Le Tréport

A small fishing port and light industrial town situated in the Pays de Caux, some 21 miles (34 km) northeast of Dieppe at the junction of the D940, the D78 and the D1015 roads. The mouth of the Bresle river meets the English Channel here, in between the high (110 metres) chalk cliffs and the pebbly beach. Le Tréport is also a sea-side resort and home to a casino.

Le Tréport – Wikipedia

8th Canadian Field Ambulance photograph album

During the First World War, Le Treport was an important hospital centre. No.3 General Hospital was established there in November 1914, No.16 General Hospital in February 1915, No.2 Canadian General Hospital in March 1915, No.3 Convalescent Depot in June 1915 and Lady Murray’s B.R.C.S. Hospital in July 1916. These hospitals contained nearly 10,000 beds. No.47 General Hospital arrived in March 1917 and later that year, a divisional rest camp and a tank training depot were established in the neighbourhood. By March 1919, the hospitals had been closed and Le Treport became the headquarters of the 68th Division, which re-formed there before going to the Rhine. The divisional supply depot was closed in June 1919. There are now 445 Commonwealth burials of the First World War in the cemetery. Three of the four Second World War burials are unidentified. The cemetery, one of the first three Commission cemeteries to be built after the First World war, was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Soldiers of many nationalities outside the Trianon Hotel. GWF

Mapping Le Tréport

Plan of the Hospital Centre on the cliff at Le Treport – Medical Services General History Vol. II by Major-General Sir W.G. MacPherson K.C.M.G., C.B., LL.D.

Elsie Tranter’s diary

15.7.1917  We left [Abbeville] at 2.20 p.m. for the second stage of our journey to Le Treport. The country was at its best, like a lovely park. There were fields of poppies and cornflowers and a great variety of wildflowers. Toward Le Treport the country is very hilly-these cultivated slopes are very beautiful – acre upon acre of crops, varying shades of green with the flowers adding their splashes of colour. From Eu to Treport, we went beside a wood all the way. Glorious trees with ivy twined trunks.

We had to spend the night at Le Treport – so we went to the Hotel des Bains. Here we found everything very clean and comfortable. We were all quite charmed with Treport, a seaside town built at the foot of some high, white cliffs. Although it was Sunday, the shops were all open and everything was very gay. We went for a tram ride and saw all we could while the daylight lasted…

19.7.1918  We only had a short time at Abbeville, then on to Le Treport. Having a few hours to spare, I went up to the Canadian Hospital – on the cliffs – and saw there several of the girls we were with at Doullens. There is a funicular railway from the beach to the tops of the cliffs. No. 3 British Hospital occupies a tremendous building – handsomely appointed. It was built as a summer hotel by some Germans and has been commandeered by the government for its present use…

13.5.1919  We have had a beautiful trip today. Nineteen of us went per charabanc to Le Treport. The woods were such a picture with the dear copper beeches and the blooms on the chestnut trees and in the undergrowth, millions of bluebells. We spent quite a long time on the beach. Some young girls were hard at work there. They carried big square wicker baskets and a light wooden frame. The baskets they filled with shingle then set them on the stands, getting them from there onto their shoulders. They carried such heavy loads. What the shingle was to be used for we did not find out. On the cliffs there was a tank ‘park‘— hundreds of tanks and armoured cars there from the battlefields.

There are hundreds of flowers about – the lilacs and tulips are at their best just now…

Elsie Tranter, In all those lines

Images & resources

• General Hospital No. 3 – Hotel Trianon, Le Tréport – from the pages on Edith Elizabeth APPLETON O.B.E. R.R.C.
• No. 2 Canadian General Hospital – thread on Great War Forum
• Trianon photos – VAD Helena R Galloway’s photo album
• Soldiers in hospital blues outside the Trianon hospital – Great War Forum
• Le Tréport en Cartes Postales Anciennes
• Lady Murray’s No. 10 B.R.C. Hospital – Aunt Nellie’s WWI Album – also includes Trianon & 3 General Hospital
• Hôtel des Bains au Tréport – Elsie Tranter stayed overnight here

Nursing sisters of No. 2 Canadian General Hospital

Groupe d’infirmières militaires non identifiées à l’extérieur d’une tente, Hôpital général canadien no 2, Le Tréport, France. 1916-1917. Le Tréport en Cartes Postales Anciennes

Le Tréport, 2011

Suburban homes & flats now occupy most of the Great War hospital centre, although some open fields remain. The funicular has been brought back into service. Many contemporary buildings appear to have been destroyed in WW2.

View photos on Flickr

Published Saturday July 9, 2011 · Last modified Saturday February 4, 2012
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