Hospitals of Caithness

We have now published the Hospitals of Caithness.  This is the final regional book in our History of Highland Hospital series.  It is 18 years since we began this research and we are most grateful to the many individuals and organisations which have supported us and the many people who have purchased copies of our books and allowed us to proceed in our early uncertain days.  This is very much true of the support we have received from Caithness.

Caithness was not the first part of the Highlands to establish a hospital but we think Wick may have been the first town in Highland to establish a permanent fever hospital in 1849 which, although fairly basic in the early years, eventually led to the Wick Combination Hospital in the 1880s and to the Wick Town and County in 1910.

The first general hospital was the Bignold Hospital - named after its founder, Arthur Bignold, the local MP.  When he lost his seat he stopped his financial support and from 1910 the citizens of Wick and Caithness fully funded it (no NHS then!).  The Dunbar Hospital was opened much earlier but did not become a general hospital until the mid 1920s.  From then on, the people of Thurso and Caithness stepped up and funded it in the same way as in Wick until the NHS took over - a fantastic and consistent effort and one which we have largely forgotten.

Something else we have difficulty appreciating is living through wartime.  We hear a lot about the Blitz but how many remember that Wick was bombed to the extent that the Bignold Hospital was forced to locate to Lybster.  During both World Wars Caithness also saw large numbers of military personnel who also required the provision of health care (not forgetting the large POW camp at Watten during the Second World War).

Our book also looks at the history of the Thurso and Latheron poorhouses - the latter becoming the Caithness Town and County Home in the 1920s and moving to Forse House in 1949.  Poorhouses have acquired a reputation for austerity but the Latheron Home in particular comes across as a most humane and caring establishment.

The book also includes the history of the Burnside Hospital, Thurso's Casuals Poorhouse, the Henderson Maternity Home and the Rhind Institute in Wick as well as looking at changes in the provision of health care generally and of ambulances.

We are most grateful to SSENT who have sponsored the printing of the Hospitals of Caithness which allows us, as before, to only charge the cost of postage and packing where we have to send it out (orders can be made from the Buy a Book page on this website).  In Caithness, there are copies at various outlets including the North Highland Archives and the Wick Society.  We are most grateful for Caithness General Hospital making copies available to staff and patients.  In Inverness, copies are available by contacting Jim or Steve Leslie.  Highland Libraries has copies for loan in Thurso and Wick.