I was having a look through my Twitter feed one day and came across a tweet about a tablecloth from a Cardiff Hospital during WW1 – This got me curious to find out more as Whitchurch was used as a Hospital during WW1 – The Welsh Metropolitan War Hospital. The initial tweet came from Elen Phillips, Principal Curator at St Fagans for Contemporary and Community History back in January. Following a few exchanges of tweets and then emails we realised that the tablecloth was indeed from Whitchurch and had the year 1917 embroidered on it together with names of staff – Matron Raynes and soldiers.
The tablecloth has a very interesting story as told by Ray Holman in his blog:
http://www.costume-designer.co.uk/therapy-cloth/
Elen kindly offered the Historical Society members an opportunity to visit St Fagans and see the tablecloth which some of us took up. It is a beautiful cloth and has many staff names on it including Col Goodall and Matron Raynes.
Some photos of the tablecloth after St Fagans restored it:
These are some of the names that can be seen on the tablecloth:
J. Drummond
W Jones 4th Worcesters
Dr H Thorps RFA
E. W. Ilford
D Kozroski 4th (?)G M. Rifles
Corp J. Cork 2nd Grenadier Guards
Pte F. Astin (?)5th Staffs
Pte S. Bradshaw 1st Lancs JVS
O. Standish 4th KOYL
S. Walker RFA
Pte Howard 24th HF
H. Bentley 11th Cheshire
Pte E. Sheffield 7th Kings Own
Pte J [can’t decipher surname) 2nd Royal Sussex
L/cpl. F. Richardson 8th Lincolns
G. E. Head 2nd Middlesex
(?)Selfield 1st Coldstream Guards
Pte J. F. Davies RAMC
(?)W. Cooper 14th Northumberland Fusiliers
Can you see any other names? If you have further information please get in touch.
Thank you to all involved in this story especially Elen Phillips. Photos courtesy of St Fagans.