Folkestone local history book:
Infected Folkestone by Sue Sheppard MA
GROUND BREAKING NEW BOOK
How a long forgotten hospital sheds new light on Folkestone’s Victorian Heyday.
THE PLOT : The true story of how a town’s fortunes became interwined with that of its ‘infectious disease’ hospital, known locally as the Sanatorium.
THE FEAR: just one more bout of infectious disease could ruin Folkestones’ reputation as a elite watering hole.They needed somewhere to isolate visitors suffering from infectious disease.
THE HEROINES: The Sanatorium was run by ‘career’ Fever Nurses;women, who put their entire lives on the line to save, initially the life of wealthy visitors and later the ordinary poor people living in the towns slums.
SOME PERIODS COVERED
Victoria & Edwardian Heyday of Folkestone ‘Fashionable Folkesotne’ and the fear of Infection
World War One: Belguim refugees and Canadian soldiers, hardships of 1917
Post 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic
Inter War: poverty and Health Changes
World War Two Housing refugee children, providing quarters for retreating Dunkirk soldiers
Post War: Building on World War Two medical progress esp Vaccination against Diphtheria, Creation of the NHS
Sanatorium building derelict and ultimately pulled down for St Mary’s School and Phillipa House
