Royal Army Medical Corps, 2nd Northern General Hospital, Service no. 70
Born: 1885. Died: 1923.
Story
Henry was born and baptised in Kippax on 16th September 1885. He was the son of Emmanuel Wilkinson and Emma Endall. The family left Kippax shortly after Henry was born, and lived on Harrogate Road, Chapeltown. Emmanuel was a gardener and domestic servant, and Henry started off as a gardener. He moved in with his in-laws at 20 Burley Lane, Horsforth after marrying his wife Mabel Frances Winn in Headingley on 19th October 1910. His father-in-law was also a gardener. When Henry attested with the Army on 22nd August 1914, he was working for Whitaker Bros. as an Electronic Crane Driver. He was 5 ft 7 inches tall, and worked at the 2nd Northern General Hospital, which was better known as Beckett’s Park Hospital (pictured below). This was built in 1913, and was a teacher training college until the outbreak of war, when it was turned into a military hospital. The first intake of wounded soldiers arrived in September 1914 following the Battle of the Marne, and at its busiest, the hospital had 3,200 beds, and by the time the war finished more than 57,000 patients had been admitted with just 226 reported deaths. There was a registration form for wounded soldiers who arrived at the hospital in 1915. As well as being asked to fill in their names, regiments and injuries they suffered, a final question asked “What would you do with Kaiser Bill?” Among the colourful answers were “burn him”, “dissect him” and “hand him to the Suffragettes.” It is not certain in what capacity Henry served at the hospital. He may have been the gardener. However, he was discharged on 7th June 1916 as being medically unfit with rheumatism, which he did not declare when he enlisted. He died at the age of 38, and his widow re-married in 1926.
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