The ghost story of the Surrey First World War hospital with recent rumors of sightings
The Epsom region is one of the many parts of Surrey with a history of ghost stories.
One person who knows all about them is David Brooks, museum assistant at the Bourne Hall Museum in Ewell, who this Halloween is leading a series of walks in the area examining some of the borough’s supernatural stories.
One of the most famous is linked to a WWI hospital in the Epsom Downs area. In a move reminiscent of scenes from the start of the pandemic, World War I was a time when all kinds of buildings were being constructed or refitted to cope with the excessive demand for hospital admissions.
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After the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, a building that was originally designed as a four-story annex dining room to accommodate additional staff for the Derby event of 1914 took on a whole new function, as a place for wounded soldiers.
The 50-bed Epsom Grandstand War Hospital, as it was called at the time, began to be used as a hospital in September 1914, a time when the Derby was not used for horse racing – M Brooks explains that at the time, vehicles had no need to transport horses when they were in such great demand for war.
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The building will be used as a tribune after the First World War, without even being transformed into a hospital during the Second World War.
A heartbroken nurse is the basis of the story of a ghost associated with the building, a ghost called “Amy”.
Mr Brooks explains: “The story goes that one of the girls fell in love with one of the soldiers, whom she thought was not married, but he was. So she threw herself into this. [200ft deep] well and drowned. “
Sightings of the supernatural believed to be her ghost are by no means new – Mr Brooks explains that the story dates back to the 1920s, just after the end of World War I, and that Amy’s reported sightings have been pretty consistent over the years.
(Image: Surrey Live – Grahame Larter)
Mr Brooks says, “They started out pretty early. She walks around first, and then she turns into a sort of Florence Nightingale figure, walking around with a lamp.”
Although Amy is not considered to be to be the ghost of Florence Nightingale, Mr Brooks says there is a tendency for rumors of sightings of famous people in history to be taken into ghost folklore, much like an Anne-like figure Boleyn is believed to haunt the Nonsuch Park area, despite Anne Boleyn having died before Nonsuch was built.
“If people see that she’s a woman, it’s a lot more fun turning her into Anne Boleyn than just saying she’s a woman you don’t know. People do that with ghosts, they don’t. never let the truth get in the way of a good story! “
Mr Brooks even claims that there are reports from the staff at Amy’s rostrum that only date back to a few months ago.
Like so many ghost stories around Surrey, some will believe or not believe its validity. But recent “observations” suggest that stories like this won’t go away once this year’s Halloween is over.
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