Statute Law Repeals - Law Commission - Ministry of Justice

Waterford Infirmary
1.64 The Waterford Infirmary Act 1896 83 provided that the Leper Hospital of St
Stephen in the city of Waterford should be converted into the public general
infirmary for the county of Waterford. Following a decision to centralise health
services in Ardkeen, the infirmary closed in 1987 and its buildings are today used
for residential accommodation. This closure means that the 1896 Act has
become unnecessary.
Waterford Schools
1.65 The purpose of the Waterford and Bishop Foy Endowed Schools Act 1902 84 was
to amalgamate several schools near the city of Waterford. 85 The schools were
amalgamated into two new schools. One was a primary school called the Mason
and Lady Lane Incorporated School. The other was a secondary school called
the Bishop Foy’s School. Both schools now having ceased to exist, the 1902 Act
is now unnecessary. 86
GROUP 14 – GENERAL REPEALS
Hospital for Poor French Protestants
1.66 The French persecution of Protestants from the mid-16 th century resulted in large
numbers of Protestant refugees (later known as Huguenots) seeking shelter in
England. In 1708 one Jacques de Gastigny left £1000 in his will to benefit the
refugees living in the London parish of St Giles Cripplegate. In 1718 George I
granted a Royal Charter incorporating “The Governor and Directors of the
Hospital for Poor French Protestants and their Descendants, residing in Great
Britain” and empowering this newly-formed corporation to buy, hold and take on
lease land with an annual value not exceeding £500. 87 The gift together with this
Charter enabled the opening in 1718 of the Hospital for Poor French Protestants
in Bath Street in the parish of St Luke’s, Finsbury. 88
1.67 The French Hospital, also known as La Providence, was an immediate success
and had provided a home for 125 residents by 1723. It moved from Bath Street in
1865 to Victoria Park in nearby Hackney, moving again after the Second World
War to Horsham. Since 1960 the French Hospital has been settled in Rochester
(Kent) and today provides 60 self-contained sheltered flats for people of French
Protestant descent.
83 59 & 60 vict. c.xxii.
84 2 Edw.7 c.xxxv.
85 The schools amalgamated by the 1902 Act were Bishop Foy’s School, the Diocesan
School, the Mason Blue School Waterford and the Lady Lane Infant and Girls’ School.
86 The Bishop Foy’s School closed in 1967. The exact date of closure of the Mason and Lady
Lane Incorporated School is not known.
87 This 1718 Charter was varied by a supplemental Charter in 1953.
88 Bath Street today is near the junction of Old Street and City Road, a little to the north of the
City of London. The term “hospital” is used in the ancient sense of meaning a charitable
institution for the housing and maintenance of the needy, aged or infirm.
85