Harriet Wheelock / Thursday 2 June 2011 Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital Roll of Honour There was an exciting event in the archive earlier in the week, when one of the archive items which had been sent out for conservation treatment came back to the archive. The item is question is a Roll of Honour of Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital, which contains the names of the 421 members of staff and students of the hospital who served in the First World War. The conservation project was part funded by the Heritage Council, under their 2010 heritage grant scheme Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital Roll of Honour, before treatment As you can see from this image, the item was in quite a bad state of repair, with the paper wrinkled and creased where it had been mounted onto a wooden board, in addition the board was causing staining to leach through on to the paper. The first task undertaken by the conservator was to remove the item from backing board, so it could be cleaned and treated. The paper was then flattened between blotting paper before being inlaid into archival paper to provide support and to help keep the shape of the item. Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital Roll of Honour, after treatment As well as listing the names, date of qualification and rank of the men who served, the roll gives some additional information about the 31 who lost their lives, the 60 who were wounded and the 322 honours received. This information was originally written in red ink next to the name of each soldier, but this ink has faded badly and the writing is now almost indistinguishable. However, with the use of digital cameras and some photo editing, it is possible to rediscover this lost information. Detail from Roll of Honour This example shows the entry for H R Griffith, who died in May 1916 in a Military Hospital and David Hadden who received the Military Cross in 1917, with a Bar added on 1917. Using the Kirkpatrick Index I was able to find out a little more about these two men. Lieutenant Harry Rathbone Griffith was born in 1866 the fourth son of a rector on Anglesey. He studied medicine in Trinity College graduating BA in 1889 and MD in 1893, while a student in Dublin he worked at Dun's Hospital. Following his graduation he practiced in PortmadocRAMC and was a temporary Lieutenant at Prees Heath Army Training Camp when he died of heart failure. In contrast David Hamilton Hadden had only been qualified for a year when the First World War broke out. Also a graduate of Trinity, Hadden had distinguished himself as a student winning a clinical and surgical prize from Dun's Hospital. He left his position at the York County Hospital and joined the Royal Army Medical Corps in September 1914. As a temporary Captain in January 1917 he received the Military Cross as 'under extremely adverse weather conditions he worked without rest for three nights and two days attending wounded. Throughout he showed the utmost indifference to heavy shell and machine gun fire'. Hadden remained in military service after the end of the War and was awarded an OBE for his services in the field at Waziristan, India, between 1922 and 1923. In May 1924 Captain Hadden was founded shot dead in his room in the Omagh Barracks 'a revolver, containing one live and one spent round, was lying next to his body'. Detail from Roll of Honour The Roll of Honour, as well as all the other records relating to Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital, can be viewed in the reading room, please contact us to make an appointment. Follow these links for more information on the hospital and it's roll in World War I. The collection list for the Dun's Hospital archive can be downloaded here or the records can be searched using the online catalogue.