Album Rev Mother Helen Ellis

The Hospital of St Elizabeth opened on 19th November 1856 then in Great Ormond Street, it was a contemporary of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital and was the building next door to it. The Hospital of St. Elizabeth had 20 beds at the beginning. It was for women and children only and although many patients were considered to be incurable, by December 1857, ninety patients had been admitted, 61 of whom were cured or relieved and nine had died (twenty were still in hospital). Most patients suffered from consumption (TB), paralysis or chronic disease of the spine and joints. In 1862, Sir George Bowyer, a member of the Knights of Malta, built a Convent and chapel dedicated to St John of Jerusalem next to the Hospital, and also subscribed to the upkeep of the Hospital. Because of this, its name was changed to the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth. In November 1868, the hospital's entire management passed to the Sisters of Mercy, with Sister Mary Stanislaus Jones as the Superior, the document says that Helen Ellis RSM, 'fulfilled almost in turn with M Stanislaus Jones RSM the different offices of the Institute.' They moved to a new site in Saint John's Wood in 1897 selling the Great Ormond Street property to the Children's Hospital next door. As Helen Ellis RSM was at Great Ormond Street in 1868 she would have witnessed the changes when the Sisters of Mercy began to run the hospital as well as Nurse. She was there for almost thirty years. She died in 1897.