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Busy, busy, busy
24 December 1958
Mr Sinclair1 February 1974
Free10 September 1965
Voluntary efforts29 April 1955
Matron14 January 1955
Delivered over 2,000 babies5 March 1963
Old Girl15 May 1964
Storage facility6 April 1973
Succeeds Miss Ruck10 October 1958
Leaving Hartland4 February 1977
Most unfortunate19 February 1960
Grenville Nursing Home12 January 1973
North Devon Infirmary12 April 1910
Busy, busy, busy24 December 1958
Holds Up Hospital’s Decoration Plans
To and from Torrington Cottage Hospital, in the Christmas rush, went Mr Stork last week.
He made so many calls that he held up the hospital’s plans for Christmas decorations and entertainment.
The recently re-opened maternity ward at the hospital had been so busy that the festoons of decorations, usually put up in the windows of the hospital some time before Christmas, were delayed and had been missed by passers-by.
When a Bideford Gazette reporter called at the hospital at the weekend he found staff members hurrying to decorate the hospital in time for Christmas.
Commented Maternity Sister E Kave “I have been up since three o’clock this morning on duty in the maternity ward. Three babies have been born in the last few days and now four more are expected. So you can see we haven’t had a lot of time for the usual festive plans”.
Gazette article dated 24 December 1958
Mr Sinclair1 February 1974
A Gold Badge for having given 50 pints of his blood
is presented to Mr Jack Sinclair at a blood transfusion service session at Bideford.
In the picture the Mayor of Bideford, Major E Hill, is seen presenting the badge, together with a certificate, to Mr Sinclair
Mr Sinclair, who lives in Geneva Place, Bideford, is caretaker of Bideford County Secondary School. He is a former Scoutmaster of the 2nd Bideford Group.
Fifty of the 168 donors at this latest session were new ones. Never before had they had so many new donors, said Miss P Durant, commandant of Devon 48 detachment of the Red Cross and for many years a local organiser for blood-doning sessions. “It is a most encouraging response, but we are looking for more” she added. “There is an opportunity for other new donors to come forward at Bideford at a session on March 7”.
In Red Cross uniform are Miss D Thomas, one of the local blood-doning session organisers, Miss P Durant and Miss P Gammon, North Devon area organiser.
Gazette article...
Free10 September 1965
SAFEGUARD YOUR HEALTH
Have a chest x-ray
AT BIDEFORD – THE PILL CAR PARK
(By Strand Cinema)
THURSDAY 16TH SEPT. AND THURSDAY 30 SEPT.
From 2pm to 3pm every day
FREE CHEST X-RAYS FOR ALL OVER 15 YEARS
Gazette article dated 10 September 1965
Voluntary efforts29 April 1955
Gifts to Bideford Hospital
Mr C H Stanbury, Mrs L Taylor, Sister Martin, Mrs Stanbury, Mr M J Pearce, Sister Squance, Mrs Arnold, Miss E M Botting and Mrs Martin
Last year, in its first year of operation, the Health Amenities Fund, sponsored by the Exeter and Western Counties Hospital Aid Society, raised £70 in this area and this is being distributed to local hospitals in the form of gifts to meet patients' needs.
Two Parker Knoll armchairs and an electric hair drier, to the value of £20, were presented to Bideford and District Hospital at a ceremony on Friday afternoon. Items valued at £40 are to be given to the Torridge Hospital and value £10 to the Torrington Cottage Hospital. The money has been raised by voluntary efforts, including jumble sales and competitions, and this year the area committee have set themselves a target of at least £100. A flag day is being held at the end of August to augment other efforts.
At Friday's presentation at Bideford Hospital, the gifts were handed...
Matron14 January 1955
Miss A Faulkener has been appointed matron of Torrington Cottage Hospital
and has taken up her duties.
In the three months the hospital has been without a matron, Sister B Atchison has been in charge. She has now taken charge of the hospital’s maternity ward which re-opened last week.
Miss Faulkener, who comes to Torrington from Elgin (Morayshire) Maternity Hospital, trained at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and later worked at Glasgow Royal Maternity Hospital.
Gazette article dated 14 January 1955
Delivered over 2,000 babies5 March 1963
Retiring on March 17th after 43 of nursing,
the last 16 at Instow, is Miss E Rees, a Queen’s Nursing Sister of 10 Venn Close, Instow.
She has helped to bring well over 2,000 babies into the world, and herself legally adopted two babies, Peter, now a police constable, and Rosemary (who died at the age of 17 two years ago).
Miss Rees, originally from Yorkshire, has never been out of nursing work throughout her busy life except for a few weeks sickness. She received a long service medal at a gathering at St James’ Palace. In retirement she will live with her sister in a caravan at Westward Ho!
Her colleagues are planning to mark her retirement with a party and a presentation.
Gazette article dated 5 March 1965
Old Girl15 May 1964
Nurse Margaret Shute,
daughter of Mr and Mrs Arthur Shute, of 1 Northam Road, was awarded the silver medal at the annual prize giving at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital.
She received the medal from the hands of the Bishop of Exeter, Dr R C Mortimer.
Miss Shute began her nursing training at Bideford Hospital, where she also won a medal – for the best all round nurse.
Staff Nurse Shute is an Old Girl of Edgehill College.
Gazette article dated 15 May 1964
Storage facility6 April 1973
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
Succeeds Miss Ruck10 October 1958
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.
Leaving Hartland4 February 1977
Drs Donald and Rachel Mackenzie, who are leaving Hartland where they have been jointly in practice for the past seven years, have been presented with a cheque for over £200 by patients and other friends.
Dr Donald leaves this week to take up a Government post in the British Virgin Isles and his wife will follow a littler later in the year. Handing over the cheque in the Parish Hall, Mr Alan Higgins thanked the two doctors for their services to the district. Introducing their successors, Dr and Mrs Cook, Dr Donald hoped the district would extend to them the same kindness and support given to him and his wife.
Gazette article dated 4 February 1977
Most unfortunate19 February 1960
Unfortunate mistake says hospital
Mrs W J Gifford, of Buneham Cottage, Hartland, eagerly awaited the return of her two year old son, Andrew, from the North Devon Infirmary, Barnstaple, where he had been a patient.
When a car drew up outside the house she rushed to the door and opened it only to find the car driver and a small boy she had never seen before.
While Mrs Gifford was explaining to the driver it was not her son, a neighbour arrived to say that the hospital had telephoned that a mistake had been made.
The boy who had been taken to Hartland – 5 year old Kevin Veale, of the Cottage, Botreaux Mill, South Molton – had been driven 50 miles in the wrong direction.
Mr J C Woolley (secretary of the North Devon Hospital Committee) described the mistake in identities as ‘most unfortunate’.
The full Gazette article is dated 19 February 1960
Grenville Nursing Home12 January 1973
Maternity home during WW2
The existence of Bideford’s only maternity home may be threatened if the South Western Regional Hospital Board go ahead with plans to end the arrangement whereby National Health Service patients are admitted to it.
The Board, who have invited comments on their proposal before February 5th, point out that the agreement with the Grenville Nursing Home Ltd was entered into by Devon County Council in 1946 and was taken over by the Board two years later. Under it general practitioners in Bideford have the use of 10 beds at the home for obstetrics. Use of the home, say the Board, has greatly diminished since the opening of the new maternity unit in Barnstaple and on average only three beds have been occupied at any one time.
The few patients delivered in the Grenville home, the Board add, could be accommodated at Barnstaple at substantially lower cost and in a modern building.
Originally Bideford General Hospital, the Grenville became a maternity home during World War...
North Devon Infirmary12 April 1910
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.
Gazette article dated 12 April 1910