This institution, which was publicly opened on the 30th October 1883,
by the Right Honourable Edward Henry 15th Earl of Derby K.G., Chairman
of the Cotton Districts Convalescent Fund, is intended for the reception
and treatment of the convalescent patients , also as a memorial of the the noble
efforts made for the relief of the distress which prevailed throughout
the Cotton Manufacturing Districts, during the Cotton Famine.
The outbreak of civil strife on America, and the consequent stoppage
of cotton supplies therefrom, caused for a time complete paralysis,
in the cotton industry of Lancashire and the neighbouring Counties
vast numbers of the operative class were thereby plunged into distress
and suffering which was only alleviated by the munificent liberality
of the nation, and the unbounded generosity of the charitably disposed
in all parts of the world.
Throughout this terrible crisis, extending from April 1862, to June
1865, the cotton operatives and others employed in allied trades,
numbering hundreds of thousands, endured great privations with the
utmost fortitude and resignation, with which relief was administered by
the various Committees, without creating pauperism and mendicancy
in any appreciable degree.
The distribution of the large sums contributed and the grave
reasonability of contending with so unparalleled a calamity as the
Cotton Famine distress created, was undertaken, and successfully
directed by the “Cotton Districts Central Executive Committee,”
under the presidency of George Francis, 2nd Earl of Ellesmere,
at whose decease, Edward Geoffrey, 14th Earl of Derby K.G., was
appointed thereto, with Sir James P. Kay-Shuttleworth, Bart., as Deputy
Chairman, actively supported by the undermentioned committee,
involved, the arduous and responsible duties of Honorary Secretary,
being ably fulfilled by John William Maclure.
Thomas Ashton Edmund Ashworth
After, the distress occasioned by the Cotton Famine had
passed away, ant relief ceased to be necessary, it was found
that of the three million sterling received from public and
private sources, there remained an undistributed balance in the
hands of the “Cotton Districts Relief Committee and of the Central
Executive Committee,” which with subsequent accumulations
amounted to £177,000.
With the sanction of the Court of Chancery, this surplus was
merged into one Fund called ”The Cotton Districts Convalescent
Fund,” which is controlled by a Governing Body Consisting of
10 Co-optative and 10 Representative Governors.
The Fund is applied for charitable purposes, in accordance
with a scheme approve by the Charity Commissioners, which
in its aim and objective is as nearly akin, as possible, to that for
which the money was originally given.
Out of such surplus fund this Convalescent Home has been
erected, and subsequently enlarged in 1894-5. It contains 185 beds,
with requisite administrative offices and dayrooms for patients,
and, with the Hospital adjoining, accommodates 400 persons,
including the purchase of the freehold site, the building and
equipment of the Home has involved and outlay of £50,000 while a further sum of £26,500 has, with similar object, been contributed
by the Fund, partly for the enlargement and reconstruction of
the Devonshire Hospital Buxton, and partly towards the Fund for the erection of the Children’s Sanatorium Southport.
Co-optative Governors
1894-5
The Earl of Sefton, K.G.
Earl of Ellesmere
Lord Egerton of Tatton
John William Maclure, M.P.
Sir Ughtred Kay-Shuttleworth, Bart
