24 May 1902   Queen Victoria Hospital

The formal opening of the Queen's Home was held on 24 May 1902, Queen Victoria's birthday, before 500 invited guests and another 1000 people who paid sixpence each for admission.

In November 1900 Lady Tennyson, wife of the Governor, decided there was a need for a Lying-in Hospital for respectable women. She organised a committee which met in Government House on 6 December to consider founding a maternity hospital for married women of the poorer class providing they were 'worthy'.

Dr Allan Campbell of the Children's Hospital had wished for a maternity home to be established and, after his death in 1898, two of his colleagues, Chief Justice Sir Samuel Way and the Hon. J.H. Gordon, believed that the proposed hospital should be built as a wing of the Children's. Lady Tennyson was strongly opposed to this idea and in the end her wishes prevailed and the Queen's Home was constructed on a site at Rose Park Opposite the Victoria Park Racecourse.

The foundation stone was laid by the Duke of Cornwall (later King George V) on 13 July 1901 in almost perfect weather.

The four wards which could each hold four beds were named Victoria, Lady Tennyson, Princess May and Alexandra. The southern wing was added in 1927. Unmarried women were first admitted in 1917 in a separate cottage, but by 1918 were being cared for in the main building. The name of the Home was changed to the Queen Victoria Maternity Hospital in July 1939, and to the Queen Victoria Hospital in May 1966.

On 15 March 1989 The Queen Victoria Hospital amalgamated with the Adelaide Children's Hospital and to become the Adelaide Medical Centre for Women and Children. The hospital at Rose Park closed in 1995.

Ian Forbes, The Queen Victoria Hospital Rose Park 1901-1986, Lutheran Press, 1988.