This was a RAF Hospital

steve_graham wrote:

According to my Birth Certificate this was a RAF Hospital not a BMH one. Is BMH still correct???

Yes, all hospitals are called BMH (British Military Hospital) however, the RAF called their RAF Hospital to distinguish it from the Army ones.

Silky

Will be going out there this October, probably be the last as they willbe handing all over the Germans fairly soon so anything could happen after that.

Will stay in Venlo and drive into JHQ only takes 20/30 minutes. If anyone wants any pics taking please let me know.

Ta

Talking of Venlo, does anyone else have any fond memories of the place, we used like a weekend holiday camp when I was at 28 sigs, fantastic people the Dutch.

I would love as many pictures as you care to take (!) of Rheindahlen please. If you knew the old Rheindahlen could you also take a piccie of the area of the old MRS which I was Chief Clerk of and I understand doesn't exist now. Other than that then as many as you like. I was quartered in Bath Walk so any of that area would be nice. Well.... if you don't ask you don't get! Seriously though, very grateful for anything.
Speaking of 28 Sigs. When I was there in the 80's they were the very top dogs in the football competitions and I believe were Army champs at least once. I was a referee and have some very fond memories of St Tonis.
Also loved Venlo. I remember a very fine cheese shop there.

IWAS THERE ON FRIDAY LAST WEEK FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 1984

A film company are using it to shoot a film based in the 70s about refugees and i have a small part as an extra i will shoot some photos and post them in a week or so !

The Royal Air Force Museum Laarbruch Weeze could get quite a nice model of Wegberg Hospital.
WEGBERG HOSPITAL
One more reason to visit our  museum:
Website RAF Museum Laarbruch
RAF Laarbruch - additional

My sister was born there.

Hi there,

in ther early nineties I was proud to geht some skills as a medical student from Düsseldorf, Germany Art RAF Hospital Wegberg. I enjoyed this time very mich - being abroad in the neighbourhood!

Hospital was still working, redundency plan has been in preparation and I have learned a lot!

If there is so around from the staff I would be glad to refresh the contact...

Regards,

Ian

The day before yesterday - on 14th April 2017 - part of RAF Hospital Wegberg was burning.
Article in Newsblog

RAF Wegberg - Arson - Fire set in several places

http://westreporter-newsdesk.blogspot.de/2017/04/feuer-im-ehemaligen-hospital-des-jhq.html

another site recording RAF WEGBERG among other former locations:


http://www.ace-high-journal.eu/wegberg---hospital.html

The Hospital has been empty a while. Vandals and scrappies have been in. The premises actually were handed back to the German Government (Bundesanstalt für Immobilienaufgaben - BImA, used to be Bundesvermögensamt):

https://www.lost-place.org/objekte/oeffentlicher-dienst/raf-hospital-krankenhaus-der-royal-air-force/

RAF HOSPITAL WEGBERG, (WEST) GERMANY, 1953–2010
The image below is taken from a first-day cover issued on 31 May 1978 commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the establishment of the Royal Air Force (RAF) Hospital Wegberg, in (West) Germany. The hospital is pictured beneath an HP Hastings No 505 aircraft.




The following information about RAF Hospital Wegberg is contained within the envelope.
'Situated only a few miles from the famous German town of Mönchengladbach, Wegberg is about 20 miles West of the Rhine as it flows through Düsseldorf. It was the second British Hospital to be built after the Second World War and was built to an ingenious design. It consists of an outer half-circle of wards, an inner half-circle for departments and administration, and a central kitchen with corridors (wide enough to be used as wards in emergencies) radiating from it . . . It was decided to build the hospital at Wegberg because plans were being made to build the NATO headquarters and Headquarters of the British Forces in Germany only three miles away at Rheindahlen.'

Further information is given about the construction and official opening of the hospital in 1953, and about a significant tree planted in the garden:
'Many visitors to the hospital especially those visiting the Children's Ward have stopped to admire the magnificent Magnolia tree in the garden there. This tree was planted on 31 October 1970 by Mrs T N N Brennan wife of the Principal Medical Officer Royal Air Force Germany. It was a gift from the North Rhine Division of the British Guides in Germany and was presented in celebration of the Diamond Jubilee of the Guide Movement.'

The enclosure also provides some statistics about RAF Hospital Wegberg (which was built as a general hospital) in 1978:
'The hospital is responsible for about 46,000 people, including servicemen and women from all three services and their dependants as well as associated civilians. The population is drawn from a large area of some 7,000 square miles from Duisburg and Bonn in the East to Antwerp and Mons in the West. Approximately 6,000 in-patients are admitted annually and some 32,000 out-patients are seen. Over 1,000 babies are born every year in the Maternity Department, attached to which is a modern Special Care Baby Unit. The hospital has a modern and well equipped intensive care unit and well rehearsed contingency plans to meet the demands of an unforeseen disaster. As a further precaution specially trained in-flight nursing teams are constantly on call to accompany patients to England.'

Having had its services scaled down in 1996, RAF Hospital Wegberg was the headquarters of British Forces Germany Health Services (BFGHS) between 1999 and 2010. The premises were formally handed back to the German authorities in October 2010.