Ullenwood from the air, 1990

Click on the photo to enlarge

I've been saving up this wonderful 1990 shot of Ullenwood Camp from the air which Phil kindly sent me some months ago.  From the angle of the shadows it was taken when he flew over the camp during the early evening, I should think at about 6:30 p.m. ish.   Five weary diggers can be seen trudging back over the fields, one in Greenway Lane and half a dozen in the camp itself, including a couple outside the mess hall and one approaching the Ablutions block.  There's a lone horse and rider in the lane as well, just arriving level with Dorm 3.  Within the camp itself are 21 cars, the Yellow Bus containing the mobile exhibition at the far end of the car park, and a couple of dozen tents in two groups.  The hangar, the bunker, the mess hall, Lofty's house and all the huts and the dormitories show up very well. I'd forgotten that the dormitories all had small roofed porches at the entrances.  A Phillpotts photo of the city of tents, taken during the same season, is here.

Ullenwood in Hansard 1954 ...

Ullenwood was once the subject of a Parliamentary Question and written answer as follows:

"Ullenwood Camp, Cheltenham

HC Deb 15 November 1954 vol 533 cc14-5W

Major Hicks Beach asked the Secretary of State for War (1) how much of Ullenwood Camp, Cheltenham, is at present being used for military storage and how much of the area for Territorial Army training;

(2) the type of Territorial Army training at present being carried out at Ullenwood Camp, Cheltenham, and the approximate time the camp has been used for such purpose during the past two years.

Mr. Head: This camp used to be a military hospital and consists of about 25 wards and 65 smaller huts. Eleven of the wards are used for storing mobilisation equipment and the huts are used for Territorial Army training. In the past two years, the huts have been used on 19 occasions for week-end training and on 23 occasions to accommodate units moving to or from their annual camps."

90 wards and huts in all? I guess the rest of these were on Mike Cuttell's land at Ullenwood Court.

Major William Hicks Beach was MP for Cheltenham between 1950 and 1964. Antony Head, later first Viscount Head, MP for Carshalton between 1945 and 1960, was Secretary of State for War in both the Churchill and Eden governments between 1951 and 1956.

WW II - when Ullenwood was home to 32nd General Hospital, US Army

I remember being told many years ago that Ullenwood had served as a base for a US Army hospital during World War II. 32nd General Hospital Collection, ca.1918-1997, Ruth Lilly Special Collections and Archives, University Library, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, 32nd General Hospital reveals part of Ullenwood's history:

"The 32nd General Hospital began when Willis Gatch, dean of the Indiana University School of Medicine, asked Drs. Cyrus J. Clark (son of Edmund Clark of Base Hospital 32) and Charles F. Thompson to organize a hospital unit late in 1941. On 13 May, 1942, 47 doctors and dentists and 72 nurses were formally inducted into the United States Army during a special convocation held on the grounds of the IU Medical Center in Indianapolis.
The unit was officially activated on 15 January, 1943 at Camp Bowie near Brownwood, Texas under the command of Lt. Col. Frank Alexander, a career Army officer. The doctors and dentists from Indianapolis arrived at Camp Bowie on 18 March and were joined by the nurses on 5 May. The enlisted personnel assigned to the unit came from all parts of the United States. Lt. Col. Cyrus Clark was named chief of medical service, Lt. Col. Charles Thompson became chief of surgical service, and 1st Lt. (Later Maj.) Aurelia Willers served as chief nurse.
The outfit trained at Camp Bowie until August, 1943 when it received orders to move to England. The medical officers and enlisted men sailed from New York to Swansea, Wales aboard the S.S. Borinquin. The nurses first sailed from New York to Halifax, Nova Scotia on the S.S George S. Simmons and then to Scotland aboard the Queen Mary. The unit then reassembled at Fairford, Gloucestshire.
The 32nd General Hospital remained at Fairford from 16 September, 1943 to 9 May, 1944. From 28 September, 1943 to 20 January, 1944, a group of doctors and nurses from the unit, designated as Detachment A, operated a station hospital at Ullenwood, Gloucestershire under the command of Lt. Col. Clark. On 31 January 1944, Lt. Col. Alexander was transfered to the 68th Station Hospital, and Lt. Col. Clark assumed command of the 32nd General Hospital. The unit was stationed at Minchinhampton, Gloucester from 9 May to 27 July, 1944, then shipped out for France.
The 32nd General Hospital was the first Allied general hospital to arrive in France after the D-Day landings. Stationed at La Haye du Puits in Normandy, the unit handled 5,350 patients between 17 August and 22 November, 1944. The 32nd was then placed on inactive status and transferred to Belgium, where it remained until early 1945. During this time, 3 officers and 27 enlisted men of the unit were slightly injured by V-1 and aerial bombings.
The unit became the first U.S. Army general hospital stationed in Germany when it moved into a civilian hospital in Aachen, Germany early in 1945. From 5 March to 30 July, 1945, the hospital treated 41,797 patients. The hospital was closed on 30 July and moved to Mourmelon, France on 12 August, 1945. Most of the personnel then left France at Marseilles aboard the S.S. Marine Angel on 3 October and arrived in New York 12 October, 1945. Other members of the unit sailed from other ports, and some of the officers flew back to the United States. The officers and enlisted men were discharged from the Army at Camp Atterbury near Edinburgh, Indiana in late October, 1945 and the 32nd General Hospital was officially deactivated."