Page 17 - QARANC Vol 20 No 1 2022

The Gazette QARANC Association 17
keen amateur photographer was asked to subtly follow Princess Margaret to capture her tour of the CMH.
Many years later, well into my retirement during the 2020 Covid pandemic, I answered an appeal on the CMH Facebook page for photographs of the hospital taken by anyone who served at the CMH. This was the first I knew that the CMH had been sold to a property developer, Weston Homes, and was to be converted into luxury flats.
One thing led to another, and I was in conversation with the interior designer for Weston Homes. I sent the photographs of Princess Margaret to her but sadly it was too late as they had already got a superb selection of material.
However, this did open a line of contact with Weston Homes; later, I received an invitation to the unveiling of Florence Nightingale sculpture at Gun Hill Park.
Colonel Commandant Carol Kefford and several QAs met at the CMH in the former admin block with bubbles and canapés. We viewed the model development of Gun Hill Park, visited some of the luxury apartments and
gathered outside for the unveiling of the Nightingale sculpture.
Bob Weston, the developer, spoke and the sculptor Amy Goodman unveiled her magnificent statue. It stands in a commanding place in front of the main CMH (Gun Hill Park) building.
Thanks to Mr Weston and his company the CMH has been saved from dereliction some 26 years after the doors closed. Having stood as a military hospital for 115 years the building now has a new purpose and there is no reason why it should not be standing there for another century with the Florence Nightingale Statue at its helm.
Ann Pitcher MBE wrote in her illustrated history of the hospital, “At the heart of the home of the British Army – The Cambridge Military Hospital, Aldershot.” If the hospital could talk, it might say, “You will miss me when I am gone.”
Yes, we all miss the building and the hospital, but it lives on in a new life, and we must thank Bob Weston for this.
With thanks to At the Heart of the Home of the British Army - The Cambridge Military Hospital, Aldershot: An Illustrated History by Anne Pitcher, MBE.
Military Medical Revolution
How the UK’s Defence Medical Services transformed in conflict, 1990–2015
Written by Colonel David Vassallo FRCSEd MA L/RAMC
Foreword by Lieutenant General Louis Lillywhite CB MBE
An inspiring analysis of life-saving advances in military medicine and how these are catalysing better trauma care worldwide.
ISBN 978-0-9927980-2-4 paperback
ISBN 978-0-9927980-3-1 hardback
RRP £15 Also available in hardback
Available via
the Museum of Military Medicine (www.museumofmilitarymedicine.org.uk) and main bookshops