The first patients were admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital Haslar (also known as Royal Hospital Haslar in the 18^th and 21^st centuries) in 1753, the final patients in 2009.  Once the largest brick-built building in Europe, Haslar was one of the most advanced hospitals in the world, remaining at the forefront of medical science during most of those 256 years of continuous patient care. Such was its innovative design, its imposing Georgian buildings remained both functional and are largely unchanged.

Service casualties from almost every single war and action from the Seven Years War to the recent conflict in Afghanistan were cared for on its wards, and in the last 60 years it also acted as the district general hospital for the Gosport peninsula as well as supporting the fleet.   Countless Royal Navy doctors, nurses and medical staff trained there before travelling all over the globe, not only tending the sick and wounded but often pioneering scientific discoveries and exploration – some becoming rightly famous as a result.