Historical Context
The Chapel is the last of 80 Nissen huts built during the Second World War by the USAAF and opened in 1941 as a military hospital. Initially the 77th Station hospital, renamed 231st USAAF station hospital in 1944 served 15 Heavy Bomber bases, a fighter group, Engineers and Quartermaster and Ordnance troops, approximately 60,000 service personnel, as part of the USAAF Eighth Airforce. The doctors at the hospital pioneered new treatments using antibiotics and it was one of the few US military hospitals to treat white and black soldiers in mixed wards. Following D-Day on 6th June 1944, the hospital expanded its capacity from 834 to 1254 beds to accommodate casualties returning from Normandy. Hospital trains brought casualties to Wymondham railway station and they were brought to the hospital by a fleet of military ambulances. The motto of the hospital was ‘The patient comes first.’
In 1950, Dr Lincoln Ralphs (latterly Sir Lincoln Ralphs), as Norfolk’s Chief Education Officer, persuaded the Education Committee under Alderman Sam Peel, to buy the site to support his vision of creating a state boarding school with the highest academic standards and widest possible opportunities for its students. Wymondham College opened in 1951 and we continue to stay true to our motto ‘Floreat Sapientia’ – ‘Let Wisdom Flourish’.
