Rose Innes Hospital
In 1915, during WWI, the trustees and management committee agreed to hand over the hospital to the Banffshire Branch of the Red Cross Society to be used as an auxiliary hospital. This meant that civilian cases had to go to Campbell Hospital in Portsoy.
In October 1919 the Red Cross closed the hospital for the reception of soldiers and handed it back to the trustees.
In the 1920s the hospital’s isolation ward coped with epidemics of diphtheria and scarlet fever.
The hospital was very much a community one. An advert placed by Trust Secretary Henry Wilson (who was Inspector of the Poor for Aberchirder) in the Banffshire Journal in December 1936 gave a long list of items of foodstuffs and other items which local individuals and churches had contributed during the year:
ROSE – INNES HOSPITAL, ABERCHIRDER : GIFTS RECEIVED.
John Stevenson, North Street – 18 shillings; Mrs Burnett-Stuart, Ardmeallie – 19 rabbits, 1 pigeon, 2 cauliflowers, 1 baby’s basket (complete); Mrs Griffiths, Marnoch Lodge – 2 hares, magazines; Mrs Dodds, Netherdale – 5 doz eggs; Mrs Milne, Northsea View – 1 ½ doz eggs; Mr A Lawson, at Fife Arms Hotel, Banff – 1 salmon (21 ½ lbs); Mr Buchan, South Street – 1 hare; Mrs Hay, Harperhill – 4 lbs jam, 1 lb butter, and apples; Mrs Davidson, Main Street – 4 rabbits, 1 chicken; Mrs Stephen, Auchinderran – 1 fowl, tea, bread; Mr Lomax, Netherdale House – 4 st apples; Misses Wilson, Auchintoul – 1goose; Mrs Stewart, Square – 1 cake; Mrs Simpson, Danshillock – 1 chicken, 1 rabbit; Mrs Hosie, Main Street – 1 chicken; Marnoch Church Harvest Thanksgivi9ng – 3 st 11 lbs sugar, 2 ½ lbs tea, 2 lbs honey, 2 lbs butter, 1 packet custard, 1 cheese, 3 chickens, 1 bag oatmeal, 2 pairs towels, fruit, vegetables and 3 bags potatoes; Ordiquhill Church Harvest Thanksgiving – 4 lbs sugar, ½ lb tea, 14 lbs jam, 1 tin cocoa, 1 packet currants,2 loaves, 2 doz eggs, 2 chickens, fruit, vegetables, flowers, 1 bag potatoes; Inverkeithney Church Harvest Thanksgiving – 4 lbs sugar, 24 lbs jam, 4 sections honey, ½ lb tea, 1 lb butter, 1 tin cocoa, 4 doz eggs, 1 st oatmeal, 2 chickens, fruit, vegetables, flowers, 2 bags potatoes; Ord Church Harvest Thanksgiving – 3 lbs jam, 2 lbs tea, 1 doz eggs, 3 chickens, 3 rabbits, fruit, vegetables, flowers, 3 bags potatoes; St Marnan’s Church Harvest Thanksgiving – bread, fruit, vegetables, and flowers; Murray Mission Hall, Auchingoul – tea, bread.
H. WILSON, Secretary