Eighty years ago this spring, Darlington Memorial Hospital was formally opened, and its children’s ward represented an enormous triumph for an organisation which this week is celebrating its 90th anniversary.
THE hospital was formally opened by a prince in the early 1930s, against an economic backdrop painfully similar to today. But that only made the efforts of the Rotary Club of Darlington more remarkable, because in just two years its members had raised £12,000 to build a children’s ward.
Despite the economic similarities, those were very different days. There was no National Health Service – every penny spent on healthcare came from donations, subscriptions or fees.
And there was no political correctness, and so great play was made of the “boy cripple”
who laid the foundation stone for the Rotary club’s children’s ward.
Rotary had itself been formed in Chicago in 1905, and on March 15, 1923, tradesmen and professionals in Darlington were invited to attend a meeting in the Mechanics Institute, in Skinnergate, to see if the town wanted its own club. Twenty-one influential men decided they did and held their first full meeting on March 28 in the King’s Head Hotel – 90 years ago yesterday.
A black-tie dinner is being held next Friday in Central Hall to commemorate the occasion.
“Rotary Clubs are a medium for making good friends and promoting good fellowship, without the aid of forms or ritual, through the intermixing of men of various callings at the weekly gatherings,” explained the Northern Despatch, a sister paper of The Northern Echo, in March 1928.
“In the Newcastle club, there have been innumerable addresses on litrary (sic), artistic, journalistic and practical subjects.”
The Rotarians – solicitors, councillors, headteachers and much of the Echo’s staff – threw themselves into fundraising for the Darlington hospital in Greenbank, a stately home which had been converted in 1885.
It was initially a men-only hospital – women didn’t get ill in those days – although in October 1894, fundraising began for a 12-bed children’s ward.
Above every bedhead in Greenbank were the patient’s notes and a shiney brass plaque noting which individual or organisation had financed the bed – there wasn’t corporate sponsorship in those days (imagine the embarrassment of lying in a bed with the word “Virgin” scrawled above your pillow), and so the donations came from either wealthy individuals or socially- aware clubs.
The tall figure of Prince George, centre, opening Darlington Memorial Hospital on May 5, 1933. The mayor of Darlington beside him was Sir Charles Starmer, leading Rotarian and managing director of The Northern Echo
A bed cost £1,000 to endow and a cot £500.
The first cot in Greenbank’s children’s ward in 1897 was paid for by the friends of Miss Alice Raine, who died in a fire.
When the Rotarians came on the scene, their initial impulse was to get out into the countryside beyond Darlington to raise funds. They seem to have been successful, because plaques in Greenbank indicated that the wonderfully- named Mr Lupton Topham- Topham, lord of the manor of Middleham in North Yorkshire, had endowed a bed, and the Teesdale Women’s Institute Cot was funded by the united efforts of ladies in Cotherstone, Cockfield, Copley, Gainford, Middleton-in- Teesdale, Mickleton, Romaldkirk and Staindrop.
Since before the First World War, Darlington had designs on a purpose-built hospital, but in those pre-NHS days, the finance was hard to come by – the Railwaymen’s Carnival was started in 1924 to raise funds.
Seventeen acres of land off Hollyhurst Road were acquired, and the foundation stone was laid in 1926.
The Rotarians chipped in with one of the most extraordinary raffles ever held in the town. Top prize was a house.
A 1930s aerial view of Darlington Memorial Hospital. The old Greenbank Hospital is at the top, behind the graceful arc of Greenbank Terrace. The children’s wing can be seen on the right of the picture; on the left is the cenotaph dedicated to the local soldiers who died in the First World War
Rotarian John Fenwick Latimer, a solicitor, had given a £50 plot of land in Haughtonle- Skerne. Rotarian Joshua Clayton, an architect, had designed the semi-detached houses (one was for nurses to live in; the other was for the raffle-winner). Rotarian JJ Blackett, a builder, had erected the homes with materials other Rotarians had cadged from builders’ merchants.
The draw was made on December 23, 1928.
‘ALL the counterfoils – about 11,000 of them – were rolled up and placed in a bed tick and Mrs L Richmond, of Ipswich drew out 440,” reported the Echo. We know not what a bed tick is, nor who the Ipswich lady was, nor why should a convoluted method was employed.
