Loading an ambulance at Ramsgate Town Station

A group of people are clustered around a stretcher, carried by two sailors, which is about to be loaded into a waiting ambulance. This is at Ramsgate Town Station in March 1916. The sailors came up from Ramsgate Harbour to help when an ambulance train arrived at the station. Other people in the photograph include two VAD nurses and three hospital patients wearing the hospital blues uniform - blue serge jacket and trousers, white shirt and red tie. In the back of the ambulance the arrangement for carrying the stretchers can be seen. In this instance, two stretchers were slid in on the floor; a further two were put on shelves suspended on chains from the roof of the vehicle. This photograph is in the archive collection related to the Quex Park VAD Hospital. The Quex Park VAD Hospital opened on 15 October 1914 and closed on 31 January 1919. The hospital was run by Kent/178, the Birchington Detachment. The Commandant was Hannah Powell-Cotton (1881-1964), wife of Major Percy HG Powell-Cotton (1866-1940) of Quex Park, founder of the Powell-Cotton Museum. Major Powell-Cotton was the VAD Transport Officer for the Isle of Thanet area, responsible for organising the transport of patients from the stations to the local hospitals

Ambulance Arrangement Brichington Chains Clustered Commandant Detachment Further Hospitals Include Instance Loaded Organising Patients Percy Quex Ramsgate Recuperation Rehabilitation Related Responsible Serge Shelves Slid Stretcher Stretchers Suspended Thanet Voluntary

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