Founding and early years of the National Hospital, Queen Square

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Portrait of David Wire, Lord Mayor of London

In 1859 they approached the then Lord Mayor of London, David Wire, who himself was partially paralysed. The Lord Mayor was sympathetic and enthusiastic; he got in touch with his influential friends and business acquaintances, and interested them in the project. It seems that the Chandlers wished to establish a home for “incurables”, but crucially for the future of the Hospital, Wire insisted on providing a hospital in which active treatment of disease could be carried out.

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