Eastern Adelaide Teacher resource.pdf - Army Museum of South ...

Memorial Burnside War Memorial Hospital
Address 120 Kensington Road, Toorak Gardens
Background Information
The establishment of a community hospital in Burnside was
first suggested in August 1943 at a meeting of the Burnside
Council's Post-War Reconstruction and Development
Committee. In November 1943, the council adopted the
committee's recommendation that a hospital costing up to
£100,000 be built and that it become the area's principal
memorial to the fallen service personnel of World War I
(Great War) and II.
In February 1944, local resident Mr Otto von Rieben offered
his property Attunga for this purpose. His generous offer
was accepted unanimously by the council and a community
fundraising campaign began. In April 1949, von Rieben's
home was converted into a convalescent hospital for 21
patients as the first part of the War Memorial Hospital
scheme. It was closed in September 1956, having cared for
around 1,400 patients.
Burnside War Memorial Hospital was opened on 26 October 1956. Today, Burnside
is a progressive, not-for-profit private hospital, which underwent a multi-million
dollar redevelopment in 2002.
Student Activities
On Site
(1) In what year was the Burnside War Memorial Hospital opened? (Refer to
the above notes.)
26 October 1956
(2) Examine the War Memorial hanging in the entrance of the hospital.
What is the significance of the flowers featured in this coloured print?
The hanging establishes the connection between the hospital and its construction as a
‘living’ war memorial following World War II. The flowers featured on the hanging
are poppies. In English literature of the nineteenth century, poppies symbolised sleep
or a state of oblivion; this symbolism was carried into the literature of the First World
War, when a new, more powerful symbolism was attached to the poppy - that of the
sacrifice of shed blood. Poppies are also significant because they survived the horrors
of battlefield conditions and continued to grow.
The sight of the poppies on the battlefield at Ypres in 1915 moved Lieutenant Colonel
John McCrae to write the poem In Flanders Fields. The words of this poem
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