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Original Text (Annotation: EAW001394 / 1375065)
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Orchard Hospital. Built 1901/02 as a temporary 800 bed smallpox hospital to help cope with the outbreak then taking place. After 1910, the hospital was kept in readiness for major epidemics as a fever hospital and was used for scarlet fever. During the First World War it was turned over for the treatment of Australian casualties. During the 1920s and 1930s it was used for the occasional treatment of scarlet fever and diphtheria. In WW2, the hospital was used for military training rather than medical treatment.
The destruction and damage to wards visible was possibly caused by a V1 flying bomb in 1944. Fortunately the hospital was unoccupied at the time. See http://dartfordhospitalhistories.org.uk/orchard/orchard-introduction-2/ '
