Photograph Album showing tuberculosis (TB) patients in Montana, Switzerland and Frimley (Surrey) sanitoria

Photograph Album showing TB patients in sanitoriums: Montana Hall, Switzerland and Frimley in Surrey, UK.

Catalogue description written by the donor of this album, Victoria Midwinter:

"The album was made by Natalie D'Albon and given to my parents Stanley and Audrey Midwinter and inherited by me on the death of my father.

Stanley and Natalie met in Montana Hall Sanatorium for British tuberculosis patients in Switzerland. Stanley discovered he had TB when having successfully applied for a job with Cambridge City Council after WWII, he was required to have a medical and chest x-ray. As a result the job offer was withdrawn. The British Army accepted that it was likely he contracted the disease during his service with the Royal Engineers during the War and paid for him to go to Montana.

Natalie had been studying medicine, paid for by two elderly family friends. When she was diagnosed with TB she could no longer pursue her medical training and her patrons agreed instead to fund her stay in Montana.

The patients spent hours in bed in fresh air and sunshine on the verandas and were well fed. Some of the young patients were wealthy and there were trips out in motor cars. As the photos show they had fancy dress parties and craft activities. I believe both Stanley and Natalie had lung collapse treatments. Not all the patients survived but luckily Streptomycin began to be used and both Natalie and Stanley recovered.

When Natalie returned to England she was sent to recuperate in Frimley Sanatorium in Surrey which was part of Brompton Hospital. There she met my mother, Audrey Pepper who had been treated for TB in the Brompton Hospital in London. She had a long scar down her back and I believe had been treated with the insertion of 'ping pong balls' in the lung cavity (plombage). They both spent several months in Frimley building up their strength.

On his return to England Stanley came to visit Natalie at Frimley and was introduced to Audrey. Subsequently Audrey and Natalie shared a flat together in the Cromwell Road in Kensington and opened a shop in Kensington Church Street which they named The Turret after a building in Frimley Sanatorium."

Audrey and Stanley married in 1953. They remained very close friends with Natalie all their lives. She went on to found a children's home called Hamelin House. Stanley was an architect and Town Planner and ended his career as the Chief Inspector of Planning for England and Wales receiving the Order of the Companion of the Bath and Audrey was the Manager of the Citizen's Advice Bureau in Bath.

Natalie D'Albon 23 Sept 1925 -15 Dec 1999

Stanley Walter Midwinter C.B. 8 Dec 1922 - 17 Dec 2015

Audrey Midwinter (née Pepper) 5 Oct 1926 - 25 Jan 1988"

1940s-1950s

1 volume

Donated to Wellcome in March 2019 by Victoria Midwinter, daughter of Stanley Midwinter who owned the volume and was a patient at Montana Hall Sanitorium in Switzerland.

This item is closed and cannot be accessed. Please see our Access Policy for more details. Closed until 1 January 2038.