Sully - art exhibition

I have just received a booklet on Sully from Jane Foreman, daughter of Dr  Bill Foreman, superintendent at Sully hospital.

It contains some fascinating photographic insights into life there and I was particularly interested in one photograph of an art exhibition put on by patients.

For it was an occupational art therapist in Sully who first introduced me to the world of drawing and painting though many years were to elapse before I became a full time student at Glasgow School of Art in the mid 1990s.

So, thank-you Jane for letting me see this booklet. It will provide an invaluable resource for this project.

Peter...from New Zealand

Dr Bill Foreman is one of New Zealand's most famous expats, something I did not know but it does not surprise me.

I have to thank Peter Isaac for the following information received today on email:

"Very interested in your work on Sully Hospital. It was pioneered by Dr Bill Foreman whose family was from Takapuna in New Zealand. I recall him well in the 1950s -60s in Dinas Powis.. Harold Mason Foreman, always known as Bill for some reason,  is a national hero in NZ for his courageous work in POW camps in WW2 and for his work at Sully. The hospital became a victim of post war hospital rationalisation circa 1960. The New Zealand Encyclopaedia circa 1966 has him among famous NZ expats in the UK."

Pam Foreman-wife of the late Dr Bill Foreman

Dr Bill Foreman ( left) walking in the grounds of Sully hospital with Dr Len West

 Pam Foreman,  widow of Dr Bill Foreman, the hospital  superintendent at Sully

 offers some of her memories of Sully.

She recalls that surgeons practised open-heart surgery on sheep and afterwards sent them to one of the single wards kept for post-operative care in order to simulate as closely as possible the procedure intended for humans.

Such was the dedication of the surgeons and doctors that she recalls the wife of one surgeon saying that if she were a sheep she would see more of her husband.

Another  practise amongst those early pioneers of open heart surgery  was the procedure of lowering the body temperature to allow heart surgery to take place. This involved wrapping the patient in blankets then lowering him into a bath full of ice.

This gave the surgeons a six-minute window of opportunity to work on the heart.

Following the post-war period there were great medical advances made for the treatment of TB heralded by the discovery of streptomycin.

She recalls overhearing her husband discussing alternative drug regimes with another doctor:” If X doesn’t work let’s try Y…” then he added

 “ If this works then we could be doing ourselves out of a job.”

His prediction proved correct. For the new drug regime revolutionized the treatment of TB, which in turn led to surgeons retraining in heart surgery.

Even today former staff still speak with fondness of those far off days and the great family atmosphere engendered by Sully then at its height as a great model- hospital .

Some of that is due to the family atmosphere generated by Dr Bill Foreman, the unassuming hospital superintendent, from New Zealand, and helped by another Antipodean Dr Len West, from Australia.

Certainly Sully encouraged close contacts with doctors from Third World countries and many gained their qualifications in thoracic medicine there.

Sunday lunch at the Foreman’s for the foreign doctors was an established social event.

“Many had left their families behind and we offered then a bit of normality. They would play afterwards with our six children.”

On Christmas Day the Foreman children had to make sure all their presents were opened before 11 o clock because Dr Foreman had to go and carve the turkey for the patients.

On his return at three o’clock the Foreman family could then enjoy their own Christmas dinner.

Dr Foreman and Dr West (centre) with Sully doctors

Dr Foreman,  trained at the Brompton hospital in London, and he was appointed hospital superintendent at Sully in 1951.

 Aware of the isolation of Sully hospital from the rest of the community he recognized the need to introduce recreational facilities for the staff.

Through his foresight, energy and contacts with local charities Sully hospital got both a swimming pool and tennis courts for staff and radio and telephones in the wards for the patients.

He was awarded an MBE for his selfless work during the war helping the suffering of fellow POWs, a part of his life he rarely talked about.

Tony Blackwell- former patient- late 1990s

Tony Blackwell says: " I have fond memories of Sully."



Tony  contacted me after coming across this blog.

" I was a patient there in the late 90s when it was a psychiatric hospital and pretty much before it closed.

 I’m afraid I can’t remember the dates I was there or too much about it as my brain is still a little scrambled from the ECT treatments I had at another hospital. I was there for about three months I think and the place was sadly in some disrepair.

 I seem to remember that there was pretty much just the one ward open at the time – this included a special side ward for pregnant and young mothers with psychiatric problems.

 It was such a beautiful building and it was easy to see that at one time it would have been spectacular.

I remember  myself and another patient used to try and get to the dining room early for breakfast as there were glorious sunrises visible from that room.

 It seemed to me that, at the time, the building was being used to store a lot of NHS records. I can clearly remember a couple of us exploring another floor and finding boxes and boxes of dental records, for example.

Sculpture in the garden
 Another thing I remember is that, in the gardens overlooking the sea, there was a sculpture designed for a tactile experience for blind people. The sculpture had been at the Ebbw Vale Garden Festival and had somehow found a home in Sully after the festival closed. It seemed a little odd to me because, as far as I knew, Sully was never a hospital for the blind.

