The Royal Hospital's website [visit link]
tells us of its history:
"Early history:
Until the 17th Century the state made
no specific provision for old and injured soldiers. Care for the poor and sick
was provided by the religious foundations. Much of this provision ended
following the dissolution of the monasteries in 1536.
During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I it became
recognised that provision needed to be made for the poor and for sick and
disabled soldiers. This led to an Act of Parliament, passed in 1593, that levied
a weekly tax (not exceeding 6d in the pound) on parishes for the relief of
soldiers and sailors.
17th Century:
The Civil War, between Charles I and
Parliament, which started in 1642, required changes to the existing
arrangements. Therefore, in 1645 Parliament decreed that pensions to disabled
soldiers should be paid from national funds, not local taxation.
The Restoration of Charles II, in 1660, and the
disbandment of the Parliamentary Army and the return of exiled Royalist forces
made the improvementof provision for the welfare of old or disabled soldiers a
more pressing matter.
By 1673 it was already being noted that some soldiers
were no longer fit for service. It was common practice for maimed or old
soldiers to be kept on regimental rolls, or sent on garrison duty - thus
impairing the effectiveness of an army that was under heavy
demand.
King Charles was determined to make provision for the
soldiers on the English establishment and on 22nd December 1681 he issued a
Royal Warrant authorising the building of the Royal Hospital.
Sir Christopher Wren, Charles II's Surveyor-General of
Works, was commissioned to design and erect the buildings. Sir Stephen Fox (1627
- 1716), who had been Paymaster General to the Army from 1661 to 1679, and was a
Commissioner of the Treasury, was commissioned to secure the funds necessary to
progress the scheme.
Charles II was always short of money and Parliament had
made it quite clear that it would not fund the project. Fox therefore sought
funding from private donations. The King provided £6,787 4s 2½d from unused
money for the ‘secret service'. Other contributions came to about £13,000. This
was clearly insufficient to fund the new project and Fox therefore proposed a
novel method of securing funds. As Paymaster General Fox had been responsible
for paying the army. To do this, on time, he borrowed the money. From 1668 to
1679 he had received 12d in the £ for performing this service. When he resigned
this position, because of ‘difficulties' the money was reallocated by King
Charles - 4d to pay for the costs of paying the army and 8d to reduce the costs
of the pay. Fox suggested that the money saved should go to the Royal Hospital.
In 1683 the King agreed to allocate 4d to the Royal Hospital, backdated to
1680/81. This was later increased to the whole of the 12d, less the actual costs
of paying the army.
The funds provided were still insufficient and Fox had
to find other sources of funding. A levy of 12d in the £ was made on the sale of
officers commissions and from 1684 a day's pay was deducted from every officer
and soldier in the army. The last measure was, in effect, a contributory
pension, as all soldiers were to benefit.
In 1685, Wren, who was also an MP, proposed that the
fees from the licensing of Hackney carriages should accrue to the Royal
Hospital. This wasapproved although no income has ever been received. In the
same year the City of Newcastle-upon-Tyne also agreed to supply 100 chaldrons
(wagons) of coal each year to the Royal Hospital in lieu of paying rent to the
Crown for the castle there.
The chosen site, set adjacent to the River Thames in the
pastoral setting of Chelsea contained the uncompleted building of the former
"Chelsey College", a theological college founded by James 1 in 1610. Never
having been successful the College was closed during the Civil War and was later
used to house prisoners during the Civil War and in the later wars against the
Dutch. In 1667 the site was given by Charles II to the Royal Society (another of
his imaginative creations). The Society, of which both Fox and Wren were members
(Wren was President in 1681), had found no use for it and in February 1682 it
was repurchased by the King (or rather by Sir Stephen Fox on his behalf) for the
reasonable sum of £1,300.
The early building continued at a rapid pace, so much so
that Charles II was able to inspect the work, including the partly completed
chapel, just before his death in 1685.The whole project could have been
jeopardised by James II's ill-conceived appointment of Richard Jones, the Earl
of Ranelagh (1638? - 1712), as Paymaster-General of the Forces, an office he
held from 1685 to 1702. Owing to his mismanagement and embezzlement there was
continued delay in completing the building work and admitting the pensioners.
Among his misdemeanours, he diverted funds intended for completing the Royal
Hospital to the building of a "small but lavish" house (sadly demolished in the
19th Century) in the grounds and he was allowed to appropriate about 1/3 of the
Royal Hospital's land for his own uses at an annual payment of £5. Following his
dismissal from office in 1702 it was discovered that he had been guilty of gross
fraud and had misappropriated a total of £904,000 from army funds. Such was his
degree of mismanagement that the accounts for the period to 1702 were not closed
until 1737.
In 1692 work was finally completed, and Ranelagh
compelled to allow pensioners in. The first In-Pensioners were admitted in
February 1692 and by the end of March the full complement of 476 were in
residence.
18th Century:
Letters Patent in 1702/3 created an
independent Board of five members for the hospital. Originally all the
Commissioners were appointed by name, but now eight hold their appointments by
virtue of their office (three Government ministers, the Governor and Lieutenant
Governor and three serving officers or officials from the Ministry of Defence).
There are also up to ten "Specially Appointed" Commissioners, who are
distinguished individuals selected because of their experience and expertise in
areas relevant to the Royal Hospital's work, These members serve for up to six
years. The Board of Commissioners meets quarterly in the Council
Chamber.
