| Description | Records of Queen Mary's Maternity Home, [1914]-1990, comprising annual general meeting minutes, 1920-1939; minutes of the Executive, later Management Committee, 1919-1948; House Committee, 1920-1939; Building Committee, 1935-1936; Secretary's reports, 1920-1924; annual reports, 1920-1946;
Papers relating to the history of the home, including the wartime move to Eynsham and transfer to the London Hospital, [1921]-1946; correspondence and papers relating to gifts, 1919-1955; beds and cots, 1919-1930; estimates for work and contracts for supplies, 1922-1930; insurance, 1922-1931; correspondence with Queen Mary, 1919-1948; papers, 1919-1930, including letter from Lord Leverhulme regarding the value of the home, 1922, staffing in maternity homes and appointment of staff; tenancy agreement for Malvern Villa, Oxfordshire, 1942; visitors' book, 1919-1955; registers of gifts, 1919-1963; leaflets on the home, 1971;
Records of Queen Mary's Needlework Guild, namely registers of members and branches, [1917]-1919; British branches, [1914]-1918; Foreign branches, [1917]-1918;
brochure on the opening of Queen Mary's House, with historical notes, 1990; endowment of a cot by Surbiton War Hospital Supply Depot, 1920; maternity home trust deed, 1920; appointment of new Trustees, 1939;
Needlework Guild Branch fund accounts, 1919-1940, recording sums donated by the guild and expenditure; maternity home accounts, balance sheets and related correspondence, 1920-1947;
Patient registers, 1919-1972, comprising admission and discharge registers, 1919-1940; registers of bookings, 1919-1951, including husband's occupation, family income and fees; registers of patients, including summary information about each delivery, 1949-1972;
Photographs, including of Queen Mary and Committee members, 1921; internal and external views of the home, [1930]-1970; staff, [1950s]; plans of a proposed extension, 1928; photographs of visits by Queen Mary, 1935, 1947; staff, mothers and babies [1930s]; garden party, 1948; chapel, [1940s]. |
| Administrative history | During the First World War Queen Mary's Needlework Guild was established, with branches in many parts of the world, to make and distribute clothes and other items to Servicemen. At the conclusion of the War a considerable sum of money collected by the Guild was left unspent and Queen Mary decided to use these funds to endow a Maternity Home, for the benefit of the wives and children of servicemen. The Home opened in October 1919 in temporary premises at "Cedar Lawns", North End Road, Hampstead, a house provided by Lord Leverhulme, formerly Cedar Lawn Auxiliary Hospital (1914-1919). Four of the wards were named after overseas working parties of the Guild - Rosario, Valparaiso, Jamaica and Canada.
The foundation stone of the new building at Upper Heath, on a site again provided by Lord Leverhulme, was laid on 12th October 1921 and was designed to provide 16 beds. The new Maternity Home was occupied in July 1922. In August 1939 the Home was evacuated to Eynsham Hall, Oxfordshire, but moved again to Freeland House, Oxfordshire, in the Autumn of 1941. The Home returned to Hampstead in the Winter of 1945 - 1946. On 1st April 1946 its management was taken over by the London Hospital. On 1st February 1972 it was transferred to the Royal Free Hospital. With the closure of New End Hospital, Hampstead, in 1986 and its subsequent sale, funds became available for the development of the Home as a Care of the Elderly Unit, known as Queen Mary House, which opened under the management of the Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust in 1991. By 2020 it was being used as key worker accommodation. |
| Arrangement of the records | The collection takes the following arrangement:
RLHQM/A - Administrative records, [1914]-1990
RLHQM/D - Deeds, 1920 - 1939
RLHQM/F - Financial papers, 1919-1947
RLHQM/M - Patient registers, 1919-1972
RLHQM/P - Photographs and plans, 1919-1970s
RLHQM/X - Records from unofficial sources, 1935-1990
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