1931: Kingston Victoria Hospital Appeal Week

Letter written by a child in 1931 as part of Kingston Victoria Hospital Appeal Week. A photo of the child in black and white is featured in the bottom right corner of the page, next to a child’s drawing of a stick person. The whole letter is in black and white apart from the words ‘Appeal Week’ at the top of the page which are in red. The letter is written in capital letters and has many spelling mistakes. The letter reads: Dear everybody, I am one of those lots and lots of little kiddies who have been in the Victoria hospital. I am well and jolly again because of the patience and loving care the nurses gave to me. I was very ill but they never got tired or impatient. It’s just the same in the ward for daddies and mummies and other big people. If you are portent people there is private wards and you can pay to be lonely. I should not like it but some do. There is something to please everybody. The man who took my picture said they was worried because there was not enough money to pay the bills and the old X Ray nearly won’t work. This shows your bones when they are broke. I said I would see about it when I was better and I am better and so will you please give some money so they needn’t worry anymore and can go on making little ones and grown ups happy and well again like me. That’s me in the corner but not for being naughty. Yours hopefully, Vic. P.S. I forgot to say Thank you.
Appeal for donations to Kingston Victoria Hospital in 1931. Image courtesy of The King’s Fund under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Item viewed in London Metropolitan Archives (LMA A/KE/C/02/06/579)

This is an example of how images of patients and their personal experiences of being in hospital were used in appeals for hospital donations.

Here we have the letter of a child, appealing to the reader to donate so that the hospital can fix broken equipment and help more ’mummies’, ‘daddies’, and children.

The Kingston Victoria Hospital was a voluntary hospital opened in 1898. It had been founded by community initiative in celebration of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. The Hospital was built on land donated by the Duke of Cambridge who also opened the hospital.

Like other hospitals, until 1948, the Kingston Victoria Hospital was reliant on a mix of donations, fundraising, and gifts, as well as subscriptions, investment income, and patient payments.