The Royal Hospital Chelsea at War

The Royal Hospital and its resident Chelsea Pensioners fought for their survival as the Blitz rained over London. Martin Cawthorne chronicles the Hospital at war.

About the event

In May 1938 a confidential meeting was held between Officers of the Royal Hospital Chelsea and Government Departments responsible for Civil Defence planning. All participants agreed that, should war come, the 500 Chelsea Pensioners living in the Royal Hospital should be evacuated to a place of safety outside London.

Due to toxic politics and complex logistics, on the outbreak of war in September 1939, only 50 Pensioners were evacuated to a country house in Herefordshire. The remainder, many carrying physical and psychological scars from the First World War, sought sanctuary in hastily constructed air-raid shelters and awaited their fate.

Using recently uncovered archive material, some stored for decades in an attic at the Royal Hospital, Martin Cawthorne chronicles the story of Chelsea’s old soldiers, once more in the line of fire as they faced the horrors of the London Blitz.

About the speaker

Author Martin Cawthorne spent a career in finance before he began volunteering at the Royal Hospital Chelsea. He worked on a project to digitise part of the institution’s archive collection while undertaking a master’s degree in Historical Studies at the University of Oxford, for which he researched the Hospital’s wartime history. Martin is now recognised as the expert on the institution’s wartime story and works with the Royal Hospital Chelsea on a number of heritage and outreach projects.