The Postcard
A postcard bearing no publisher's name that was posted in Derby using a ½d. stamp on Sunday the 19th. May 1907. It was sent to:
Miss Alice Lister,
Keighley & Bingley Joint Hospital,
Morton Banks,
Keighley.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Dear Alice,
Very sorry indeed to hear
about your illness.
I called to see you on
Friday night but you
weren't there.
I hope you will all be at
home again before long.
M."
The Keighley and Bingley Joint Hospital
Here is an abridged version of an article written about the hospital's role in the Great War, written by Kirsty of the Cliffe Castle Museum in Keighley:
The Keighley and Bingley Joint Hospital opened in February 1897 as an isolation hospital. It was set in a beautiful location on the slopes of Rombalds Moor, on the left bank of the River Aire, with open verandas, where patients were able to enjoy the fresh air.
On the 5th. April, 1916, hospital became the area's main War Hospital.
The demand for the hospital was so great that an extension was built in 1917. The Hospital was seen to be so proficient in certain areas that it became a centre for American Red Cross surgeons to see the latest developments in military surgery and attend lectures on modern methods of treating gas poisoning, gas gangrene and wounds.
However it wasn’t just the proficient medical care that made the War Hospital such a success. The hospital catered for the soldiers' medical needs, but various small organisations were created around the hospital to ensure the comfort of the men.
The majority of the wounded soldiers arrived into Keighley by train; from here the men would travel, by foot, or by private cars which had been converted into ambulances. On exiting the trains and making their way up the station slope, each new arrival would receive a kindly greeting from Mrs. Scatterly and a packet of Golden Flake tobacco from Mr Tom Crabtree.
There was a group of ladies who visited the hospital to provide company for the men, and another group of women ran a canteen at the hospital.
A Welfare Committee was created where 440 voluntary women served a special tea for the men once a week; the funds for this were raised by a group of women who went house to house collecting a penny a week from all of those that were willing.
A committee of women met daily to sew and prepare a vast array of medical provisions including bandages, pneumonia jackets and swabs. In June 1916, the Wounded Soldiers’ Comfort Committee was founded; they opened a depot where gifts of clothing, eggs and vegetables could be dropped off.
Mr Eustace Illingworth donated a motor launch, allowing severely wounded soldiers at the Joint Hospital to enjoy the water, whilst the more able men were able to take to row boats which were purchased for them.
It was ensured that the men, when well enough had plenty to keep themselves busy. The resident Chaplain, Rev. H. J. Peck, arranged a film screening every fortnight at the Cosy Corner Cinema, and the Hippodrome theatre arranged weekly dramatic performances.
There were also a whole host of activities and classes that the men could take part in including bookbinding, embroidery and crochet, billiards and wood carving under the supervision of local sculptor Alex Smith.
Many gifts were also donated by various individuals, including pianos, gramophones, seating, clocks, games, cigarettes and sterilising instruments.
The hospital did not just cater for local men, but for men whose homes were spread across the country. This made it very difficult for many relatives to visit. To help solve this problem a charity cricket match was organised, raising funds to help with travel expenses. Arrangements were also made amongst local residents to accommodate the visiting relatives of the wounded.
On the 3 June 1919 the final patients were transferred to Huddersfield and the War Hospital closed its doors.
A rather poetic comment was made by Surgeon-General Bedford when reflecting on the soldiers’ situation and the hospital’s location, he said:
"They knew that to some it would be
the valley of the shadow of death, but
to some it would be the valley of hope
and healing."
The full version of Kirsty's article contains much more fascinating information.
The Engineer Benjamin Baker
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, the 19th. May 1907 was not a good day for Benjamin Baker, because he died on that day.
Sir Benjamin Baker KCB KCMG FRS FRSE, who was born on the 31st. March 1840, was an English civil engineer who worked in the mid- to late-Victorian era.
He helped to develop the early underground railways in London with Sir John Fowler, but he is best known for his work on the Forth Bridge.
