The hospital was founded in 1915, primarily by Mary Eleanor Gwynne-Holford as a military hospital to provide care for wounded soldiers. It was initially based at Roehampton House specialising in the care of amputees and soon became a world-renowned limb fitting and amputee rehabilitation centre. A fully equipped hospital was built on site in the early 1920s, a plastic and oral surgery unit developed by Sir Harold Gillies moved onto the site in 1925 and a Tropical Diseases unit was established for former prisoners of war in 1945.