The hospital - opened at Harnham Hill, near Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, in 1941 - came into being as result of the desire of Harvard University, and it's Medical community, to provide direct-support to the medical community and people of the United Kingdom. 1941 was the end of the "Phoney War"; and, for the United States, the beginning of the Second World War.
Harvard's medical school offered to send their medical experts to the United Kingdom to share their expertise in communicable / Infectious diseases; and, to help protect the public against the spead of diseases arising from aerial bombardment of British cities.
The hospital performed three different tasks in its, almost, fifty-year-life as a medical facility. The first, and shortest task, was an emergency infectious diseases field hospital managed by the US Red Cross and staffed by volunteer medical, nursing and non-medical staff from Harvard University and the American Red Cross. The second task was: a United States Army hospital; and, central infectious diseases laboratory and central base for blood distribution for American troops in Europe.
From 1946, buildings within the hospital were used to house the Common Cold Unit.
The Harvard hospital was built in the early 1940s; and, for convenience it was to fall within the 'umbrella' of an UK Emergency Hospital building programme. Moreover, Harvard Medical School was responsible for designing the hospital; transporting it to the United Kingdom as a timber, pre-fabricated, field hospital; and erecting it at a chosen site in England. [1] The American Red Cross was brought in, by Havard Medical School, as they had greater experience of fund raising; and also in sending volunteers to work in foreign countries on Disaster response.
By July 1941, France had fallen and there was a fear of the spread of infectious diseases arrising from both this and aerial bombardment of British cities. This hospital, with American help, was specifically set up to address that threat. It was to be the first Infectious Diseases hospital, of its type, in the United Kingdom. [2]
America was neutral at this time, as expressed in U.S. Neutrality Act. However, both the president of Harvard University and the dean of their medical school wished to provide direct medical assistance to the United Kingdom's medical profession. In face-to-face discussions with the chief medical officer, at the UK's Ministry of Health, Harvard University was prepared to offer a group of experts in bacteriology, epidemiology, nutrition, sanitation, medicine and surgery. [2] The chief medical officer was concerned that a group of American medical experts would find it difficult to fit in to the English Public Health System, which was very different to the American system. It was decided they would supply the United Kingdom with a complete infectious diseases unit, fully equipped and staffed. [2] It was to be sited close to Salisbury, as there was a lack of hospitals in this area capable of treating patients with infectious diseases. The hospital was also equipped with a mobile infectious diseases field-unit that could be moved around to carry out field tests anywhere in the United Kingdom. [2]
Professor John E. Gordon, Professor of Preventative Medicine, at Harvard University, was put in charge of the project of designing the prefabricated hospital. [2]
The Ministry of Health (for England and Wales) was responsible for buying the land, for the chosen hospital site; providing access to necessary under-ground services, including a water supply, electricity, sewage; and, building a central bolier house to supply the heat for the centrally heated buildings supplied by the United States. [1] [2] Buildings built by the Ministry of Heath, in contrast to the Harvard Medical School buildings, would be built out of brick. By this stage of the United Kingdom's Emergency Hospital building programme timber was scarce and its use as a constructional material was prohibited: brick with minimal use of steel-rod reinforcements was the preferred building material. [3]
The Harvard Hospital was assembled on a chosen site, at Harnham, on the outskirts of the City of in Salisbury 1941. It was laid out as a complex of twenty-two standard-size prefabricated buildings. [1] Ten of these buildings extended at right angles from a long central covered boardwalk and were used as hospital wards. The remaining six buildings, which connected to the main covered boardwalk, housed support services such as laboratories, administration, laundry facilities and a central kitchen. [1]
A further six buildings - comprising, two groups of three staggered buildings - located some distance from the main hospital complex, served as residential accommodation for the American doctors and medical personnel assigned to operate the hospital. [1] [4]
This was almost entirely provided by the joint efforts of Harvard University and the US Red Cross. So as to comply with the Neutrality Act, the American Red Cross had control of the hospital. [2] The United Kingdom's Ministry of Health continued to be responsible for certain day-to-day running costs, such as maintaining and paying for: the water supply, sewage disposal, electricity, heating the site, running the laundry, buying and cooking the food. [2]
The hospital was scheduled to be ready for receiving patients by 22 September 1941. [2] It had fewer patient's beds than other emergency hospitals set up under emergency hospital-building programme, in this case only 125 beds spread across ten wards, but hosted a fully equipped emergency public health laboratory to handle infectious diseases. In addition, on-site living accommodation and facilities for the American volunteer doctors, nurses and non-medical personnel; and, a decontamination unit were provided. [2]
Statistics later showed that a majority of its patients were infectious troop casualties brought back from Europe, but there were, also, civilian patients. [2]
When the United States entered the Second World War, the Red Cross and Harvard University pulled their staff out, but a few stayed behind. In July 1942, the hospital was handed over to the US military authorities with Professor John E. Gordon remaining, to act as liaison officer between the United Kingdom's Ministry of Health and the American military authority - named as Paul Ramsey Hawley, Command Surgeon of the European Theater of Operations, United States Army. [2]
Extra buildings were added almost immediately: to accommodate United States Army technicians; provide a training school; and, to provide extra laboratories. In total, another twenty buildings were added to the original twenty two buildings provided by Harvard Medical School.
The hospital was run by US Army personnel until the end of the Second World War. When, in 1945, the American Red Cross and Harvard Medical School kindly presented the hospital, free of charge, to the United Kingdom's Ministry of Health. [2]
For a short while, the centrally heated buildings on the site were used for storage. [nb 1]
The virologist Christopher Andrewes, who was head of the National Institute for Medical Research's Division of Bacteriology and Virus Research, was interested in using the site for Common Cold research, by exposing Human Volunteers to various viruses suspected to be responsible for infecting humans with the Common Cold. [1]
The future Common Cold Unit was to make use of many of the original twenty two buildings provided in 1941 by Harvard Medical School / American Red Cross. There was a need to isolate small groups of volunteers from other small groups of volunteers; and from the medical staff. In addition, the volunteers were not allowed to go into residential areas of Salisbury. So, there was a continuing need for many of the former-hospital facilities: particularly the medical facilities, such as a first aid room, a medical examination room for the Matron, an X-ray room; as well as domestic facilities such as: the laundry, central food stores and the central kitchen.
The main change was to adapt the six, stand-alone, residential staff accommodation buildings for housing the trials Volunteers, in semi-isolation. The Common Cold Unit needed, typically, twenty four volunteers per ten-day test, but that number might increase on certain trials. Dividing each of these six buildings, across the width of the building, into two self-contained halves, with each half having its own entrance porch, would provide the space for twenty four volunteers: two people sharing a self-contained accommodation unit. The twelve porches at the ends of each flats were linked by newly constructed semi-enclosed, covered, boardwalks leading back to the central hospital covered boardwalk.
Some of the, slightly newer, (1942–1945) buildings added by the United States Army, particularly the new laboratories used for viral and infectious diseases research and testing were taken into use, unmodified. However, ten of the specialised buildings used by the United States Army for their Blood distribution centre, supplying blood for the European theatre of operations, were no longer needed and, they were demolished.
The final, and longest use, of the Harvard Hospital, Salisbury was as a 'home' for the Common Cold Unit. It opened in 1946 and closed in 1989.