OLD PLYMOUTH . UK
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PRINCE OF WALES'S HOSPITAL PLYMOUTH

The Prince Of Wales's Hospital Plymouth Act, which received the Royal Assent on July 12th 1934, authorised the amalgamation of the South Devon and East Cornwall Voluntary General Hospital, Greenbank, Plymouth; the Central Voluntary General Hospital, Lockyer Street, Plymouth; and the Royal Albert Voluntary General Hospital and Eye Infirmary, Devonport, as one unit to be called the Prince of Wales's Hospital, Plymouth.  The City Hospital, formerly Freedom Fields' Hospital, remained separate.  The Hospital thus had three "sections": Greenbank, Lockyer Street and Devonport.

Sir Henry Lopes was the President of the Board of Management, with Doctor R H Wagner as Chairman and Mr A R Cash as General Superintendent and Secretary.

Miss C K Lees was the Matron at Greenbank; Miss H L Adams the Matron at Lockyer Street; and Miss A Kenwell was the Matron at Devonport.

The foundation stone of a further extension to the former South Devon and East Cornwall Hospital was laid by HRH the Duchess of Kent during the afternoon of Wednesday May 3rd 1939.  The Hospital was bombed during the night of Monday January 13th 1941.  Luckily a concrete roof on one building managed to withstand not one but two high explosive bombs.  There were no deaths but two nurses were injured in the raid.

A "Novel and Practical Gift" from the people of Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States of America, through the British War Relief Society of Americas to the people of Plymouth, England, was presented to the Devon Red Cross in London on Thursday December 18th 1941.

Nurses giving a demonstration pf the baby bath with a dummy baby.
Note the zinc bath for an adult.
© ACME Newspictures, USA.

The bath, the first of its kind to be constructed, came with a two-ton van containing two 100-gallon water tanks, two boilers and stoves and other equipment.  It was presented by Mrs W A Dunderdale, a representative of the of the War Relief Society to Mrs L Sayers, of Alston Hall, Holbeton, Devon, vice-president of the Devon Red Cross.  Alongside the stoves, which could heat 60-gallons of water at the same time, was a coal bin.  The van also featured a sink and a wringer to enable babies' clothes to be washed as well as a dozen of the collapsible white baths with thier wooden frames and under a seat was a nest of ten zinc baths for adults.  A medicine cupboard, folding ward screens, chairs and kettles, completed the equipment.

A plaque commemorating the receipt by the Hospital of gifts and money to the value of £1,722 from Bundles for Britain Incorporated, New York, was unveiled by the American consul at Plymouth, Mr Henry M Wolcott on Thursday June 25th 1942.  The Deputy Lord Mayor of Plymouth, Alderman W J W Modley, was accompanied by the Lady Mayoress, and the chairman of the Board of Management, Doctor Colin Lindsay, welcomed the guests.

After unveiling the plaque the party visited Maristow Ward where they viewed another plaque commemorating the receipt of equipment for 20 beds sent over to Britain by the British War Relief Association.  It bore an inscription referring to the Greater New Bedford British War Relief Corps, New Bedford, Massachusetts.

In 1951 the City Hospital, sometimes known as the City General Hospital, was combined with The Prince of Wales's Hospital to form the Plymouth, South Devon and East Cornwall General Hospital Group, of which the Secretary and Chief Administrator was Mr Arthur E Cash FHA, at 7 Nelson Gardens, Stoke, Plymouth.