Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2013 | Page 29

FEATURE

Alf Allen: life

not so ‘Royal’

Insight into Ventnor's former chest hospital
The Royal National Hospital stood in
Ventnor for nearly 100 years, writes
Peter White.
Initially opened in 1869 as the
National Cottage Hospital for
Consumption and Diseases of the
Chest, it finally closed its doors on
April 15 1964 after treating what
was believed to be around 100,000
patients with chest problems including
pulmonary tuberculosis, commonly
known as TB.
With the development of new drugs
to help conquer what was generally
accepted as a killer disease, the Royal
National Hospital became surplus to
requirement, and during its demolition
in the 1960s there were many reports
of ghostly sightings.
But before its demise, the hospital
provided hope for TB sufferers who
came to an area of the Island renowned
for its micro-climate.
Alf Allen (right) was one of the
thousands of patients who suffered
from TB, and who came to the Island
for bed rest – at the time the only real
treatment available. Alf was born in
1921, and his illness was confirmed in
1949, ending his career as a butcher
in North Cheam, London. He arrived
on the Island for treatment on May
26, 1949, and stayed for eight months
before being allowed to go home.
Alf died in 2001, but not before
writing an intriguing account of his
convalescence at the Royal National
Hospital, extracts of which his family
have