Yeovil Hospitals - General dispensary
YEOVIL general dispensary
Yeovil's precursor 'hospital', 1858-1872
We really don't know much about the first 'hospital' in Yeovil. As early as 1693, the Churchwardens' Accounts show an entry of payment of £2 13s 4d for "Hospitall Money for Maimed Souldiers" although there is no indication that the hospital was actually in Yeovil or it was simply part of a nationwide 'collection'.
The Yeovil General Dispensary, a precursor to later Yeovil hospitals, was instituted in March 1858 at the suggestion of Dr Elias Taylor Warry. It was housed in a cottage at No 1 Park Way, Kingston. It was later removed to the other side of Kingston, at No 38, and part of Kingston School was later built on the site of that house.
Dr Warry was born in West Coker in 1802 but by 1861 was living in Princes Street with his wife Mary, daughter Mary, a servant and a groom. In a letter to the editor of the Western Flying Post of 31 January 1860, Dr Warry extolled the virtues of the Yeovil Dispensary as follows -
" Sir,
You will oblige
me by inserting
in your paper
the accompanying
report of the
income and
expenditure of
the Yeovil
Dispensary for
the past year,
ending 31
December 1859.
You will observe
I have a balance
in hand of £7
16s 8d. The
number of
patients treated
during the past
year amounts to
273 which
number, added to
those admitted
since the
establishment of
the dispensary
in March 1857,
makes altogether
888. Many of
these having
attended several
times, the
actual number of
attendance
amounts to 1900.
Sufficient proof
is that given of
the successful
working of the
charity to
encourage me to
persevere in my
efforts in its
behalf. I trust
therefore
ultimately to
receive much
more
encouragement
from the
affluent and
charitable in
the Town of
Yeovil, than I
have hitherto
received. My
desire is to
make the
dispensary in
every way
efficient, but
also quite free,
and this can
only be done by
increased
professional
assistance,
which I shall be
but too pleased
to obtain, and
extended
pecuniary aid;
thus the entire
labour which now
falls upon
myself, might be
distributed
amongst others
as well, and a
most useful and
excellent
charity might be
more effectually
organised and
carried out,
which would tend
to the benefit
of the poor of
the town and
neighbourhood.
You will observe
that I have
received during
the past year a
donation of £5
5s 0d towards
the funds of the
charity. This,
together with
increased
subscriptions,
has enabled me
since the
closing of the
account, to
dispense with
the payments of
the patients
themselves on
their first
attendance,
which last year
amounted to £5 a
13s 10d.
I remain Sir,
yours truly
ET Warry, MD and
FRCS Exam."
Associated with Doctor Warry at the Dispensary were Dr Russell Aldridge and Dr W Ford Bennet. Dr Bennet had been a military surgeon during the Crimean War (1853-1856) and worked at Scutari Hospital with Florence Nightingale. William Alfred Hunt became the Surgeon-Dentist to the General Dispensary in 1869, and later to the Fiveways Hospital.
The regulations pertaining to patients of the Dispensary are quite interesting (especially the last three!) and reproduced below.
Dr Warry died on 16 September 1866 in Sidmouth, Devon, aged 64. The Yeovil General Dispensary carried on after his death but was rapidly outgrowing the facilities at Kingston. A plot of land at Fiveways was purchased for £410 in 1868 as the site of a new hospital. When the new hospital opened in 1872, the Yeovil General Dispensary was closed.
gallery
The Regulations for Patients.
The medical report of 1869 outlining the number and types of cases dealt with at the Dispensary.