Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa was opened in 1956 through public subscription as a memorial to soldiers lost in the Second World War. The suggestion that the memorial take the form of a children's hospital was proposed by Vyvyan U.T. Watson. Mr Watson, a prominent businessman, had lost his first born and only son, Peter Tennant Watson, at about four years old, to an outbreak of diphtheria in Cape Town. Mr Watson was a major force in steering the organization of the building of the hospital. The Peter Pan statue on the Hospital grounds, sculpted by Mitford Barberton, was donated by Mr Watson and his wife, Gwendolyn. Mr Watson was later President of the South African Red Cross Society. It is the only dedicated children's hospital in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only a few dedicated children's hospitals in the Southern hemisphere.
The hospital has academic links to the University of Cape Town's School of Child and Adolescent Health, the University of the Western Cape Dental School and the University of Stellenbosch; it is regarded as South Africa's leading centre for post-graduate specialist paediatric medical and surgical training.
Famous quotes containing the words red, cross, war, memorial, children and/or hospital:
“You can’t be a Red if you’re married to a civil servant.”
—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)
“In ancient times—’twas no great loss—
They hung the thief upon the cross:
But now, alas!—I say’t with grief—
They hang the cross upon the thief.”
—Anonymous. “On a Nomination to the Legion of Honour,” from Aubrey Stewart’s English Epigrams and Epitaphs (1897)
“In time of war you know much more what children feel than in time of peace, not that children feel more but you have to know more about what they feel. In time of peace what children feel concerns the lives of children as children but in time of war there is a mingling there is not children’s lives and grown up lives there is just lives and so quite naturally you have to know what children feel.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“When I received this [coronation] ring I solemnly bound myself in marriage to the realm; and it will be quite sufficient for the memorial of my name and for my glory, if, when I die, an inscription be engraved on a marble tomb, saying, “Here lieth Elizabeth, which reigned a virgin, and died a virgin.””
—Elizabeth I (1533–1603)
“[Convey to your child] that you understand how hard it can be to lose a friend, that under the circumstances feeling sad, angry, hurt or rejected is perfectly normal, that the friendship had some good things and some bad things to it and that neither aspect should be overlooked. . . . Children should be helped to realize that in time they’ll find other friends—but they mustn’t expect a new friend to “replace” a former one.”
—Myron Brenton (20th century)
“Time rushes toward us with its hospital tray of infinitely varied narcotics, even while it is preparing us for its inevitably fatal operation.”
—Tennessee Williams (1914–1983)