After World War1, and the ‘Spanish flu’ that followed, 1920 saw the official opening of the Hawkins Pathology Laboratory.
Here we are 101 years later and in the midst of yet another devastating flu epidemic and the eyes of the nation have been on how our NHS is coping with Covid testing and inoculations.
Having worked in the new Path Lab, opened in 1968, from school until retirement and now volunteering in the NGH Historical Archive and Museum, I was keen to help the laboratory celebrate its centenary last year....
but lockdown put those plans aside.
Before 1918, the laboratory consisted of little more than a room with textbooks, microscopes and very basic testing equipment housed in the original 1793 Infirmary building.
We must not forget that the greatest source of early medical knowledge was from performing post mortems and anatomical dissections.
Every hospital had its mortuary or ‘dead house’ and from there microscopes and basic bacterial tests progressed medical understanding.
Later, as science developed and tests became more and more sophisticated, samples were sent to London and Birmingham laboratories.
In 1917, the influx of wounded soldiers to local hospitals put a strain on existing laboratories, creating a need to employ a paid pathologist and microbiologist and build a laboratory to house the work here at Northampton General Hospital.
An anonymous donor agreed to fund this but the Ministry of Munitions of War refused permission for it to be built and it wasn’t until 1918 that a licence was granted.
The laboratory was built, equipped and opened on 1st April 1920.
Of course costs in the intervening years had doubled but were entirely paid for by the donor, who was now known to be Mr G.
T.
Hawkins.
The cost to build and equip the laboratory came to £6,557 17s.
Mr G.
T.
Hawkins was a prosperous Northampton Boot and Shoe manufacturer and attributed his success to the fact he was a qualified bootmaker, having a thorough knowledge of the art from the beginning to the end.
He was from a bootmaking family in Higham Ferrers and came to Northampton as a boy learning his trade at Manfield and Sons at their factory in Campbell Square.
Aged 25yrs, he set up his own business, starting small, increasing rapidly, and thirteen years later he purchased the property on the corner of Overstone Road and St.
Michael’s Road in partnership with HG White and H Edwards.
The factory specialised in making riding boots and ‘magazine’ type boots used by servicemen in ammunition stores.
It was reported in the 1905 ‘Footwear Journal’ that he owned one of the finest factories in the kingdom stocked with the latest machinery, introducing power finishing machinery to the town.
The factory was best known for producing the ‘Waukerz’ brand of boots and was the first company to hold the Royal Warrant.
[caption id="attachment_5214" align="aligncenter" width="980"] The laboratory site is marked by the red ring and situated near the laundry.[/caption] Mr Hawkins was a sympathetic supporter of all charities but was a very private gentleman who shunned publicity.
He lived in ‘Beaumont’ Cliftonville when he retired in 1922 due to health reasons, and indulged in his hobby as a keen cultivator of orchids.
Dr Shaw was appointed as the Pathologist (photographed looking down the microscope) and he requested the appointment of Mr F.
S.
Dury (in the corner) as his assistant as he had worked with him at Cambridge.
Interest in virology was starting to develop during the 1930’s and the work of the Hawkins laboratory continued to expand.
In 1940 the Ministry of Health funded a bacteriologist and an extra technician to carry out public health work in its basement until a new Public Health Laboratory could be built.
At the start of WW2 it was feared that another global influenza pandemic would occur with the movement of troops around the world and this PH lab, under the direction of Dr L Hoyle, started researching the influenza virus alongside a London laboratory.
In 1968 a new Path Lab was built and is now accessed from the Hospital Street.
It continues to expand to accommodate modern technology and innovations.
We are all gratefull to the staff and all their hard work going on behind the scenes, especially at this moment.
You can see the Public Health laboratory, built in the 1950’s, situated to the right of the new Path Lab.
This small building is now used as the Blood Taking Unit.
Julia Corps, volunteer at the NGH Historical Archive.