Without the philanthropist Roland Philipson, who died on the 19th September 1906, the Stannington Sanatorium and Farm Colony would have been drastically different, or may never have existed at all. Descended from Philip de Thirlwall of Thirlwall castle, the Philipson family were famous for coach and train carriage building, and as solicitors and Aldermen of Newcastle. However they were also famous for their philanthropy, establishing many institutions and hospitals, for which Men of Mark Twixt Tyne and Tweed by Richard Welford is recommended reading. Roland’s grandfather, Ralph Park Philipson, was Town Clerk, Alderman, and solicitor to the North-Eastern Railway Company. It was after Ralph’s wife the ‘Philipson Memorial Orphan Asylum’ on Newcastle Town Moor was dedicated, a cause supported by the family for many generations. Roland’s father Hilton was a Justice of the Peace in Newcastle, and he and his wife Jane had five children. Born in Tynemouth in 1863, Roland was raised with his brothers Ralph and Hylton, and sisters Annie and Mary Seely Philipson, later Woosnam. He and his brothers attended Eton, where they can be found on the 1881 census.
Roland Philipson
He is described in later census as a mechanical engineer, and on the 2nd June 1905 became a director of the North-Eastern Railway Company. He was also involved in several coal companies, and was a director for the Wallsend Slipway Company, the Consett Iron Company, and North-Eastern Marine Engineering Company. As a Justice of the Peace he acted as chairman for the Wallsend Petty Sessions, and was a Juror at the Northumberland Assizes. The census and Kelly’s directories show he lived at 6 Prior’s Terrace, Tynemouth, but likely had other residences, possibly including one at Howick. He married Louisa Warden Parr in 1888 in Chorlton, Lancashire. She was born in North Shields. They had sons Hilton, Roland Thirlwall and Thirlwall, and a daughter, Vera. Roland was a philanthropist like the rest of his family, and gave the Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade £2000 for a searchlight to help rescuers.
Mr John H. Watson, a founder and later Secretary of the PCHA, established the Newcastle Poor Children’s Holiday Association and Rescue Agency in 1888, to tackle the impact of poverty on children and bring homeless children off the streets (EP 10/75). When on holiday he came up with the idea of taking children from the slum areas of
We are pleased to announce that the Wellcome Trust have awarded a second grant to Northumberland Archives to continue the amazing work they have done through the Stannington Sanatorium Project.
The ‘Stannington: From Sanatorium to General Hospital: Opening Up Three Decades of Paediatric Care’ Project has been awarded £49,100. This money will allow us to digitise the main series of case files from the Stannington Sanatorium collection covering the period 1944-1966. These files comprise 100 linear feet of records – that’s a whopping 122,000 pieces of paper to be digitised! We will redact the key documents in each file – the patient progress notes, x-ray card and discharge sheet and append the redacted copies to the catalogue entry. The files span the life of Stannington from it being a tuberculosis sanatorium funded by the Poor Children’s Holiday Association (now Children Northeast), including the introduction of the National Health Service, (1947) to its final conversion to a general children’s hospital (1953), which it remained until its closure in 1984, opening up three decades of paediatric care.
The Stannington Sanatorium Project ran from August 2014-July 2015 and allowed the full cataloguing and part-digitisation of the records from Stannington Sanatorium. However, the digitisation element of the project was primarily focussed upon the original and microfiche radiographs that made up a sizeable portion of the collection and only the early case files up to 1943 were digitised at this stage. This grant will fund the digitisation of the remainder of the individual patient files included in the Stannington Collection and will fund full re-packaging of the original files in conservation grade materials.
HOSP-STAN-7-1-1-1587_1
Through this project we will utilise digitisation as a preservation tool thereby minimising further handling and potential damage to patient files through the creation of a digital surrogate which can be viewed electronically. In turn the project will increase accessibility to the collection via the redaction and web-mounting of the files. It will benefit members of the academic community who have shown a vast interest in the previous project and wish to access the files as a teaching resource or for their own research. This new digital content will be added to Northumberland Archives electronic catalogue where the c.20,000 images created in the first project can now be viewed.
The project will commence in November 2015 and will run for 12 months. Two new members of staff will be employed, one full time the other part time, to undertake this arduous task and they will endeavour to blog about their progress from November onwards so make sure you keep a look out for new postings!
The Headmaster of Spittal Council School (Mr T. W. G. Borthwick) has received the following letter, signed by 54 wounded soldiers who were entertained by the scholars and members of the staff a week ago:-
Improvised Hospitals,
Berwick-on-Tweed.
2nd July, 1915
We, the undersigned wounded soldiers from the Expeditionary Force in France, at present quartered in the above hospitals, wish to convey our most sincere thanks to the children of Spittal Council School for the most enthusiastic reception they gave us on Wednesday afternoon, and also to the staff of the School for their kind attention and for the hospitable manner in which they entertained us to tea.
We all enjoyed ourselves immensely and thoroughly appreciate the kindly thoughts which prompted the invitation extended to us.
It is an afternoon we shall all remember with very pleasant thoughts wherever we may be.
No. 1227 THOMAS KELLY EVANS. P.P.C.L.I.
Here follow the signatures of 54 soldiers with name of regiment, rank, and number.
