Lancastria.net Yea Blackburn!

After some research, finally found details of the hospital I was born in in 1963, BMH (British military hospital) Iserlohn, Germany.

Here’s a picture, some info, and a link to an excellent site giving the fully history of the British army on the rhine hosprital, (BAOR).

BMH Iserlohn was one of several BAOR (British Army Of The Rhine) army hospitals in Germany. It closed in March 1994. BMH Iserlohn was housed in Argonne Barracks which was a German Calvary and Armoured Regiment building from the 1930s. In the post World War Two years Argonne Barracks became No 6 British General Hospital in 1946.

History of BMH Iserlohn.

Also links to some of the barracks we were stationed at during our time in the army as a family.

Tofrek Barracks Hildesheim, Germany : http://baor-locations.com/tofrekbks.aspx

BAOR locations : http://baor-locations.com/Home.aspx

BAOR locations in detail : http://baor-locations.com/sitemap.aspx

Some of the barracks we lived at:

Hildesheim

Hildesheim  is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located in the district of Hildesheim, about 30 km southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste river, which is a small tributary of the Leine river.

The town became the seat of the Bishopric of Hildesheim in 815 and may have been founded when the bishop moved from Elze to the Innerste ford, where it was an important market on the Hellweg trade route. For four centuries the clergy ruled Hildesheim, before a town hall was built and the citizens gained some influence. In 1367 Hildesheim became a member of the Hanseatic League. A war between the citizens and their bishop was paid dearly when in 1519 to 1523 they engaged in a feud, and soon the town became protestant, and only the cathedral and a few more buildings remained in imperial (catholic) hands. In 1813, it became part of the Kingdom of Hanover after the Napoleonic Wars, which was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia after the Austro-Prussian War in 1866 as a province.

Hildesheim town hall :

The city was heavily damaged by air raids in 1945, especially on March 22. 28.5% of the houses were completely destroyed and 44.7% damaged. 26.8% of the houses remained undamaged. The centre, which had retained its medieval character until then, was levelled. After the war, it was rebuilt in a completely different style and concrete structures took the place of the destroyed buildings. Fortunately, most of the major churches, two of them now UNESCO World Heritage Site, had been rebuilt soon after the war. During the war, the valuable world heritage had been hidden in the basement of the city wall. In the 1978, the University of Hildesheim was founded. In the 1980s a reconstruction of the historic centre began. Some of the unattractive concrete buildings around the marketplace were torn down and replaced by replicas of the original buildings. In the fall of 2007, a decision has been made to reconstruct the “Umgestülpter Zuckerhut” (“Upended Sugarloaf”), an iconic half-timbered house famous for its unusual shape. It is scheduled to be completed in 2009.

Hildesheim coat of arms:

Iserlohn is a city in the Märkischer Kreis district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the largest city by population and area within the district and the Sauerland region. Also the police headquarters of the district are in Iserlohn.

The Pancratius church (also called Bauernkirche) was founded in around 985, but the first written document mentioning lon dates only from 1150. In 1237 the Count of the Mark gave Iserlohn municipal rights. In 1975 the city, which had been an urban district before, incorporated the surrounding ex-municipalities of Letmathe, Hennen, Sümmern and Kesbern, and became part of the district “Märkischer Kreis”. As a larger mid-sized city, Iserlohn, however, still has a special status as compared to most other municipalities in the district. This means that the city takes on tasks more usually performed by the district (e.g. social and youth affairs) so that in some ways it is comparable to an urban district.

As an important industrial city in the Ruhr region, during the post-WWII era starting in 1953 Canadian and British military under NATO were garrisoned here and in surrounding municipalities (Hemer, where a large Canadian Army housing area was located to house Canadian Army personnel and their families, and Deilinghofen where two of the Canadian Army barracks were located (Fort Prince of Wales and Fort McLeod). There were also garrisons stationed at Werl and Soest/Bad Sassendorf).

Within Iserlohn itself the Canadian Army had barracks in former Panzer barracks and renamed the Barracks Fort Beausejour and Fort Qu’Appelle.

After 1970, following the transfer of Canadian troops to the Black Forest Region, these barracks in Iserlohn and Deilinghofen, as well as the barracks located in Werl and Soest, were either transferred to British, back to the Bundeswehr, or converted to civilian use. The Canadian housing in Hemer (Private Married Quarters or “PMQs”) was converted to civilian housing.

Iserlohn coat of arms :

Dortmund

Dortmund is a city in Germany, located in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Ruhr area. Its population of 587,830 (20 June 2005) makes it the largest city in the region, 7th-largest in Germany, and 34th-largest in the European Union. The Ruhr river flows south of the city, and the small river Emscher flows through the municipal area. The Dortmund-Ems Canal also terminates in the Dortmund Port, which is the largest European canal port, and links Dortmund to the North Sea. Dortmund is known as Westphalia’s “green metropolis”. Nearly half the municipal territory consists of waterways, woodland, agriculture and green spaces with spacious parks such as Westfalenpark and the Rombergpark. This contrasts with nearly a hundred years of extensive coal mining and steel milling within the city limits.

The history of Dortmund goes back as far as 880 to 885, when the city was first mentioned in official documents as Throtmanni. It was a small village at that time. In 1152 Emperor Frederick Barbarossa came to the region and rebuilt the town, which had been destroyed in a fire shortly before. For two years Dortmund was the residence of Barbarossa — a short time, but afterwards it grew to become one of the most powerful towns of the empire. In the 13th century Dortmund joined the Hanseatic League. In 1220, it attained the status of an Imperial Free City, i.e. it was directly subordinated to the emperor. After 1320, the wealthy trading city started to appear in writing as “Dorpmunde”.

Dortmund was the radioed code word to initiate Operation Barbarossa, the attempted Nazi conquest of the Soviet Union in 1941.

Today the city is a centre for hi-tech industry. It is also one of the greenest cities in Westphalia, with extensive parks and gardens laid out in the reconstruction period after the World War II. Additionally, the Dortmund chess tournament, one of the strongest in the world, is held there annually.

Dortmund coat of arms :

Paderborn

Paderborn was founded as a bishopric by Charlemagne in 795. In 799 Pope Leo III fled his enemies in Rome and reached Paderborn, where he met Charlemagne. Charlemagne reinstated Leo in Rome in 800 and was crowned as Holy Roman Emperor by Leo in return.

The bishop of Paderborn became a Prince of the Empire in 1100. The city was taken by Prussia in 1802, then by the French vassal state Kingdom of Westphalia from 1807 to 1813 and then returned to Prussia.

The tree Irminsul was supposedly located near Paderborn.

Paderborn was the seat of the Bishopric of Paderborn; today it is seat of a Roman Catholic archbishop.

St. Liborius is commemorated in Paderborn every year in July with the Liborifest. He is the patron of Paderborn, to which his relics were transferred in 836.

Paderborn is situated at the spring of the Pader river, approx. 30 kilometers east of Lippstadt and approx. 50 kilometers south of Bielefeld. The hills of the Eggegebirge are located east of the city.

Paderborn coat of arms :