The British Expeditionary Force began arriving in Boulogne on 9^th August 1914, when four officers established 3 Base Supply Depot at the Bassin Loubet. Orders to evacuate ahead of the German advance were received at 10.00pm on 25^th August, and the following day 3 Base Depot departed for Saint-Nazaire.

Within days, the Assistant Director of Supplies Requisition Office received an invoice for 3,268Fr (£130.00 [£12,331 in 2023]). The invoice related to billeting officers from the 9^th to 25^th at the Hotel Christol on the corner of Place Frederic Sauvage, Boulogne. The first transport to return to Boulogne was 318 Coy ASC (6 Auxiliary Petrol Coy) on 1^st October and 3 Base Depot was re-established on 14^th October. Hotel Christol appears to have become a British hospital.

The British Red Cross Society requested on 19^th September that the Allied Forces Base Hospital be sent to France. Permission was refused by the Army Council who stated that it would need a formal request from the French authorities before the request could be considered. Furthermore, the AFBH had been allocated a site at Cosham, Hampshire by the Officer Commanding Coast Defences at Portsmouth where it would be connected to the Alexandra Military Hospital.

While the Army Council were refusing their permission, the Executive Committee of the AFBH were engaged in an emergency meeting at their offices at 16 Grosvenor Street, London. This was to consider an urgent request from the French Red Cross Society and the French Military Authorities. A suitable building at the College St Marie, Pont-Saint-Maxence had been allocated and the hospital would remain British and permitted to fly the British flag.

Subsequently, a telegram was sent to Admiralty Transports, Southampton demanding shipping for twelve medical officers, seventy-six personnel, four motor cars and 700 tons of stores. This was the AFBH, stored in the Royal Mail Steam Packet Co warehouse, for shipment to Havre, en-route for Boulogne where it would be erected in the Hotel Christol. Thirty nurses were also travelling on the night packet later that day.

The hotel’s proprietor, M. Louis Paul Sagnier, had dictated terms for the lease, which the Inspector-General Communications, Maj-Gen RC Maxwell, opposed, considering they were too one-sided. A second building at 45 Rue de l’Amiral Bruix, Boulogne was included in the tenancy agreement. It comprised the ground floor, two storeys and a cellar, although no evidence of it being used has been found. The buildings were to be used as a hospital for wounded British officers.

The length of the lease was for one month only, renewable monthly with the rent of 300FFr (£12.00 [£1,144]) paid in advance. The arrangement being available only for the duration of the war.

The War Office were responsible for all maintenance, damages, local land and the door and window taxes. No structural alterations were permitted and the buildings had to be handed back in the same condition as when taken over. There was no recourse for the cost of repairs to be partially reimbursed, even when the repairs improved the condition of the building.  

The buildings were to be hired unfurnished. All the furniture, wall hangings, linen and bedding to be removed under M. Sagnier’s supervision to a location agreed by both parties and stored in good condition. It was to be returned at the termination of the hire agreement, with any damage repaired at War Office expense. The agreement included the personal furniture and possessions of M. Sagnier. Two underground cellars were retained at the hotel for the storage of crockery and the hotel’s wine stocks were to be kept locked in a cellar.

At the end of the month seven nurses and twelve orderlies were granted passes to travel to the AFBH. They were urgently needed as the 200-bed hospital was full of wounded soldiers. The AFBH’s 200 beds were a tiny proportion of the 5,195 available in the eighteen hospitals established in Boulogne.

A small, but significant enough cost to vex the Director of Supplies, Major-General FT Clayton, was the 2,000 eggs consumed by the Boulogne hospitals each day. On 18^th November he reported that it was necessary to purchase eggs locally at cost of 520Fr (£20.70 [£1,963]) every day. This was due to the hospitals refusing to use eggs sent from home due to their deterioration during transit. The cost would inevitably increase at the end of the month when the contract for eggs held by AFBH with Harrods was due to expire and not be renewed. Clayton anticipated that he would become responsible for all the AFBH’s needs.

Three days later, a letter from the War Office in London informed that supplying eggs from London would save money as French eggs were very expensive. Clayton stipulated that the Boulogne boat should be used, and that he could arrange transport if he received notice of each shipment. Why they would not deteriorate as before is not explained. It is also doubtful that they would be cheaper when transport costs were accounted for. He did refuse to accept the milk the War Office was intending to send as it would be too old by the time it reached Boulogne.

Little more has been found about the AFBH, and the Hotel Christol was given up on 21^st January 1915. The hotel then became the headquarters of the British Red Cross Society in France with BRCS becoming responsible for all the costs. On 18 March, IGC received a bill for 10,889FFr (£411.00 [£33,373]) from M. Sagnier for charges outstanding to 21^st January. IGC requested that the WO pay the account as the AFBH ‘was no longer in France’ and therefore he had no facility to settle the arrears.

Sixty-three medal cards have been found with the majority showing personnel as being BRCS. One, Captain Pearce, Royal Naval Air Service, was refused a 1914-15 Star as AFBH was not eligible, although all of the others were awarded the 1914-15 Star. The AFBH is also recorded on the cards as being at Etaples, not Boulogne.