Statute Law Repeals - Law Commission - Ministry of Justice

Bournemouth Hospitals
1.94 The Charity Commission scheme confirmed by the Bournemouth Hospital
Scheme Confirmation Act 1913 127 provided for the joint administration of two
hospital charities in the Bournemouth area. Under this scheme the two hospitals,
the Royal Victoria 128 and the Royal Boscombe and West Hants, 129 were to be
managed under the title of the Royal Victorian and West Hants Hospitals
Bournemouth. The object of the charities was the provision and maintenance of a
hospital or hospitals for the accommodation and relief of the sick and poor
resident in Bournemouth and the surrounding districts. The scheme provided for
the appointment of trustees (in whom the assets of the charities were vested) and
for the appointment of governors to run the hospitals.
1.95 The arrangements set up by the scheme became unnecessary when these
hospitals became absorbed by the National Health Service in 1948. 130 Moreover
both hospitals have since closed. The Royal Victoria Hospital was converted to
luxury apartments in or around 2002 and the Royal Boscombe and West Hants
Hospital was demolished in 1992 to make way for new housing. Accordingly both
the 1913 Act and the scheme that it confirmed are now unnecessary.
Lucas’s Hospital
1.96 The Reverend Henry Lucas (1610-1663) was MP for Cambridge University in the
1640s. By his will dated 11 June 1663 he left a legacy of about £7000 for the
erection and endowment of a hospital 131 or almshouse for the relief of poor
elderly men and for employing a chaplain as Master of the hospital. The men
were to be chosen from the poorest inhabitants of the Forest Division of
Berkshire and surrounding areas. The original hospital was built in Wokingham,
Berkshire in 1666. 132 In 1675 the Drapers Company of the City of London took
over the trusteeship of the hospital charity. The hospital building gradually
became unsuited to its primary function as an almshouse, and in 1999 it was sold
to provide a more suitable site. Pursuant to a Charity Commission scheme made
in July 2002, the charity was merged with the Whiteley Homes Trust. In 2003
sixteen double cottages (known as the Henry Lucas Cottages) were built in
Whiteley Village near Walton-on-Thames in Surrey to provide accommodation for
32 persons of limited means in accordance with the spirit of Henry Lucas’ original
endowment.
127 3 & 4 Geo.5 c.clxxv.
128
The Royal Victoria Hospital opened in 1890 and was situated in Poole Road,
Bournemouth.
129 The Royal Boscombe and West Hants Hospital opened in 1876 as the Boscombe
Provident Dispensary and was situated in Shelley Road and Ashley Road, Boscombe.
130 By virtue of the National Health Service Act 1946, s 6 and the National Health Service
(Appointed Day) Order 1948 (SI 1948 No 112) all voluntary hospitals (including the 1913
scheme hospitals) and all hospitals belonging to local authorities were (with certain
exceptions) transferred to and vested in the Minister of Health on 5 July 1948.
131 The word ‘hospital’ is used in the ancient sense of meaning a charitable institution for the
housing and maintenance of the needy, aged or infirm.
132 Letters patent dated 18 January 1667 regulated the operation of the hospital and
constituted the Corporation of the Master and Brethren of the Hospital of Wokingham.
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