Parramatta District Hospital
By Mr. T. D. Little, Secretary (1889 to date of writing in 1911)
Parramatta District Hospital has an honorable record, and both medical officers and committeemen consider it an honor to be associated with the old institution.
The original hospital was built by Governor Macquarie, in the year 1817, and was known as the Colonial Hospital, afterwards as the Civil and Military Hospital. It was built to accommodate about fifty patients, but in the year 1819, during an outbreak of typhus fever, as many as ninety-five patients were admitted. In the old building strong iron bars were let into the window sills, so that prisoners patients could not escape, and these bars remained in place till the old building was demolished. The old bricks bore the mark of the broad arrow, and throughout it was reminiscent of the convict days. Time and again there have come similar reminders, even nearly a century later, when, on several occasions, whilst cultivating the garden plot, the gardener has unearthed here and there a pair of leg-irons.
Grim iron days, these, my readers - days when a man with a gun stood beside the bed of the pain-racked patient. No gentle nurse, of whom the patient could say -
Oh! let but once a pang prevail,
A limb be rack'd, or cheek grow pale;
Let the wild torture of disease
Deny to heart and head their ease;
Let Sorrow once her frown impress
On Life's uncertain happiness, -
Then, scorner of the sex! Advance,
And learn the power of Pity's glance,
The tender might of woman's gaze,
Unweaken'd by tormented days!
Through hours of blackness, when the mind
Seems prostrate, wreck'd, and unresign'd,
How potent is her pleading eye,
How suasive her devoted sigh!
One look does more than man could say,
And each word wafts a pang away!
The hospital remained a Government institution till the year 1846, and in that year, in response to a memorial from the people of Parratta, it was handed over to the inhabitants of the town and district, and, from the 69th of April of that year, when the first committee was elected, it has been known as the Parramatta and District Hospital.
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| Committee, Medical and Nursing Staff of the Parramatta District Hospital 1911 |
Reading from Left to Right -
Standing: Mr. Peter Morgan, Nurse D. Wearne, Mr. H. W. Meggitt, Very Rev. T. O'Reilly P.P., Messrs. T. D. Little, G. T. Erby, J. Arundel, C. Summons, Nurses I. Dawson, E. Emmott and E. Samuels.
Sitting: Dr. W. S. Brown, Dr. J. Kearney, Mr. C. J. Byrnes, Mr. H. B. Cowper (President), Miss E. Fuller (Matron), Mr. W. W. Bodenham, Dr. E. Cuthbert Hall.
Front Row: Nurses M. Brown, L. Kidd, P. Trayhurn and L. Alkin.
Following are the names of the first committee: - H. H. Macarthur, M.L.C.; G. Elliott, J.P.; Dr Anderson; J. Blaxland, J.P.; G. B. Suttor, J.P.; N. S. Lawson, J.P.; and Messrs. J. Edrop; J. Houison, J. Brynes, G. Oakes, J. Hamilton, J. McKay, and S. Phillips.
We note that even in those days there was a liberal sprinkling of J's.P. on the committee. Today the sprinkling is the other way, for the majority of the members of the committee are magistrates - nine out of fifteen.
When one glances at the names of the first committee he looks for links to connect the past with the present. J. Byrnes was the father of one of the present trustees - Mr. C. J. Byrnes, J. P.; H. H. Macarthur was the grandfather of Mrs. W. S. Brown, wife of one of the present medical officers, Dr. W. S. Brown. These are the only two direct links that we know of, but still there are other links worth mentioning. In the year 1852 Dr. R. C. Rutter, grand-father of matron Rutter, was elected medical officer. In the year 1850 Mr. George Oakes was elected president, and in the year 1896 his grandson, Mr. A. I. Oakes, was one of the architects for the new hospital, the present structure. In the year 1860 Mr. Edmund Mason was on the committee and acted for 28 years. His son, Mr. Harry Mason, is now acting. Dr. Isaac Waugh first joined the medical staff in 1874, and acted either as medical officer or honorary consulting medical officer for about 35 years. His son, Dr. R. Phipps Waugh, is now a member of the honorary medical staff. Dr. Walter Brown was associated with the hospital for about 40 years, and Archdeacon Gunther from 1868 to 1911 - a period of 33 years. The latter gentleman occupied the position of president, off and on, for 20 years. These are honorable and lengthy associations, and only lately did the Ven. Archdeacon pay a tribute to the management, when he resigned, by saying that he knew of no institution that was better conducted, and where greater harmony prevailed.
