League of Friends
Volunteers

The League is a dedicated group of local people, who aim to improve the facilities for patients and staff of Heatherwood hospital.

Dennis Brown
Heatherwood Memory Lane

We were recently contacted by Hayley Arthur She Writes:-

My granddad was a patient at Heatherwood and was from Mitcham in Surrey he was born on 5/03/1928 so may have been there in the 1930s we think he was about 8 when he arrived and 15 maybe older when he left.

We don't know much about his time at Heatherwood as he hid this from us and we only found out from the hospital where he died when they told us he had TB as a child. We had a disagreement with the hospital at the time thinking they had mixed up his medical notes. The doctors looked over at my Nan who was sitting there rather quietly and said “are you going to tell your son Mrs Brown?” she finally told us, we was rather shocked that they had never told us, how strange?.

My Nan later showed us a little metal medical box with some embroidered cards, letters from family and with the picture's I sent.

My Nan said granddad had fond memories of people from Heatherwood and had many friends.

It does look like he visited Heatherwood as an adult to see friends and attend events maybe even helped out.

He went on to the Navy after Heatherwood and looks like he was thrown out maybe on medical grounds he probably didn't tell them either!!.. he then trained as a time served master carpenter and worked within a hospital as a carpenter later in life where he retired and remained in Mitcham with his wife, he had one son and two granddaughters. If you have any more information about my grandfather I would be so grateful for you to pass it on to me .

Hayley

These are some pictures of my grandfather Dennis F Brown was a patient here in 1920's 1930's 1940's ? with TB.

We only found this out after he died in 2004, We would love to hear from anyone who remembers him. Attached are photo's of his time at Heatherwood.

WebMaster

A glance at some of the pictures shows that the windows are taped up, this would indicate they were taken during the war years.

If you have any details with regard to these pictures or you know of Dennis Brown, Hayley would dearly love to know.

If you have any pictures and recollections of your stay at Heatherwood and would like to donate them to the league archive, we would love to hear from you.

Below some pictures which exist of happier times:-

Dennis Brown Photo Scrapbook

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