John Passmore Edwards

Tilbury Cottage Hospital

History

The Ladies Linen League was formed in 1924 by local ladies to provide and maintain the linen and garments of the Hospital whilst the Dreadnought Ladies League raised funds for materials used in the wards. The Duke of York also laid the foundation stone for the new buildings which were of a "modern" concrete construction, with "metal window frames", constructed on concrete rafts due to the poor loadbearing capabilities of the land. The roofs were of red concrete tiles. Two new wards, of 22 beds each, and a nurses home were constructed, as well as updating the hospital equipment, at a cost of about £30,000. The Hospital was later to be known, locally, as the "concrete hospital". The original building retained the name of the Passmore Edwards Ward.
In July 1932, "The Grays and Tilbury Gazette and South Essex Pictorial Telegraph" contained a report on the financial pressures that faced the Hospital during the depression and called for renewed local support and assistance to continue the work of the concrete hospital.
The hospital survived the depression years and continue under the management of the Society until the formation of the National Health Service, in 1948, when the hospital was taken over by the South East Essex Hospital Management Committee, serving the then Urban Districts of Billericay and Thurrock, being then the only hospital for acute surgical cases in the committee's area. In 1950 it became Tilbury branch of Tilbury and Riverside General Hospital (combining Tilbury and Orsett Hospitals), and as such recognized as a general training school for nurses. In 1953 the Orsett Hospital was chosen in preference to the Tilbury Hospital as the main hospital for Thurrock area. Inpatient work transferred to Orsett Hospital 1969.
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© Dean Evans 2004

February 16, 2007