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| Walker Hospital in Shimla .outlookindia.com |
The Walker Hospital in Shimla is a structure steeped in history, currently at the center of a debate concerning a government proposal to take it over as an expansion campus for the Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC). For many, this move represents a threat to a significant military and civic legacy that they argue should remain with the armed forces.
The hospital’s origins are inextricably linked to Sir James L. Walker, a prominent banker who served as the President of Simla Municipality in 1873-74. Walker was a man of considerable means, owning grand estates like ‘Woodville’ and ‘Gorton Castle.’ The impetus for the hospital's creation came in May 1899 when Surgeon-General Sir Benjamin Franklin, while inspecting the Ripon Hospital, discovered that Indian patients were being displaced to accommodate Europeans. Franklin pressed for an alternative site for a dedicated European Hospital, and the committee eventually decided upon Walker's 'Gorton Castle'.
Upon learning of the plight at Ripon Hospital, Sir Walker responded with a noble gesture, declaring a "free gift to Simla of 'Gorton Castle' for a hospital for European and Eurasian patients." Despite this generous donation, objections to locating a hospital on The Mall led the managing committee to sell 'Gorton Castle' to the government for Rs 1,20,000 for use as new civil offices—a building that now serves as the Accountant General’s Office for Himachal Pradesh. The committee then acquired the current plot for the hospital.
The Walker Hospital was opened in 1902 with 20 beds for Europeans and was designed to be self-supporting, with patients paying Rs 5 per day. The bed capacity was later expanded, with some records suggesting it reached 100. It also narrowly avoided becoming a memorial to controversy when a committee’s proposal to endow a ward in memory of Reginald Dyer, the ‘Butcher of Jalianwala,’ was correctly rejected by the authorities in the 1920s.
The hospital's history saw a tragic turn on the night of December 22, 1998, when an electric short-circuit triggered a massive fire. The wooden structure, coated in paint, allowed the fire to spread rapidly, reducing the main building to ashes. However, the valiant efforts of the hospital staff, who physically severed the passages connecting the main structure to adjacent blocks, managed to save the Officers’ Mess, Family Quarters, and other ancillary buildings.
Present Status:
The hospital became integrated with the armed forces when the Western Command moved to Shimla in 1954, renaming it the Command Hospital, and later the Military Hospital. Even when the Western Command was relocated to Chandimandir in 1985, the hospital retained its military function, serving troops deployed across the region from Subathu to Kinnaur, operating today from a new location at Jutogh.
Following the devastating fire, the Indian Army commenced the re-structuring of a new building on the site of the original structure. While officials had assured in 2007 that the project would be completed by 2011, the text indicates the reconstruction remained incomplete. This incomplete, yet historically significant, property is now the target of the government's move to take over the land for the expansion of the Indira Gandhi Medical College, placing its future firmly in the public and political spotlight.
