Photographs (10) of American servicemen at 302nd Station Hospital, Lydiard Park

This group of informal photographs show American servicemen at the 302nd Station Hospital Camp at Lydiard Park in 1944. The camp had been set up in November 1943, and was rapidly converted into a field hospital in 1944 in anticipation of D Day casualties. The tents you see in the photographs were sleeping quarters.

Lydiard House had been rejected by the military on account of its dilapidated condition, but the park provided ample space for a field hospital.

The snapshots were taken by Swindon photographer Albert Beaney who took photographs at Lydiard Park throughout World War Two and in the 1950s when the military camp was converted into housing for local people.