A century of service.
“A century of service to the sick and suffering was celebrated by Maitland Hospital this afternoon when the State Governor (Lord Wakehurst) unveiled a memorial tablet and opened the out-patients’ department.’”
Lord Wakehurst unveiling the commemorative plaque.
(Maitland Hospital Collection 165.71)
Lord Wakehurst inspecting the nurses’ guard of honour in the hospital grounds.
Print from a photoengraving plate, item 48, in the Maitland Hospital Collection
Hospital centenary commemorative plaque unveiled by Lord Wakehurst.
(Maitland Hospital Collection 22)
In 2021 the plaque was attached to the right of the building’s entrance.
Newspaper articles reported the event. They emphasised the origins and subsequent development of the hospital paying particular attention to the additional buildings, services and landscaping that had occurred during the previous decade, and the stalling due to the Second World War. They also published the running order for the governor’s visit and the names of attendees.
The centenary was commemorated in other ways.
Maitland Hospital centenary booklet.
(Maitland Hospital Collection 162)
Maitland City Library also has a digitised copy of the booklet.
Wooden plaque marking the location of centenary celebration records.
(Maitland Hospital Collection 29)
The plaque is now in storage. Its original location is not known and there is no record of the nature of the documents that were deposited at the time of the centenary.
Geoff Boyle holding the Maitland Hospital Centenary Board of Directors sign, 2019. (Picture: Jonathan Carroll).
(Maitland Mercury, 7 September 2019)
Geoff Boyle, son of Maitland’s late local historian Harry Boyle, contacted the Maitland Mercury when he heard that the Collected Memory project was collecting and documenting items and stories relating to the Maitland Hospital.
Geoff - who worked at the hospital for thirty years - recalled that he saved the sign from going to the rubbish tip about 25 years ago. It had fallen on the floor in the hospital’s administration wing during restoration work.