Medical

Christmas Eve at the Front

An interesting letter has just been received by Mrs Packer, of Broadclyst, from her husband, Corpl Packer of A Company, 1st Battalion Devonshire Regiment, who is serving with the Expeditionary Force in Northern France. In the course of a letter he describes a remarkable incident which occurred on Christmas Eve between the British and German trenches.

Artificial Insemination by husband

The go-ahead for the establishment of a ‘baby bank’ for the storage of sperm in North Devon has been given by the North Devon Hospital Management Committee.

Facilities for the purposes of AIH – artificial insemination by husband – will be provided initially.

Should a ‘by donor’ service become national policy then the facilities could be used for it, said hospital group secretary, Mr J C Woolley, after the meeting at which the decision was reached. An application for it to be set up had come from Mr J M McGarry, the group’s newly appointed consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist.

The full Gazette article is dated 6 April 1951

Appointment As Matron

Previously a dressmaker

News of the appointment of Miss Maida A C Chapple, SRN, as matron of the Rush Court Nursing Home of the Distressed Gentlefolks’ Aid Association, at Wallingford, Berks, will be received with much interest by her many friends in this district.

A further point of interest locally is that she succeeds in that appointment Miss E M Ruck, who was matron of Bideford Hospital from July 1948 until May 1953 when she went to Wallingford.

Miss Chapple, who lived in Bideford with her brother-in-law and sister, Mr and Mrs George Clark, of Combe Lea, Cottingham Crescent, was in business as a dress-maker here until, in her late thirties, she decided to take up nursing as a career. She had been a member of the Bideford Nursing Division of the St John Ambulance Brigade from its earliest days and had held the rank of Ambulance Sister.

The full Gazette article is dated 10 October 1958.

Donations and Legacies Fall Off

North Devon Infirmary

The House Committee of the North Devon Infirmary, in consequence of the serious financial position, owing to the falling off of donations and legacies, has been obliged for the present, to close one of the wards.

It is estimated that, for the financial year which ends 30th June, 1910, there will be an adverse balance of at least £500. The legacies received by the Infirmary during the present financial year have been unprecedentedly low – as a matter of fact, a sum of £15 only has been received since 1st July, 1909, and the donations up to 1st April, 1910, show a large decrease from those of last year.