Thursday, May 15, 1952.

THE TRIBUNE, WILLIAMS LAKE, B.C.

Page 3

Visit Your Hospital on Pound Day - May 17

Staff Makes Hospital Life
More Cheerful for Patients

If_you are visiting War Memorial Hospital at the request
of your doctor, your stay will be made more pleasant by the

cheerfulness of the staff, who

ward aides is composed of people who like th

their patients.

Familiar to everyone in the dis-
trict is Mrs. H Lockwood, whg|
has been on staff for the past five
years and matron for the last three.
A graduate of Royal Jubilee Hos-
pital, Victoria in 1929. Mrs. Lock-
wood left the nursing profession to
raise a family and when they were
grown up she just naturally drifted
back to the work she knows so well.

Besides responsibility ‘of the staff,
of purchasing and the hundreds of
details that make up her hospitai
work, the matron indulges in a hobby
that keeps the grounds a riot of
colour. Her gardens this year will
in addition to the usual flowers, con-
tain 200 gladioli and a number of
mew rose bushes. Under her super-
vision the grounds can be expected
to add much to the ndtural- beauty
of the hospital's surroundings.

The assistant matron’s position
has just been vacated by a bride of
a little more than a week, Mrs. Bert
Lloyd. She is probably more familiar

to ex-patients by her maiden name —
of Miss Pat Doyle. Mrs. Lloyd gradv- |
ated from St. Paul's Hospital, Van-
couver, and returned to her home at
Salmon Arm where she did general
duty for a year. She then came to
Williams Lake and was here 18
months before leaving to take post
graduate work in surgery at the Van-
couver General. She returned last
fall to the position of assistant ma-
tron. Mrs. Lloyd will remain on the
staff.

A graduate of Saskatoon City Hos-
pital in 1941, Mrs. D. Montjoy has
also been on our hospital staff long
enough to have become familiar to
visitors. Mrs. Montjoy had only been
working as a gvaduate nurse at the
small centre 0? Loon Lake in Sas-
katehewan for three months when
she left nursing to get- married.
Since then she has put in a few

from the matron down to’ the
ir work and

months at Wainwright, Alta., and
enticton before conting to Wiiliams

Lake. She has been on staff at War

Memorial for a year and a half.

Two newcomers make up the bal-
ance of the nursing staff and they
have brought a wealth of expezience
to the hospital.

Miss Yvonne Parliament graduat-
ed from Oshawa General Hospital in
1942 and since then has travelled
across Canada working at Sudbury,
Manning and Edmonton, Alberta,
and in Vancouver. :

Her experience includes the north
country. At Aklavik she was matron
of a 35-bed hospital.

The appearance of Miss Parlia-
ment on staff has opened up the hos-
Pital’s laboratory. Previous to her ar-
rival the only tests that were made
here were urinalysis, but this cap-|
able nurse is handling blood cross-+
ings, microscopies, blood counts ana
TB smear tests.

Another easterner who has chosen
the west to work in is Miss Justina
Barnes, who graduated from Royal
Victoria Hospital, Montreal in 1948.
After nursing in Quebec, Miss Barnes
came out to Tranquille where she
worked for six months and then took
an opening at a chest hospital in
Honolulu. She left there to return
to her home town of Brownsburg,
Quebec to work in a company hos-
pital. In the meantime though she
had left her application for a posi-
tion here and when the opening was
offered to her early this year she
accepted and came west again.

Familiar too to the patients of
War Memoriai are the four nurses
aides who spend so much time mak-
ing hospital lite comfortable.

They are Mrs. I. Piercy, Miss
Daphne Haines, Miss Frances Weet-

man and Miss Ethel Weetman.
There are no complaints about the!

War Memorial Hospita

cooking at the hospital, and the
credit for this happy fact goes to
Mrs. Alf Eagle and her assistant,
Miss Inez Mackay. Relief kitchen
worker is Miss Margaret McQueen.
for hospital maint
ance and cleanliness are the Kemm-
lers. Carl looks after the mincr re-
pairs, the cleaning and the firing
and Mrs. Kemmler is in charge of
the hospital laundry.

