Mexborough and Swinton Times, July 16, 1937

Free From Debt
£4,300 Raised For Montagu Hospital
Coronation Appeal Wound Up
Rewards of A Memorable Effort

On the Board Room table at the Mexborough Montagu Hospital on Monday night, lay a large, strongly bound volume. It was a register containing more than 10,000 names of subscribers to the Hospital’s Coronation Appeal fund. For that night, at a simple, almost informal ceremony, the fund closed, and the small number of district organisers who for ten months have been spurring their fellow citizens on to even more generous giving came to hear the Appeal officials render final accounts and reports.

When in October last year, a Coronation Shilling Fund Appeal was launched, the elected committee fixed a steadfast eye upon a three-fold object: the liquidation of a £4,000 debt; the opening of two empty wards, and the creation of an Endowment Fund; the commemoration of the death of King George V., and the accession of the new King. The amount collected amounted to £4,316.

On Monday the chairman of the Appeal Committee, Mr. 0. J. Philipson, managing director of the Manvers Main Collieries, Ltd., handed to the chairman of the Board of Management, Mr. W. A. Lewis, a bunch of documents—receipts for loans repaid amounting to £2,250 an endowment fund contract note for £500, and a cheque for £968 11 s. to be applied to the extension fund. Additionally, Mr. J. J. Woffinden, of Mexborough, presented Mr. Lewis with documents which will have the ultimate value of £500 for the endowment of a bed in memory of his father.

Mr. Philipson presided, and supporting him at the Board table were Mr. W. P. Turner (vice-chairman of the Appeal Committee), Mr. W. A. Lewis (Hospital Chairman), Mr. A. R. Martin (vice-chairman), Mr. J. N. Drake (Hospital Secretary-Superintendent), Mr. P. Bannister (treasurer), Mr. Woffinden, and many district organisers.