Plaque: Bishops Knoll Hospital, Australian War Contingent Association

Cast bronze oval plaque with an Acanthus leaf scroll feature at the apex and a decorative cone feature at the base. Inside the raised edge is simulated rope knotted at the base. The text of the plaque is surmounted by the Australian Rising Sun Badge and reads: 'THIS TABLET IS ERECTED BY THE AUSTRALIAN WAR CONTINGENT ASSOCIATION IN GRATEFUL APPRECIATION OF THE PATRIOTIC SERVICES RENDERED TO SICK AND WOUNDED AUSTRALIAN SOLDIERS BY MR & MRS R. E. BUSH IN CONVERTING THEIR HOME BISHOPS KNOLL INTO A HUNDRED BED HOSPITAL'. Below the text is '1914' and '1919' separated by the Bush(e) family crest.

This plaque was presented to Robert and Margery Bush in 1919 by the Australian War Contingent Association in appreciation of the use of their home as a war hospital during the First World War.

Within days of the outbreak of hostilities, the Bush family moved out of their stately home of Bishop's Knoll in Bristol, England and into a small cottage on the estate, and immediately set about converting the main house into a war hospital. Bush eventually dedicated the hospital to members of the Australian Imperial Force exclusively, in appreciation of his previous good fortune as a Western Australian pastoralist. During the entire period of the conflict, Bush met the full cost of establishing, equipping, staffing and running the facility.

An estimated 2000 to 3000 Australians were treated at Bishop's Knoll by the time it was decommissioned in 1919.