Sir Christopher WrenThe early funding of the Royal
Hospital was made from deductions from army pay, with occasional funding from
other sources (such as the sale of commissions). This continued to be the Royal
Hospital's main source of revenue until 1847. Since then the Hospital has been
supported by Government ‘Grant-in-Aid'. This is supplemented by a small income
derived from legacies, donations and the Army Prize Fund. The last element comes
from shares of money allocated as the prize money for battles and campaigns in
the 19th Century. Those that were unclaimed went to the Royal
Hospital.
In 1688, The Earl of Ranelagh persuaded Wren to build
him a house to the east of the South Terrace. He then leased 23 acres of Royal
Hospital land for a period of 99 years at a rental of £5, as recompense for
lands lost in his native Ireland. The land thus acquired included the whole of
the east side of the current Royal Hospital plus the site now occupied by
Chelsea Barracks. After his fall from power and death in poverty in 1712 his
daughter Lady Catherine Jones, continued to live in Ranelagh House with the help
of influential friends. At her death in 1730 all the land was sold off, in ten
lots, in 1733.
In 1739 a speculative builder bought Ranelagh House and
its grounds and in 1741, in partnership with the owner of the Drury Lane
Theatre, built the Rotunda and associated pleasure grounds (against much
objection from the Royal Hospital). Opening in 1742 the wooden Rotunda, designed
by William Jones, had an external diameter of 185 feet (56 metres - slightly
smaller than the Albert Hall), and was regarded as an engineering masterpiece.
The Rotunda was the venue of much public entertainment, including breakfasts,
concerts, masquerades and fireworks. The gardens were described as having
winding paths, ornamental canals, water features and groves. It eventually went
out of favour and both the Rotunda and Ranelagh House were demolished in
1805.
When Robert Walpole became Paymaster General in 1714 he
appropriated (in the style of the Earl of Ranelagh) 4½ acres of Royal Hospital
land (from the entrance gate to the River Thames) and enlarged the rear part of
Wren's stable block to provide himself with a house. Walpole, who is generally
acknowledged as the first Prime Minister from 1721 to 42 maintained the property
until his death in 1745.
19th Century:
Wren's magnificent formal gardens,
which provided a vista from the Royal Hospital to the River Thames and included
canals, gazebos and summer houses (one each for the Governor and Lieutenant
Governor), were all swept away from 1850 to 1868 when the Chelsea Embankment was
constructed.
In 1809, Sir John Soane constructed a new Infirmary
building, with space for 80 patients on the site now occupied by the National
ArmySir John Soane.jpg Museum(1968/69). The Infirmary was damaged by bombing in
the Second World War and later demolished.
The present Ranelagh Gardens (on the site of Ranelagh
House and the Rotunda) were laid out by John Gibson (who designed Battersea Park
andseveral other Royal parks) in about 1860. Previously the area had been used
for Pensioners' gardens and Soane provided a Summer House for their use in 1834.
This structure is currently being restored.
Much of the land taken by Walpole was bought back in the
C19th. The Royal Hospital also benefited in acquiring land as a result of the
construction of the Chelsea Embankment and Chelsea Bridge Road. The Royal
Hospital site now covers a total of 66 acres (27 hectares).
In the grounds are two batteries of guns. Four of the
guns were captured at Waterloo (1815). The other is formed of two guns taken
from the Sikhs at Chillianwallah (1849), one Chinese piece (1680), and one Dutch
gun dated 1623. The 36" spherical shells were designed for use with Mallet
mortars (mid-19th Century) but were never actually employed in
action.
The 19th century saw the fitting of ranges in the Long
Wards which were, until 1955, used for the cooking of rations.
20th Century
Since 1913 the RHS Chelsea Flower Show has been held
annually on the South Grounds.
Parts of the hospital were heavily damaged, with some
loss of life, by enemy bombing in 1918, reconstructed in 1923 only to be
destroyed again by a V2 rocket in 1945. Other damage was suffered during the
Blitz and the Infirmary was destroyed in 1941.
In the Octagon Porch the Royal coat of arms was
installed which had been removed from the Royal Hospital at Kilmainham at its
closure in 1925.
The first televised church service in Britain was
broadcast from the Chapel in 1949.
In 1955 the Hall was restored to its original purpose,
and oak benches have since been replaced by chairs.
The berths were enlarged in 1954-55 and again in 1991 to
their present size of 9 feet by 9 feet (2.7 by 2.7 metres).
21st Century:
2002 saw the restoration of the large
mural painting in the Great Hall by the artists Verrio and
Cooke.
Also in 2002 the statue of King Charles II which has
stood in Figure Court since 1692 was re-gilded to commemorate Queen Elizabeth
II's Golden Jubilee.
On display in the Museum, is the parade chair presented
to Queen Elizabeth II by The Royal Hospital in 2002. Also on display is The
Sovereign's Mace which was presented to the Royal Hospital by Queen Elizabeth II
in July 2002. Throughout its existence the Royal Hospital has had no colours or
other distinctive device. The Mace is now carried at all of the Royal Hospital's
ceremonial events.
Currently the facilities are being upgraded to meet the
needs of the 21st Century In-Pensioner. Improvements to bathing and WC
facilities are planned and an IT suite has been opened. However, all the works
have to take account of the historic structure. Improved access arrangements for
In-Pensioners with disabilities is also planned.
In March 2009 the Margaret Thatcher Infirmary was opened
and is a state of the art care home and hospice for Chelsea Pensioners. Built by
Quinlan Terry is has 125 ensuite bedrooms.
Work has started on the refurbishment of the Long Wards
and Wards 23 & 24 were opened in May 2010. Work will beging shortly on the
remaining Long Wards."