Continued the Echo: “She then made a second draw of 44, and in turn reduced these to five. From these, three were selected, and the draw proper then made.”
B1579 was unrolled.
On the back, it said: “RG Suggett, Humor Villa, Eastbourne Road, Darlington.”
A 1982 aerial picture shows how the Memorial has grown. The old Greenbank is still at the top of the picture, but all the original Memorial buildings, including the children’s ward, have been swept away
The Echo noted: “Mr Suggett is well known, not only in Eastbourne – the ward he represents on the town council – but all over the town and in the dales. He has been a member of the council for eight years, and in various committees has rendered valuable service.
Rotary, comprised of many councillors, had contrived to give its star prize to a councillor.
Said Coun Suggett: “It is a very pleasant surprise. It is the first time I have ever won anything in a draw.”
In 1930, under the direction of Dr JD Sinclair, the Rotarians devoted all their efforts to the children’s ward. After only seven months, they’d raised £4,300, enough for Mr Blackett to start on site.
“Boy cripple lays foundation stone at Darlington”, said the Northern Despatch’s headline on February 9, 1931.
The Children’s Ward was named after Rotarian Dr JD Sinclair, who had led the fundraising campaign
The lad in question was 12- year-old Raymond Featham, of Park Street, whose father had been a prisoner of war in Germany when he had been born. He’d been unable to walk for the first five years of his life.
“That he can now walk is due to the surgical skill that has been used on his behalf and the careful nursing at Greenbank Hospital, which has given him the use of his legs,” said the Despatch.
After tapping the stone with a mallet, Raymond put an envelope containing a £1 note on top of it – money raised by his Sunday School fellows.
The money continued to roll in, from sports days, theatrical flitches, sheepdog trials and pub boxes. From AR Doggart, who ran the famous chain of shops, who put in £500, to little Jean MacGregor, who ran a bazaar, and put in 6d.
THE Echo played an enormous role. Its managing director was Sir Charles Starmer, a Rotarian.
Its editor was Albert Clayton, a Rotarian. Its children’s club – the Nig Nog Ring – raised £1,028 for the Rotary cause.
‘Boy cripple’ Raymond Featham lays the foundation stone of the Darlington Memorial Hospital’s children’s ward on February 7,
At a Rotary luncheon in the Queen’s Hall on October 14, 1932, the members handed over the £12,000 ward to the hospital committee. Chairman RJ Mounsey said: “I thank you sincerely, though inadequately, for this magnificent gift, and wish to say that we have a feeling of immense admiration for those who conceived the idea and the body which had brought about its fulfilment. It is a great achievement to put up a building that has cost £12,000 in these times.”
Rotarian Clayton penned a few words in reply on behalf of the club. “Old and young, rich and poor, men, women and children, townfolk and countryfolk, by their gifts of time, service and money, have achieved swiftly a noble object,”
his letter said.
“May their reward be that within this new wing, suffering children of this generation and of generations yet unborn shall be nursed with loving tenderness and endued with health and strength of body and mind.”
Seven months later, on May 5, 1933, Prince George – the youngest son of the king with a colourful playboy reputation – officially opened the Darlington Memorial Hospital.
His first port of call was the children’s ward. The Despatch reported: “Prince George went up to a child named Hugh Burns, aged five, whose mass of light curls caught his attention.
Dr JD Sinclair, the Rotarian who led the children’s ward campaign
‘What lovely hair!’, he exclaimed.”
In more recent times, Rotary in Darlington has raised more than £50,000 for St Teresa’s Hospice. It supports countless other local charities and young people, helps arrange fundraising events from triathlons to duck races, golf tournaments and kite-flying competitions, plus is part of Rotary International’s End Polio Now campaign, so there is lots to commemorate on Friday.
But it doesn’t always go Rotary’s way. In the 1930s, Rotarians set up allotments for the unemployed in Salters Lane.
However, one unemployed absconded with the rents and 19 others failed to pay up, leaving Rotary £16 out of pocket.
But it did have a nice crop of carrots.
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