Notes: 1. South Shields Gazette 23/02/1926 reports the extension of the children’s ward to provide accommodation for the cots endowed by the South Shields War Memorial Committee. “When completed, this will provide for an additional 32 cots, making 46 in all, and it is hoped that it will be opened for the admission of patients by June or July next”.
2. The original plan in 1919 had been to provide a new Children’s Hospital extension to the Ingham Infirmary, and plans for such a building were drawn up.
3. Mr. Thomas Forsyth Wilson, of 1 Wellington Terrace, South Shields, who died June 23rd 1918, bequeathed Infirmary. See W101.09
4. The War Memorial Committee received a letter from the Ingham Infirmary Governors saying that “Unless they receive a definite assurance by 30 April that the Children’s Hospital scheme will be proceeded with at once, they will withdraw their grant of their acquiescence in the matter.” The need for beds was becoming so critical that they could not hold up the hospital extension any longer. The War Memorial Committee could only raise about £4,000 instead of the £11,721 needed through lack of response. The project was abandoned.
5. The next proposal was for a Maternity Home, as one with ten or twelve beds could be provided and equipped for £3,000.
6. Although £12,000 had been officially handed over in November 1924, there was still another £780 to come. The schools had raised £1,050 and the “great Arcadia Bazaar” had raised £4,170. A little girl who had been dressing dolls handed over 1 shilling.
7. The conditions attached to the gift were
(a) That each cot have a tablet placed over it, stating the source of the endowment;
(b) That in the event of an additional wing being built in the grounds, this gift should receive due acknowledgment in connection with such extension;
(c) That a special account be opened to be called “The South Shields War Memorial Endowment Fund”, the income from the fund to be applied towards the maintenance of the children’s cots;
(d) That a sum not exceeding £1.000 be spent by the War Memorial Committee in the provision of a permanent memorial to be placed in the infirmary grounds the design and situation to be approved of by both committees.”
8. In 1925 it was agreed that the ward should be expanded to contain 46 cots instead of the present 14. The costs would be £50,000 plus £4,000 per annum. The interest on the amount from the War Memorial Fund was £600 p.a. which meant that the rest would have to be found.
9. At the 1926 opening of the extension, Mrs. J.H. Readhead was thanked for a gramophone and records, and Miss McKendrick for a monster doll and cot, which was a gift from the Brownies.
10. Granville Druery was born in South Shields, the descendant of a family of several generations of Shieldsmen. He was educated by John Thomas at the Union British School which opened in 1834 in Waterloo Vale. He served his time learning the butchery trade, opening his own business before he was 20 years old, which became a considerable shipping and family business. He was a pioneer of the South Shields Master Butchers’ Association – the first trade organisation in the borough. A prominent religious and civic figure, he served the town as an alderman, a magistrate for 21 years and a member of the Ancient Vestry of St Hilda’s Church. As a Guardian of the Poor for 20 years, he led the fight for the scheme of the Guardians for the segregation of children in Harton Institution, which successfully led to the building of the Cleadon Cottage Homes. He was elected Councillor for Westoe Ward in 1911. As Mayor and Mayoress in 1923-4, he and his wife led the revival of the flagging War Memorial Scheme. House to house appeals and a huge bazaar inspired by his wife raised more than £13,000 of which £12,000 was presented to the Ingham Infirmary and the remainder paid for the Memorial Cross which still stands on the corner of the site. He died in 1941. There is a photograph of him on the back page of the Shields Gazette of 12/04/1941.
