Vice-Chair Jim Skidmore welcomed 63 members and 71 visitors to the meeting. He then reminded everyone of the safety and refreshment arrangements.

He then welcomed Dr David Cox who followed the life of Kingswinford born Fanny Hinton, taking the audience ‘From Whizzbang Lane to Wordsley Hospital’ - Whizzbang Lane being the soldiers’ name for the trenches.

Fanny was David’s maternal grandmother who kept a note book, with entries by casualties who found themselves in Wordsley Hospital.

He began by reminding the audience of the reasons for the outbreak of WW1 and how young men had flocked to the cause. He showed pictures of Wolverhampton and Dudley – crowded with volunteers waiting to sign on. In the Midlands and Black Country many became essential war workers, producing armaments etc for the fight, and they were provided with a lapel badge so that they were not mistaken for cowards and given a white feather. Meanwhile, Fanny Hinton became a postwoman in Kingswinford, so many of the men having joined up.

At this point David read an extract from memoirs of Mary Borden who had set up a hospital in France – a harrowing description of the conditions.

From the hospital they were taken by ship, hospital train and ambulance to hospitals around this country.

In this area they were taken to the Great Hall of Birmingham University which became a huge hospital ward. They also came to Wordsley – then known as Sandfield, and previous to that the Stourbridge Union Workhouse.

It was to Wordsley Fanny Hinton offered help – not in a nursing capacity, but simply as a visitor to those far from home – between the years 1915-1918. Most of the patients were British, Canadian and Australian and it was some of these patients who contributed to her notebook – sometimes written words, sometimes illustrations.

From the information in the book, David managed to trace some of these patients – with particular success in Australia.

Mementos from this time were shown to the audience, but pages from the notebook were shown on screen as the notebook itself is now in a very delicate state.

Following this interesting talk, Jim gave the vote of thanks, the audience echoing his words in the usual way.

The March meeting will take place on March 12 at 7.30pm in the Community Centre, Wordsley Green, when Chris Smith will give an illustrated talk entitled ‘The Order of the Court’, detailing the history of the Magistrates Courts in Dudley. New members welcome and visitors at a cost of £2 including light refreshments”.