FEW people many know about the important role Colchester played during the First World War helping soldiers overcome heart problems.

In fact, a dedicated unit was moved from Hampstead Military Hospital to Sobraon Barracks in the town and a new Military Heart Hospital was set up next door the General Military Hospital

Historian Heather Johnson explains the move was necessary because the London site was just not able to cope with the huge number of First World War soldiers showing signs of heart troubles.

Civilian doctor, Dr Thomas Lewis was in charge of this new unit at Colchester with American, British and Canadian military medical professionals on his staff.

Dr Lewis, who would later be awarded a CBE and eventually a knighthood in 1921, was a pioneer cardiologist and clinical scientist.

Heather explains : “This Military Heart Hospital was investigating the heart conditions, Disorderly Action of the Heart which was also known as soldiers’ heart or irritable heart as there was no no evidence of genuine disease and Valvular Disease of the Heart which was a genuine abnormality of the heart such as mitral stenosis which was often caused by rheumatic fever as a child.”

The hospitals were vital because the War Office needed to reduce the numbers of men being discharged with a pension.

They claimed the number of men in this position was higher than it should have been because the two conditions were being so regularly, and often wrongly diagnosed.

“The improved treatment, for “soldiers’ heart’’ at Colchester Hospital had saved £50,000 in one year,” adds Heather.

An exercise programme was produced to prove to those soldiers with a diagnosis of soldiers’ heart they did not have genuine heart trouble.

“Soldiers underwent a regime of exercises and route marches and Dr. Thomas Lewis devised a rehabilitation strategy that decreased a hospital stay to six weeks.

“That said, by mid-1918, the ‘Military Heart Hospital’ in Colchester had an admission waiting list of 379 and the number was increasing.

“Of course, some soldiers did have genuine heart diseasem” says Heather.

Canadian medical officers had been heavily involved at Hampstead and continued to be so at Colchester.

Harwich and Manningtree Standard:

  • Staff and patients at the Military Heart Hospital, Sobraon Barracks, Colchester, Essex. c1917

A few months after the USA entered the war in April 1917, American officers were sent to Colchester’s Military Heart Hospital for training on a rota system.

“Regardless of nationality, the careers of the Military Heart Hospital medical men greatly benefited from all the expertise they gained at Colchester, during the First World War.

Patients wore a uniform called Hospital Blue which consisted of a blue suit with a white shirt and red tie which indentified them when out and about as a soldier who was receiving treatment and not a man avoiding doing his duty by not enlisting explains Heather who has extensively researched the role Colchester played in the Great War.

Harwich and Manningtree Standard:

  • Workout - the gymnasium at Colchester Garrison

The Military Heart Hospital used the eight Sobraon Barracks’ blocks, which had already been given the letters A to H.

Each block had four wards, two on each floor while there was one other barracks building set off to the west of the site which was renamed Band although it is unclear why.

American doctor Samuel Levine, who was a colleague of Dr Lewis, wrote in his diary ‘the unit was transferred to Colchester, in Essex, where we occupied the old Sobraon Barracks’ and this along with handwriting on a separate postcard sent at that time give credence to the Military Heart Hospital being separate from the General Military Hospital.

Harwich and Manningtree Standard:

  • Camp - the Sobroan Barracks in Colchester in around 1915

But, admits Heather, because they were next to each other it is more than likely the General Military and heart hospitals collaborated to some extent.

More information about the Military Heart Hospital and the people found working there can be found here

at wordpress.com/ and by searching for soldiers heart colchester military hospital all as one word.

Next week we will continue the story of the Heart Hospital and one of its most well known patients - the freelance cartoonist Sidney Strube who Heather explains was admitted on January 28 1918 having previosuly been at Bermondsey Military Hospital.

Harwich and Manningtree Standard:

  • Poorly - artist impression of soldier wearing Hospital Blues

He, in a classic case designed for the hospital, had a diagnosis of Valvular Disease of the Heart and this was down-graded to Disordered Action of the Heart, or Soldier’s Heart, when he got to Colchester.

* if you have any First World War stories, photographs or memories or if this story has jogged your memory and you would like to share it with readers please contact us on 01206 508186