From the archive: King and parliament

Janet Scott describes Friends’ losses in conflict and advances in politics

by Janet Scott 31st August 2018

The Friends’ Ambulance Unit reports for August 1918 tell of a surprise visit to their Queen Alexandra Hospital by the king. It was noted in the Friend on 6 September that:

His Majesty was received by the Principal Medical Officer (Captain Humphrey Nockolds, DSO) and then made a tour of the hospital, conversing with several of the patients. It is an open secret that His Majesty caused some astonishment among the staff by his obviously intimate knowledge of the details connected both with the administration and with the recent vicissitudes of the hospital. His Majesty was obviously impressed with its orderliness and efficiency and was twice heard to remark, “What a nice place.”