He made many other notable contributions to civil engineering, including his work as an expert witness at the public inquiry into the Tay Bridge disaster.
Later, he helped design and build the first Aswan dam.
-- Benjamin Baker - The Early Years
Benjamin Baker was born in Keyford, which is now part of Frome, Somerset, the son of Benjamin Baker, principal assistant at Tondu Ironworks, and Sarah Hollis. There is a plaque on their house in Butts Hill.
He was educated at Cheltenham Grammar School and, at the age of 16, became an apprentice at Messrs Price and Fox at the Neath Abbey Iron Works. After his apprenticeship he spent two years as an assistant to Mr. W. H. Wilson.
Bejamin later developed an extremely large professional practice, ranging over almost every branch of civil engineering, and was concerned to a lesser or greater degree with most of the great engineering achievements of his day.
-- Benjamin Baker and Bridge Design
Benjamin published a timely book on Long Railway Bridges in the 1870's which advocated the introduction of steel, and showed that much longer spans were possible using this material. The book is remarkably prescient for the way the properties of steel could be exploited in structures.
-- The Tay Bridge Disaster
In 1880, Baker was called as an expert witness to the inquiry into the Tay Bridge disaster, in which part of the bridge failed and collapsed into the water.
Although he was acting on behalf of Thomas Bouch, the builder of the first railway bridge across the Tay, he performed his role with independence and tenacity.
He testified against the theory that the bridge was blown over by the wind that night. He made a meticulous survey of structures at or near the bridge, and concluded that wind speeds were not excessive on the night of the disaster.
The official analysis of the failure suggested that a wind pressure of over 30 pounds per square foot was needed to cause toppling of the structure.
Baker examined smaller structures in the vicinity of the bridge, and concluded that the pressure could not have exceeded 15 pounds per square foot on the night of the bridge failure. Such smaller structures included walls, ballast on the track on the bridge, and both signal boxes either on or very near the bridge.
Baker said in his statement to the court that he had built over 12 miles (19 km) of railway viaduct, referring to his design of the elevated railroad in New York City in 1868, some of which still survives in Manhattan (unused).
-- Benjamin Baker and the Forth Bridge
By this time Benjamin had already become established as an authority on bridge construction. Shortly afterwards he was engaged on the work which made his reputation with the general public: the design and erection of the Forth Bridge (1890) in collaboration with Sir John Fowler and William Arrol.
It was an almost unique design as a large cantilever bridge, and was built entirely in steel, another unprecedented development in bridge engineering.
Stiffness was provided by hollow tubes which were riveted together so as to make sound joints. Baker promoted his design in numerous public lectures, and arranged demonstrations of the stability of the cantilever by using his assistants as stage props.
With Sir John Fowler, he designed and engineered the Forth Bridge after the Tay bridge collapse. Thomas Bouch had originally been awarded the contract, but he lost it after the Tay Bridge Inquiry reported in June 1880.
The bridge was built entirely in steel, much stronger than cast iron. He used hollow steel tubes to create the cantilever, and it was then the largest bridge of its kind in the world. The bridge is regarded as an engineering marvel.
It is 8,296 ft (2,529 m) in length, and the double track is elevated 151 feet (46 m) above high tide. It consists of two main spans of 1,710 feet (520 m), two side spans of 675 feet (206 m), 15 approach spans of 168 feet (51 m) and five of 25 feet (7.6 m) ).
Each main span comprises two 680 ft (210 m) cantilever arms supporting a central 350 ft (110 m) span girder bridge. The three great four-tower cantilever structures are 340 ft (104 m) tall, each 70 ft (21 m) diameter foot resting on a separate foundation. The southern group of foundations had to be constructed as caissons under compressed air, to a depth of 90 ft (27 m).
At its peak, approximately 4,600 workers were employed in its construction. Initially, it was recorded that 57 lives were lost; however, after extensive research by local historians, the figure has been revised upwards to 98. Eight men who fell from the bridge were saved by boats positioned in the river under work areas.