The hospital still boasts of committeemen who may be looked upon as antiquities, Dr. Bowman, and Messrs. A. E. Marsden and T. D. Little have acted on the committee for twenty-five years continously, and Drs. W. S. Brown and Jas. Kearney are getting on towards twenty years.
Here is another record which, perhaps is unique in the history of committees: During my 22 years' occupancy of the position of Secretary, not a single meeting has lapsed for want of a quorum.
Following is a list of those who have occupied the position of President: -
1848 - Matthew Anderson
1849 - Gilbert Elliott
1850 to 1856 - George Oakes
1857 - Dr. Greenup
1858 to 1860 - George Oakes
1861 - Rev. W. F. Gore
1862 to 1867 - Rev. R. L. King
1868 - Hon. James Byrnes
1869 to 1873 - T. W. Bowden
1874 to 1891 - Rev. W. J. Gunther
1892 - W. W. Bodenham
1893 - A. E. Marsden
1894 - E. J. Love
1895, 1896 and 1897 - Archdeacon Gunther
1898 - W. W. Bodenham
1899 to 1903 - Dr. Reginald Bowman
1904 - Dr. W. Sigismund Brown
1905, 1906, and 1907 - Dr. James Kearney
1908 - Dr. Reginald Bowman
1909 - W. Swann
1910 - Dr. E. Cuthbert Hall
1911 - Harington B. Cowper
The Hospital at present has accommodation for 38 patients. There are four general wards - male and female medical, and male and female surgical, each with seven beds. There there are two small infectious wards containing two beds each, four private wards, and a semi-private ward with two beds.
The medical staff consists of Drs. R. Bowman; W. S. Brown; James Kearney; E. Cuthbert Hall; R. Phipps Waugh; and K. Whiting, the latter at present filling the post of outdoor medical officer.
Last year 328 patients were treated indoors, and 928 out-patients received attention.
Miss E. Fuller, who was trained at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, fills the post of matron, and she has a staff of seven nurses to assist her.
Upkeep of the hospital costs £2400 annually.
Following is a list of the officers for the year 1911: President, Mr. Harington B. Cowper; Vice-presidents, the Very Rev. T. O'Reilly, Drs. Bowman, Brown, Kearney and Hall, and Mr. P. Morgan; Committee, Dr. R. Phipps Waugh, and Messrs. J. Arundel, H. Mason, G. T. Erby, C. Summons, and H. W. Meggitt; Hon. Treasurer, Mr. A. E. Marsden; Secretary, Mr. T. D. Little; Auditors, Messrs. G. Coates, jun., and F. A. Macqueen; Hon. Solicitor, Mr. J. E. Bowden; Trustees, Messrs. C. J. Byrnes, Alban Gee, W. W. Bodenham, and Drs. Bowman and Brown.
1. Dr. K. Whiting
2. Mr. A. E. Marsden
3. Dr. R. Phipps Waugh
4. Mr. Henry Mason
Provenance: "The Jubilee History of Parramatta". In Commemoration of the First Half-Century of Municipal Government, 1861-1911. Edited by J. Cheyne Wharton.
Author: Edited by J. Cheyn Wharton
Date of Publication: 1911
Publisher: Thomas D. Little and Richard Stewart Richardson, The Cumberland Argus Printing Works
Place of Publishing: Parramatta, New South Wales
Copyright status: This work is out of copyright
Courtesy: University of California Libraries via the Archive Org.
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