World War I Hospital Blankets

For the whole of World War I the Chateau of Chenonceau was a military hospital, set up, funded and run by the chocolate manufacturing Menier family. On the centenary of the start of the War they got a selection of hospital furniture and ephemera out of storage and recreated a small hospital ward.

On the beds are military blankets marked with the initials SSM in one corner and GF in the opposite corner. A quick internet search revealed that SSM stands for Service de Santé Militaire (Military Health Service). It seems that GF stands for Garde Frontier.

In the original hospital there were 120 beds, one of the first x-ray machines and a modern operating theatre. Most of the 2254 soldiers and airmen treated over the course of the War were very severely wounded.