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
British Hospital for Mothers and Babies British Hospital for Mothers and Babies The British Hospital for Mothers and Babies (1905–1984) was a maternity hospital in south London. The Home for Mothers and Babies and Training School for District Midwives opened in May 1905, with the stated objectives of professionalising midwifery. The people behind it were Charles Escreet, an Anglican priest; Alice Gregory, midwife; Leila Parnell and Maud Cashmere. Its first location was in Wood Street, Woolwich, London. The facility opened with six beds but soon expanded to twelve, and in 1915 amalgamated with the British Lying-In Hospital, Holborn, central London. ("Lying-in" is a term for childbirth,