Warneford Hospital, Leamington Spa

The hospital was named after Samuel Wilson Warneford, a philanthropist who donated £3,000 of the £4,000 needed to build the hospital.^[2] The foundation stone was laid in 1832^[3] and it opened in 1834.^[2] It was initially funded either by the patients themselves, by wealthy individual donors or by collections made from the general public.^[2]

The maternity unit, the Cay Block,^[4] was financed by donations and collections organised by Mrs Annie Cay.^[2] The hospital became the main birthplace for local babies after the Cay Block opened in 1939.^[2] The hospital joined the National Health Service in 1948^[3] and Radio Warneford first broadcast in 1973.^[5]

After services transferred to either Warwick Hospital or Walsgrave Hospital (now University Hospital Coventry), the hospital closed in 1993.^[1]

• Ernest Parke (1860-1944), journalist and newspaper editor, died here^[6]