During the Second World War the hall and its park were requisitioned by the government. Between 1939 and 1942 it housed prisoners of war and was used as a transit camp. From December 1942 until August 1943 it was taken over by the 2nd American Hospital, with 4265 casualties treated in the space of only seven months. It then became home to the 49th American Station Hospital, the second largest American hospital in England. Vacated at the end of the war, in 1946 it became a Polish Resettlement Camp. As well as housing Polish military personnel for convalescence, it also served as a maternity unit for Polish women from many areas, and 1073 babies were born there between 1946 and 1948.