Memorial

Bed endowment Donnini V.C. 1945 County Hospital

Durham City

Memorial Name: Bed endowment Donnini V.C. 1945 County Hospital (D47.076)

NEWMP Ref No.: D47.076

Parish: Durham City

Original Location:

Durham County Hospital (Closed).

North Road Durham DH1 4ST.

Present Location:

Unknown

Which War:

1939-45

Dedication, Creation or Publication date:

Cheque handed over November 1946.

Who Commissioned:

Northern Division of Ice Cream Alliance.

Cost:

A cheque for £1,000 was handed over.

How Money was Raised:

Public subscriptions to the fund.

Present Condition: Missing

Inscription:

In memory of Fusilier Dennis Donnini VC of Easington Colliery

Memorial Description:

Endowment of a bed.

A tablet, suitably inscribed, would be placed above the bed.

Names:

See above

Notes:

1. The County Hospital, which was designed in the Elizabethan style and built at a cost of £7,500, opened in 1853. Additional wards, which were financed by donations from Dean Waddington and John Eden, opened in 1867 and 1886 respectively. The hospital joined the National Health Service in 1948 and was eventually used as a mental health facility. After services had transferred to the Lanchester Road Hospital, the site closed in 2010. In 2014 planning permission was sought to return the main building back to its original state and to create additional new-build student residences. Construction work began on the new scheme in May 2017 and was completed in August 2018. It is operated by Unite Students and named Rushford Court.

3. See Dennis Donnini’s Every Name a Story entry

Sources:

Chester le Street Chronicle
15/11/1946 carries story of endowment and how the V.C. was won.

Durham Advertiser
15/11/1946 carries story of endowment and how the V.C. was won.

Durham Chronicle
23/03/1945 reports the story of how the V.C. was won;
15/11/1946 reports the endowment.