Massey-Harris Convalescent Home
Date1916-1919
Dimensions8.9 x 14.2 cm
Credit LineGift of Mr. A. Fradgley, London, Ontario, 1962
Object number1962.026.003
Label TextThis postcard depicts the exterior and grounds of the Massey-Harris Convalescent Home for Canadian soldiers. In 1916 the Massey-Harris Company, a major agricultural equipment manufacturer based in Brantford, Ontario, established a convalescent home for sick and wounded Canadian servicemen in Kingswood, a large Victorian mansion in Dulwich, rented from the railway contractor William Dederich.
It had 105 beds and was equipped and maintained solely by Brantford's Massey-Harris Company, its associated companies and their agents and employees. The medical and nursing staff were all Canadian.
Following the Battle of the Somme in the summer of 1916 the Convalescent Home was full by October, with 110 beds. Patients by then were generally well enough to enjoy the entertainments laid on for them by various bodies - concerts and whist drives in the Recreation Hall, tea parties with local residents and excursions to London. The Home also had a Billiard Room. In good weather, the grounds could be enjoyed, with their lawns, hedges, shrubberies and artificial lakes with fountains. Good food was available, served by waiters at the table.
The Home closed on 23rd August 1918, a week before its sister convalescent home in Bromley Park, with the remaining patients being transferred to the Ontario Military Hospital in Orpington. In November 1918 the building was used as an auxiliary hospital to the Ontario Military Hospital. It finally closed in April 1919.
The donor of the postcard, Arthur Reuben Fradgley (1882-1966), enlisted in August 1914. He was born in London, England, but on his attestation form he lists his next of kin, wife Annie L Fradgley, as living at 57 Philip Street, London, Ontario. He gives his trade as carpenter.
NamePostcard
