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 Hospital for Neuro-disability its permanent home, Melrose Hall on West Hill, in Putney. Melrose Hall had originally been designed for John Anthony Rucker by the architect Jesse Gibson. It came with 24 acres (97,000 m2) of land on which, until the 1960s, the hospital ran a working farm, supplying fresh produce for patients’ meals. The Hall also had extensive gardens, parts of which had been landscaped by Capability Brown. In 1917, the hospital changed its name to the Royal Hospital and Home for Incurables, receiving its Royal Charter two years later. The hospital’s name changed a further two times – once in 1988,