The Convalescent Hospital in the Esquimalt Naval Base was first established in 1865 in building No.39, the current Protestant Chapel.
It was a part of a much larger Royal Naval hospital complex, which spanned from 1865 to 1905. Then the building was on loan to the Military Hospitals Commission, and it served as a part of the Esquimalt Military Convalescent Hospital from 1915-1922. From that time until the mid-1930s, it served as a part of the first west coast Royal Canadian Navy training establishment for HMCS Naden.64
The Esquimalt Military Convalescent Hospital, or as it was termed a “Disabled 
Soldiers Re-establishment Hospital”. It was operated by the Military Hospitals Commission to provide shelter and rehabilitation for shell-shocked soldiers, wounded service men, and those suffering from tuberculosis.65
Local newspapers said on June 2, 1917: A party of returned soldiers arrived in Victoria yesterday afternoon and were conveyed by motor to the Esquimalt Military Convalescent Hospital. The men were: Cpl. E. Aspinault, Ptes. J. Brennan, A. Brougherton, A. Termandy, G. Gott, W. Johnson, M. McFadyen, J. Richards, E. Scarfe, J. Doherty, G. Craycott, Morrison, Quigg, Smith. Sergt. Evans, Cpls. Edwards, Harris, Hadden, Sapper C. Fielding and Gnr. McMillan. The veterans represented almost every section of the province.66
Building 20 in Naden had begun as a hospital ward for officers in 1891 and has since been used as a residence for senior staff, a part of a training facility, and a Francophone elementary school. Today building 20 houses the archives, and museum of the Esquimalt Naval Base.
The buildings are the second set to have been built on the site, the first set of buildings were to house the Royal Engineers who had surveyed the Canada/US border during the 1860s. These buildings also compromised the original hospital on the site, which had closed in 1869, reopened in 1872, before being demolished to make way for the current buildings. The buildings were going to be closed in 1905 when the Royal Navy was going to abandon the Pacific station. However, it was reopened in 1915 under the care of the Royal Canadian Navy.
At the end of the First World War it was closed before re-opening in 1922 by the Royal Canadian Navy. The site was then converted into a training facility for the HMCS Naden. Building 20 later became office space. In 1925, Building 20 would become the Senior Officer’s Residence and remained that way until World War II. In 1942, Building 20 was once again converted into an office space.
Today, all but two of the original hospital buildings still stand. The first was the naval hospital’s staff quarters, kitchen, and dining room. The second was the medical officer’s quarters. Both buildings were torn down in the 1950s.
by Shea Baldwin