The Anzac Cemetery
During the First World War Harefield Park was offered by the owner,
Charles Billyard Leake, as a hospital to the Ministry of Defence of New
South Wales. For the duration of the war casualties from the Australian
Forces from Gallipoli and the Western Front were treated at the newly
created Harefield Hospital. Many of the wounded died; 111 men and one
nursing sister were buried with military honours in an extension of the
churchyard. The village school lent its Union Flag for these occasions.
After the war the flag was presented to the last C.O. of the Australian
Hospital and was laid up in Adelaide High School. The Australian
Children’s Patriotic League presented in return a new Union Flag and an
Australian Flag to Harefield school. The Australian flag hangs in the
Breakspear Chapel, which was rededicated as the Australian Chapel in 1951.
In 1921 began the annual ceremony in which the children from the school
put flowers on every grave in the cemetery. This is followed by a
Commemorative Service to which we always invite representatives from the
Australian High Commission. Anzac Day, 25th April, has become a most
significant annual event in the Harefield calendar.
Few visitors can fail to be moved by the fact that so many of the dead
died so young, and so far from home, their graves unvisited by their
families until the age of easier and affordable travel.
Between the wars, Harefield hospital, being in the countryside became a
centre for respiratory ailments and in particular was adapted for
treatment of tuberculosis.
Since then the hospital has become a centre of excellence for heart
surgery.
My particular interest is because this was where I was fast tracked for
heart surgery in 2013 and I was for some time in one of the original TB
wards. These are arranged in a crescent which is south facing. Very much
modernised with the old terraces now enclosed. Compared to the average
size of ward in the NHS - these must be omongst the largest.
You cannot go far within the hospital without being aware of the ANZAC
connection.
Beginning with a reception at Australia House in London on ANZAC day, the
hospital trust has a substantial program of fund raising events to
celebrate its centenary.
More can be found on the Royal Brompton and Harefield Foundation Trust
pages.
Russell Perrin
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