Annie Zunz Ward,Royal Free Hospital
Annie Zunz Ward
Wards named Annie Zunz can be found in several hospitals in London, but who was she? Annie Zunz was the Irish wife of a German iron merchant, Siegfried Rudolf Zunz, who had come to London from Frankfurt-am-Main in 1860 to make his fortune. The couple were married for 22 years, but were childless, and when Annie died in 1896 her husband was inconsolable. He died a broken man just three years after his wife.
Siegfried decided that after his death his fortune was to be used to perpetuate the memory of his beloved Annie. In his will he instructed his executors and trustees to give £25,000 (about £1.9 million today) to a London hospital to build and maintain forever a ward named “The Annie Zunz ward”, and that a life-sized photograph of Annie was to be hung in that ward. The surplus of his estate was to be given to other London hospitals to support Annie Zunz wards.
The lucky hospital to get the £25,000 was St. Mary’s Paddington, which was given the money to complete the Clarence Wing in Praed Street. Other London hospitals began to apply to the Zunz trustees for the rest of the estate, which was valued at £115,200 (£8.9 million at to-day’s prices).Great Ormond Street approached the trustees in 1910 for a donation, and received £3,000 (£210,000) to name the small isolation ward after Annie Zunz. Three years later the hospital asked the trustees if they would agree to increasing their donations if the hospital named one of the general wards “The Annie Zunz ward”. The trustees did not immediately agree, but, after Great Ormond Street had renamed the large Alice ward “Annie Zunz”, they did step up their payments.
Nine years later the Annie Zunz trustees asked the hospital to record their generosity by putting up a plaque in the ward, and suggested that the wording should be similar to that in the Annie Zunz ward at the Royal Free Hospital. Great Ormond Street contacted the Royal Free Hospital (which at that time was in Grays Inn Road) and the Middlesex Hospital, which also had a ward dedicated to Annie Zunz. The plaque at the Royal Free read:
“By the terms of the Will of Siegfried Rudolph Zunz Merchant of the City of London. His Trustees have made a grant of the sum of £10,000 to this Hospital in memory of Annie Zunz - The best of wives whose whole life was spent in helping and aiding others - 1901”
The Middlesex Hospital’s plaque was similarly worded, but Great Ormond Street decided that, as they had not received quite as much money as the other hospitals (and £1,000 less than the Evelina Children’s Hospital), the plaque here would be less fulsome in its praise of either Rudolf or his perfect wife. The GOS inscription simply stated:
“By the terms of the Will of Siegfried Rudolph Zunz - Merchant of the City of London - his Trustees made a grant of the sum of £3,000 in 1910 for the naming of this Ward and have since contributed towards its maintenance.”
The Royal Free, Bart’s, King’s College Hospital, the Bolingbroke and the Royal London all have Annie Zunz wards. Ironically, she has not been remembered by St. Mary’s, the biggest single beneficiary of her husband’s fortune. The £25,000 that had been given to the hospital to complete the Clarence Wing was not enough to ensure that the wards were opened. In 1909 some of the Annie Zunz wards were handed over to the Inoculation Department, and by the 1920s, the Annie Zunz wards became part of the maternity department.
Annie Zunz Ward,Royal Free Hospital
Annie Zunz Ward
Wards named Annie Zunz can be found in several hospitals in London, but who was she? Annie Zunz was the Irish wife of a German iron merchant, Siegfried Rudolf Zunz, who had come to London from Frankfurt-am-Main in 1860 to make his fortune. The couple were married for 22 years, but were childless, and when Annie died in 1896 her husband was inconsolable. He died a broken man just three years after his wife.
Siegfried decided that after his death his fortune was to be used to perpetuate the memory of his beloved Annie. In his will he instructed his executors and trustees to give £25,000 (about £1.9 million today) to a London hospital to build and maintain forever a ward named “The Annie Zunz ward”, and that a life-sized photograph of Annie was to be hung in that ward. The surplus of his estate was to be given to other London hospitals to support Annie Zunz wards.
The lucky hospital to get the £25,000 was St. Mary’s Paddington, which was given the money to complete the Clarence Wing in Praed Street. Other London hospitals began to apply to the Zunz trustees for the rest of the estate, which was valued at £115,200 (£8.9 million at to-day’s prices).Great Ormond Street approached the trustees in 1910 for a donation, and received £3,000 (£210,000) to name the small isolation ward after Annie Zunz. Three years later the hospital asked the trustees if they would agree to increasing their donations if the hospital named one of the general wards “The Annie Zunz ward”. The trustees did not immediately agree, but, after Great Ormond Street had renamed the large Alice ward “Annie Zunz”, they did step up their payments.
Nine years later the Annie Zunz trustees asked the hospital to record their generosity by putting up a plaque in the ward, and suggested that the wording should be similar to that in the Annie Zunz ward at the Royal Free Hospital. Great Ormond Street contacted the Royal Free Hospital (which at that time was in Grays Inn Road) and the Middlesex Hospital, which also had a ward dedicated to Annie Zunz. The plaque at the Royal Free read:
“By the terms of the Will of Siegfried Rudolph Zunz Merchant of the City of London. His Trustees have made a grant of the sum of £10,000 to this Hospital in memory of Annie Zunz - The best of wives whose whole life was spent in helping and aiding others - 1901”
The Middlesex Hospital’s plaque was similarly worded, but Great Ormond Street decided that, as they had not received quite as much money as the other hospitals (and £1,000 less than the Evelina Children’s Hospital), the plaque here would be less fulsome in its praise of either Rudolf or his perfect wife. The GOS inscription simply stated:
“By the terms of the Will of Siegfried Rudolph Zunz - Merchant of the City of London - his Trustees made a grant of the sum of £3,000 in 1910 for the naming of this Ward and have since contributed towards its maintenance.”
The Royal Free, Bart’s, King’s College Hospital, the Bolingbroke and the Royal London all have Annie Zunz wards. Ironically, she has not been remembered by St. Mary’s, the biggest single beneficiary of her husband’s fortune. The £25,000 that had been given to the hospital to complete the Clarence Wing was not enough to ensure that the wards were opened. In 1909 some of the Annie Zunz wards were handed over to the Inoculation Department, and by the 1920s, the Annie Zunz wards became part of the maternity department.