1932 HRH Princess Mary opens the Sun Pavilion
HRH Princess Mary, The Princess Royal inspecting Girl Guides before the opening ceremony
This note was enclosed with the Sun Pavilion opening photos:-
The Opening of the Sun Pavilion on 8th October 1932
The Sun Pavilion was the brain-child of Dr CR Hoskyn, who had first arrived in Rugby in 1910. He returned from the 1914-18 war as a surgeon specialising in diseases and injuries to bones and joints. His enthusiasm, imagination and enterprise inspired a surge forward in the provision of facilities for treating orthopaedics in the town. The population of Rugby had risen to 25,000 people and there were many who were needing treatment for non-respiratory Tubercular conditions, which in those days before modern medicines were available, were treated by sunlight. In 1918 Mrs Arthur-James had generously provided a wooden ward for treating Tuberculous cases but this was now falling into disrepair. New and improved facilities and a ward which would enable beds to be pushed out into the sunshine were desperately needed.
This time it was the Rugby Works fund of the B.T.H. factory which rose to the occasion. They “mortgaged the ‘Apprentice’s Rag Fund’ for twenty years and paid it off in three years!” The result was a ward that became the envy of other hospitals. Renamed Hoskyn Ward it is still the ward for orthopaedic and accident cases [1] at the Hospital of St.Cross.
In 1929 there was a Grand Bazaar and Carnival at the Hospital of St. Cross to raise money and in preparation for the Opening of the Sun Pavilion on 8th October by HRH The Princess Royal which was a great occasion for the town.
In 2021 the pavilions were demolished and replaced with fully equipped modular buildings which contain state of the art Operating Theatres
The Guard of Honour of the 7th Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment under the command of Major NJ Pugh
The Mazda Kilties who gave a performance on the lawn in front of the Sun Pavilion while the Princess Royal had tea there. They also performed that evening and at the carnival
Nursing staff arriving to form a Guard of Honour to welcome HRH Princess Mary
The Sun Pavilion in 1934 Source www.windowsonwarwickshire.org.uk