Description:Patients and staff in the vegetable garden at the Sister Dora Convalescent Home near Milford Common.
Funds were raised by public subscription to build a convalescent home as a memorial to Dorothy Pattison, known as Sister Dora, an Anglican nun and nurse, who was famous for her work nursing the sick poor in Walsall, especially during a smallpox outbreak and the aftermath of a blast furnace explosion at Walsall Ironworks in 1875. It was declared open by Lady Stamar on 19 April 1884. The hospital was intended for the benefit of infirmaries in the neighbouring counties. It had sixteen beds and was open from April to December. £1,200 of the estimated £2,000 cost was donated by Miss Lonsdale, from the proceeds of her book ‘Memoir of Sister Dora' and the remainder was funded by public subscription.
Its rural location on the edge of Cannock Chase was seen as beneficial for recuperation from chest surgery and for patients with early-stage lung disease. In 1889 adult patients were charged 6 shillings per week. Children with a subscriber’s letter were charged 3 shillings per week. A Lady Visitors room was available for £1.10s per week. By 1899 the home also took in laundry.
In 1969 local hospital provision was reorganised and as a result the Convalescent Home was closed and then offered for sale in 1971. It became the Sister Dora Rest Home in 1972. The home was closed in 2016 and demolished soon afterwards to be replaced by a new purpose-built building, the Dora Rose Care Home which opened in 2019.
Postcard published by The Scientific Press, Ltd, London and was posted from Milford in 1905. The publisher specialised in photographic cards of health institutions.