Siblings donate artefacts for NHS75

The children of a couple who met at the City Hospital maternity ward in the 1950s have donated to SWB to mark the 75th birthday of the NHS..

An array of fascinating artefacts including photos, nursing exercise books and Victorian medical instruments were recently discovered and donated to SWB by siblings James and Liz. These items tell the story of their parents' romance, which began in 1955 when the pair began working together on the maternity ward at City Hospital (then called Dudley Road Hospital). Nearly 70 years on, their children James and Liz came to visit the very same ward.

The artefacts date back to the 1950s and were discovered by James as he sorted through his parents’ effects. His father, Chris Garrett, a brummie, studied medicine at Birmingham Uni in the early 1950s. While carrying out paediatric training at Dudley Road Hospital he met Gwen Goodson, a midwife one year his senior, whilst observing her deliver a baby. Gwen had left school at 14, training as a nurse at 17 before entering midwifery.

Chris graduated in 1956 and James was born the year after. Gwen gave up midwifery to look after James and younger sister Liz, while Chris was conscripted and posted to Scotland to do his national service in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC). He served until his retirement in the early 1990s with the rank of Brigadier. He was also a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.

James is now looking for a use to which we could put his mother’s nursing exercise books. As part of her midwifery training, she kept notes on all her patients. His dad also had some very old Victorian doctor’s instruments, given to him by his grandfather who had been working in Sydney, Australia. He is also donating these. The donations will be part of an exhibition marking 75 years of the NHS.

She added: “If I have managed to contribute to a culture of safety, to improve, safer patient care then I am delighted. That is what I have strived for every day over my varied career, so to be recognised for that is totally fantastic. I feel at home here at SWB and give my full support to the work of the Trust, for the benefit of the patients.”