One of our best feelings … charity.
The Maitland Hospital Collection has a fold away sign that was used by the Maitland Branch of the United Hospital Auxiliaries. It stands as a reminder of the long history of volunteering that has benefitted, and continues to benefit, Maitland Hospital. It is a history that dates back to the foundation of the hospital.
The sign is significant as a reminder of the long history of volunteering that has benefitted, and continues to benefit, Maitland Hospital.
Right: Display sign for Maitland Branch of the United Hospital Auxiliaries.
(Maitland Hospital Collection 291)
Maitland Hospital had its origins in the 1840s as a charitable institution providing temporary health care and facilities for those who could not afford to pay for these services. It depended on goodwill within the community, fundraising campaigns, and individuals and groups who volunteered their time and skills.
Members of the hospital committee gave their time, skills, networks and sometimes money to assist the hospital. So too did local medical practitioners. These were all men.
As importantly, but less noticed, were the local women who, from early in the history of the hospital, organised events, raised funds and assisted at times with patients.
Newspaper articles surrounding a bazaar held in May 1845 to raise funds for the Maitland Hospital, highlight how women of the time were cast as ‘helpmates’ while illustrating their skills and productivity. The description of the bazaar also resonates as a familiar form of fundraising.
Maitland Mercury, 12 April 1845, 26 April 1845, 31 May 1845.
Throughout the nineteenth and into the early twentieth century, newspaper reports continue to capture the regular contributions of women in assisting to raise funds, donate goods and services, and generally volunteer their time and skills. The women involved were frequently the wives and daughters of men who served on the hospital committee. Occasionally their contributions were given recognition beyond the mention in newspaper and hospital reports.
Postcard advertising the new 1905 Maitland hospital building with a photograph of Elizabeth St Vincent Heyes as the centrepiece, c1906.
(Maitland Hospital Collection 15)
The caption at the bottom of the postcard reads: ‘Maitland New Hospital, NSW. These four wards have been furnished complete with everything up-to-date, through the efforts of Mrs R. St V. Heyes, who was two years doing this work, which includes sewing for 14 patients and 14 beds in the male surgical ward. She was also instrumental in sending over 800 comforts to our wounded soldiers in hospital on the battlefield during the late South African war. The Committee of this hospital say her name deserves to be handed down to prosperity as '“an Australian Florence Nightingale”’.
Elizabeth Heyes was the wife of Hospital Committee member Rodolph Heyes.
In the twentieth century a Maitland Hospital Auxiliary was formed. This eventually morphed into the ‘Pink Ladies’ and then, from about 2010, Maitland Hospital Volunteers – the latter now include men.
Over the years the volunteers have inventively and in diverse ways raised money and provided assistance for the hospital. The following examples provide a small sample of the work done and the people involved.
‘Maitland Women’s Hospital Auxiliary members who make sewing for the hospital part of their work’, Maitland Mercury, 1938.
Maitland Hospital Yearbook, 1939, p.5.
(Newcastle Region Library, Local Studies Collection)
Maitland Mercury, 31 May 1972.
Maitland Mercury, 16 October 1985.
Maitland Mercury, 16 October 1991.
(Maitland and District Historical Society, pamphlet files)
Maitland Mercury, 28 December 1994.
(Maitland and District Historical Society, pamphlet files)
Maitland Mercury, 23 January 1997.
(Maitland and District Historical Society, pamphlet files)
Maitland Mercury, 30 September 2004.
(Maitland and District Historical Society, pamphlet files)
Maitland Mercury, 7 February 2007.
(Maitland and District Historical Society, pamphlet files)
Maitland Hospital Volunteers a work, 2020-2021. (Catharine Neilson)
Leniece Trotter, Intensive Care Nursing Unit Manager, with rugs made by the Maitland Hospital Volunteers, January 2021.
(Catharine Neilson)
Leniece explains:
If someone is passing away or in the end stages of life, being draped in white sheets and blankets is very sterile. Some of the volunteers were making these to add a bit of colour and to make the space a little more homely. It was a bit of a hit actually. Within a month we ran out, and we ran out again.
For more photographs by Catharine Neilson capturing the volunteers at work and the volunteers’ base in the old Maitland hospital, visit Volunteers 2021.