| Date | 14 August 2015 |
|---|---|
| Source | Slough Observer |
| Reference | VP-0077 |
| Volume | Views of the Past |
| Collection | Views of the Past |
Transcript
Civil war health care
LAST weekend I had the delight of attending a conference at Newark in Nottinghamshire on the health and welfare of the English Civil War soldiers at the newly established English Civil War Centre.
During the conference we heard about the latest work and research on how maimed soldiers and their widows were cared for.
So what does this have to do with the local history of our area? Readers will perhaps recollect that I am researching the role of the English Civil War Windsor Castle garrison as part of my PhD.
I was asked to participate and provide a paper on the health and welfare of the Windsor garrison at the conference.
There are a number of examples which can be found within the garrison accounts.
We learn details of the garrison doctor and apothecary, a Dr Pordage, who was later to be found as a Reverend looking after a church in Reading. He was also renowned for his interest in the occult and had a number of ‘witches’ and a sorceress with in his circle.
We are also told the name of the ‘chirurgion’ or surgeon was called Merredith Jones — presumably Welsh — but according to his will he was living in Oxford.
The garrison accounts give details of article which were purchased by the surgeon and then recharged to the garrison; this is found in 1642 where the accounts show that money was ‘paid for medicines for chirurgion to dress wounded men from the army’.
Nursing was also common and in the accounts there is reference to a nurse, but it is not known whether they were male or female.
These are detailed in the pay for soldiers where we are told that ‘66 soldiers and one nurse were paid at 8d per diem’ or day.
On a sad note the accounts detail that ‘paid to the Marshall which he had laid out for shovels to bury 30 soldiers that died in prison.’
This probably is a reference to an outbreak of plague which was rife in Berkshire after the taking of Reading by the Parliamentarians in 1643.
These extracts from the garrison accounts give an idea of how the soldiers were cared for.
Image: Windsor Castle during the Civil War by the artist Hollar in 1644
Images
