Stracathro Hospital
Purpose built as a military hospital at the start of World War II in 1939 Stracathro Hospital, situated four miles north of Brechin, has seen many changes and improvements over the past 58 years.
The single storey hospital was built in an open plan, each ward having an air raid shelter attached.
Similar hospitals were built at Bridge of Earn, Raigmore, and many other places in the open country away from large cities to lessen the risk of attack by enemy bombers.
At first, military troops training in the area and local residents were amongst its first patients. Later on during the war civilian air raid casualties from the worst of the bombed areas such as London, Birmingham, Coventry, and other cities in the south of Great Britain, were transferred to Stracathro for treatment and convalescence.
As the war progressed, and especially after the Allies landed on the beaches of Normandy in France, military casualties from the armies of Great Britain, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and other nations, along with wounded soldiers from the German forces and their allies, were brought to Stracathro Hospital for treatment.
At least two times after D-Day long trains of carriages pulled by numerous engines arrived at Brechin Railway Station from the south coast of England with many wounded soldiers. A long line of wartime ambulances stood in Southesk Street and drove to the back gate of the station where at least four wounded men were taken in each ambulance the four miles to Stracathro. A shuttle service was run to and from the hospital until all the wounded were off the train. Nurses and doctors had tended the men during the 500 mile journey north.
As a young lad of thirteen, and just having started to work full time, I was amongst a group of workers from D. & R. Dukes weaving factory who went up to the station handing out sweets and cigarettes to those of the wounded who were able to accept them, but many were so badly wounded they were rushed into the ambulances and on to hospital.
Many fliers from RAF Edzell, Montrose, and other nearby military establishments who had crashed in the nearby mountains and else where were also hospitalised in Stracathro.
In the city of Brechin itself, especially on a Saturday, it was crowded with troops from many nations. American, British, Canadians, Polish, French, and even German and Italian prisoners of war from the nearby prisoner of war camps. They stood out dressed in their dark brown prisoner of war uniforms with coloured patches and were kept separate from the allies. The war wounded, and there were many, wore blue jackets and trousers with the caps of their regiments and corps on their heads.
Yes, as Dickens said "It was the Best of Times. It was the Worst of Times" but times I will always remember along with all the friends my pals and I made during WWII.
If Stracathro Hospital closes it will be a bad blow to the local communities for it has served us, and served us well, during war and peace and would be sorely missed. Once one of the great estates and mansion houses in Angus, it is steeped in history and surely it will not be allowed to vanish altogether.