Marlow Cottage Hospital was originally in Cambridge Road. In 1890 the nurse matron was Mary Anne Cole, born in London 1857-61 depending on which census you believe. Her gravestone however says she was 83 on her death in 1937! The nurse most involved with setting up the hospital in the first place was Nurse Cassidy, (Cassaidy) very much a Marlow Hero in her own right and subject of a later biography on this blog. (Find it here) She had also come from Reading Hospital, like Mary.
The Marlow hospital generally had between 2 and 6 patients staying there at any one time (with children much over represented). Mary had a live in maidservant to help with domestic tasks like preparing the patient's food and a visiting charwoman. On the 1901 census there was another nurse too but later records show none, at least not as a round the clock presence. In 1904 the assistant nurse was a probationer and only went out on visits if with Mary. Trained assistants came and went, but Mary stayed put.
Half a dozen patients may not seem like much trouble for an experienced nurse but Mary's job was much more onerous that it seems. As well as inpatients there was day patients who came to have wounds dressed and as many as 100 outpatients with ongoing cases at any one time which Mary was expected to visit at home.
Each week one of the local surgeons was the duty doctor (surgeons being the main doctors the public consulted even if they were not a surgical case. Standard physicians were not that common) but though they attended the patients as needed they were not actually physically on the premises most of the time.
When surgery was necessary, Mary assisted in the preparations for it. In 1894 a young man, William Soley, had what appeared to be a reaction to anaesthetic during an operation for testicular cancer and died. Mary gave evidence in the subsequent inquest which found the surgeons were not to blame.
Each week one of the local wealthy ladies was the official hospital visitor who would come to talk to and distract the patients. The same sort of women were frequent donors of food and necessaries for those patients. Mary put out appeals in the local press and grapevine when a patient would benefit from a particular food or item. She organised Christmas presents for all the children in the hospital.
Money was always an issue for a subscriber funded hospital. There were collection boxes at the hospital but as most of the patients were poor there was not necessarily much in them.
Only through the extraordinary efforts of Mary above all, but also the other staff performing individually the jobs of several people, did the hospital manage (usually) to stay out of debt and in operation.
In 1913, as a thank you for her efforts and the much greater sum she had saved them, the subscribers voted to give Nurse Cole a honorarium of £10 on top of her usual salary. This gift was often repeated.
Back in 1909 subscribers had already acknowledged that she was risking her own health by continual overwork. Several probationer nurses employed at different times to assist her quit in a matter of months, partially due to the stress and burden of their much easier roles.
One of the key problems for Mary was that the hospital building had such steep stairs to run up and down all day.
The laundry and food preparation areas were not fit for purpose either, and there was only one bed that could be used as an isolation bed for those with a contagious disease.
The popularity of holding events in nearby Crown Meadow caused unwelcome noise disturbance for patients whose lives hung in jeopardy, medical staff said.
If you are wondering why anyone would build so unsuitable a hospital the answer is that they didn't. It was built as a pub and was in use as a domestic dwelling before the hospital took over occupation. At the time the hospital was started, that property was what was on offer. You take what you can get sometimes!
The 1895 extension of an operating theatre and additional ward had improved patient experience but done little to improve the difficult working conditions for the staff as described above.
The hospital's subscribers must have known how lucky they were to have such a dedicated woman as Mary in charge.
Nevertheless things couldn't continue as they were. It was understood a new more spacious, better designed and better staffed hospital was needed. Unfortunately like most Marlow building projects it was not straightforward and beset by disagreements. After a site was found hopes were high but delays set in and it was thought unlikely there would be a new hospital after all. The medical staff had had enough. No new hospital, they said, then no medical staff for your old one because we can't do it any more.
The new hospital went ahead.
Mary deservedly retired in 1915, hopefully feeling that the hospital patients were going to be in safe hands.
You can read about the forerunners to the hospital and the first Matron Mary Ann Cassidy here
And a detailed post about life in the hospital under Matron Cole here and some of the patients treated there here
More about the Cottage Hospital and the move to Glade Rd site here
Biography of hospital doctor Dr John Dunbar Dickson here
Other medical related posts:
Call the Apothecary here
Benjamin Atkinson, surgeon here
Midwife Sarah Price here
Mary's grave in Marlow Cemetery. She died December 25th 1937 age 83.
Look at Biographies Of Individuals on the menu for more posts like this.
See:
South Bucks Standard 9th June 1913, 25th June 1909. Copies at the British Library, accessible via the BNA. Accessed August 2020.
Census 1901 FamilySearch International, Intellectual Reserve, from the LDS. Accessed July 2019.
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Thanks to Jane Pullinger for additional information from her family.
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A more detailed post on other medical professionals from Marlow will be published in the near future.
©Marlow Ancestors.