Cot plaque from Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children

Metal plaque once attached to a cot at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children, London, England, marking the sponsorship of the cot by Gladys Dean Paul, from 1902.

This plaque is from a cot sponsored by Gladys Dean Paul in 1902, that was once in the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children. Cot sponsoring was a popular way for people to give financial support to a hospital such as Great Ormond Hospital for Sick Children, which relied solely on charity donations. This plaque was raised in honour of Gladys Dean Paul to acknowledge a financial gift. It is shown here with two other cot plaques (1986-1444 and 1986-1445).

This plaque is almost certainly a memorial. Contemporaneous newspaper reports show that a Gladys Dean Paul died in May 1902, at the age of 25, while in South Africa. Three years later a memorial window was unveiled at St Mary’s Church in Woodchester, Gloucestershire that was dedicated to Gladys Dean Paul – commissioned by her fiancé, Major Stanley Barry, who had fought in the Boer War between 1899 and 1902.