One of the wards in West. Somerville was selected for use as a hospital not only because of its proximity to the Radcliffe Infirmary but because of the design of its buildings, with single rooms opening off corridors rather than sets of rooms on staircases, more usual in the older colleges.
“The Principal was authorised to have a few photographs taken of Somerville College as at present used.” Council minutes, 4 June 1918
In June 1918, Somerville commissioned a photographer to record the college in its wartime role as a hospital.
The resulting Somerville Section, 3rd Southern General album contained 12 views of the college, and there were additional images issued as postcards. Some of the photographs capture the detail of life as a patient in a military hospital, others appear to be conventional views of college buildings but on closer inspection, patients recuperating in the shade of the college gardens can be seen. The apparently quiet quad, photographed from another angle, is shown to contain tents and it was the use of tents as well as the conversion of large rooms into wards which increased the hospital accommodation to over 250 beds, the college having housed fewer than half that number of students before the war.
The original entrance to House, the low buildings on the right abut the Radcliffe Infirmary site.
This photograph looks towards House, with the windows of the ward Hall 1 visible.
This room had been the dining room in Walton House (the original Somerville Hall building) before it was converted into a ward.
The East Wing is the Maitland Building. This was the newest of the college buildings, completed in 1913 and it contained single occupancy rooms. At first, the hospital took in all ranks and the East Wing accommodated the officers; from the summer of 1916, the whole section was designated officers only.
The photograph in the album shows an empty hall with the tables laid for dinner; fortunately, a copy of this image, with the hall in use, has also survived.
This billiards room was the SCR (Senior Common Room) where the fellows would have tea, relax and meet before and after meals. After the war, it returned to its original function and it is still used as the SCR today.
Convalescent patients were able to enjoy the grounds. Siegfried Sassoon likened the view from his room onto the lawn to Paradise (see August 1916 blog).
The use of tents and conversion of large rooms into wards meant the college could accommodate more than twice the number of patients as it had students.
The Library, completed in 1903, originally had an open loggia at its entrance and student rooms on the ground floor. The upper floor contained the books and was retained for college use during the war, with the Librarian visiting to collect the volumes required by students.
The Library is south facing and the loggia provided welcome shade on sunny afternoons
West was built in 1885 at the Walton Street end of the Somerville site. Beyond the building can be seen the tents which were pitched in the main quad.
One of the largest rooms in West, in use as a ward.
Once the war had ended, it took many months for the War Office to vacate the site and make the necessary repairs before handing it back to the college. A year after these photographs were taken, in June 1919, Somerville was able to return to the Woodstock Road and a new generation of students took up residence.
