The late Sandra Bemrose, a local historian in Northampton, spent 4 years compiling a history of St Crispins Hospital, formerly Berrywood Asylum and Northampton War Hospital, and obtained recollections from many people involved with the site.
IN 2014 she was approached by Northampton man Dennis Victor Lloyd who explained that his late aunt: Dora Derham had spent all her working life there, and that included nursing sick and wounded soldiers from across the Empire during the First World War. He had in his possession an autograph book of his aunt in which many soldiers had written and drawn in; was she interested?!
Sandra immediately recognised the book as a fascinating piece of social history and was allowed to scan it. She had always wanted to trace families of the soldiers in the book, but publicity in local and national media at home and abroad met with little success.
In May 2017, Dave Thacker, an amateur researcher, also in Northampton, was given access to the scans started using genealogy and various military records websites and began to contact families who have been able to supply additional images and information about their relatives.
It was then discovered that Dennis Lloyd had died in 2016 and it is feared that "Dolly's Book" was lost in a subsequent house clearance.
Fortunately Sandra's scans remain to throw some light on the thoughts of soldiers in Northampton War Hospital during World War 1, and now a number of families are aware of fragments of the past lives of their relatives, which 100 years on, they previously knew little or nothing of.
A note about Sandra Bemrose.
Sandra passed away on 18/3/2025.
Born Sandra Joy Baker, then Bemrose, then Rees by marriages, Sandra came Northampton from the Grimsby area and worked for the NHS at Princess Marina & Manfield Hospital, as a medical secretary.
She took an interest in St Crispins Hospital, when she worked at Princess Marina, and that interest grew into research resulting in her book packed with photos and memories of the Hospital: "St Crispin Hospital 1876 - 1995. Memories from Staff, Past and Present."
In the course of that research she was loaned an autograph book of one of the nurses serving when it became Northampton War Hospital in the Great War. In fact Nurse Dora "Dolly" Derham spent her whole working life there and retired as a Sister. Sandra produced a booklet reproducing the pages of Dolly's Autograph Book.
Sandra was a lovely lady who contributed a lot to local history and will be missed.