Aldershot

Hospital Stay

My son Thor had a branchial cyst removed when he was about 20 months old. The staff were wonderful. I stayed in the hospital all the time and beds were made available for the mums. For our meals we would cross over the road to go to the army canteen and the food was incredible. My son soon made a speedy recovery.
Contributed by Monica Peck

The Cambridge Ghost

The Cambridge Military Hospital was apparently founded as part of the initiative begun by Florence Nightingale after the Crimean War to improve medical facilities for the Army. It was built on a grand, traditionally solid Victorian scale, and as I remember, had very long corridors, which seemed to be about a quarter of a mile long! At least, it seemed, standing at one end, the roof and floor met at the other.
In February 1969 as a cadet at the nearby Sandhurst, I had an accident on the assault course, twisting my knee badly on the frozen ground. The injury was quite severe and I was required to have an operation and physiotherapy as an in-patient, so I spent several months ...read more here
Contributed by James Ritchie

My stay at the Cambridge Military Hospital

I had my tonsils removed at the Cambridge Miltary Hospital in 1981 (aged 8).  The only memory I have of this time is of a little girl named Yvonne Cherry who stayed in the bed next to mine, she never had any visitors and spent the majority of her time looking in my locker.

My father, Eric James was an ambulance driver for the Cambridge Hospital for many years.  It's a beautiful building and it is heartbreaking to think of it standing with empty corridors and dusty old cobwebs.
Contributed by Tracey James

Aldershot Cottage Hospital

How could I forget the Cottage Hospital?  I had my tonsils out here!  Strangely enough, after all these years I can still picture parts of the Children's Ward, one or two of the nurses, and the bed that I was in.  Hospital is never the most pleasant place to be but, if I remember correctly (and I am sure that I do), the worst part of my stay was "Nil By Mouth" after the operation!
Contributed by David Vickers

Aldershot cottage hospital - I was born here

Don't remember too much but I was born here 07/1968, now forty years on I still talk about where I was born. Jacki
Contributed by jacki gatfield

The Queen Hotel

I used to work in this pub with my sister. It's 4 walls have set the scene for many a drama! It was a great pub back in the day - and excellent fun on Airborne Forces Weekend (not so much fun for out of towners, I'd imagine!) LOL!
Contributed by Tracey James

Ist Job

My first full time job, Woolworths, Union Road, what a job that was.
Contributed by jacki gatfield

Place of marriage

My wife and I were married here in August 1962.
Contributed by bill rutland

War years

For two-and-a-half dreadful years, from July 1942 to October 1944, my parents and I survived in three rooms at the top of number 40, Victoria Road, rented from a Mrs Pither. Only the front two rooms, overlooking the street, were habitable and the back room my father used as a sort of workshop. Water was from a tap, a few inches off the floor beside the loo, in a small closet at the top of the stairs. Hot water was boiled in a teakettle on an old gas stove in the ‘kitchen’. Washing was done in an enamel basin and the dirty water was carried out and flushed down the toilet. One of my earliest memories is of going to get ...read more here
Contributed by Alan Hickman

Aldershot Swimming Pool

I remember learning to swim in this pool. Once a week we would be taken from school. After our lessons we always had some sandwiches which our mothers sent with us. I always had lettuce and marmite sandwiches. To this day when I have the same sandwiches I can see and smell the swimming pool!
Contributed by Penelope Dale

The Odeon cinema

I started working at the Odeon in 1967 as a projectionist, and the first film I showed there was the original Casino Royale. The screen curtains were made of a heavy velvet with weights at the bottom, but with the lilac coloured spot lights on them, they looked like silk as they opened and closed.It was always a lovely building, and it looks even more beautiful today as The Kings Centre.
Contributed by julia clarke

1st child christened

My first born was christened here 1992 and my second child 1995.
Contributed by jacki gatfield

The Cambridge Ghost

See my memory regarding this wonderful old bit of Victorian architecture, linked to the 1891 photograph of the Cambridge. In my day, 1969, it was mostly full of civilian patients although there was a fair sprinkling of families, car accident victims and some military having tatoos removed (one having 'hate' removed from his knuckles before enlisting in the police force). Others I recall from my ward (Ward 7) on the ground floor, had been e.g. victims of petroleum fires in depots with severely burnt arms (as walking wounded, we had to feed them and take them to the bathroom etc) and on one occasion a large number of paratroopers injured during a large scale parachute exercise over the nearby ...read more here
Contributed by James Ritchie

I met my wife-to-be on the firing ranges at Aldershot!

I met Elizabeth Sewell while we were both on a Territorial Army training exercise at Aldershot. We were both serving with 39 Signal Regiment. It was April 1970 and I first saw her in her WRAC uniform, green beret and brown boots! Very nice too!
I managed to sit next to her in the back of a three tonner on the way back to our barracks and we talked all the way.
We arranged a date for that evening and slipped out of the barracks to visit a pub. We have now been married for 37 years!
Contributed by John Howard Norfolk