Archives which include chaplain's logbooks and newspaper and magazine cuttings, operations register from the RSH hospital and probationer nurses' logbooks are deposited in the Southampton City Archives in Southampton Civic Centre open Tuesday afternoons Wednesdays all day and Thursdays all day. Martyn Basford our Archivist is undertaking further research on the history of the Chapel and the RSH hospital and would be grateful for any information including photographs etc. If appropriate they can be scanned and returned to the owner.
A patient left money in her will for a chapel to be erected at the hospital and Senior Physician W.S Oke turned her wish into a reality.
William Sandways Oke M.D. lived in Portland Terrace. Unusually his M.D. degree had been awarded by the Archbishop of Canterbury. He was married to Anne who died in 1863. William wrote two medical textbooks and a book of religious poems. William and Anne had a daughter Mary who married the Reverend Henry Keary in 1848. Henry had sisters named Eliza and Annie. Eliza, Annie and Maud Keary published Enchanted Tulips and other verses for children in 1914 [Macmillan].
Dr Joseph Bullar wrote of his experiences of administering mustard baths for cholera victims and related how a fellow doctor self administered a cure on himself by continually sucking blocks of ice. In a medical journal he described how terminally ill patients were best prepared for death by administering large doses of pain killers. In addition he was in correspondence with Charles Darwin on his research into species. Bullar discussed the topic of pollen in modifying ovarium and his own observation on stamens, pistils and orchids. Joseph had an elder brother John, also a doctor. John's wife Rosa wrote to Charles Darwin describing how their black labrador used to dig a burrow in the soil prior to giving birth to her pups and Dawin noted that this behavior was very rare.
A "J. Bullar of Southampton" appeared on the list of subscribers to Samuel Johnson's goddaughter in 1856.
Joseph and his brother Henry also published a book in 1841 on Wintering in the Azores reflecting their interest in travel. Joseph and his brother Henry spent seven months in 1838 exploring the Azores and the Baths at Furnas. They considered the latter were similar to the health springs at Baded-Baden and the warm sunshine and health springs would be a restorative for patients with consumpyion [TB]. They described the customs, religions and the agriculture and trade of the islands.
A Winter in the Azores and a Summer at the Baths of the Furnas, by Joseph Bullar & Henry Bullar, originally published in 1841, edited by Andreas Stieglitz, 516 pages, frontispiece and 27 b/w illustrations in the text.
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Further reading
D.M. Watson Proud Heritage: a history of the Royal South Hants Hospital 1838-1971 [Wilson Southampton 1979] copies are available in the Southampton Central Library