Continuing our look at local business men who greatly helped our hospital and the folk of Northampton, we now focus on Sir Cyril T Cripps.
[caption id="attachment_2914" align="alignright" width="543"] Sir Cyril T Cripps pictured at the unveiling of a bronze likeness during the opening celebration.[/caption] On the 8th of May we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the official opening of the Cripps Post Graduate Building.
It was built through the generosity of the Cripps Foundation, a charity established in 1956 by the Cripps family.
In 1919 Cyril Cripps moved his firm, Pianoforte Supplies Ltd from London to Roade to develop its piano metal components business and the company grew into a major supplier of metal fittings for other trades, especially the motor industry.
During WW2 it created parts for vehicles and aircraft as part of the war effort.
The need for a Post Graduate centre in the hospital was recognised and pioneered by three prominent members of the hospital staff in the 1960’s, Mr Gledhill, Mrs Dalgleish and Mr Taylor.
Unable to secure sufficient funding from the hospital they approached Sir Cyril Cripps who showed great interest in the project and after discussion with the co-trustees of the Cripps Foundation agreed to provide funding of £250,000 towards the building costs.
The Cripps Post Graduate Centre was built at a cost of £300,000 and was possibly the largest and best in Britain at the time.
Its main purpose was to provide a meeting place for all doctors and professional colleagues in the area and facilities for residential medical staff and visitors.
It boasted a lecture hall seating over 200, a lecture theatre, seminar room, medical library and a room equipped for audio visual studies which was cutting edge in its day.
The Cripps Centre and the staff recreation centre, built in 1974, were only two of many benefactions by this Northamptonshire philanthropist up to his death in 1979.
The family continues the Foundation’s good work in the belief that those who have been fortunate to amass great wealth should channel it to the greater good.
Julia Corps Volunteer at NGH Historical Archive and Musuem.
[caption id="attachment_2917" align="aligncenter" width="980"] Note the early stages of the construction of Sturtridge Block in the foreground[/caption]