The beginnings of the first dedicated children’s hospital in Brisbane, Queensland.
Mrs Mary McConnel was the instigator and driving force behind the Sick Children’s Hospital in Brisbane, but there were many women at her side who have, over time, been mostly forgotten. This short entry focuses on one of these women, Agnes Scott nee Thomson wife of John Scott, pastoralist and politician. Agnes was born 15 April 1831, Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, Scotland an older sister of the Charlie Thomson featured in another post. She and her husband, (with another brother William Thomson), arrived in Australia 1 January 1853; eventually moving to Brisbane, with their children, in the early 1870s where they spent their remaining years. Agnes died 16 July 1892 at ‘Lucerne’, Fernberg Road, Milton a property she owned. (Note: Agnes’ surname has been incorrectly named in many of John Scott’s biographies – likely copied & recopied from an incorrect non-original source – despite this writer’s best attempts to correct the records.)
In 1877 ‘[a] few charitable ladies are maturing a scheme for a child’s hospital in Brisbane’.[1] Children Hospitals were being established in the UK and a Mrs Mary McConnel née McLeod, had resolved to address the urgent need for a dedicated children’s hospital, to service Brisbane and surrounds. The General Hospital was open to children although it did not take infants under the age of 5 years and it was this age bracket with a high mortality.[2] [3] There were no specially trained nurses or separate ward and ‘they were miserably out of place in the adult wards’.[4] It caused adult patients distress having noisy children in the ward and parents were also reluctant to leave their children in these circumstances.[5] [6]
Mary McConnel enlisted the help of friends and acquaintances to raise money for the Sick Children’s Hospital. (Although some biographies read as if she accomplished this alone, forgetting the many women who were there at the beginning as well.[7]) Agnes Scott was one of several ladies in a preliminary meeting held mid-1877 and a provisional committee of ladies was appointed – ‘Mesdames McConnel, Raff, Armstrong, Archer, J. L. Bourne, Davis, Scott [Secretary], Heussler, and Gibbon’.[8] [9] [10] A general meeting was arranged for ladies interested ‘in the movement for erecting an hospital for sick children [and] to discuss the best means of promoting the interests of the proposed institution’.[11] Other committees formed in Ipswich, Gympie, Maryborough, and Rockhampton. ‘It is earnestly requested that ladies in all the other large towns of Queensland will form themselves into working committees, and collect both money and work’.[12]
Advertisement placed by Agnes Scott, Secretary, Ladies Committee. Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld.), Saturday 4 August 1877, 1
Their first fund raising venture was a bazaar of items especially made or donated, to be held at the Intercolonial Exhibition at Bowen Park in August. Becoming an annual event, the Exhibition was first held the previous year, run by the recently formed National Agricultural and Industrial Association, of which Mary’s (David Cannon McConnel) and Agnes’ husbands were both members.[13] In that inaugural year it was the largest event to be held in Queensland and attended by 15,000 – 17,000 people when Brisbane’s population was 20,600.[14]
With the helpful cooperation of several ladies and the hearty willingness of the young people it was at that meeting arranged that throughout the year ending August, 1877, each one should do as much work as they could, and enlist the services of others, so that by the time of the Annual Exhibition in Bowen Park we should have a large and interesting collection of articles to display for sale. Meanwhile the ladies were to collect and arrange the work sent in, solicit subscriptions, and in every way by substantial help and kindly interest further the well-being of the newly born enthusiasm.[15]
‘Mrs John Scott called for me this morning at 10.15 to go with her to the Exhibition Building.’ Entry from Lady O’Connell’s diary 17 August 1877, a few days prior opening of the Exhibition, who had since joined the Ladies Committee. OM84-32, Lady Eliza O’Connell Diary, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Australia.
An enormous number of items were collected, from school children’s needlework and woodwork, and gifts donated by the public.[16] [17] [18] The bazaar was a huge success exceeding expectations with left-over items sold or raffled the following month in the Town Hall.[19] [20] Throughout the year the wider community rallied, from individuals to societies, contributing in whatever way they could – fireworks, moonlight concerts, lectures – and donating the proceeds.[21] The next project of the Committee was a Grand Ball to be held in September.[22] Agnes was on the Ball Committee, continuing in this role for the next two years.[23]
Advertisement for the Grand Ball in Aid of the Hospital with Agnes Scott on the Ball Committee. Brisbane Courier (Qld.), Monday 17 September 1877, 1.
