Ringo Starr - TB as a child

Did you know that Ringo Starr had TB as a child ?

Dr Carole Reeves heard an interview with Ringo Starr on Radio 4's
'Front Row' last Friday. He talked about the first time he picked up drumsticks as a 13 year old in hospital with TB.
The rest is history...


(He spent two years in hospital, aged
seven and thirteen.)

Well, I doubt if any one of us can point to our time at Craig-y-nos as “opening windows into the world”.


But this is not true of other sanatoriums as those of us who “graduated” to them can vouch for. Sully had a enthusiastic art teacher and we were encouraged to draw and paint in our beds.
( Imagine that happening with Sister Morgan in Craig-y-nos!) . For the first time in my life I was introduced into the world of art and there followed a bout of an expressionistic paintings . One favourite theme in the early days was of mountains, a Gothic castle and the lone figure of a little girl...
The teacher would look at them and murmur:
“Craig-y-nos”.

The paintings got more cheerful after that.

Pinewood Rehabilitation centre for students near Wokingham, certainly “opened windows” for me.
We had first -class teachers - my latin tutor was the classic master from the nearby boys Public school, Wellington College.


Most of the other patients were foreign students at British universities who had fallen ill with TB.


Once an Indian student cooked a meal and the doctors sat and ate it with us!

Can you imagine Dr Huppert sitting down to take tea with the girls?

(My experiences in Sully and Pinewood were only five years after Craig-y-nos).