Caring for town’s sick in hospital

THIS week’s picture shows staff at Worksop’s Victoria Hospital in the early 1920s.

They included dentist Mr Mills and doctors Morris, Garrett, Crawford, Wallis, Anderson and Cunningham.

Matron Stocks was in charge of the nurses.

Proposals for a hospital for Worksop were made by the Dispensary Committee in 1897, as a permanent memorial to Queen Victoria.

The estimated cost of building it was around £1,700.

Sir Henry Watson offered a piece of land on Watson Road for the site, where cottage hospital was built and opened on 24th May 1900 - Queen Victoria’s 81st birthday.

It had five beds and two bathrooms, but opened without the proposed operating theatre.

The staff consisted of a house surgeon, two honorary surgeons, a matron and three probationary nurses.

During the first year, 59 patients were treated at a cost of £505.

In 1912 the Duchess of Portland and Sir John Robinson opened an extension containing a men’s ward, children’s ward and new kitchen.

A new mortuary was also built at this time on a separate site.

A town public meeting was held in 1921 to consider extending the hospital as Worksop’s memorial to the First World War.

This was achieved by fundraising.

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