Graham Perkins

 This blog begins at the Cambridge Military Hospital.

Cambridge Military Hospital
Aldershot

Cambridge Military Hospital, completed in 1879 in Aldershot Garrison, Hampshire, England, served the various British Army camps in the area. During World War I, it was the first base hospital to receive casualties directly from the Western Front. It was the pioneering site for plastic surgery within the British Empire under Harold Gillies. It has now been transformed into the residential estate known as Gun Hill Park.

During the First World War, the Cambridge Hospital was the primary base hospital to receive casualties directly from the Western Front. Additionally, it was the pioneering institution within the British Empire where plastic surgery procedures were first carried out. Captain Gillies, who would later become Sir Harold Gillies, encountered Hippolyte Morestin during his leave in Paris in 1915. Morestin was engaged in facial reconstruction at Val-de-Grace Hospital in Paris. Inspired by this work, Gillies returned from France at the end of 1915 to establish a Plastic Surgery Unit at Cambridge Hospital. Dr. Harold Gillies was assisted in his work by dental surgeon William Kelsey Fry, who specialized in reconstructing jaws. Additionally, Dr. Henry Tonks, both a physician and an artist, collaborated with Dr. Gillies by creating pastel drawings that documented facial injury cases at the Cambridge Military Hospital and the Queen's Hospital, Sidcup.

One of the soldiers who passed away at the Cambridge Military Hospital was Graham Perkins.

Graham, born in Swansea in 1895, was the only son of Henry Thomas Perkins and Elizabeth Harris, who married at St. James Church in 1891.

Henry Thomas Perkins and Elizabeth Harris
marriage certificate
St. James church

In 1896, the year after Graham was born, his mother, Elizabeth, passed away and was interred at Oystermouth Cemetery.

According to the 1901 Census, widower Henry T. and his only child were living at 13 St. Helens Road.

1901 Census

Henry, aged 37, whose place of birth was recorded as Herefordshire, owned a dairy.  Graham was 5 years old.

Also present at the property was Clara F. Perkins, aged 34, sister of Henry, who was employed as a Draper's Assistant.

Henry employed four servants: Mary Harris, aged 29; Nellie Davies, aged 19; Dillwyn Llewellyn, aged 17; and Edwin Cowley, aged 15.

Perkins family grave
Oystermouth Cemetery
credit - findagrave

In 1903, Henry died, and he was also buried at Oystermouth Cemetery.

By the time of the 1911 Census, Graham, aged 15, was residing with his uncle, William Harris, at 21 Walter Road.

1911 Census

William, 45 years old, was an ironmonger and a widower following the death of his wife, Catherine, in 1903. He had two daughters, 11-year-old Cordelia May, and 9-year-old Elizabeth

Also present was Ann Harris, aged 43, sister of William, who was a housekeeper.

Graham, aged 15, attended school.

Also present was the border, Richard Griffiths, aged 34, who was a shop assistant.

Graham, who enlisted and served with the Royal Sussex Regiment, 1^st/6^th Battalion, died on the 13^th of December 1915, at the Cambridge Military Hospital.

Army Register of Soldiers' Effects

Abingdon Free Press

Herald of Wales

His death was reported in the Abingdon Free Press. The article, mentioned that his grandmother was Mrs Reeves, of Shrivenham, Oxfordshire.   His body was brought back home to be buried alongside his parents at Oystermouth Cemetery, and his funeral was published in the Herald of Wales