Researchers at English Heritage are calling for the public’s help in tracing the identities of First World War nurses who worked at England’s first wartime country house hospital - Wrest Park in Bedfordshire, the charity announced today (6 September) ahead of the anniversary of the hospital opening.

No formal records exist of many of the hundred plus nurses who answered the call to serve at Wrest Park, in part as a result of the un-official way it was established and not helped by the unfortunate way it closed. Offered by its owner Auberon Herbert, the 9th Baron Lucas, directly to Winston Churchill as a place to treat wounded servicemen, by 7th September, the house had been transformed into a convalescent hospital and was ready to welcome its first patients. It then functioned as an auxiliary hospital for two years before being forced to close after a fire on 14th September 1916.

Now in a bid to fully identify these women for the first time, a rare collection of original photographs have been transformed into colour images and English Heritage is calling on the public to help spot their ancestors among the nurses photographed.

English Heritage Lead Properties Historian, Andrew Hann, said: "These women were the backbone of the hospital, and indeed the war effort, providing much needed treatment to the wounded, but also acting as a comfort to those soldiers traumatised by the horrors of war. They worked tirelessly and deserve to be known as individuals, just as the soldiers they cared for do.

"We have a team of volunteer historians at Wrest Park who have done lots of excellent research into the property’s history as a military hospital, but they’ve hit a brick wall in finding out more about the staff who worked there. Being able to identify these nurses and find out more about them would help us better understand life at Wrest during the war. We are interested in the human stories that are hinted at from the photographic evidence we have. Women played a vital role in supporting the war effort at home, not least as auxiliary nurses in country house hospitals such as Wrest Park, and we are keen to celebrate their efforts and achievements. It would be wonderful if the public could help us identify these forgotten women."

Marina Amaral, digital colourist, said: "To see images in colour is to see the real people behind the photographs. Humans live in colour, and this helps us see people from a more personal perspective – they are no longer removed from reality, but real people with lives and purpose. These women did remarkable jobs during the First World War and if my coloured images help people recognise their family members then that would be an amazing outcome."

From cleaning the wards and making beds, to changing wound dressings and tending to injured soldiers, the nurses at Wrest Park were hugely important to the daily running of the hospital, often working extremely long and emotionally taxing shifts. Overseen by the no-nonsense Nan Herbert, sister to Auberon (Bron) Herbert, there were up to 24 nurses at any one time in the house, caring for 150 – sometimes 200 – patients. These colourised images help breathe new life into the fascinating stories of the nurses at Wrest Park, showing what they and the hospital would have looked like in glorious colour during the First World War.

The photographs were colourised by digital colourist Marina Amaral, co-author of The Colour of Time: A New History of the World 1850-1960, with historian Dan Jones.

The coloured photographs will be on display at Wrest Park from this weekend (Saturday 8 September) until the end of the month.

If you recognise any of the nurses in the photographs, please email Wrest Park’s Volunteer History Team: wresthistoryvolunteers@english-heritage.org.uk

For more information, visit:

 http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/wrest-park/