J. Anne Cloudsley-Thompson

	This page:general experience.
	Includes inventory and audio clip.

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In the carpark at Hatfield House. Anne Cloudsley with an A.T.A. friend (centre) and 'Minto' Newman (right).

At the outbreak of war, Anne's private physiotherapy practice came to an end, and the British Red Cross asked her to transfer to the Military Hospital at Hatfield House in the winter of 1939/40, as a civilian, to set up a Physiotherapy Department. Along with Anne, the department comprised 'Minto' Newman and Lorna Prior. Its establishment had the approval of Lady Salisbury, and her son, Lord Cecil, subsequently underwent physiotherapy treatment in it.

From 1942-44 Anne took up the post of Superintendent Physiotherapist to the Peripheral Nerve Injury Centre at Wingfield Orthopaedic Hospital in Oxford. Under Professor Seddon, the Centre carried out revolutionary treatment on peripheral nerves severed by gunshot wounds. In the right circumstances, the severed nerve sheath was sewn together and the neurons could grow back, hence allowing the muscles to recover, with the aid of electrical treatment and exercises.

In 1944 Anne married Capt John Thompson, a tank troop leader in 4 CLY (Sharpshooters). They had three sons. In 1960-71 they lived in Sudan where John Cloudsley-Thompson was Professor of Zoology at the University of Khartoum. Anne pioneered a Physiotherapy Department in Omdurman Hospital and on her return to the UK wrote the well-reviewed Women of Omdurman, life, love and the cult of virginity. She also went to Art School and subsequently has exhibited widely. Her husband is a world expert on deserts.

Lady Salisbury, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Nursing Yeomanry Nurses and patients in the gardens of Hatfield House.

Outside the Old Palace at Hatfield House. "Handle-bar Hanks" in 'pram' and Anne Cloudsley pushing the disabled chair.

A royal visit. Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother) talks to patients with Lady Salisbury in the background.

Extract from J. Anne Cloudsley-Thompson's recollections:

"Lady Salisbury was delighted that a physiotherapy department had been established in the hospital wing of Hatfield House with qualified staff. In fact, she had her son, Lord Cecil, brought up from the south of England to be treated in our department. I remember so well that I had rigged up a wax bath, a form of treatment from which his lordship was to benefit. It had become overheated and I asked the orderly to place it in the sink and run cold water around the base of the bath to bring it down to the desired temperature. He misunderstood and turned the tap on straight into the wax. I was horrified and told him so; when I returned to Robert, who was always full of humour, he said, 'I have never seen anyone's face look so angry as yours,' and laughed heartily. I wonder if he remembers this incident; if he reflects sometimes sitting in Hatfield House which has been so beautifully restored from the ravages from which it had suffered from being turned into wards and departments with ambulances running back and forth."

	This page: general experience.
	Includes inventory and audio clip.