Memorial

Metropolitan Police and City of London Police WW1: Memorial Hospital (Strawberry Hill, Twickenham)

Metropolitan Police tablet (see our ref 94968) erected at New Scotland Yard in 1922 re the building of the Hospital

Source: Copyright Metropolitan and City Police Orphans Fund

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Current Location

Metropolitan & City Police Orphans Fund, 30, Hazlewell Road, Putney, Wandsworth, Greater London, SW15 6LH, England

TQ 23306 74899

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Type of Memorial: Composite
WMR Reference Number: 48264
Description: The original WW1 memorial comprised two main elements: 1) The Memorial Hospital itself, which was built in the extensive grounds of the pre-existing Metropolitan and City Police Orphanage at Wellesley House. (Those grounds were bounded by Wellesley Road, Stanley Road and Hampton Road, Twickenham). The Hospital building no longer exists, having been sold in 1936 and demolished in the 1970s. 2) Two wooden boards, bearing the initials and surnames of 386 officers of the Metropolitan Police and City of London Police who had died in WW1. Having subsequently been taken to a storage unit where they rotted, the few surviving remnants of those original boards are now at the Metropolitan & City Police Orphans Fund's offices at Putney. (The new boards made as replacements for them in 2005 are now inside Peel House, Hendon - see our reference 68147. Our reference for the stone tablet erected at New Scotland Yard in 1922, commemorating the building of the Hospital at Twickenham, is 94968 ).
Inscription: (Original wooden Roll of Honour boards, the surviving remnants of which are now at the Metropolitan and City Police Orphans Fund office in Putney): THIS HOSPITAL WAS ERECTED AND EQUIPPED BY THE/ MEMBERS OF THE METROPOLITAN AND CITY POLICE FORCES/ TO THE GLORIOUS MEMORY OF 386 COMRADES WHO MADE/ THE SUPREME SACRIFICE IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918/ (NAMES)

War: First World War (1914-1918)
Number Commemorated: 386
Died: 386
Information shown: Surname and initials
Order of names: Alphabetically by surname
Additional Information: The few small surviving remnants of the original Roll of Honour boards are at the Metropolitan and City Police Orphans Fund office in Putney

Maker(s): Messrs John Laing & Sons Ltd, of London and Carlisle (builders of the hospital), Builder
Costs: £18,000
Maintenance History: 1937: The Memorial Hospital was sold, along with the Orphanage at Wellesley House in whose grounds it stood; it was subsequently demolished. When the Hospital was vacated, the wooden boards bearing the names of the 386 Metropolitan and City Police officers who died were placed in storage, where they unfortunately rotted. (The few surviving fragments of those original boards are now at the Metropolitan and City Police Orphans Fund office at in Putney. The new boards made to replace them are now inside the Police Training College at Hendon - see our reference WMR 68147). / June 1923: The newly-erected Metropolitan and City Police WW1 Memorial Hospital was opened in the grounds of the pre-existing Police Orphanage at Wellesley House, Strawberry Hill in Twickenham by HRH the Prince of Wales, who also unveiled associated commemorative memorials within it, including the wooden Roll of Honour boards that listed the names of 386 Metropolitan and City Police officers who died in World War 1).