Page 21 - PBCMarch2016

Pickwick Bicycle Club Magazine Volume 13 No.1 March 2016
21

The Pickwickians visit the Royal Hospital Chelsea

As you are all I’m sure, well aware of our association with “Boys of the Old Brigade, it was a
great opportunity to reciprocate the relationship with a visit to their ‘home’. Our Past
President explains;
On Wednesday 18 th November 2015 a fourteen
strong group of fellow Pickwickians together with
their wives and or partners gathered together at
the Royal Hospital Chelsea. On our arrival your
President, being somewhat stressed in his late
arrival due to the failure of overhead cables on his
railway line, and the party were met by Chelsea
Pensioner Albert Willis and were then treated to a
remarkable tour of the hospital illuminated by
numerous tales surrounding its history. The Grand Hall and Church were particularly
amazing with the major conflicts in which the British
Army had been engaged in over the years being
depicted on plaques hanging on the walls of the
Great Hall. Also of note were the examples of the
rooms in which the pensioners were billeted in those
early days to the more modern on suite
accommodation they enjoy to today. Following the
tour the party adjourned to the Hollywood Arms PH
Chelsea where we all had a most enjoyable lunch.
Quanko Samba - Past President

Since this was such an interesting visit your editor thought it might be of interest
to look more closely at the history of the Royal Hospital…………..

It was founded by King Charles 11 in 1682 as a safe haven for war veterans and was based
on Louis XIV’s Les Invalides in Paris on the principal of a hostel rather than a pension. It is
built on the 66-acre site of the former Theological Chelsea College founded during the
reign of James 1 .
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Our guide, Albert Willis was an encyclopaedia of information about the life and history of
the Hospital. There are currently 285 ‘in-pensioners’ including 11 ladies (since2009) and
there is no hierarchy according to rank. However the Hospital continues a military style
culture and the in-pensioners are formed into four companies each headed by a Captain
of Invalids who is responsible for their day-to-day welfare and management.