Hot meals delivered from Bristol
 Another thing I remember is that the services there had been cut so much that the hot meals for the patients were being prepared in Bristol (I think) and being driven to us each day. I know that sounds odd and maybe unlikely, but that’s what I remember. I also remember a few occasions where the vehicle had gotten delayed and we had our meals very late.


 During my stay I seem to remember that the female ward manager was attacked by a newly arrived patient and one of the other patients came to her rescue. I don’t know a lot of the details, but we didn’t see the manager again and the staff got very strict about patient supervision. The only other thing that comes to mind at the moment is that there was a small shop in the hospital that sold such things as sweets, cigarettes, toothpaste etc.

A safes environment
My psychiatrist at the time felt that I needed a break in a safe environment and that’s how I came to be sent to Sully. I suffer from chronic clinical depression and haven’t been able to work for the last fifteen years. It’s with me on a daily basis, but like any other disability, one learns to live with it.

 I wasn’t really getting any treatment at the time apart from somewhat rudimentary occupational therapy. I had previously had a couple of spells in Whitchurch Hospital in Cardiff, which seemed far better organised, staffed and equipped.

 But Sully, in many ways felt like a more relaxed environment. I think this had a lot to do with the relatively small amount of patients and, of course, the beautiful surroundings. I would often walk along the cliffs there and down to Sully Island and Cosmeston Lakes.


Seagulls
 I seem to remember that there was an ECT suite at Sully, although I didn’t receive that treatment there. Sully also seemed to be a place where recovering alcoholics were sent. Perhaps this was due to the remoteness of the hospital. I do know that some patients managed to get alcohol smuggled in and hidden on the grounds though. I have memories of a young girl who was at the hospital who used to get very upset about the gulls in the grounds as she became convinced they were laughing at her. Several years earlier my father was admitted to Sully when it was a chest hospital as he was suffering from bronchitis. I visited him just the once as getting there by public transport from the east side of Cardiff wasn’t easy. I do remember that it was a much busier place then. I have only a patchy memory of my time in Sully but I do remember it fondly – more so that the time I spent at Whitchurch Hospital.”

Thank you Tony for sharing your memories of Sully with us.

Dr Bill Foreman, Superintendent, Sully hospital

Dr Bill Foreman . Superintendent Sully hospital

Died 19 April 1976. Age 62.

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

 I am indebted to Dr Foreman's daughter, Jane, for providing me with the following  information.:

"A New Zealander by birth, he was known to all as Bill after the first day of the month when bills arrived though his real name was Harold Mason.

Born on 1 December 1913 Bill Foreman was educated at Takapuna Grammar School and Otago University where he won rugby blue for the New Zealand universities.

After house appointments in Auckland he enlisted in the New Zealand Medical Corps and was taken prisoner in Greece while remaining with those wounded who were too ill to be evacuated.

He volunteered to be transferred to a camp where Russian prisoners were dying from typhus, and, in spite of contacting the disease himself, remained there for two years.

He worked tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of fellow British POWs in the Polish town of Cosel.

and when the war ended he was awarded the MBE for his selfless work.

Throughout his life he was known for his great humanity and medical skill, often putting his own life in danger.

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

After the war he trained as a chest physician at the Brompton Hospital.  He passed the MRCP in 1947 and was appointed physician superintendent of Sully Hospital in 1951.

There he was able to guide a team of physicians and surgeons in the control and cure of tuberculosis and then to develop a modern cardiothoracic unit while at the same time ensuring that his own humanity was reflected in the running of the hospital.

He knew all the staff personally and introduced many amenities that made life pleasant for them and easier for the patients and their relatives.

In his later years it was a matter of great sorrow to him to see the hospital gradually broken up and he continued to the last to fight for what he knew was best for his patients.

Bill was a man of great modesty.  He never spoke of his past career, but his eminence in his speciality was recognised by election as president of the Thoracic Society in 1972.

His knowledge of chest medicine together with his common sense and sympathy made him an outstanding colleague, but it is as a loyal and kind friend that he will be mourned by so many.

He bore his final illness with great courage, support by a strong Christian father and by his family, to whom he was devoted. Dr Foreman is survived by his wife and six children. "

Another lifelong friend, Archie Cochrane, added:

“I was privileged to know Bill Foreman for many years.  We met first in London in 1940 on a course for Army medical officers.”

We met again as prisoners-of-war in Salonika in 1941, and I was close to him and his family in South Wales for a long time. 

Throughout this long and varied period his cheerfulness and kindliness meant much to me, as to many others.  He was, I think, the kindest man I have ever known.”

Source: British Medical Journal, 29 May 1976- Obituary Notices  - H.M.Foreman MBE,MB,CHB,FRCP