Warbrook Convalescent Home

When inquiries were being made for a convalescent home, Mrs Humphreys-Owen made a generous offer to the NZEF of her large country house rent-free and undertook to maintain portion of the staff. This house, ‘Warbrook’, was charmingly situated in beautiful grounds at Eversley, near Wokingham, and some 5 miles from Pinewood Hospital. Arrangements were made for the house to be fitted up for fifty patients by the War Organisation of the British Red Cross and Order of St. John of Jerusalem. Captain Kirker¹ and Sister Hennessy² of 1 General Hospital were appointed temporarily to this convalescent home on 23 August to supervise medical and nursing arrangements respectively. ‘Warbrook’ had 377 New Zealand patients in its first year and continued, under Major Robertson,³ to be a convalescent home for New Zealanders until June 1943. The convalescent home was then transferred a few miles away to Church Crookham, where Captain Crowder, MP, made his house available. In January 1944 the convalescent home was closed as there was little need for it after the departure of the New Zealand Forestry Group.