Walker Hospital — a legacy of the Raj

Shriniwas Joshi

WHILE I was walking towards Akashvani, I was stopped by Lieutenant Colonel Daulat Singh Chauhan, who was in his car. He told me that we have met earlier. He was worried about the move of the present government of taking over the Walker Hospital as an expansion of the present Indira Gandhi Medical College, thus, providing an additional campus to it. 

“It is a legacy of the Military and should remain with it,” said Col Chauhan, who after retiring from the Army, became the honorary state legal adviser of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh; adviser and activist of Youth Against Corruption; chairman Pradhans' Association, Theog, and part of many other social and welfare activities. 

He wanted to know from me the history of Walker Hospital in Shimla. I contacted Raja Bhasin and Vishwanath 

Sood — known historians of Shimla  —  and consulted books on Shimla, including the magnum opus 'Simla-Past and Present' by Sir Edward Buck, to gather the information about the hospital.

Sir James L Walker remained the president of Simla Municipality in 1873-74/. Profession wise, he was a banker. He also owned 'Woodville', which is a hotel today owned by Jubbal royalty. 'Woodville' remained the residences of Commanders-in-Chief in India from 1865 to 1881. Walker purchased it after C-in-C General Sir Donald Martin Stewart, moved to Snowdon — Indira Gandhi Medical College at present. Walker was a man of means and also owned the 'Gorton Castle'.

Surgeon-General Sir Benjamin Franklin, in May 1899, visited the Ripon Hospital (now Deen Dayal Upadhyaya) and found that the Indian patients have been ousted from four wards so that the European patients could be accommodated. Ripon Hospital was primarily intended for natives, so Franklin requested the government to appoint a committee which could propose an alternative site for European Hospital. The Committee decided on 'Gorton Castle', which belonged to Walker. "Immediately on hearing of the condition of affairs in the Ripon Hospital and of the recommendations submitted to the Punjab Government, Walker replied to overtures made for the purchase or lease of 'Gorton Castle' with a telegram which ran: "I make a free gift to Simla of 'Gorton Castle' for a hospital for European and Eurasian patients." The noble gift was accepted with gratitude by the residents of Simla; however, objections were raised to have a hospital on The Mall itself. The managing committee of the hospital sold the property for Rs 1, 20, 000 to the government of India as a site for new civil offices and obtained another plot of ground, where the Walker Hospital now stands. The civil offices of the Imperial Government housed in Gorton Castle, then, were the Legislative, Lands, Education, Home, Health and Finance Departments. Today, it has the Accountant General's Office for Himachal Pradesh.

Walker Hospital was opened in 1902 with 20 beds for the Europeans and was self-supporting. Patients then had to pay Rs 5 per day for their care. Indigents were given free care. Its bed strength was raised to 40, some say to 100, after an expansion in the building. The hospital building was completely gutted on the night of December 22, 1998. The wooden structure of the building with thick coat of paint on the wood helped the fire to spread quickly and everything was reduced to ashes within a few minutes. The fire reportedly started at 1:55 am from an electric short-circuit, destroying the main building, but the heroic efforts of the hospital staff, who severed the inter-connecting passages and porches, saved the adjoining buildings including the Conference Room, Officers' Mess, Petrol Dump and Family Quarters. The Indian Army is raising new structure on the spot, where the burnt building stood and, in 2007, Lieutenant General S Mukherjee, AVSM, Director General Medical Services, visited the place on an inspection and assured people that the operation of re-structuring would be completed by 2011. It still is incomplete.

But why is the Army doing it? When the Western Command shifted to Shimla in 1954, Walker Hospital was named as the Command Hospital. It became the Military Hospital. The 1965 and 1971 wars demonstrated that Western Command was too vast for effective command. Duplicate headquarters were set up in 1971 at Bathinda, but this arrangement also did not prove happy. So, the Western Command was moved to Chandimandir in 1985. Walker Hospital, however, continued to be the Military Hospital and has been serving the troops located or deployed from Subathu to the last village in Kinnaur from its new location at Jutogh. Nobody can predict the future or which way the government bends but, in my view, it should remain with the military, so that the history is maintained.

Tailpiece

Reginald Dyer, the 'Butcher of Jalianwala', died in 1927. Lieutenant Governor of Punjab was Michael O 'Dwyer. He formed a committee called 'Dyer Memorial Committee'. This committee wished that a suitable memory of General Dyer would be to endow a ward at Walker Hospital in his memory. The proposal did not find favour with the authorities concerned