The first person you'll probably
see when you walk in the door of
War Memorial is the man responsible
for keeping the hospital on an even
financial keel.

In his office facing the main door
is Walt Thomas, who took on the job
of hospital secretary five years ago
on a part-time basis and finally gave
up his successful public accounting
business two years ago to become the
Board’s full time administrator. He
is responsible for carrying out board
policy.

Beset by problems of co-insurance,
waiting periods and the dozens of
clauses that make up the rules and
regulations pertaining to the govern-
ment hospital service, it is amazing
that he still maintains his cheerful
outlook on life.

REALESTATE -

Know Your Hospital
Get Acquainted
On Pound Day, May 17th

Its Open Aouse

AT WAR MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

# 2B, BASS. LTD.

INVESTMENTS

INSURANCE -

referred only to the body of water
by that name, but Soda Creek was a
bustling little centre with three ho-
tels. Here the steam boats tied up
and where river and road met there
seemed destined to be a town.

Then came the war and Soda
Creek, like the rest of the Cariboo,
contributed her able-bodied men and
as the war drew to a close it was de-
cided to raise a fund to establish a
Memorial at the river centre. But
hefore this could be accomplished
the PGE had begun to invade tne
Cariboo with its ribbons of steel
marking the end of river travel.
Soda Creek’s population dwindled
| and in its place began to rise the vi

lage of Williams Lake to take over
s the district's centre.

But the fund was still in exist-
ese anl- several far-sighted men
decided that it should be added to
and used for a more fitting memorial
j— a hospital

The idea caught hold and the
whole district started pouring in
contributions. Dances were held. at
all the small centres and a building
fund grew to provide a hospital at
Williams Lake.

A two-storey frame structure, the
hospital was finally opened for busi-
[ness in February of 1925, although
| the first hospital board had been in
existence since November of the: pre-
vious year. It had one private room.
two small wards downstairs and two
Indian wards upstairs.

On that first board were Mrs. T.
Weyenberg (Mr. and Mrs. Weyen-
berg: operated the Grand Central
Hotel, now the Maple Leaf), W. A.
Rife, the town’s first druggist, Mur-
do Mackenzie, manager of the Bank
of Montreal, Austin Hugo, G. 1. Cur-
lis and H. B. Campbell.

Of these members of the board,
Mrs. Weyenberg, Mr. Rife and Mr
Curtis had been outstanding in their
work of building up the hospital
ltund as were the late John Har-
| greaves and C. H. Dodwell. All mem-
bers of that first board have since
| died with the exception of Mr. Mac-

a

-A
COMPLETE
LINE OF
BUILDERS

SUPPLIES
AND
HARDWARE

Support Hospital Pound Day
H. J. Gardner @ Sons Lid.

SUPPLY
HOUSES
AT
OQUESNEL
AND
WILLIAMS
LAKE

ee

‘War Memorial’ First
Meant for Soda Creek

But for the fortunes of history, the ‘War Memorial’ of War
Memorial Hospital would probably refer to a cenotaph at Soda
Creek and our familiar building on the hill overlooking town
might be called the Williams Lake General.

Before World War I, Williams Lake’

kenzie, who is now with the bank's
main Vancouver office and is due to
retire this summer.

In June of 1925 the first full term
board was elected with Mr. Curtis,
Mr. Mackenzie and Mr. Rife being
returned to office. Added to the new
board was Claude Barber and J. D.
Smedley. The latter, incidentally, is
a member of the present board of
directors.

During the first year’s operation,
81 patients received 1152 days treat-
ment at the new hospital. Revenue
from fees, grants and donations
($582) was $6045 and-a profit of
$948 was shown.

The hospital's first matron was
Miss Elgey and Mrs. Walter Hogg
Was in charge of the kitchen. ‘These
twolwomen made up the.entire staff.

The hospital’s first patient was
Jimmy Wiggins of Horsefly who still
lives in that community.

