CARDIFFREMEMBERED Important guests visit the valiant patients at Rookwood Hospital

THIS year Rookwood Hospital in Llandaff, Cardiff, celebrates its 100th anniversary.

Pat Lucas, in her Fifty Years Of Racing At Chepstow, published in 1976, tells how in 1927 a gallant body of men from Rookwood Hospital organised a race between themselves from the hospital to Chepstow Racecourse, where the first Welsh Derby was being held.

The participants in the race were all confined to motor-propelled chairs.

The first to reach the course was a soldier who had lost both legs and parts of both arms in the First World War.

He had controlled his chair with what was left of his upper arms and had reached the racecourse a long way ahead of his rivals.

The winner of the Welsh Derby was a horse called Chantrey but, aptly enough, given the exploits of the Rookwood patients, the Western Mail referred to the race as “The War Heroes’ Derby”.

Another group with a link to the history of Rookwood were “The Barnstormers” – a troop of mounted policemen formed by ship owner Ralph Elliott Morel during the Coal Strike of 1921.

On occasion, the Barnstormers would challenge the convalescent servicemen from Rookwood Hospital to horseback wrestling matches, which were often more riotous than the civil uproars they had to contend with at times.

The property was built in 1886 by Colonel Sir Edward Hill, and the name was given to the house by Lady Hill during its construction.

Seeing a number of rooks when she came to visit the property, she immediately thought of Rookwood and