This letter will be carefully preserved as a memento of a very pleasant afternoon.
A sum of £1 8s 1d was collected on behalf of the local fund for wounded soldiers.
On Thursday afternoon, July 8th, and in the evening the display of dancing and Swedish drill was repeated.
The boys, cleverly trained by Mr R.C. Clements, gave an additional act of physical exercises, and were very successful with a series of three “pyramids”. The smartness of the boys has been a general subject of conversation, and has won the admiration of experienced soldiers.
Miss Millar, Head Mistress of the Infant Department, desires to be congratulated for the pretty items rendered by her tiny pupils.
This school was the first in the district to give a display of Morris Dancing. In the recent display a new feature was introduced by the girls, who gave a choice selection of “Old English dances.” On all hands the opinion is very favourable towards the inclusion of this branch of physical exercises.
Many of the girls were most graceful dancers; in the “Gavotte”, however, the stately movements were interpreted with unusual skill, and the result was an artistic success. Miss Noble’s large class of girls in their “Scotch Red” caught the patriotic fancy of the large audience (including kilted soldiers), and the item was received with loud applause.
A Morris Dance, the most amusing thing on the programme, was undertaken by the younger boys and girls in charge of Miss Johnson, Miss Dickinson, and Miss Hayden. The boys were dressed in long hats, and from beginning to end, the quaintness of the zest with which the children themselves entered into the spirit of the dance kept the audience in fits of laughter.
Miss Borthwick showed unusual ability at the piano; indeed the musical part of the programme was of a high order. This lady also deserves credit for the arranging of the artistic sets of Old English dances and the Gavotte.
The display took place in the school playground, and as the weather was warm and sunny there was a large audience. Seats were provided at a charge of 3d each, and it was gratifying to notice that some of the wounded soldiers had come over from Berwick to see the children again.
The large audience especially the visitors to Spittal was struck with the happy hearing of the scholars, the very pretty dresses of the girls, and the general appearance of neatness and cleanliness of such a large number of school children. The turnout reflects great credit on the mothers of Spittal.
In the afternoon the Rev. A. Alexander, M.A., at the close of the programme, after expressing the thanks of the audience, said that the scholars were not only clever and well trained in physical exercises, but the school had done well in the recent County Scholarship examination. Eight boys in the borough were successful, and of these the 1st, 2nd and 5th places in order of merit fell to Spittal Council School. (Loud applause.)
The school has already done well in providing comforts for our wounded soldiers in local hospitals. The proceeds of the second display go to provide gifts for the Spittal men who are now serving in the Navy or Army.
Mr R. C. Clements, amid general regret, especially on the part of the boys, has now left the school and taken up duties at Alnwick in the 7th Northumberland Fusiliers.
Mr John Martin Tait, B.Sc., the other assistant, has been serving since March as 2nd Lieut. in the 10th Battalion N.F.
BERWICK PETTY SESSIONS
Bright Lights – James Cuthbert, butcher, Berwick, was charged with disobeying an order to obscure the lights of his house at 11.25p.m., on the 17th July. Defendant did not appear. Sergt. Moor said that at the time stated he saw the lights shining right across the street. He called defendant and showed him the light. Defendant said – You only want something to talk about. Witness told him to shut the door or shade the light, and defendant said he would put it out as he was going to bed, but it remained for another fifteen minutes. P.C. Welsh corroborated. The Chief Constable said defendant had called the previous night to say he could not get to Court. He expressed regret that he had offended. Fined 5s. Mr McCreath said if other cases of a similar nature came up they would be more severely dealt with.
Berwick Advertiser 23 July 1915, Tyneside Scottish-Advert
BERWICK PLAYHOUSE
“The Playhouse.”– The good audiences this week have been sufficient testimony of the excellence of the “Playhouse” programmes. Jack Duncanson, the famous basso and entertainer has nightly delighted the audiences and he cannot but be pleased with the welcome he received on his re-appearance in Berwick. The bioscopic side of the programme at the beginning of the week was all
Charlie Chaplin 1915 Creative Commons License PD US
that could be desired, while commencing on Thursday, the feature will be “Harry the Swell” which is a drama enthrilling, exciting, and sensational. “Lovers Luck”, a side splitting Keystone comedy will also be shown. A solo will be given at each performance by one of the members of the orchestra, and it is a new feature which is greatly appreciated. A good programme billed for next week when the vaudeville turn will be “Carvel and Dora” in a novel act entitled “The Ventriloquist and the Maid”. The bioscopic feature at the beginning of the week will be “The Dare-devil Circus Queen” which is a most thrilling episode of circus life. It shows one of the most sensational acts ever performed by a film actor. The heroine on a horse mounts the roof of a car of a gigantic pleasure wheel and is hoisted 300 feet. There is no fake connected with the wonder, and the act is one to be seen to be believed. For the second part of the week the feature will be “In Peace and War”, which as a war picture is very interesting in more ways than one, for the subject is dealt with from some novel standpoints. Interest in the film is maintained throughout and the photographic scenes are splendidly laid. The public favourite, “Charles Chaplin” is to appear in “Champion Charlie”, a two-reel comedy. In this picture Charlie is seen at his best in a boxing match.
