Churchill Hospital, Oxford
The hospital was begun in 1940 by the Ministry of Health with the intention that it should serve as an Emergency Medical Service hospital for local air raid casualties. This proved unnecessary and the American Hospital in Britain was invited to take over the hospital in September 1941, under the general administration of the Wingfield-Morris Orthopaedic Hospital. They transferred their activities from Park Prewett Hospital, Basingstoke, on 1 January 1942. The hospital was opened as the Churchill Hospital by the Duchess of Kent on 27 January 1942. It was the 2nd General Hospital under Colonel Crawford July 1942-April 1944 and then the 91st General Hospital under Colonel Dyke.
Oxford City Council took over the buildings when the American authorities had left, prompted to request them from the Ministry of Health by local hospitals through the Oxford and District Joint Hospitals Board. The Committee of the Radcliffe Infirmary undertook responsibility for the hospital, with some financial support from Oxford City and County Councils, and appointed an Assistant Administrator to take charge. Patients began to arrive in January 1946. It was under the United Oxford Hospitals until 1974, when responsibility passed to Oxfordshire Area Health Authority (Teaching), and then to Oxfordshire Health Authority in 1982
On 1 April 1993 the John Radcliffe Hospital and the Churchill Hospital were united as the Churchill John Radcliffe Hospital and on 1 April 1994 the Oxford Radcliffe Hospital NHS Trust was formed, the final step in the merger of the John Radcliffe and Churchill Hospitals. The Oxford Radcliffe Hospital Trust became the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust on 1st November 2011.
Records of the Churchill Hospital
- Published accounts by American medical staff
- House Committee minutes 1946-1949
- Administrator’s log 1945-1948
- Discharge registers 1963-1972
- Death registers 1962-2005
There may be information in the records of the United Oxford Hospitals, Oxfordshire Health Authority and Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust
The Churchill Hospital is featured in these Tales from the Archives:
Last updated: 29 August, 2018