Help celebrate as hospital turns 100

HAREFIELD Hospital is turning 100 and is inviting former patients, local residents, and current and ex-staff to help celebrate.

Footballer turned actor, Vinnie Jones, starred in a video on the hospital’s behalf to tell the story of his wife’s treatment there.

And memories from patients or relatives, local residents, and current and former staff, will be recorded and saved in the Harefield archive to be preserved for future generations.

Selected excerpts will feature in the Harefield Centenary Exhibition in September at the hospital’s Concert Hall and in other centenary celebrations.

Sian Carter, centenary project lead, said: “We are looking forward to hearing untold stories and treasured memories about the hospital, which will no doubt make our centenary celebrations even more special.”

She is also interested in what Harefield Hospital was like from the 1930s until the 1950s when it cared for tuberculosis patients and stories from when it became a leading centre for transplantation in the 1980s.

Artefacts about Harefield’s past, including photographs, letters and diaries, are also of interest.

Staff are also keen to hear from people with stories about members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who were treated at Harefield after it opened in 1915.

If you would like to be interviewed or have items which help tell Harefield’s story please email oral historian, Sarah Chaney at s.chaney@rbht.nhs.uk.

Alternatively, you can follow in Vinnie Jones’ footsteps and contribute online at www.tolbc.com/ harefieldhospital.