOU KNOW…..Buxton cared for and treated a large number of Canadian soldiers during WW1?
In the early years of the war, very sick and badly wounded soldiers were evacuated to Buxton as it was considered safer than facilities on the south coast. A Hospital was set up in the Peak Hydropathic Hotel (later Buxton Museum and Art Gallery). In 1917, with greater numbers of sick and injured and more severe enemy action on the south coast, more hydropathic and other facilities in Buxton were commandeered. These were merged into one unit known as “The Granville Hospital”. By the end of the war, over 17,000 soldiers had been treated in Buxton.
During their first Christmas in Buxton in 1917, soldiers evacuated from Ramsgate were treated kindly by local people, gift stockings were prepared for each soldier, choirs visited hospitals and tickets were on offer for a special entertainment show at the town’s Palladium Theatre. A change in the weather from the warmer south coast was however noticed in the soldier’s own newspaper: “What..the weather? Well – but then it’s war time – these are not the days to complain.”
After the war, nearly 22000 Canadian soldiers were repatriated from here. By August 1919, over 20000 Canadian troops had married English girls. Last year a Canadian visitor to the Buxton Crescent Heritage Experience reported that this grandmother was a Buxton girl!
Canadian nurses were also treated in Buxton
35 injured and sick Canadian nurses, many suffering from “shell-shock”, were treated in Buxton at Northwood House, Corbar Road, an annex of the Convalescent Hospital in Peak Hydropathic Hotel. They were deeply respected by colleagues and patients in the field on the Western Front and also whilst in Buxton. When Sister Ada Ross died of her illnesses in Buxton, the people of Buxton turned out en masse for her funeral.
29 Canadian soldiers are buried in Buxton cemetery. Poppies are placed on their graves each Remembrance Day.
A Canadian doctor working in Buxton later won the Nobel Prize for Medicine.
Frederick Banting worked at the convalescent hospital in Buxton before being posted to the Western Front. He was evacuated back to Buxton after being severely injured during the Battle of Cambrai in 1918. He spent time in Peak Hydro recovering before being repatriated to Canada. In 1923 he was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize with Dr John MacLeod for his contribution to the discovery of insulin. He resisted being given prize money but finally yielded to pressure from the Nobel Prize committee and shared his reward with his assistant Charles Best, a medical student.
