Old soldiers' home Old soldiers' home An old soldiers' home is a military veteran's retirement home, nursing home, or hospital, or sometimes even an institution for the care of the widows and orphans of a nation's soldiers, sailors, and marines, etc. In the United Kingdom the Royal Hospital Chelsea was established by King Charles II in 1682 as a retreat for veterans. The provision of a hostel rather than the payment of pensions was inspired by Les Invalides in Paris. The Royal Hospital Chelsea, often called simply Chelsea Hospital, is a retirement home and nursing home for some 300 veterans of the British
Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust million patients. The Free Hospital was founded in 1828 to provide free hospital care to the poor. The title 'Royal' was granted by Queen Victoria in 1837 in recognition of the hospital's treatment of cholera victims. For a long period the Royal Free Hospital was the only hospital in London to offer clinical instruction to women and was closely associated with the London School of Medicine for Women, later renamed Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine. Royal Free Hospital moved to its present site in the mid-1970s, bringing together the old Royal Free Hospital on Gray's Inn Road with the