Craiglockhart Hydropathic Hospital

Following on from yesterday's blip, I headed off this morning to blip the old Hydropathic hospital, which is now part of the Edinburgh Napier University.

In 1877, Craiglockhart estate became the property of the Craiglockhart Hydropathic Company, who set about building a hydropathic institute. The Hydropathic was built in the Italian style. Craiglockhart remained as a hydropathic, until the advent of the First World War. Between 1916 and 1919 the building was used as a military psychiatric hospital for the treatment of shell-shocked officers.

Probably the most famous patients of Craiglockhart were the poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, whose poems appeared in the hospital's own magazine called The Hydra. Wilfred Owen was the editor of the magazine during his stay.

After returning to the front, Owen led units of the Second Manchesters on 1 October 1918 to storm a number of enemy strong points near the village of Joncourt. However, only one week before the end of the war, whilst attempting to traverse a canal, he was shot in the head and killed. The news of his death, on 4 November 1918, was given to his mother on Armistice Day.

The best known of the doctors assigned to the Craiglockhart War Hospital was W. H. R. Rivers. The Hospital featured in the 1991 book Regeneration by Pat Barker - and the 1997 film adaptation by the same name - and in which the institution was known as Craiglockhart War Hospital.

The building then became a convent for the Society of the Sacred Heart, before serving as a Catholic teacher training college. It then passed to the then Napier College, and was used by that institution and its successor, Napier Polytechnic; thus it is now part of Napier University. Much of the old building has been retained, but an extensive new wing has been built behind it to house the Business School.

Can you tell I was a member of the Wilfred Owen Society and have an intert in the 1st World War??

Once when visiting the hospital for a lecture many years ago, I was fortunate to meet the actor Robert Hardy, who was also a member of the Wilfred Owen Society and he was an absolute gent, lovely.

Have a nice Saturday, all.