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254 HISTORY OF EAST GRINSTEAD.
the result that Mr. Smith offered the holiday home and the land surrounding it absolutely free of cost for the purposes of a hospital. At that time the whole country was being moved to erect memorials to the late Queen Victoria, and the committee thought it a grand opportunity to associate such a memorial with the new hospital, and at a public meeting held on March 28th it was unanimously decided that the memorial to Queen Victoria should take the form of a new cottage hospital, and that Mr. Smith's munificent offer should be gratefully accepted.
Plans for altering the building were got out by Mr. H. E. Mathews, Mr. H. Young's tender to do the work for £2,345 was accepted, and in September, 1901, the work was commenced. In May, 1902, Mr. Abe Bailey, of Yewhurst, gave £1,000 in memory of his late wife, and this practically freed the committee from serious financial worry. The land in Imberhorne Lane was subsequently sold to Mr. Alan Stenning, from whom it had originally been bought, and the old hospital in London Road to Mr. W. H. Hills. The total cost of adapting the Queen's Road " cottage hospital" and contingent expenses came to £3,276, and after it was paid for nearly £300 remained in hand, a result not often achieved in connection with public institutions. It was opened for use on October 15th, 1902.
THE GENERAL DISPENSARY.
In August, 1858, a movement was set on foot to establish a Dispensary in East Grinstead, and after a few preliminary meetings two rooms were taken at the house now occupied in the High Street, and the institution was started on September 30th of the year named, 11 patients being treated the first day. The first meeting of subscribers had been held on September 23rd, the Honble. and Rev. Reginald W. Sackville West (afterwards 7th Earl De la Warr) being in the chair, but it is to Mr. Henry H. Kennedy, then tenant of Saint Hill, that the institution really owes its existence. At this meeting the late Mr. J. H. Rogers, of Green Hedges, proffered his gratuitous |
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