“Science is measurement” - Dr Len West

Dr Len West ( right) with Dr Hugh Richmond and a radiologist.


I am grateful to Rosie West, daughter of Australian doctor Len West, for providing information on her father, Len West, who played such a pivotal role in pioneering medical research at Sully.

He was at Sully from 1948 until his tragic early death in 1970 from lung cancer at 59 years of age.


Rosie says:
“Like so many doctors of that time he smoked."

She recalls going to Sully on Saturdays while her father attended to work. "I also went to the children's parties."

She remembers meeting Dr Foreman, the New Zealand medical superintendent and Dilwyn Thomas the surgeon.




Dr Bill Foreman (left) and Dr Len West walking in the grounds of Sully hospital ( circa 1960s).


This obituary appeared in the British Medical Journal on 15 August 1970.


“Dr.L.R. West, consultant chest physician, Sully hospital, Penarth, Glamorgan, died on 11 July at the age of 59.

Leonard Roy West, a South Australian from a medical family, was born on 20 May 1911.

He received his medical education at Adelaide University, graduating M.B., B.S in 1935.

After some jobs in Adelaide he came to London to work for his M.R.C.P, which he took in 1937.
He had house physician posts at he Brompton Hospital and King Edward V11 Sanatorium in Midhdurst before enlisting in the R.A.M.C in 1941.

During his military service he was in Gibraltar, and joined the 6th Airborne Division, which landed in France on D-Day. At the crossing of the Rhine he was mentioned in dispatches,

After demobilization he went back to Midhdurst and in 1947 was appointed chest physician to Sully hospital, to which he devoted the rest of his life.

He was a member of many learned societies including the Thoracic Society and the Cardiac Society, and he was elected F.R.C.P. in 1967.

Thirty years of living in Britain had no effects on the Australian characteristics of Len West. He was enterprising, competent and interested in science to an extraordinary degree.



Len West and Bill Foreman with the team of doctors at Sully hospital.


“Science is measurement” was his motto and he never fell short of it, whether it was in building the first tomography apparatus at Midhurst or making the equipment for and performing the first cardiac catheterization in Wales.
Constructing highly sophisticated electronic apparatus for clinical and research investigations were among the many activities t which he excelled, and undoubtedly it was he who laid the foundations of specialized cardio-thoracic work in Wales.
In addition he was a good teacher and lecturer as well as a sound clinician.

Len West will be well remembered by his many friends for his impish humour, for his bravery, which was exemplified during his long and painful illness, and for his outstanding ability as a chest physician, scientist m an engineer.

His memory will extend far outside the immediate area of his work through the many graduates from all pats of the world that he instructed.

He leaves a wife and a son and a daughter.”


This plaque was placed on the building where Dr West and others did experiments on sheep.

Nurse -Sully 1936- 1940

Rosemary West, daughter of the renowned Sully surgeon Len West, has supplied me with a wealth of information about Sully.


Here is a letter from a student nurse who worked there in 1936 and it was published in the South Wales Echo on April 28 2002.


Iris Deli of Tynewydd Rd, Barry wrote:
"Sully Hospital was a place of great hope for so many patients and their families.

Some of the happiest years of my life were spent there.


It was in 1936 age 18 that a lovely lady interviewed me for a position as a probationer nurse called Matron Gould, for whom I had the greatest respect.

After some initial training, I was assigned to a ward where the patients were all young girls in their teens who had come from Glan Ely hospital.

It must have been wonderful for them to come to such a lovely place.


Although most of them were terminal cases, there was always hope and they were the happiest girls I had ever met.

With the introduction of new drugs, many patients recovered.

I nursed a girl who had been in my class at in Gladstone Road School, and, until recently, was an active member of the WRVS.

We worked long hours with split shifts, during which we had to attend lectures and had little remuneration – 19 shillings (95) a month but we were happy and contended in the fact that we were to the best of our ability trying to make life a little it more comfortable for those more uncomfortable than ourselves.

During my three and a half years there, I made many friends with whom I am still in touch.”.

Steve Parker-staff (1983-1989)

Steve in the stocks during the annual Sully Hospital fete ( 1985).



Sully Hospital - Nurses Home


Steve Parker has fond memories of his time in Sully where he worked from 1983 to 1989 as a maintenance carpenter.

“ I was only 21 years of age when I started work there.

In 1994, I moved from my parents home and into the Nurses Home. My room was 131, on the first floor of the Nurses Home, next to the lift (East Wing) and opposite the communal toilets with a view of the kitchens.

