Celebrating our collections dating from 780AD to the present day
‘It has been described as the most exclusive club in the world, but the entrance fee is something most men would not care to pay and the conditions of membership are arduous in the extreme.’ Archibald McIndoe on the Guinea Pig Club One of the most remarkable legacies of the war years at Queen Victoria…
Continue reading ➞ Queen Victoria Hospital Archive Project: Introduction to the Guinea Pig Club
This post will provide a general overview of McIndoe’s life and work. Later posts will examine different aspects of his work at Queen Victoria Hospital in more depth. The man who became known as ‘the Maestro’ of Queen Victoria Hospital was born in Dunedin in the South Island of New Zealand on 4th…
Continue reading ➞ Queen Victoria Hospital Archive Project: McIndoe ‘The Maestro’
November 2018 marks the 80th anniversary of the Kindertransport, a British led programme which rescued over 10,000 Jewish children from Nazi persecution in Germany and annexed territories. The first trains arrived in Britain on 2nd December 1938 and the scheme continued until the outbreak of war in 1939. Many of the transports arrived in Harwich…
Continue reading ➞ Kindertransport and refugees in West Sussex
West Preston Manor School, Rustington - South Africa scrapbooks (WPM 1/5/2-5) West Preston Manor School in Rustington was opened in September 1933 by Miss Dorothy Boykett, who remained as headmistress until the school closed in July 1979. There were 15 pupils to start with, aged from about 6 to 12 and including four small boys,…
As regular readers of this blog will be aware, since 2016 WSRO has been engaged in a major project involving the archive of the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, which became known during the Second World War as the centre for the treatment of the ‘Guinea Pig Club’, the RAF…
Continue reading ➞ Queen Victoria Hospital Archive project: Introducing the project
Chosen by David Barling, Cabinet Member for Residents’ Services, West Sussex County Council This fascinating minute book records the concerns and activities of local residents at a period that includes the First World War and its aftermath. It shows how the Parish Council dealt with a wide variety of issues and it is remarkable…
Continue reading ➞ Steyning Parish Council minute book, 1908-1927 (Par 183/49/1)
Chosen by the Guinea Pig Club (text by Sam Gallop, Chair of the Guinea Pig Club) The Archive of the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, which includes the patient case files and research records of Sir Archibald McIndoe and his teams, is of national and international importance. During the Second World War this hospital…
Continue reading ➞ Faces from the Fire: the biography of Sir Archibald McIndoe, 1962 (Lib 18911)
Chosen by Lady Emma Barnard This remarkable notebook was kept by my great-aunt Veronica, the daughter of Clive and Alicia Pearson, who lived at Parham. Veronica deposited it with West Sussex Record Office before her death in 1993; it is a moving record of wartime life on the estate, a vignette of an extraordinary time.…
Continue reading ➞ ‘Parham in the War’, 1940-1947 (Parham 1/4/10/3/3)
Chosen by Holly Wright, member of staff These Ministry of Food recipe leaflets were produced during World War 2 to help the nation make the most of their food in spite of rationing, a necessary measure first enforced on 8th January 1940 as a result of the enemy bombing or blockading of the supply ships heading for…
Continue reading ➞ World War 2 Ministry of Food recipe leaflets (Add Mss 54,872)
West Sussex Record Office 