Old soldiers' home in the ranks before receiving a commission. The site for the Royal Hospital was an area of Chelsea which held an incomplete building "Chelsey College", a theological college James I founded in 1609. The Royal Hospital opened its doors to the Chelsea Pensioners in 1692 for "the relief and succour" of veterans. Some of the first soldiers admitted included those injured at the Battle of Sedgemoor. The hospital maintains a 'military-based culture which puts a premium on comradeship'. The in-pensioners are formed into three companies, each headed by a Captain of Invalids (an ex-Army officer responsible for the 'day to
Royal London Hospital Cavell. There is the model of a church in the hospital that was built by Joseph Merrick who spent the last few years of his life at the hospital. The Royal London's archives contain documents dating back to 1740, including complete patient records since 1883. The collections are searchable on the Barts Health NHS Trust online catalogue, which contains information on over 50,000 entries and covering an 800-year span. Barts and the London NHS Trust, now absorbed into Barts Health NHS Trust, consists of four tertiary hospitals, St. Bartholomew's, the Royal London, Whipps Cross and Newham General, together producing some