The New Nurses' Home

NORTH-EASTERN HOSPITAL FOR CHILDREN.

The foundation stone of the new Nurses' Home, which is being built in connection with the North Eastern Hospital for Children, was laid on Monday by Lady Amherst of Hackney, who was accompanied by Lord Amherst. Among others present were:— Colonel Lord William Cecil, M.V.O.(chairman), Lady William Cecil (President of the Ladies' Committee, and treasurer of the Ladies' Association), Miss Amherst. Miss Phillips (foundress of the hospital), Sir M. M. Bhownaggree, K.C.I.E., M.P., the Mayor of Bethnal Green (Councillor Chas. Wood, J.P.), the Rev. W. G. Morcom, M.A. (hon chaplain), Mrs. Morcam, Mr. F. Leonard A. Gibbs (acting treasurer), Mr. Chas. G. J. Port (Chairman of the Building Committee), Mrs. Port, Dr. James Taylor (senior physician), Mr. Walter-Johnson, Mrs. Walter Johnson. Mr. Martin Deed. Mrs. Deed. Alderman and Mrs. Roberts, Alderman Merison, Councillor Nolan, Mr. Joseph Meller., Mr. Herbert Robertson, M.P., Miss Godlee (hon. secretory, Ladies' Committee), Miss Pace, Dr. J. 'Porter Parkinson (physician), Dr. Geo. Carpenter (physician), Mr. P. Lockhart Mammery (assistant surgeon), the Resident Medical Officer (Mr. J. M. G. Swainson), the Lady Superintendent (Miss A. M. Bushby), the Secretary (Mr. T. Glenton-Kerr), Mr. Restall, Mr. J. Goode (executor of the Crooke bequest), Colonel de Lara Cohen, V. D., Mrs. Heaton Armstrong. Mr. John Poland, F.R.C.S., and Mrs. Poland, Mr. S. H. Leeder, Captain and Mrs. Lewis, Mr. Arthur G. Leighton (architect), Mr. J. F. Greenwood (builder), etc.

After Lady Amherst had been presented with a bouquet by a patient in the hospital, the Rev. W. G. Morcom, conducted a brief religious service.

Lord William Cecil (the Chairman of the hospital) delivered the following address to Lady Amherst :—" We, the representatives of the Governors of the North-Eastern Hospital for Children, extend a cordial welcome to your Ladyship on this the important occasion of the inception of a building designed to provide a suitable home for the nurses of the hospital. The powerful support which your Ladyship and your family have given to the hospital, almost from its earliest years, has done so much to promote its steady progress that your presence here today to mark a further step forward in its development, is an especial gratification to us, and an encouragement to all who are associated with the work of the institution. Accommodation for the nursing staff is at present provided in two houses rented for the purpose, at £130 a year. in King Edward-road, South Hackney, distant nearly a mile from the hospital, it having been found impossible to obtain suitable quarters nearer to the institution. This temporary arrangement causes an increase of about £400 a year in the ordinary expenditure (including £100 a year for tram fares), and, besides results in much discomfort and inconvenience to the nurses.

The executors, under the bequest of the late Mr. Arthur Ocran Crooke, having given a donation of £3,000 last December towards the cost of proving a nurses' home, the committee were able, without further delay, to consider this important matter as a practical scheme. The cost of the building, which will contain 60 bedrooms, two sitting-rooms and six bathrooms, etc., will be about £7,300 to complete. Further sums having been added to the building fund, including a donation of £1,000 from King Edward's Hospital Fund, an amount of £2,500 for general building purposes is available, and therefore, the sum in hand towards the cost of the home is £5,500.

It is our earnest desire to also build a laundry, as a further saving of at least £400 a year will be thereby effected; but we cannot at present see our way to the capital sum of £3,700 required for this building, and are therefore unable to undertake it at present. Your Ladyship will have the satisfaction of knowing that the building, which you are graciously pleased to commence today, will not only enable a considerable saving to be effected in the expenditure of the hospital, but will greatly increase the comfort and happiness of the nurses, upon whose devoted service the successful treatment of the patients so largely depends.

The Architect. Mr. Arthur G. Leighton, F.R.I.B.A. (of Messrs. Gale, Gotch and Leighton), and the builder, Mr. J. E. Greenwood. were then presented to her Ladyship by Mr. Charles G. J. Port (the Chairman of the Building Committee). Her Ladyship, thereupon, with a silver trowel, presented to her by the architect, laid the stone, which was inscribed -

This stone laid by Lady Amherst of Hackney, 10th July. 1905."

Lady Amherst took quite unusual trouble to see that the stone was well and truly laid

Mr. F. Leonard A. Gibbs (acting tresurer of the hospital) said he was only tresurer temporarly, and the hospital authorities were anxious to secure a gentleman of standing and influence to fill that position permanently. In a financial statement, he stated that they had to provide £11,000 for the maintenance, and towards this sum, the only income that could be considered at all reliable was about £4,300, and they required £4,000 to carry on the work. That state of things gave the committee great anxiety, and they appealed earnestly for subscribers.

The new wing had cost £39,000, and £7,700 for purchasing the necessary freehold site on which the nurses' home and Laundry were to be built. They had already spent £47,000 on the building scheme. Of this sum £8.000 was borrowed on mortgage, and £4,300 towards the repaymenent of this had been raised by the Ladies' Committee under H.R.H. Princess Henry of Battenburg. (Applause.)

The committee were going forward with all possible caution, although they could not feel satisfied that the hospital was what it could and ought to be, until the full scheme of enlargement had been carried out, including the isolation wards so much desired by the medical staff, and they appealed with confidence to the public to help them in their struggle. (Applause.)

Mr. Walter Johnson, J.P., expressed the grateful thanks of the committee to the executors of the late Mr. A. O. Crooke for the donation of £3,000, and in doing so, called attention to the presence of Miss Phillips, who had founded the hospital in a modest way, never thinking it would reach its present stage. (Applause.)

Mr. Goode having replied, Sir M. M. Bhownaggree, M.P., proposed a vote of thanks to Lady Amherst. He believed that in laying the foundation stone of that building, Lady Amherst had laid the foundation of a deportment of work that was absolutely essential and necessary to the progress of the institution. (Applause.)

Mr. Herbert Robertson, Robeson, M.P., the motion. Lord Amherst replied, saying it was a great pleasure to Lady Amherst to accept the invitation to perform the ceremony that day, and paying a high tribute to the work of Mr. T. Glenton Kerr.

During the proceedings, the band of the East London Royal Engineers (Vols.), under Bandmaster T. Jarvis, played a pleasing selection of music.

The home is expected to be finished at the end of February, 1906. A saving of £400 a year will be effected in the ordinary expenditure by the building of this, home.

The committee are very anxious build a laundry, the cost of which will be; £3,700 but cannot at present undertake this further work as they are unable to see their way to the capital outlay involved. A further saving of at least £400 a year will be made in the ordinary expenditure when the laundry is built, and it is, therefore, hoped that some generous donors will come forward to provide the necessary capital in time for the laundry to be built simultaneously with the nurses' home, in order to save addtional expense, which must be incurred if the laundry is built at another time. The immediate needs of the hospital are: Building fund, £1,800 to complete the nurses' home free from debt; £3,700 to provide a laundry; total urgently and immediately required for new buildings, £5,500.