The Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital in Taplow, Buckinghamshire, was a civilian hospital and a centre for research into rheumatism in children until its closure in 1985.
In the Second World War, the Canadian Red Cross demolished many of the existing buildings to make way for a new, larger hospital with more equipment; this was named the Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital.[2]
General Hospital
After the war the hospital was donated to the British Government for use as a general hospital and research centre into rheumatism in children.[2] After opening to the public in 1947, it came under the supervision of the newly formed National Health Service.[2] The hospital also developed a large maternity unit at this time.[2]
The painterStanley Spencer, who lived in nearby Cookham, died in the hospital in 1959 from cancer, having undergone an unsuccessful operation there the year before.[4]Dr Barbara Ansell, the founder of paediatric rheumatology, worked at the hospital from the 1960s through to the 1980s.[2]
Closure
Cliveden Village on site of former Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital
The hospital closed and was abandoned in 1985 and lay derelict for two decades while the National Trust, who owned the site since 1942, explored options for its development.[2] Many pieces of the hospital's old equipment lay there for years. It was demolished in 2006 to make way for a housing development for people aged 55 and over called Cliveden Village.[5][6]