More than 55,000 tons of steel were used, as well as 18,122 m³ of granite and over eight million rivets.
The bridge was opened on the 4th. March 1890 by the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, who drove home the last rivet, which was gold plated and suitably inscribed.
A contemporary materials analysis of the bridge, circa 2002, found that the steel in the bridge is of good quality, with little variation.
The use of a cantilever in bridge design was not a new idea, but the scale of Baker's undertaking was a pioneering effort, later followed in different parts of the world.
Much of the work done was without precedent, including calculations for incidence of erection stresses, provisions made for reducing future maintenance costs, calculations for wind pressures made evident by the Tay Bridge disaster, the effect of temperature stresses on the structure, and so on.
Where possible, the bridge used natural features such as Inchgarvie, an island, the promontories on either side of the firth at this point, and also the high banks on either side. The remains of Thomas Bouch's first attempts at his bridge can also be seen on the island.
The bridge has a speed limit of 50 mph (80 km/h) for passenger trains and 20 mph (32 km/h) for freight trains. The weight limit for any train on the bridge is 1,422 tonnes (1,442,000 kg) although this is waived for the frequent coal trains, provided two such trains do not simultaneously occupy the bridge.
Any current UK locomotive can use the bridge, which was designed to accommodate heavier steam locomotives. Up to 200 trains per day crossed the bridge in 2006.
A structure like the Forth Bridge needs constant maintenance, and the ancillary works for the bridge included not only a maintenance workshop and yard but a railway "colony" of some fifty houses at Dalmeny Station.
"Painting the Forth Bridge" is a colloquial term for a never-ending task (a modern rendering of the myth of Sisyphus), coined on the erroneous belief that, at one time in the history of the bridge, repainting was required and commenced immediately upon completion of the previous repaint.
According to a 2004 New Civil Engineer report on contemporary maintenance, such a practice never existed, although under British Rail management, and before, the bridge had a permanent maintenance crew.
A contemporary repainting of the bridge commenced with a contract awarded in 2002, for a schedule of work expected to continue until March 2009, involving the application of 20,000 m2 of paint at an estimated cost of £13M a year. This new coat of paint is expected to have a life of at least 25 years.
In a report produced in 2007 which reviewed the alternative options for a second road crossing, it was stated that the estimated working life of the Forth Bridge was in excess of 100 years.
-- Benjamin Baker's Honours and the Old Aswan Dam
On the completion of this undertaking in 1890 Benjamin was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (KCMG), and in the same year the Royal Society recognised his scientific attainments by electing him one of its fellows.
In 1892 the French Academy of Sciences recognised the work of Fowler and Baker by the joint award of the Poncelet Prize; Baker received 2000 francs because the prize money was doubled.
Ten years later at the formal opening of the first Aswan Dam, for which he was consulting engineer, Benjamin was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB).
He served as president of the Institution of Civil Engineers between May 1895 and June 1896, and was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1899.
-- Benjamin Baker and Underground Railways
Baker also played a large part in the introduction of the system widely adopted in London of constructing underground railways in deep tubular tunnels built up of cast iron segments. He was also involved in an unsuccessful scheme in 1899 proposed by the North West London Railway to build a tube line in north-west London.
-- Benjamin Baker's Written Work
Baker was also the author of many papers on engineering subjects. In 1872 Baker wrote a series of articles titled, "The Strength of Brickwork." In these articles Baker argued that the tensile strength of cement should not be neglected in calculating the strength of brickwork.
He wrote that if the cement was neglected then several structures of his time should have collapsed.
-- The Death of Benjamin Baker
Benjamin died at his home, Bowden Green, in Pangbourne, Berkshire on the 19th. May 1907 at the age of 67. He had lived there in his later years.
He was laid to rest in the village of Idbury in Oxfordshire, next to his mother. He is commemorated with a stained glass window on the north side of the nave at Westminster Abbey.
