GUARDIANS OF THE SICK AND POOR
By Gordon Cox (adapted by Pauline Berry)

THE SOUTHAMPTON BOARD OF GUARDIANS c. late 1920's - early 1930's

In the late 1920's and the 1930's there existed the Southampton Board of Guardians who were elected separately from the local town councillors. They were responsible for the Infirmary (the General Hospital), the Hollybrook Children's Homes, the Workhouse in Hursley Road (built 1900 and recently demolished), another next to St. Mary's Church in St. Mary's Street (now a Technical College) and of course the Workhouse at South Stoneham Union, the Moorgreen Institution at West End.
There was a rota for Guardians to visit the various institutions to make sure they were properly managed and to listen to any complaints. My father, Henry Daubney Cox, was one of those worthies to be elected a Guardian. He ran a book-binding business in West Street, Below Bar,
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