It was in the summer of 1925 amid celebrations of a kind now long forgotten – the streamers, bunting, flags, flowers and cheering crowds variety – that Watford Peace Memorial Hospital was opened by Princess Mary.

This year [1975] all the wings of Watford General Hospital will be taking part in plans to mark the golden anniversary.

But it is unlikely people today will ever match the tremendous enthusiasm that abounded 50 years ago.

The official opening of the £1 million maternity wing on the Shrodells site in July 1968, for instance, which saw the end of the old King Street maternity home, was a ceremony attended by 150 guests – a mere handful compared with the number attending the opening ceremony on June 24, 1925, for the town's Peace Memorial.

The idea for a Watford and District Peace Memorial hospital originated in 1917, a year before the end of the First World War, when the chairman of the general committee of Watford District Hospital, E Henry Loyd, asked what more fitting memorial could there be than a new up-to-date hospital.

Two men, Arthur Kingham and Stanley J Attenborough, wrote to the Urban Council chairman, R.A. Thorpe, and suggested Watford people should be asked to subscribe to such a project “in gratitude of the heroism of those who fought the nation’s just cause to save the country from invasion.”

They said they had been able to buy four acres of land with a 400ft frontage to Rickmansworth Road for £1,400 which together with a subscription of £500 towards a bulding fund and £50 towards expenses for launching the appeal, they would give to set the ball rolling.

They thought the hospital, with 60 to 70 beds, would cost between £20,000 and £25,000. How wrong they were...

Two or three months later, the special committee formed for the purpose, under the chairmanship of the Earl of Clarendon, had a setback which has all the hallmarks of a modern situation. Land rights of adjoining owners were involved, so Mr Kingham and Mr Attenborough chipped in with cheques for £1,000 each, and a site sub-committee was formed.

In February 1919, it was able to report it had secured for £12,500 an option on The Elms, a house at the junction of the High Street and Hempstead Road. Some 10 acres were involved.

The Urban Council jumped at the chance to secure the corner site and it was settled that the five-acre paddock fronting 300 feet to Rickmansworth Road, at £5,000, would do admirably for the hospital purposes.

With the help of the Red Cross Society, the ground was bought in 1920.
“The money came in splendidly,” states a Watford Observer account of the venture at the time of the opening. But it was not until 1923 that building work began.

And it was to be much dearer than they had at first supposed. The lowest tender, from Wycombe firm G. Biggs and Sons, was more than £65,000.

For an instant the committee were daunted, doubting whether they were “justified in incurring the liability,” but when the Board of Guardians, who were looking for accommodation, offered £9,500 for Watford District Hospital in Vicarage Road, they found courage to proceed.

The Duke and Duchess of York were not able to lay the foundation stone in July 1923, so the Mayor, who happened to be the Earl of Clarendon, did the job instead. His mother had laid the foundation stone for the district hospital 38 years previously. The occasion was damp, and took place in heavy rain with the aid of a tent.

Money still came pouring in. There was what was known as a 20,000 guinea scheme initiated by Mr G Langley, and an Observer Shilling Fund inaugurated in 1918, which helped fundraising along.

By 1924 the trustees gave sanction for 108 beds. Only £7,000 needed to be raised. Then as now, however, budget and actual cost differed, and, in fact, they needed to raise additional sums for four sun balconies at £250 each, escape stairs, furniture, equipment etc.

By the opening date, the sum in hand or promised was £70,500, and an estimated further £5,000 was still needed.

Reports describing the building rave over its modernity. The lift was of latest design, smooth and silent in working, each ward having not only radiators, but open fire grates to contribute additional warmth and add to homeliness of the surroundings, 1,200 cubic feet allocated per patient.

The sun balconies overlooked the entrance grounds at the front and faced “the fine old park of Cassiobury” at the rear.

To prevent any possibility of dust or dirt deposits, the junction of the floors and ceilings with the walls, were “everywhere rounded”. The operating room was one of the most modern in the country in construction and equipment.

Everywhere interiors were in French and powdered grey with white enamel for relief - a contrast with various shades of green so familiar in hospitals at the time.

When the day dawned for the official opening, the children were given a day off school and lined the route of the royal party with their mothers.

They turned up in their thousands, states the report of the time. “More animated scenes have rarely been seen in the history of the town.”

In fact, several mounted constables had to clear a place in front of the dais in the market place where Princess Mary made a short stop and was met with a continuous outburst of cheering as she stepped from her car. At the hospital she opened the door with a gold key.

[From the Watford Observer of April 25, 1975]