THE ROBERT JONES AND AGNES HUNT

ORTHOPAEDIC HOSPITAL

Our Beginnings

Dates in the History of the Hospital and its Founders

1857 28 June. Robert Jones born in Rhyl, North Wales.

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1867 31 December. Agnes Gwendoline Hunt born at Boreatton Park, Baschurch, Shropshire.

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1891 Agnes Hunt qualifies as a nurse at the Salop Infirmary, Shrewsbury.

1900 1st October. Florence House, Baschurch opens as a convalescent home for children, with Agnes Hunt and Emily Goodford as superintendents.

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1903 Agnes Hunt consults Liverpool orthopaedic surgeon Robert Jones about her painful hip condition.

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1904 Robert Jones becomes Honorary Surgeon to the Baschurch Home.

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1916 The Baschurch Home becomes an Auxiliary Military Hospital.

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1917 Robert Jones receives a knighthood.

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1918 Official inauguration of the After Care scheme for discharged patients.

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1918 Agnes Hunt receives the award of the Royal Red Cross.

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1920 First patients transferred from Baschurch to a new hospital site at Park Hall, near Oswestry.

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1921 5th August. Official opening of the Shropshire Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry.

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1926 Agnes Hunt is created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

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1927 Agnes Hunt founds the Derwen Cripples' Training College.

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1933 14 January. Sir Robert Jones dies at the age of 75.

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1933 The Shropshire Orthopaedic Hospital is renamed The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital.

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1935 £100,000 Appeal launched to rebuild the hospital and provide an endowment for the Derwen.

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1939 The hospital is registered under the Ministry of Health Emergency Medical Service to take military patients.

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1948 27 January. A fire starting in the dispensary destroys half the hospital.

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1948 5 July. The hospital is incorporated into the National Health Service.

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1948 24 July. Dame Agnes Hunt dies at the age of 80.

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1948 September-October. An outbreak of typhoid infection among patients and staff results in 116 clinical cases, including seven deaths.

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1952 Official opening of four new wards to replace those lost in the fire of 1948.

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1961 Foundation of the League of Friends.

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1965 Opening of the Charles Salt Research Centre.

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1966 Establishment of the Midlands Centre for Spinal Injuries.

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1971 Opening of the Institute of Orthopaedics.

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1975 Establishment of the Orthotic Research and Locomotor Assessment Unit.

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1978 Appointment of the first Professor of Orthopaedics based at Oswestry.

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1987 Official opening of the Centre for Spinal Studies.

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1991 Completion of the £7 million operating theatres and ward block.

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1994 1 April. The hospital becomes a self-governing National Health Service Trust. Its name is changed to The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic and District Hospital NHS Trust.

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1996 Opening of the Leopold Muller Arthritis Research Centre.

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2000 1 October. The hospital celebrates the centenary of its foundation.

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2001 Official opening of the rebuilt Midlands Centre for Spinal Injuries.

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2005 Opening of a new therapeutic swimming pool, the Pennill Pool, for which the League of Friends raised £1.3 million.

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2008 Opening of the Musculoskeletal Tumour Unit.

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2008 Transfer of existing children’s diagnostic and research services to the newly-built TORCH Centre, dedicated to the comprehensive assessment of children with mobility problems.

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2011 1 August. The hospital becomes a National Health Service Foundation Trust.

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Sources
1. Carter, Marie. Healing & Hope: 100 years of ‘The Orthopaedic’. Oswestry: The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic and District Hospital NHS Trust, 2000
2. Communic@te: monthly staff newsletter, 2001 onwards

© The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic and District Hospital NHS Trust August 2011