HISTORY

A Noble Tradition

The new hospital is the third to be called ‘noble’s’ in a story of developing health care spanning three centuries.

The first Noble’s Hospital, provided by the great public benefactor Henry Bloom Noble and his wife Rebecca, was opened on 4 September 1888 at the top of Crellin’s Hill in Douglas.

The red-brick building, later to become the Manx Museum, had 36 beds and included an operating theatre. This was a great improvement on its predecessor, a house in Fort Street which mostly dealt with cases of smallpox and cholera. However, the new hospital soon outgrew its premises.

Despite concerns that it was too far out of town, the second Noble’s was built on a three-acre green field site on Westmoreland Road and was opened by the Lieutenant Governor, Lord Raglan, on 11 September 1912.

The 57-bed hospital, featuring the latest X-ray equipment and an in-house electricity generator, cost £20,000. The funding, plus a further £20,000 investment money to produce an annual income, came from the estate of Henry Bloom Noble, who had died in 1903.

The opening of the new Noble’s Hospital on a fine autumn day 91 years ago was a major event for the people of the Isle of Man. There was a grand procession through town, bands played, and schoolchildren were given a half-day holiday. But that was far from being the end of the story ….

Predecessors

Noble's and its predecessors

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