Historical information
This book on the history of the first 100 years of the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne has been published in 1976 and written by C.E. Sayers. He was a professional historian who was commissioned to produce this history. (He was also the historian commissioned by the Warrnambool City Council in 1969 to write a history of Warrnambool , ‘By These We Flourish’). Apart from its detailing of the history of an important institution in Victoria, this book is of particular interest to the Warrnambool and District Historical Society because William Dixon Saltau (1894-1970), born in Warrnambool, was the Medical Superintendent of the Women’s Hospital from 1924 to 1951. Dr Saltau was the son of Marcus Saltau (M.L.A.) and his wife Jean and the grandson of Henry Saltau who came to Australia in 1860 and who founded in the 1870s the Warrnambool firm of Saltau and Son, general carriers, coal, wood and produce merchants and forwarding agents. Dr Saltau’s father Marcus was Mayor of Warrnambool and a generous benefactor of the Warrnambool Hospital (Marcus Saltau House and Jean Buick Saltau Maternity Ward). Dr Saltau was educated at Warrnambool Academy (Richard Lawson, Headmaster), Scotch College, Melbourne and Melbourne University. He specialized in obstetrics and gynaecology and practised in England, Adelaide and Melbourne.
Significance
This book is of interest because it describes the history of the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne and because a Warrnambool identity, Dr William Dixon Saltau, was the Medical Superintendent of this hospital for 25 years. His name is listed in this book.
Physical description
This is a soft-cover book of 170 pages printed in 1976 and giving the history of the first 100 years of the Royal Women’s Hospital, Melbourne. It has a white cover of thick paper with the emblem of the hospital on the front in blue, red, black and white. There is also a dust cover with the same material on it. The book has 26 Chapters and ten Appendices, an Index, a Foreword and an Introduction. It has a black and white sketch of the entrance to the first hospital and portraits of the two medical founders of the hospital. The pages have been bound using glue.
Inscriptions & markings
Front Cover: ‘The Women’s – A Century of Service’
Spine: ‘The Women’s by C. E. Sayers’
