Haslar
Haslar is on the south coast of England, at the southern tip of Alverstoke, on the Gosport peninsula, Hampshire. It takes its name from Anglo-Saxon hæsel-ōra = "hazel - landing place". It may have been named after a bank of hazel strewn on marshy grounds around Haslar Creek to make it passable and habitable in old times, or merely because hazel grew there.
The location consists principally of the Royal Hospital Haslar site (previously the Royal Naval Hospital Haslar) and also Haslar Immigration Removal Centre (formerly Haslar Prison). The site for Haslar hospital was bought in 1745; before that the land was Haslar Farm (though spelt Hasler Farm at the time) within the liberty of Alverstoke. The site was an slightly unusual location for a hospital because it was surrounded by the Gosport Creek, with no readily available access: such an area was chosen to prevent press-ganged sailors from absconding.
It was primarily to serve the hospital that the Haslar Royal Naval Cemetery was laid out. It contains Commonwealth war graves of 763 naval personnel of World War I (two whom are unidentified), and 611 of World War II (36 of them unidentified), besides ten foreign sailors, and nine non-World War service burials. There is a mass grave of 42 officers and men of the submarine HMS L55, recovered from the Baltic Sea and repatriated in 1927, their names on a screen wall memorial.[1] Singer Chick Henderson, killed in a German flying bomb attack in Southsea, Hampshire in 1944, is buried here under rank and real name of Sub-Lieutenant Henderson Rowntree.[2]
Also here is Haslar Marina, which, along with Weymouth, East Cowes and Portland, is part of the Dean and Reddyhoff marina group. A large green lightship “Mary Mouse II” is permanently moored on the outside of the marina, by the harbour entrance.
References
External links
- BBC article on the history of the hospital
- QARANC history page
- Military 'March Out', and brief history
- Images of the Royal Hospital Haslar
- Haslar Marina Official Website
- www.royalhaslar.com
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