Army

Wrest Park: The UK’s First WW1 Convalescent Home

During the First World War, long before places like Tedworth House or Phoenix House existed, soldiers recovering from their injuries had little choice of where to go.

However, up and down the country Britain's stately homes came to their rescue, offering somewhere where troops could find rest in beautiful surroundings, far from the horrors of the trenches.

Wrest Park in Bedforshire was the first and a new exhibition is showing its history.

The country house’s owner Baron Lucas was in London during the war so the hospital was overseen by his sister Nan Herbert.

The exhibition is based on the family scrapbooks that Nan compiled in the 1930s.

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Picture: Flickr / Gary Bembridge / 2011