Plague Hospital

The “Plague Hospital” was built in 1901 in response to worldwide concerns about the spread of the bubonic plague, or ‘Black Death’.  But the hospital was used to isolate and treat a number of other deadly diseases including smallpox, Spanish Flu and measles. The Hospital had three wards, a nurses’ station, kitchen, separate toilets for each ward, three isolation rooms, laboratory and a nurses’ sitting room.

Bertie Poore

Herbert Bertram (Bertie) Poore served as senior male nurse from 1921 to 1957. In that time, he nursed every patient admitted to the station — including those suffering from the deadly smallpox virus — and if the isolation hospital was ‘locked down’ due to quarantine, he would live and work alongside them day and night until the disease had run its course, speaking with his family occasionally from a distance behind a large fence.

Bertie is remembered as an unassuming man, who spoke little of the tireless and often dangerous work he undertook. He was respected for his compassion, self-sacrifice and generosity. When asked why he took up the job Bertie would only say: “Well, somebody has to do it.”