The Three Oatlands Hospitals

The Cottage Hospital
The 1901 Census show that there was once a cottage hospital in St.Mary's Road. Harriette Blackburn is shown as 'head of the household'. She is shown as single, aged 42 and was born in London..

It was located opposite the present school in what was later renamed "Caroline Villa" - it is believed that the hospital may have occupied both halves of the property but this is currently unconfirmed.

There is no sign of the hospital in the 1911 Census so it didn't last very long in that role.

The Oatlands Park Hotel
During WWI Oatlands had a hospital again when the Oatlands Park Hotel was requisitioned in 1916 to act as a hospital for the New Zealand Expeditionary Force - primarily for "medical & tuberculosis cases and limbless men".
This, along with Mount Felix at Walton (now mostly demolished) provided care and rehabilitation for some 27,000 New Zealand servicemen. It is in honour of these men that New Zealand Avenue at Walton is named. 

Barham Lodge
Less well known is that Barham Lodge became a 35-bed hospital in September 1915 and these beds were fully occupied in October. By 1917 it had acquired a small operating theatre and was being run by the Red Cross with Mrs (later Dame) Ethel Locke-King as commandant. It continued as an active auxilliary hospital until the summer of 1919, before reverting to a private house and, later, a school for the second time in its life.

Further Reading
"Auxiliary & Military Hospitals in Weybridge and Walton during the First World War"
Walton & Weybridge Local History Society - Monograph No.58  1996