Who were Nurse Corrin’s men of Hut 20?
MYSTERY OF HAND-MADE CARDS DATING FROM 194OS
A HOME-MADE greeting card with beautiful hand-painted illustrations discovered in the estate of a former nurse has given a tantalising glimpse of post-war Mount Vernon Hospital in Northwood.
Tucked inside the card sent to Margaret Corrin in 1947 is a collection of cheeky, charming notes from the ‘men of Hut 20’ – one in the shape of a hot water bottle, another a water jug and a third cut out to look like a bed pan.
Margaret Corrin’s executor – her friend Pat Walker – said Margaret worked at the hospital in Rickmansworth Road during the 1940s when much of it was turned over to nursing injured service personnel.
A number of huts were built at the approach of war to accommodate the numerous anticipated casualties, and at the height of the fighting, the hospital had more than 1,000 beds for injured British and French servicemen and even some German POWs.
After hostilities ceased, many men were still receiving care, and some pioneering plastic surgery was carried out at Mount Vernon. Some of the signatures on the card are very wobbly, possibly denoting a man writing with the ‘wrong’ hand because of an injury.
It appears the last servicemen left Mount Vernon in 1948 as the NHS was born, and the huts have since been demolished and replaced by other buildings or car parks.
Sadly, none of the 26 men who signed the card make any mention of their rank or military unit.
But the clues are there. “Judging from one of the notes, ‘One pillow, night nurse for the use of,’ suggests to me that the men were from the military. It would be fascinating to know if this was the case,” said Mrs Walker.
She has donated the card to the Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which owns Mount Vernon, in the hope it can be preserved.
And Jan Sutton, Chair of the Mount Vernon Comforts Fund, who has researched the hospital’s history, says it appears Hut 20 was one of the ‘war wards’ in the ‘plastics section’ of the hospital.
Margaret Corrin continued in nursing and ended her career as Matron of a large nursing home in Hampton. She was made an MBE in 1982 for services to nursing.
If anyone can shed any light on who the men of Hut 20 might have been, please email thh-tr.communications@nhs.net