Directors of Royal Hospital Greenwich
1821 to 1834 Sir Richard Godwin Keats
1834 to 1838 Sir Thomas Hardy
1839 to 1841 Charles Elphinstone Fleming
1841 to 1846 Sir Robert Stopford
1847 to 1853 Sir Charles Adam
Famous visitors to the hospital
01/06/1834 Visit by William IV
11/10/1835 Visit by William IV
05/07/1838 Visit by Marshal Soult
28/06/1838 Visit by Queen Victoria
To mark the visit of the Queen, the Pensioners formed up two hundred men in five companies
18/06/1842 Visit by King of Prussia
09/06/1844 Visit by Czar Nicholas of Russia
08/07/1844 Visit by Ibrahim Pasha, Khedive of Egypt
November 1843 proposed dinner at Trafalgar Square for the Pensioners falls through
Reform at the Royal Hospital
Although the official sources indicate a very positive way of life (and undoubtedly it must have been better than life in a workhouse), some of the negative aspects of in-Pensioner life become apparent from the reforms introduced by Liddell, at the behest of Stopford in December 1846.
Food: The food was monotonous, and meat was always boiled. None of the appointed cooks had ever worked in a kitchen before. The meat was rapidly cooked, resulting in 'a hard mass, ill adapted to the toothless mouths and feeble digestions of the great body of our veterans'. Many older Pensioners would sell their food to others, in order to buy softer food with the proceeds, notwithstanding the regulations forbidding such a practice.
Drink: It was customary to provide each man with half a gallon of strong ale at festivals, 'sufficient to intoxicate any man'. The nurses of the infirmary would find themselves the focus of the unrequested attentions of inebriated Pensioners. Liddell's proposal was to halve the beer ration, and for plum pudding to take the place of half the allowance of ale.
Guard duty: Each man was to perform guard duty at the gates. It was felt the older men should be excused from this duty, given they served no useful purpose in this task.
Management of the wards: The chief qualification of the men appointed as boatswains was the ability to read and write. They had a reputation for a lack of personal cleanliness and for being bribed. The daily duty of inspections fell upon the captains, who delegated it to the lieutenants, who subsequently delegated to the sixty boatswains. Liddell proposed recruiting men of good character who were in the Navy, aged 45 to 60, to be boatswains.
Given there was still more demand for places in the Hospital than existed, this proposal was not approved. In addition to the controversial approach of accepting 60 younger men, free of ailment, these new boatswains would incur a salary, whereas the existing boatswains were paid "tobacco-money" for their supervisory duties.
Source: pp162-163
Greenwich Hospital a Royal Foundation 1692-1983 Philip Newell