It was very tiny.


My initial thoughts were:” what have I done!”

There was loud music coming along the corridor, all-coming from different rooms and thus different tunes.

After unpacking on my first evening I sat in my chair and left the door wide open.

I had a great view of the toilets. I just sat there and drank a few tins of beer.

After two hours there were sounds of laughter and a young girl appeared in the doorway dressed in her nightclothes.

She said:“oh you’re new.
Do you want to join us in the kitchen?
We’re having a séance.”

Well, I had never been to a séance before but I thought I would give it a try.

“ Well there were about six or so students all sat around a coffee table all in their night dresses and a couple of empty bottles of wine and me.

“We were unable to contact the dead but it did change my mind about staying.

Sian Phillips was the Warden. She lived on the first floor at the very end of the West wing. She left in 1986 and the new warden Gloria Rowe, was married and did not live in the nurses home.

Eventually the porters got fed up of letting locked out students back into their rooms, and I became unofficially the deputy warden as I had a set of master keys (part of my job).
Anyway, most of the time I was out with the students.



There were lot of parties in the nurse’s home and only a few ever got out of hand with the warden having to put a stop to it.

Another regular event was the ritual walk to the Sully Inn on a Thursday night for a few beers and to listen to a singer.

In the summer we had beach parties with a BBQ.

Most of the students did not take to the social club in the grounds because; it was a bit run down and was mostly frequented by employees of the hospital and locals.

The students preferred to go to the students union in Cardiff or into Cardiff itself.

Life in the nurses home was not all fun and at times it got very quiet especially in the summer holidays when there would only be about 6 of us in the home.


There were some doctors who were from overseas attending residential courses. Most of these doctors were from Africa or Asia.

I remember a Dr Ali, a nice chap from Africa who was trying to get the cooker to work and he asked me asked for assistance, he was trying to light the cooker using a lighter but could not understand why it was not lighting.

The cooker was electric.

Then there was the doctor from overseas boiling his underwear in a large saucepan.

He forgot about them.
The fire alarm went off, which it did from time to time, and we ignored it.
Suddenly there was smoke in the corridors and we found what remained of his clothes glowering and smouldering in the pan.

As usual the fire brigade turned up with half a dozen fire fighters crammed in the kitchen. We never did find out which doctor did it they


Whilst I was staying at the nurses’ home I did my bit for charity.
I did two parachute jumps to raise money for a new special bed, and I took part in a charity football match played at BP social club Sully, where all the hospital staff dressed up as nurses, including myself.



I think I gave a few people a bit of a shock for I rode through Sully on my motorbike in a size 12 staff nurses uniform, well endowed of course, complete with fishnets stockings.

My rent was only £8.40 a week! The students paid more than I did.

The students were allocated their rooms by occupation that is to say that the Occupational and Physiotherapists were allocated the first and second floors whilst the dental hygienists and Ophthalmologists were given the third floor. In my last year there ambulance cadets also stayed at the nurses home. As well as myself there also were several other members of Sully hospital employees who also lived in the nurses home.


Christmas at Sully was mixed for me, the atmosphere in the hospital itself was great with parties going on here and there some even had small quantities of alcohol, and of course the staff Christmas dinner was a fine meal.


However, the nurse’s home was once again quiet, although I worked in between Christmas and the New Year more often than not.

It was December 6th 1988, when I was asked to assist a nurse who had finished her shift and was unable to start her scooter.

I tried everything that I could think of but it was not having any of it. I told the nurse that I could not fix it.

Just as I was putting away my tools a voice from above said, “Steve do you want to come to a party?”
“I am still in my working clothes,” I said.

“Come as you are.”

To this day I’m not sure who invited me but when I walked into the first floor West kitchen a party was trying to get going, mostly girls and just a few lads.

I was chatted up by this short blond student, seven and a half years later we were married, and still are.

My wife said that there was not much competition and so she made a move first before anyone else did.”



Steve got married at Craig-y-nos Castle in 1995 and now lives five miles from it.

Sully hospital- editing

Finally, the research is almost complete and I have started editing the book. It will have two sections: my own account of my time there and another part based on this blog.

Once this is complete I will explore the turbulent waters of e-publishing. Here the publishing world is changing so fast that a month is a long time.
Not only are there numerous e-book formats available but new electronic reading devices are coming on the market all the time.
Think I will stay with my trusty ipad which at two years of age is already looking incredibly dated.

Which route to go down?...