KENSINGTON HOSPITAL MEMORIES BY GORDON REES

The following extracts by Vernon Scott ex correspondant of The Western Telegraph in Pembrokeshire recalls the experiences of ex patient of Kensington Hospital Gordon Rees who was a patient there from 1935 to 1947.

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I have received a most moving and interesting letter from Mr.Gordon R ees of Leeds who spent all his childhood at the former children's hospital, Kensington
Hospital, St. Brides.
At the age of two, this Llanelli-born gentleman contracted bovine tuberculosis in his left ankle, as a result of drinking raw,unpasturised milk, and was admitted to Kensington Hospital. When he left there in 1947, he was twelve years old, but points out that lengthy stays in sanatoriums were not unusual in those pre-antibiotic days. By the time of his departure, another boy, David Evans, had been there for 17 years. Mr.Rees writes:
"Please allow me to relate a little about that time at St.Brides, because I know there are former staff and patients, still living in Pembrokeshire, who shared my years there. Those of us who were able, played cricket in the grounds during summer, including Charlie Weatherall, now of St.Ishmaels. To us kids he could hit a cricket ball harder and farther than great batsmen of the time, such as Jack Hobbs and Wally Hammond.
Charlie was already in his teens, and older than the other patients, when he came to St.Bride's. So endemic was TB in those days, I don't think there was any room for him at the adult sanatorium at Sealyham. But their loss was our gain. I have metmany fine people in my life, but Charlie is second to none."
Despite the hardship of the war,Christmas was always a colourful occasion at the hospital, recalls Mr.Rees. " There was always a large tree, with a foot-high effigy of a paratrooper on top, instead of the traditional fairy. To this day I remember the consternation of one patient, when he learned the paratrooper was to be 'demobilised'. A nurse gently told him the war was over, and the fairy would be returning to the treetop. The little lad was clearly upset, and asked tearfully "Then can we have the war back.".
" I have never forgotten the kindness shown gto us by the German prisoners of war, who all happened to be former memebers of General Rommel's Afrika Corps. They were employed in the hospital grounds. Comics of the day avidly read, depicted enemy soldiers as the most vile of human beings, but those men were kindness itself, regularly bringing us strawberries, goosberries, and other goodies from the hospital gardens.
There were many fine nurses at Kensington Hospital, none more so than a girl called Margaret, who later became Mrs. Wrench, and a well known councillor in Pembroke. She was also the Mayor of that borough. For sheer goodness I never met anyone to touch her, and we were all heartbroken, when she eventually left. The head of the nursing staff was Sister Gwen Hill, who retired to Pembroke Dock. Often after a long and exacting day, she would stay an extra hour to read us a bed time story."
"There were ", says Mr.Rees " some sad occasions at Kensington Hospital." The children who died had TB of the lungs. All of us knew the significance of the hearse coming up that long drive."