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 Waterloo Hospital for Children and Women changed to the Royal Universal Dispensary for Children in 1821 and, after a foundation stone was laid by the Duke of York for new premises near Waterloo Bridge in 1823, it moved into the new premises in 1824. It became the Royal Universal Infirmary for Children in 1824, the Royal Infirmary for Children in 1843 and the Royal Infirmary for Children and Women in 1852. In an 1856 review of the hospital system in London, the "British Journal of Homeopathy" noted the serious shortage of hospital beds for children in London: The hospital underwent a further name change to the