Memorial Stone Queen Elisabeth - Hospital "l'Ocean"

During the First World War the hospital L’Océan was located here.
L’Océan was originally a large summer holiday hotel, owned by the brewing family Huysseune from De Panne.
At the beginning of December 1914 it was made available to the Belgian Red Cross under the impulse of Queen Elisabeth, with the intention of setting up a large hospital in order to be able to administer the severely injured as quickly as possible the surgical concerns.
The Brussels professor Dr. Antoine Depage was co-founder of this initiative.
The first wounded arrived on December 20. At the time of its establishment, the hospital had 200 beds, a number that systematically increased to 1,800 beds during the final offensive in 1918.
More than 24,000 wounded were cared for in the hospital during the First World War, making L’Océan the largest Belgian front hospital with 46 buildings.
After the war it became a hotel again, during the Second World War it once again served as a hospital. The building was demolished in 1961.

Info: city De Panne

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Source

• Text: Marie-Christine Vinck
• Photos: Marie-Christine Vinck