43. Today we have naming of parts ...

Key words/phrases: Henry Reed (poet), Cane Hill Hospital, Kings College Hospital, C. Dickens, J. Keats, W. Hogarth, M. Faraday, E. Jenner, H. Ellis, J. Donne, T. Guy & J. Harvard, Fred Still, Christine Brown, Annie Zunz, Maurice Mitman, Pemphigus Vegetans, Emergency Medical Service Hospitals.

No. 43

“Yesterday we had daily cleaning. And tomorrow morning we shall have -What to do after firing. But today, we have naming of parts …”

In these lines the English war poet Henry Reed (1914-1986) puts the following words (and others) into the mouth of a soldier who is in Basic Training School. The young man concerned is supposed to be paying attention to a talk on the features of his rifle but his mind is obviously wandering because later, as he surveys the gardens outside of the window nearest to him, we read:

“ …backwards and forwards the early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers: They call it easing the Spring.”

Even if the Spring isn’t hovering outside a window somewhere near where you are sitting at present, Reed’s poem really does seem to capture a sense of the arrival of Spring.

But what also interested me in the poem was the fact that while most of the parts of the rifles being referred to in the lesson existed, certain other components were missing. Nonetheless all the pieces had their own particular names and the intention of the instructor was that the “squaddies” should learn them.

The tradition and benefit of “naming” things then led me on to thinking about the naming of hospital wards although I appreciate that 99% of the wards at Joyce Green weren’t named. In general though - where names ARE used to identify hospital wards - the names assigned to them are frequently dedications to famous people, aren’t they ?

Wards at the now-long disappeared Cane Hill Psychiatric Hospital in Coulsdon, Surrey - for example - were named after a selection of writers, poets and artists (e.g. Dickens, Keats and Hogarth), scientists and ‘medical men’ too (e.g. Faraday, Jenner and Ellis, the psychologist), plus other notables with catchment-area connections such as Donne, Guy and Harvard.

King’s College Hospital in S.E. London, which to this day still provides some top quality health care, has some interesting ward names too. “Fred Still” ward” for example is named after one of its previous paediatricians (before they were even referred to by this term), “Christine Brown” ward is named after one of its nursing directors, “Lion” ward, their 10 bedded paediatric neurology ward - opened in 1996 - was named after the now famous cartoon film and “Annie Zunz” ward is named after the wife of a German merchant and benefactor.

Interestingly - and just before we move on - did you realise that by tradition the senior Sisters on each ward at KCH used to assume their ward name when they were on-duty ? So for example a Sister would announce herself on the telephone as: “Sister Fred Still” or “Sister Christine Brown” or “Sister Lion” or “Sister Annie Zunz” despite the fact that her surname was obviously different. Was this done as an aid to clarity or did this stem from the time when nursing was a vocation and women who were "called" were required to put their personal identities to one side as they served God ?

The next question I asked myself to myself was this: Were any of the wards at Joyce Green named after notable individuals, as opposed to being numbered chronologically ?

Maybe your memory is better than mine but I can only recall one name plaque at the entrance to a ward - and this one could be seen at the entrance of Ward 11a, which was also called “Maurice Mitman” (ward).

So who was Maurice Mitman ? Perhaps the very same MRCP who co-authored a paper with Dr S.E. Dore MD, FRCP in 1929 on Pemphigus Vegetans which appeared in the British Journal of Dermatology (Volume 41 Issue 11 Page 408) ? In any case he was certainly a physician at Joyce Green Hospital between 1938-1950.

This surname has either Ashkenazic Jewish origins (Mitelman) or a middle - high German derivation (Mittman) which gives us a clue perhaps to his family background ?

In 1938, when Joyce Green was re-classified from being an infectious diseases hospital to a general hospital (as part of the Emergency Medical Service Hospital arrangements) and expanded from 986 to 1,900 beds Dr Mitman was appointed as Medical Superintendent.

This was a position he held until 1948, when Joyce Green became a National Health Service hospital although he it seems carried on working as a physician within the hospital, maintaining a special interest in the care of patients with “fevers”, until his retirement.

Thus we can assume that he was fairly highly thought of, having been asked to lend his name to a ward ?

But as to any other wards being ‘named’ I have so far drawn a blank. So what about it readers, do you remember any other ward having a name or even being awarded a temporary or
an unofficial nickname ?