The Queen Elizabeth II Research Institute for Mothers and Babies Opens in 1958
From Faculty of Medicine Online Museum and Archive
In 1954, the Faculty was graced with the visit of Queen Elizabeth II. The people of New South Wales raised 90,000 pounds with which to purchase a gift for the Queen to mark the occasion of her visit. In an echo of Prince Alfred’s beneficence, Her Majesty decreed that the money should be returned to the people of the State, in the wish that it be used toward the betterment of the welfare of women and children.
Professors Bruce Mayes and Lorimer (later Sir) Dods made an application to the State Cabinet to use the funds to establish a University of Sydney research institute devoted to topics of concern in the welfare of women and children, and focussed on researching the causes and prevention of illness and deaths of mothers and infants. Against twenty other competitors, they were successful. Having first been told by the administration of the day that there was nowhere in the university to build the Institute, the Queen Elizabeth II Research Institute for Mothers and Infants was nevertheless eventually built on land at the fringe of the Number One Oval, and opened by the Queen Mother in 1958.
Go to next article in timeline: The Postgraduate Medical Foundation is established in 1958