Clotho Private Hospital

Reference: 4795

Official opening of Nurse Payne’s Maternity Home.

Reference: Registers of Licensed Private Hospitals 1910-1928

Licensee and resident manager was Adelaide Zopporah Payne, commencing 28 January 1913. The maternity hospital was licensed for 3 beds until 1923. The last entry in the records was under the management of Merle Mary Corduroy ceasing on 10 May 1924.

Reference: February 2000, updated June 2007.

From 1908 all private hospitals in New South Wales had to be licensed by the Department of Health under the provisions of the Private Hospitals Act, Section 6(i) which provided that ‘No private hospital shall be carried on, used, or conducted, except under the authority of a license granted by the Minister on the recommendation of the Board of Health’.

Subsections (3) to (5) then list exemptions from the rule - institutions under the Lunacy Act of 1898 and the Inebriates Act of 1900, hospitals in remote places and those hospitals which the Minister on the recommendation of the Board may see fit to exempt.

State Records of NSW located at O’Connell Street, Kingswood holds the Registers of Licensed Private Hospitals from 1910-1928 (5/5857-63) and Notifications of Births, Deaths and Notifiable Infectious Diseases in Private Hospitals, 1921-22, 1927-28 (5/5864).

Each page of the register shows the name of the hospital; its location; whether medical and surgical or lying-in or both; the total number of beds; the names of the licensee, resident manager (usually the licensee) and the resident assistant; the date of the Board’s recommendations and approvals; the period of the licence and the renewals. Space is also provided for recording the correspondence number and approval relating to alterations and additions to the hospital.

Resident managers were required to send in a report to the Department of Health documenting each birth occurring in the hospital under their control as well as details of any deaths on the premises. The report included the name and address of the hospital, the day, date and time of birth, the name and address of the mother and the name and signature of the medical attendant. Notifiable infectious diseases such as typhoid and diphtheria were also required to be reported to the department. A search of the available registers located information referring to two private hospitals in Richmond, Yulebah (Eulabah) in West Market Street and Clotho in Bosworth Street.

According to the registers, Adelaide Zopporah Payne was both the Licensee and the Resident Manager of the hospital in Bosworth Street which opened as Nurse Payne’s Maternity Home later to be called Clotho Private Hospital. The Windsor and Richmond Gazette of 15 February 1913 announced the official opening of Nurse Payne’s Maternity Home, Richmond to be held at 4 o’clock on Wednesday 20 February 1913. All interested parties were cordially invited to attend the ceremony. The hospital was a small establishment classified as a lying-in hospital holding a maximum of three patients at any time. Its licence was restricted to maternity cases only and did not include medical and/or surgical patients. Nurse Payne held the license from the 28 January 1913 until 28 December 1919 except for a brief period of one month from 15 October 1917 when Maggie Cameron was in charge of the hospital. After the retirement of Nurse Payne, Lucy Ina Anthony was the Resident Manager holding the position from 10 August 1920 until 28 March 1922. According to the Rate Books for the Municipality of Richmond for 1921, Lucy Anthony was both the owner and occupier of the building. The improved value of the building for rating purposes was £650.

Mary Eva Hughes commenced duties as Resident Manager on 13 June 1922 continuing until 27 June 1923 when Merle Mary Corduroy was appointed. The Windsor & Richmond Gazette of July 27 1923 announced the commencement of duties by Nurse Corderoy stating that ‘Nurse Corderoy (sic) comes to Richmond with excellent credentials having been on the staff of the Royal Hospital for Women, Paddington, for some years’. An advertisement for the hospital was published in the paper on 3 August 1923. Nurse Corderoy continued to operate the hospital until 10 May 1924.

The late Mrs Mary Walsh of Richmond had many vivid memories of Clotho. Her parents Mr & Mrs Joseph Horan of Francis Street, Richmond were good friends of Nurse Payne and the family visited the hospital on many occasions. As a small child Mary was often laid to sleep on the back verandah of the building. Mrs Walsh remembered that Nurse Payne was much loved by the community and was presented with a gold watch by the people of Richmond upon her retirement. Clotho Private Hospital building still exists today and is located at number 33 Bosworth Street, Richmond.

Compiled by Cathy McHardy, 14 February 2000, updated June 2007.