A Trip Down Memory Lane: 1945-1985

This edition covers the growth of St Joseph’s Hospice from a “modest establishment that brought comfort to the dying poor into an expansive facility for modern hospice care, education and research”.

1947

The Hospice returns to full operation after World War II. Whilst the creation of the NHS meant that many hospitals were transferred to the State, St Joseph’s retains its independent status.

1957

Our Lady’s Wing is completed at a cost of £120,000 (around £2.5m in today’s money). The pioneering design becomes a design template for future hospices being built around Britain. One feature that stood out at the time was floor-to-ceiling windows on the wards. Nurse Sister Margaret Deegan said “Patients didn’t feel closed in. They could see the people passing by on Mare Street, and the staff coming and going. They were still part of life, and that meant a lot to them.”

The exterior of Our Lady’s Wing, with it’s distinctive window design

1958

Dame Cicely Saunders arrives at St Joseph’s Hospice, where she works for 7 years, studying and researching terminal care and pain control, after which she leaves to set up St Christopher’s Hospice in Sydenham, South London.

Decades on, her work is considered the basis of modern hospice philosophy, of which much of it was inspired by her time at St Joseph’s.

Dame Cicely Saunders (1918-2005) pictured outside the Hospice

1975

A pioneering new ‘Home Care’ project is assembled: a collaboration between Macmillan, local councils and funded by the NHS, based out of the Hospice, for people with conditions that could be managed with regular visits from a specialist palliative nurse or doctor. The Home Care team cares for hundreds of people each year and by 1987 is fully made up of St Joseph’s staff.

A Home Care team meeting in the late 1970s

1979

Dr James Hanratty takes up his post as the Hospice’s first Medical Director. At the same time, the modern Hospice movement was developing, and many new Hospices were opening around the country. The movement focused on not just dying, but also living, and living well to the end, which the Hospice took on and embodies to this day.

Dr James Hanratty (1919-2013) pictured outside St Joseph’s. Dr Hanratty was described by The Times as a “Wartime naval surgeon and GP who became a pioneer of palliative care”

1984

Anne, the Duchess of Norfolk was a long-time patron of St Joseph’s Hospice. She was dedicated to supporting St Joseph’s alongside the Hospice movement, and in this year founds Help the Hospices, which is now known as Hospice UK.

In the same year, on hearing that Frank Sinatra was in London, she secures the promise that he will donate a portion of his proceeds to the Hospice from a performance at the Royal Albert Hall.

Anne, Duchess of Norfolk (1927-2013) with patient Bill 

And also in 1984, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II visits to officially open the new Norfolk Wing Education Centre and Day Hospice. The project is funded by three years of fundraising, with donations coming from businesses and trusts as well as local people.

Queen Elizabeth II meeting patients and staff after officially opening the new Norfolk Wing