The Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital

Housed in the grounds of Gras Lawn, the former house of James Veitch, on the site of Buckerell Bore, a natural spring, the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital was opened on the 16th November 1927 by the Duchess of York, and named at her request, after her infant daughter, Princess Elizabeth, the present Queen. The hospital was the result of the efforts of Sir Robert Jones, a Liverpool orthopaedic surgeon, who with Mr Gaythorne Girdlestone planned to establish a number of open-air hospitals for crippled children.

Dame Georgina Buller, daughter of the erstwhile General, was enlisted to assist in fund raising, and by the opening in 1927, had helped raise £21,000. Although rickets was not endemic in Devon, other crippling diseases existed - TB of the joints and bones, polio and congenital deformities of the hip were not uncommon. The need for a specialist hospital was great, as a stay in hospital with these types of complaint could stretch into months or even years. By the end of 1928 the hospital had admitted 74 boys and 51 girls.

Alongside the main building, there were constructed two ward blocks, built with one side open, for fresh air. Soon, clinics at Barnstaple, Honiton, Okehampton, Torquay and Tiverton were feeding patients into the hospital. In 1932, the hospital was enlarged and a Convalescent Annexe added.

The Exeter Hip

The hospital is responsible for the pioneering Exeter hip which was developed in 1969, and which was first inserted into a patient in 1970. It was developed by Professor Robert Ling. One patient has had a hip for 33 years without a problem and it is now the most widely used hip in the world.

When the new Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital was built in the 1990's, the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital moved into new facilities, as part of the main complex. Much of the old site is now housing, with the old operating theatres, the living rooms of houses.