The Royal Hospital Chelsea at War | Hereford Military History Festival

In May 1938 plans were approved for evacuating 500 Chelsea Pensioners out of London to the relative safety of the countryside in the event of war. However, toxic politics and complex logistics meant that on the outbreak of war in September 1939, only fifty were evacuated, to a country house in Herefordshire. After the Royal Hospital Chelsea was bombed during the London Blitz more evacuations eventually followed, with Herefordshire becoming a key evacuation site for Chelsea Pensioners for the duration of the Second World War. Using recently uncovered archive material, some stored for decades in an attic at the Royal Hospital, Martin Cawthorne chronicles Herefordshire’s important role in the wartime story of the Royal Hospital Chelsea.