| AdminHistory | The Birmingham and Midland Hospital for Women was founded in 1871, its object being 'exclusively the reception and treatment of women afflicted with disease peculiar to their sex'. The movement toward the establishment of a hospital for Women was led by Ross Jordan, Dr George Jones, Dr James Neale, and Dr Lumbley Earle and was supported by Arthur Chamberlain, Joseph Chamberlain, Dr Heslop, George Dawson, Arthur Ryland, Charles Vince, Dr Samuel Berry and Joseph Nettleford, the closure of the Birmingham Lying In Charity In-Patient department in 1867 having given the movement toward a hospital dedicated to the care of women greater force. One of the first surgeons of the institution, Robert Lawson Tait, was to become the foremost gynaecologist in the country.
At their opening in 1871 the hospital premises were located at No. 8 The Crescent, Birmingham, No. 7 being added in the following year. By 1878 a new Out-Patient department had been built at Upper Priory, those in The Crescent having become too small to accommodate it. The Upper Priory buildings continued in use until 1941, whilst the In-Patient accommodation at the Crescent was also relocated in 1878 to Stratford Road, Sparkhill.
The Women's Hospital buildings at Showell Green Lane, Sparkhill were opened in 1905 and included the adjacent Park Road Convalescent Home, known as 'Woodfield' which had opened in 1899 with accommodation for 6 patients. The Taylor Memorial Home of Rest for the terminally ill was opened at Showell Green Lane on June 11, 1910 and moved to The Grange at Erdington in 1948. It commemorated a former Senior Surgeon of the hospital, Professor John William Taylor, who was also Professor of Gynaecology at the University of Birmingham and President of the British Gynaecological Society. The Gertrude Myers Convalescent Home at Cleeve Prior was given to the hospital by Mrs Adolph Myers and Mr Leopold Myers in 1913. [Annual reports of the Gertrude Myers Home, 1913-1943, are located in the Local Studies and History department.]
The operation of the Women's Hospital was overseen by a Board of Governors and managed by Management Committee which, in its turn, superintended a House Committee. From 1911 the Women's Hospital Management Committee assumed responsibility for the general and financial administration of Loveday Street Maternity Hospital. In 1948 the Birmingham and Midland Hospital for Women became one of the constituent hospitals of the United Birmingham and Midlands Hospitals for Women after the passing of the National Health Service Act. |