The Queens Ward or Children’s ward was opened in 1898 through public subscription for the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s reign, her Diamond Jubilee. At the opening ceremony all sections of Rotherham community, rich and poor, were thanked for their contributions as the endeavour had been very well supported.
On the 5th of March in 1897 the Mayor, Alderman Neill, held a public meeting where he announced his plans to build, furnish and endow a Children’s Ward attached to Rotherham Hospital as a method of celebrating the year of importance. He claimed the success of the project was the chief feature of his mayoral year, although it was the previous mayor, Mayor Stoddart, who first raised the importance of a ward for the treatment of juveniles. The first resolution called for 12 beds. The Mayor of Rotherham found the lack of politics and religion pleasant at the meeting and hoped ‘It augured well for the success of the scheme when the Church, and Nonconformists, Liberals, Radicals, and Conservatives were united in making the effort. “For many years the need for a children’s ward in connection with the Hospital had been sorely felt” claims the Rotherham Advertiser on 26th June 1897. The necessity of catering for paediatric needs was essential for a proper and efficient institution.
The sum of £5,000 was given as the goal to achieve; £4,500 had already been raised by the Mayor’s fund, without the addition the concessions given from workmen’s wages toward a fund especially for the Children’s Ward. One of the donations came from Mr Tony Felix, he plus his circus gave a performance for the furtherance of the Mayor’s scheme for providing a Children’ Ward. The performance was attended by the Mayor, who received Mr Felix’s gift of £30, and other local dignitaries, the Town Clerk and several members of the Corporation. The performance included horsemanship shows, clowns, acrobatics, gymnastics and Albini and Rabbit “the world’s worst acrobats”.
The main celebration of the Jubilee in 1987 was the laying of the foundation stone of the New Children’s Ward. In addition there was a grand procession, which paraded through the principal streets of the town and measured a mile long. The Mayor’s speech at the jubilee ceremony celebrated the great achievements of the Victorian reign including, “The march of progress, the improvement in social life, and in everything calculated to elevate the mind, alleviate suffering, and improve the position (morally and temporally) of all classes, have steadily progressed.” He expected the Children’s Ward as one such improvement which would meet with wholehearted royal approval.
The engraved text over the door read “himself took our infirmities and bore our sickness”. The ward was built in the east end of the hospital, with provision for 14 beds and 2 additional beds in isolation. It was officially opened by Lord Scarborough before a crowd of several thousand. Friends of the hospital had helped towards giving the place attractive and making it comfortable and home-like with bright decorative pictures for the incoming patients. The paediatric department remained servicing the community until the move to the new General Hospital in 1978.
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