LOST HOSPITALS OF LONDON

 Edgar Lee Home
for Invalid Boys
14 Stonebridge Park, Willesden, NW10
Medical dates:

Medical character:
1919 - 1939

Convalescent

The premises at No. 14 Stonebridge Park had been used as an auxiliary military hospital during WW1 (1914-1918).  The Croslands Military Hospital had opened in March 1918, with Mrs Lee, the owner's wife, as Commandant.

When the house became available after the war it was acquired by the Invalid Children's Aid Association for use as a home for boys with heart disease and rheumatism.

The Edgar Lee Home for Invalid Boys opened in 1919.  It was a pioneering establishment for such patients, enabling them to have prolonged rest and medical supervision while recovering from the acute stage of pericarditis or other afflictions of the heart.

The Home had 24 beds for boys aged from 4 to 15 years.  A large garden enabled them to sit outside or to take suitable exercise.  A teacher attended daily to continue their education during the months they spent in convalescence.

By 1923 some 203 boys had been treated since the Home had opened.  In 1929 it had 22 beds.

In 1939, at the outbreak of WW2,  the Home was closed for the duration of the war and the children evacuated to Great Tew in Oxfordshire.

The house received bomb damage in May 1940 and the Home never reopened.


Present status (October 2008)

The area has been completely redeveloped and Amundsen House, an apartment block, has been built on the site of the Home.

In 1986 the Invalid Children's Aid Association changed its name to I CAN.

Amundsen House
Amundsen House now occupies the site.
References (Accessed 18th September 2016)

(Author unstated) (undated - ? 1954)  Surrey Branch British Red Cross Society.  Historical Surray April 1907 - 31st December 1953.  Aldershot, John Drew.

Allan GA, Thompson AP 1925 Report on the organized after-care of rheumatic children in Great Britain.  British Medical Journal 2 (3417), S21-S24.

Anderson Smith J 1923 The prevention of heart disease.  British Medical Journal 1 (3260), 1074.

Cotton TF 1931 The treatment of mitral disease in children.  British Medical Journal 1 (3663), 481-482.

Poynton FJ 1924 The Bradshaw Lecture on the prevention of acute rheumatism.  British Medical Journal 2 (3335), 986-990.

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