Another ‘first’ came in 1937 with
the arrival of the first twins to be
delivered in the building. December
6th twins were born to Mr. and Mrs,
Chas. Tressiera.

Just for the record though, War
Memorial Hospital was not lliams
Lake’s first. Miss Nora Weetman,
now Mrs. Nora Caron of Quesnel
operated a small two-bed hospital in
the building that now houses Stan
Hewitt’s law office. The building was
then located where the Famous Cafe
aow stands.

For a village of some 100 people
the new hospital must have seemed
a large undertaking and it must have
been a proud moment for the origin-
ators of the plan wuen it was finally
completed. In those days it was well
out of town because it wasn’t untii
1928 that business houses began to
move up to Oliver Street from Rail-
way Avenue in search of vacant land.

But with the growth of the town
and district more beds were needed
and in 1934 a 17-bed wing was built
and in 1949 the children’s ward was
completed.

The hospital is now a 28-bed unit
with nine private and public wards.
There is the children’s ward with
five cots; a nursery with five bassin-
ets; a maternity case room; operat-
ing room; laboratory and X-Ray de-
veloping room. Upstairs - are five
rooms which are used for staif quar-
ters and the large board room,

AUXILIARY SERVES
LOCAL HOSPITAL
SINCE INCEPTION

No other organization has done as
Hospital
since its inception than the Hospital
Women’s Auxiliary.

Established in 1923, two years be-
fore the hospital was open for use,
the auxiliary through the years has
consistently made substantial dona-
tions of money and equipment.

much for War Memorial

Present officers were unable to lo-
cate the records of the early years of
the organization, but it is known
that these women have always looked
after the hospital linen problem,
mending and buying new stocks as
they were required.

Purchases of linen since 1946
amounted to $2296 and cash dona-
tions plus equipment purchases
amounted to $1293.

These pieces of equipment include
an incubator, ether machine, over-
bed tables, electric heater, bedside
tables, sewing machine-and a vacuum
cleaner. In 1948 and 1949 the aux-
iliary gave cash donations of $160
and $150 to the hoard.

The charter officers of the Auxil-
iary were Mrs. Claude Pigeon, presi-
dent; Mrs. T. Weyenberg, vice-
president and Mrs. Sid Western, sec-
retary. Members were Mrs. Geo.
Goodrich, Mrs. T. W. Hodgson, Mrs.
P. Clarke, Mrs. Frank Harris and
Mrs. Perrington. Mrs. Western
served as secretary-treasurer of the
organization for eight years.

FORMED IN 1949

YOUNG LEGION
AUXILIARY HELPS

As our hospital is, in fact, 2 mem-
orial to those men who gave up their
lives in defence of freedom during
two world wars, it is only natural
that an organization like the Wom-
en’s Auxiliary to the Canadian Legion
should be actively interested iris
welfare.

Still: a young organization, the
auxiliary, which was formed in 1949,
has made outstanding contributions
to the hosiptal.

Following completion of the new
children’s ward, the auxiliary uuder-
took to fully furnish the cheerful
little corner of the hospital, and
every three months a $25 contribu-
tion was made to supply linen for
the ward. This was changed this year
and now the group has taken over
the supply of these articles direct.

The auxiliary donated the hos-
pital’s| modern B.M.R. machine,
which is used principally for thyroid
tests, and also an X-Ray Grid.

The Legion branch itself is cur-
rently building a cairn in frent of
the hospital that will bear two com-
memorative placqués and will be
topped with an electric light.

Thank You

The Board of Directors of War
Memorial Hospital
knowledge the help of the following
who contributed informa-
tion necessary to compile the story
of the hospital and auxiliaries.

Mr. Ben Clarke, Mrs. H. Lock-
wood, Mrs. Sid Western, Mrs. L.
Hellyer, Mr. Robt. Beauchamp, Mr.
Claude Barber, Mrs. E. G. Woodland.

wishes to ac-

persons

YOUR GENERAL

War Memorial Hospital
Belongs to You

It Deserves Your
Continued Support

Observe Pound Day

Williams Lake Motors Ltd.

MOTORS DEALER

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