Annual report : 1937 / Royal Cornwall Infirmary.

  • Royal Cornwall Infirmary.
Date:
1937
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report : 1937 / Royal Cornwall Infirmary. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The Royal Cornwall Infirmary is the oldest Voluntary Hospital in the County, and owes its inception to the public spirit of Lord de Dunstanville (Sir Francis Basset), whose memory is perpetuated by a bust in the vestibule of the Hospital and by an obelisk on Carn Brea. Lord de Dunstanville called meetings at Camborne, Redruth and Truro. It was decided to build a Hospital at Truro, and the Cornwall General Infirmary was opened on August 12th, 1799, with twenty beds. fn 1800 the income was ^792, the expenditure ^830, and forty seven patients were admitted. A few years later the Leper Hospital of St. Laurence de Ponteboye at Bodmin (a foundation incorporated under a charter by Queen Elizabeth in 1582) was no longer required, and was closed by an order of the Court of Chancery at the instance of Lord de Dunstanville. The property, a farm of fifty-four acres, was transferred to the Cornwall Infirmary, and was held until 1920, when it was sold and the money invested. The stone tablet on one of the buildings of the Leper Hospital was placed in the entrance of the Infirmary, and reads as follows : — “Richard Carter of St..Columb, merchant, by his will and testament in 1582 did give £10 which sum by the consent of his executors we have employed towards the making of this house in year 1586, whose charitable and rare example in our time, God grant many to follow here¬ after. The first President was Sir William Lemon, and the first Treasurer Mr. Francis Enys. The first apothecary and secretary Mr. Bull, served the Hospital for fifty-five years. His portrait, with that of several physicians and surgeons who were on the staff many years, hangs in the Board Room. Mr. Bull’s sister was Matron from 1854 to 1869. The list of Presidents contains the names of almost every well-known Cornish family. George, Prince of Wales, was the first patron, but in 1822 the Hospital was known as the Cornwall General Infirmary, and was under the Patronage of King George IV. There is no record as to when the title of the Hospital was changed to Royal Cornwall Infirmary. At this date the medical staff consisted of two physicians, two visiting and two consulting surgeons, and a surgeon apothecary or house surgeon. The list of rules and regulations then published is inter¬ esting. For some unknown reason no dropsical patient or domestic servant was to be admitted, unless the latter was
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