St Thomas' Hospital - Explanation of The Hospital's Name

Explanation of The Hospital's Name

The use of the plural genitive s' in place of the singular genitive s's is fairly recent. The hospital trust claims that plural s' is grammatically correct, as "there are two men called St Thomas linked to the hospital's history: Thomas Becket and Thomas the Apostle." Within the South Wing of the hospital there are a number of late Victorian brass plaques headed "St Thomas's Hospital" i.e. using singular genitive. However the medical school used the singular genitive s's as it was the school of the hospital and so was termed "St Thomas's Hospital Medical School".

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