Brunel continues to save lives again - 166 years on!
IN Heritage Railway issue 267, we highlighted how GWR engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel designed the world's first Nightingale hospital to treat sick solders during the Crimean War in 1855.
Answering a call from the War Office, Brunel took just six days to design a ‘flat pack' hospital kit to be despatched to the Dardenelles in Turkey, where nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale had expressed her horror at the lack of adequate medical facilities.
Fast-forward to today, and the part of his Swindon Works which was converted into STEAM – Museum of the Great Western Railway has become a Covid-19 vaccination centre.
North Swindon's Conservative MP, Justin Tomlinson, was recently given a tour of the centre to see the vaccination programme in operation and had nothing but praise for it.
He said: “I was blown away by the STEAM vaccination centre, how well it was set up and how efficient it was.
“I managed to speak to a few people who had just received their vaccine. It was actually quite moving to see the pure joy and relief that was felt – for most, it felt like we were finally beginning to venture out of a very dark tunnel.”
Welcome
Mr Tomlinson was heartened to see the gratitude of local residents to heathcare workers, leaving gifts and chocolates and biscuits for them.
A museum statement said: “STEAM is proud to be one Swindon's Covid-19 vaccination centres.
“Following government guidance, the museum is currently closed to the public. We look forward to welcoming visitors back to STEAM in the future.”
While the museum remains closed to visitors, the public can explore STEAM from home using its 360-degree virtual tour at www.steam-museum.org.uk
Online visitors can explore galleries, see iconic GWR locomotives and access other resources.
Anniversary
Furthermore, 2021 marks 150 years since the GWR's Medical Fund Hospital opened. It has been said that this fund was a precursor of the NHS 101 years later.
To mark this anniversary, STEAM will be launching a special exhibition programme when the museum reopens, exploring the wide range of ground-breaking healthcare benefits that the fund offered to employees of Swindon Works.
The GWR had a long history of providing amenities for the benefit of its workers, which began with building Swindon's Railway Village for housing the earliest employees.
Swindon Works was the centre of GWR locomotive design and construction, and so the company was keen to attract the most skilled engineers. To help persuade workers from across the country, the GWR provided what they could to tempt people to move to what was then a sleepy, agricultural Swindon.
Planned exhibition displays for 2021 will uncover the medical provisions made for the railway's workers and their families, and the social and leisure facilities provided to them by the GWR.