Babies Galore!

During World War II, Ashridge House became a maternity ward for women both from London and the surrounding area. A total of 2,700 babies were born there before the hospital closed in 1946.

Historic Ashridge House hosted a memorable garden party this summer to reunite the ‘Ashridge babies’ – all born in the temporary maternity ward at Ashridge House during World War II. The event brought together nearly 100 wartime babies to share stories and preserve their shared legacy.

During World War II, the building became a temporary maternity hospital, operating as an extension of the emergency wing of Charing Cross Road Hospital and University Hospital London.

As a safe haven for expectant mothers evacuated from the air raids in London, as well as a maternity department for mothers from the local surrounding area, 2,700 babies were welcomed into the world there.

The building’s story as a hospital began when the Ashridge Trust offered the entire property to the Ministry of Health for free, for hospital purposes, on condition that it would be handed back when the war ended.

As the likelihood of peace died away in September 1939, the college was getting ready for its new purpose – gas-proof shelters were made, the building was blacked out, and the library and other treasures packed safely away.

The Lecture Room became a women’s ward, the Brown Lounge a ward for male patients and the canteen was transformed into an operating theatre.

Double-decker London buses brought the nurses and sisters out to Ashridge – 200 of them to start with, all dressed in uniform with capes of red and blue.

Most medical staff came from Charing Cross Hospital and in years to come its medical school would also be based at Ashridge.

Nissan huts were built in the grounds – 16 ward huts to hold 640 patients. This later increased to 31 huts for 1240 patients. The nursing staff should have numbered 434 but that was never the case as there just weren’t the staff available.

Ashridge’s temporary hospital was the destination for initially 319 men from Dunkirk on 24 May 1940 – including Englishmen, Highlanders, French, Belgians, and Algerians – and another 174 on 1 June.

Air raid casualties were brought out to the Hertfordshire countryside, and patients from London were also evacuated to Ashridge. The Maternity Unit, sponsored by Charing Cross Hospital, opened too. Midwives also came from University College, the British Red Cross and the Civil Nursing Reserve. There were even Canadian sisters tending the mums and babies.

Local mums-to-be also made their way there, as local hospitals were focused on soldier casualties coming back from the Front. It’s not clear quite how expectant mums came from areas such as Chesham and further afield, but Ashridge MD David Evans told Berkhamsted Living that one man’s mum was brought in a coal truck – they wanted to call him Sootie!

The beautiful Lady Marian Alford Room also housed expectant mums, as you can see in the photo, although most were looked after in the huts.

In all, 19,678 bed patients passed through the wards; surgeons performed 12,820 operations; and 2,700 babies were born in the maternity unit.

Despite the maternity unit moving out of London to escape the wartime dangers, the threat of war came alarmingly close, even in sleepy Hertfordshire. A number of bombs fell near the hospital. A land mine on the far side of the kitchen gardens damaged doors, roof tiles and glass, and a 500lb bomb left a 25ft crater near the West tower, but fortunately no casualties were reported.

Among the mums-to-be at Ashridge during that time was Margaret Wilkins, now aged 100, who came along to the Ashridge Babies party with her daughter, Rosamund Ford, who now lives in Haddenham, Bucks. Margaret recalled the comfortable and tranquil experience of giving birth at Ashridge House.

Rosamund said: ‘We live locally and often visit Ashridge House, especially around my birthday time. It’s a meaningful place to me and my family, and today has been especially magical. We’ve really enjoyed coming together with so many other babies, bonding over our shared history. Today, I’ve even met someone who was born in the same week as me! I wonder if our mothers met back then.’

Margaret added: ‘The memories of this beautiful place lift my spirits.’

The majority of the Ashridge babies were born during 1941, according to the records. The garden party welcomed back twins, including identical twins Pauline Hall and Patricia Nicolson (born 02/08/44), twins Derek and Ronald Palmer (born 22/10/42), and others born on the same day, including Judy Barr and Roy Martin (09/08/44) and Eleanor Ruth Clark and David Christopher Willis (22/03/43).

Also making a visit back to their birthplace were Ashridge babies Brian and Maureen Prior, from Wendover, who were both born at the makeshift hospital, but did not discover the connection until after they got married.

The hospital closed in June 1946.