Margaret's Puzzling Photos

Because I couldn't place the locations of the photos below I asked Harry Dodgson for his opinion. Harry was a patient in 1937, see here, for his story. This is the reply he gave me.

Hi Fred

The pictures you sent puzzle me. I recall being in MHMH in 1937 in the small  boys ward and later in the big boys ward, and I don't recall them being anything like the pictures. I have some memory of being in Leeds Infirmary in 1935/36 and although those memories are somewhat faint, I was three at the time, and the cuttings seem to ring a faint bell. Frankly the wards in the cuttings look like a cots on a balcony, which they had in Leeds Infirmary at the time. I do remember them.
Regards
Harry

The caption on one of the photos in question is "To make a Merry Christmas at The Marguerite Home of the Leeds Invalid Children's Aid Society at Thorp Arch: Nurses decorating a ward." This adds to the mystery to some extent because I haven't of heard of the hospital being addressed in quite this way before.

So were the photos taken at MHH or a nearby "Home" or even at Leeds Infirmary? Unless someone out there knows different then of course we must go with Margaret's information. Can you clarify this for us?

As an aside Harry Dodgson now lives in Australia and is busily writing. His first novel "The Rainbow Serpent" is available via Amazon


From Jane Freeland (17th February, but added again 23 August 214!!)
Could it be that the problem about the name is that, before it became the MH Hospital, the place used to be a "Home". See the history of the hospital, various installments further down. 

Margaret Molyneux's Photographs

Margaret has offered us some scanned images showing her mother decorating wards on 24th December 1936

The one above shows a girl dressed in a skirt and other children in the beds and therefore suggests it was taken in the Girls ward. The nurse marked by a cross in both pictures is Margaret's mum, Jean Elizabeth Wright.

Here the cots suggest the decorations are being put up in the babies ward. However my memories of the wards I was a patient in leave something of a puzzle. I remember flat ceilings and wider room width and Jane has no memory of these locations either. Both of the above pictures show sloping beams and narrow rooms so where were they taken? The only sloping beamed roof I remember was the canopied area outside the big boys ward where we often spent our days and nights. Any offer of help in locating where these were taken would be gratefully appreciated.

 This last one has a reference to a "News" photographer and from this I assume that all three images, cuttings from newsprint, were taken for the Yorkshire Evening News. It looks as if Margaret's mum Jean has allocated numbers to record the names of those in the picture but that information is no longer available. As Christmas day in 1936 was a Friday I assume this was taken  on Wednesday the 23rd December. 

Our thanks go to Margaret for providing these Newspaper cuttings, I wonder if anyone out there has anything similar they would like to share with us.