The Committee was granted land by the Government near the General Hospital but in the interim, the hospital opened in a leased property in Leichhardt Street on Monday 11 March 1878.[24] Again, citizens came to the fore donating furnishings so the committee could keep their building fund intact.[25] The hospital required management and Agnes was Secretary on the first Committee of Management and again the following year in 1879.[26] [27] [28] In 1879 they needed to move premises and the committee bought a cottage in Warren Street, Spring Hill.[29] [30] With assured Government grants under the Hospital Act and support from the community, the new hospital was built, opening 11 October 1883.[31] [32] Evolving over the years into the Royal Children’s Hospital and more recently the Queensland Children’s Hospital and the Centre for Children’s Health Research in South Brisbane.
Mrs John [Agnes] Scott – Secretary for the first Hospital Committee. Mrs David C. McConnel, Our Children’s Hospital: A Story of 21 Years Brisbane 1876 to 1897. (Brisbane: Thomson Brothers, 1897), 13.
[1] “An Infant Hospital”, Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld.), Saturday 28 April 1877,17.
[2] “The Children’s Hospital”, Brisbane Courier (Qld.), Monday 5 August 1878, 3.
[3] “The Brisbane Courier”, Brisbane Courier (Qld.), Thursday 24 May 1877, 2.
[4] Mrs David C. McConnel, Our Children’s Hospital: A Story of 21 Years Brisbane 1876 to 1897 (Brisbane: Thomson Brothers),1897, 6.
[5] “The Brisbane Hospital”, Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld.), Friday 19 February 1875, 3.
[6] “An Infant Hospital”, Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld.), Saturday 28 April 1877,17.
[7] “Great Queensland women of our past – Mary McConnel”, Qld Government, https://www.qld.gov.au/about/about-queensland/history/women/great-qld-women
[8] Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld.), Saturday 9 June 1877, 5.
[9] Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld.), Friday 8 June 1877, 2.
[10] Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld.), Saturday 4 August 1877, 1.
[11] “A Hospital for Sick Children”, Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld.), Saturday 23 June 1877, 10.
[12] “A Hospital for Sick Children”, 10.
[13] “National Agricultural and Industrial Association”, Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld.), Saturday 17 June 1876, 21.
[14] “Ekka History”, RNA, https://www.ekka.com.au/ekkas-history
[15] McConnel, Our Children’s Hospital, 8.
[16] “The Hospital for Sick Children”, Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld.), Saturday 18 August 1877, 10.
[17] McConnel, Our Children’s Hospital, 11.
[18] “The Children’s Hospital”, Week (Brisbane, Qld.), Saturday 25 August 1877, 9.
[19] McConnel, Our Children’s Hospital, 12.
[20] The Week (Qld.), Saturday 15 September 1877, 15.
[21] Telegraph (Qld), Saturday 4 August 1877, 1; “Public Notices”, Brisbane Courier (Qld.), Friday 7 September 1877, 1; “The Proposed Children’s Hospital”, Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser (Qld.), Tuesday 2 October 1877, 5.
[22] “Grand Full Dress or Calico Ball”, Brisbane Courier (Qld.), Monday 17 September 1877, 1.
[23] “Annual Ball”, Brisbane Courier (Qld.), Thursday 13 June 1878, 1, “Annual Grand Ball”, Thursday 5 June 1879, 1.
[24] Brisbane Courier (Qld.), Saturday 9 March 1878, 4, “The Children’s Hospital”, Monday 5 August 1878, 3.
[25] McConnel, Our Children’s Hospital, 12.
[26] McConnel, 13.
[27] Week (Brisbane, Qld.), Saturday 9 March 1878, 22.
[28] “To the Contributors and Subscribers”, Brisbane Courier (Qld.), Saturday 22 March 1879, 1.
[29] Brisbane Courier (Qld.), Wednesday 14 May 1879, 4 – 5.
[30] McConnel, Our Children’s Hospital, 15.
[31] McConnel, 17 – 18.
[32] “Children’s Hospital”, Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld.), Saturday 1 December 1883, 892.